| " ... Can anyone imagine anything in the arts that would surpass the visible
rendering of sound, which would enable the eyes to partake of all the pleasures
which music gives to the ears?"
- Louis Bertrand Castel
Chapter Two
The next step for me was to put what I theorized to the test. I decided
to take several pieces of music and translate them into works of art. The first
piece that I decided to do was Bach's Minuet in G. I felt that to do the whole
piece would be distracting, so I decided to render only the first sixteen bars.
The next thing was how. I decided to construct a grid, four by four, giving me
a total of sixteen bars. I then took each block and divided it by three beats
each (the piece is in 3/4 time, which means that a quarter note gets one beat,
and that there are three beats to the bar). I then looked at the notes in the
first measure (FIGURE 6). There were three ways I felt I could illustrate the
piece. First, I took each of the block that represents the measure and divided
them in half horizontally. Then I could represent each beat in each staff as a
separate entity. But I felt that may be how you look at a piece of music, but
it is not how you hear it (variation one). So I then tried to represent what
you would hear for each beat. This seemed to create visual pulses that didn't
flow together (variation two). So I created a blend between the two where I
placed melody in the foreground and the harmony in the background. This gave
a more flowing representation of the piece, while at the same time gave a
visual sense of order (variation 3). I also felt that the melody colors should
represent the motion of the sound. So if the notes went up, then the blocks
would also go up within the representation of the measure. This put a lot more
life into the work, so I continued with the remaining measures until they were
finished. To my surprise, it looked ok. I admit there were some color combinations
I never would of put together, but some how they worked. I liked this method of
rendering music, but it still did not yet represent fully the feel of the piece.
It was suggested to me to try and do gradations instead of flat colors. This
made sense, because after a note is struck it slowly fades. I chose to fade the
colors to white - the absence of color. I also removed the outline to help the
notes flow into each other better. This method of rendering proved to be more
friendly. I continued to render several more pieces using this fading technique.
The results were surprisingly good. Of course there are probably several things
you could do to make the piece more representative of the music, such as give the
notes transparency or them blend together, but this would take more time and
careful planning to create well.
The next four images are works that I have translated. I tried
to pick a variety of pieces to test this theory with different types of music.
After doing these pieces I found that different keys have different color themes.
This was not readily apparent after creating the scales found in appendix A. I
think that by doing this study I have proven that there is definitely a correlation
between color and music. It may not necessarily have any thing to do with frequency,
but more so with relationships. As I said before, I don't think it matters what
note you assign red to, just so long as you continue to follow your way around the
color wheel. The relationships between intervals seems to be the key to the success
of this rendering method.
The implications of this initial study seem boundless. It seems possible
that by colorizing the notes in this manner, one can learn how to play the piano
much quicker than without it. I noticed that I was able to play the selections
that I rendered just by remembering the relationships of the colors in the
represented measures. By colorizing the keys in the manner that I have stated,
it would be easier to get certain aspects of music theory across to students.
For example, the concept of octaves would be made very simple, since all octaves
of the same note would be the same color, just lighter or darker.
I also see an application for design. By choosing various chords, it is
possible to get color combinations that you probably would of never tried. Also
one could take color combinations and turn them into sound. This would be much
more difficult to translate, and more than likely would only really be able to
be done with paintings created like Mondrian.
So, with humble beginings I present this theory for your consideration.
I realize that this paper only touches the surface of this phenomenon, but it is
a start. I ask you for your opinions, suggestions, and input that something good
may come from this. I am creating prints of the pieces that I have translated, and
hope to sell them soon. Please feel free e-mail me with your thaughts.
Appendix A
|
