3 ms·

A Midcentury Composer’s Rainbow Wheels Representing Music Through Color

17 points by kawera 11y ago

TheOtherHobbes 11y ago
Here's one of the quarter-tone preludes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9WPfkXQa_Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9WPfkXQa_Y The idea that this music was going to take mankind to the next level of spiritual evolution is... quite odd.
- tunesmith 11y ago
  Odd, but not unprecedented. Scriabin had a whole musical language worked out and plans for a masterwork that involved sounds, sights, smells, and a strange language of sighs and grunts... but then he got a carbuncle on his lip and died.
mazelife 11y ago
I'd somehow never heard of this guy. The piece of his they link to doesn't contain any microtonality (at least not the parts I listened to) and sounds _very_ much like mid-period Scriabin. I was a little disappointed at first, but then dug a bit more and found a couple of the microtonal piano pieces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvSkmIMRMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvSkmIMRMY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOat_xsGUOw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOat_xsGUOw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EGriPbFmKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EGriPbFmKE These were more interesting, and had some good moments. You can kind of see what he's getting at with the color wheels (particularly with #5 from his Twenty-four Preludes in Quarter-tones - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvSkmIMRMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvSkmIMRMY). But ultimately I'm not sure how illuminating those wheels are from an analytical perspective. Also, the article's contention that "standard pianos cannot play this kind of music," is incorrect. There are lots of microtonal works for piano, it's just necessary to properly tune one to perform them. On a somewhat tangential note, there seems to be a lot of synesthesia (specifically Chromesthesia) among 20th century composers. This guy, and Scriabin, and Olivier Messiaen, Amy Beach, Leonard Bernstein, György Ligeti, Michael Torke. (And going further back, Liszt and Sibelius). I don't know what the incidence is in the general population, but I wonder what the connection is, if there is any connection.
- seanhunter 11y ago
  Louis Andriessen is also synesthetic (?sp).
JoshMnem 11y ago
There is a discussion about Scriabin's color system over here with some links: http://mt.artofmemory.com/forums/alexander-scriabin-and-artificial-synesthesia-1016.html http://mt.artofmemory.com/forums/alexander-scriabin-and-arti...

17 points by kawera 11y ago

Here's one of the quarter-tone preludes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9WPfkXQa_Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9WPfkXQa_Y The idea that this music was going to take mankind to the next level of spiritual evolution is... quite odd.

tunesmith 11y ago
Odd, but not unprecedented. Scriabin had a whole musical language worked out and plans for a masterwork that involved sounds, sights, smells, and a strange language of sighs and grunts... but then he got a carbuncle on his lip and died.

mazelife 11y ago

I'd somehow never heard of this guy. The piece of his they link to doesn't contain any microtonality (at least not the parts I listened to) and sounds _very_ much like mid-period Scriabin. I was a little disappointed at first, but then dug a bit more and found a couple of the microtonal piano pieces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvSkmIMRMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvSkmIMRMY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOat_xsGUOw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOat_xsGUOw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EGriPbFmKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EGriPbFmKE These were more interesting, and had some good moments. You can kind of see what he's getting at with the color wheels (particularly with #5 from his Twenty-four Preludes in Quarter-tones - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvSkmIMRMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvSkmIMRMY). But ultimately I'm not sure how illuminating those wheels are from an analytical perspective. Also, the article's contention that "standard pianos cannot play this kind of music," is incorrect. There are lots of microtonal works for piano, it's just necessary to properly tune one to perform them. On a somewhat tangential note, there seems to be a lot of synesthesia (specifically Chromesthesia) among 20th century composers. This guy, and Scriabin, and Olivier Messiaen, Amy Beach, Leonard Bernstein, György Ligeti, Michael Torke. (And going further back, Liszt and Sibelius). I don't know what the incidence is in the general population, but I wonder what the connection is, if there is any connection.

seanhunter 11y ago
Louis Andriessen is also synesthetic (?sp).

JoshMnem 11y ago

There is a discussion about Scriabin's color system over here with some links: http://mt.artofmemory.com/forums/alexander-scriabin-and-artificial-synesthesia-1016.html http://mt.artofmemory.com/forums/alexander-scriabin-and-arti...