Tonality and colour

Following an interesting VI form lesson exploring the tonality of the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata in Bflat K.333 [during which students had to produce a coloured chart for the exposition, indicating changes of key and places where Mozart 'hinted' at other keys] - discussion moved to the question of whether or not there was a link between key and colour.  That has led to this posting.

The technical name for a joining of the senses in this way is synaesthesia.  Many artists and musicians have experienced this including David Hockney, Scriabin, Sir Arthur Bliss and Olivier Messiaen. 

The picture above is of the Circle of 5ths arranged in a coloured version as envisaged by Scriabin - and some investigation has been done about his musical concept of colour.  Sir Arthur Bliss is well known for his Colour Symphony in which each of the four movements depicts aspects of the colours purple, red, blue and green.  Read about it here and listen to it here.

The celebrated French composer Olivier Messiaen was constantly striving to use colour in his music, often in a much more nuanced way than Bliss had done: imagining combinations of many colours at times.  One of his impressive works is the monumental des canyons aux étoiles.  

This is a fascinating area [an 'Extended Project'?] - and to see what composers have already done.

Do you 'hear' colours?

Silence and Sound

Following on from the previous two blog posts I recommend exploring this blog: On an Overgrown Path and a very relevant post there from some months ago.

There are so many links from that blog that you should consider following it.

Meanwhile, don't keep silent - enjoy your music making.

More silence from North of the Border

A very funny version of 'Sound of Silence' has been made recently by Ellie Wilson, following her exploits in Edinburgh.  With her permission I reproduce it here:

Hello, darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because my lights have blown without warning

And Edinburgh's so dark in the morning

And the shops that sell the bulbs I need to buy

For DIY

Echo with the sound of silence.

 

When it was light, I walked alone

Slippy streets of cobblestone

At last I made it here: 'Marchmont Hardware'

To my dismay there's no one there

And this is how I came to pass the time

With a rhyme

To fill the sound of silence.

 

Replaced the bulbs; they did not work

At this point I felt like a berk

I phoned the letting agent with the news

I told them I'd already checked the fuse

So they sent a man who fixed the dimmer switch

Which was the glitch

There was an awkward silence.

You could try singing it along with this instrumental version of the song.

The sound of silence

Apologies for the long gap between postings here.  High time for the blogs to start again, so . . .

The title to this blog brings three things to mind, all worth following up in their own way:

1  Simon & Garfunkel's eponymous song

2  John Cage's infamous 4' 33"  and a good interview with the composer himself.  You could also read the book he wrote with the same name Silence, a copy is in the library.

3  Whilst on the subject of books worth reading, there is a fantastic history of 20th century music called 'The rest is noise' - must order a copy for the library.

Meanwhile in the CGS Music Department there most definitely is NOT the sound of silence.
More is happening than ever before - and more about all that anon.