Colour-Music: The Art of Mobile Color/Appendix
APPENDIX
THE following comparative table of visual, and auditory sensations will be of interest as showing some of the points of resemblance and difference between these. It also opens up further questions for future investigation.
COMPARATIVE TABLE OF VISUAL AND AUDITORY SENSATIONS
| Visual Sensations | Auditory Sensations | ||
| 1. | Physical stimulus, produced by transverse waves in the ether between the limits of 440 billion vibrations per second and 770, approximately. | 1. | Physical stimulus, produced by longitudinal waves in the air between limits of 20 and 22,000 per second (varies in individuals). |
| Change set up in the sense-organs a chemical one. | Change set up in the sense-organ—the basilar membrane—is probably physical. | ||
| The vibration-frequency of extreme violet approaches twice that of extreme red at the opposite end of the spectrum. | Any audible wave-frequency being doubled comprises between these extremes the musical sensations contained within the octave. | ||
| 2. | Hue, saturation, and intensity are dependent in the main upon wave-length, wave-complexity, and wave-amplitude respectively. | 2. | Pitch, timbre, and loudness are dependent in the main upon wave-length, wave-complexity, and wave-amplitude respectively. |
| 3. | A series of greys extending from white to. black are due to a mixture of rays of all wave-lengths. Non-neutral greys are due to predominance of some rays of particular wave-lengths. Non-neutral greys are due to predominance of some rays of particular wave-lengths. |
3. | Noise, as distinguished from musical tones, probably due to a mixture of all tones. Noises may differ in pitch. This is due to predominance of certain tones. |
| 4. | From a physiological point of view well-marked turning-points in the spectrum are at yellow, green, blue, and red. | 4. | Salient points in the musical scale—in order of closeness of physiological relation to the fundamental tone—are octave, fifth, fourth, major third, minor third and sixth. |
| 5. | Colour mixtures or fusion of colours. | 5. | Combination tones, interruption tones, beats, etc. |
| 6. | Simultaneous colour contrast. This occurs usually when two or more colours occupy visibly separate spaces in proximity to each other.
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6. | Tonal fusion, or the sensation produced by a number of notes in a united chord or noise. Ebbingham follows Stumpf in considering that it is a characteristic peculiarity of hearing that it is possible to distinguish individual tones in a combination—"die allgemeine Fähigkeit eine objectiv zugleich vorhandene Mehrzahl von Tönen auch subjecktiv als eine solche zŭ erkennen." But this distinction seems somewhat artificial, the real difference being that whereas the constituent tones do not occupy separate spaces, in the case of contrasting colours they must do so. |
| 7. | Successive colour contrast—including "after images." (Successive contrast is an important feature of colour-music). | 7. | Less marked than in colour, but as to "after-images" a similar effect probably occurs in the realm of sound, but of very short duration. The question has yet to be explored. |
If the spectrum and the octave be divided into similar intervals in accordance with the diatonic scale, the following table shows the approximate frequencies of relative vibration and the relative colours corresponding to each note or interval. The verbal description of these colours is, however, of course an inadequate and inaccurate one. Colours, like musical tones, cannot be properly described in words. Greenish blue, for instance, may mean any one of many thousand shades of the colour with varying tendencies towards green and blue.
It is also nearly, if not quite, impossible to represent pure spectrum colours by means of pigments. Any diagrams in this book into which colour enters must therefore, like the following table, be taken merely as approximate statements.
TO SHOW DIVISION OF COLOUR SCALE UPON KEYBOARD COLOUR-ORGAN WITH MIDDLE C CORRESPONDING TO LOWEST RED OF SPECTRUM
| Approximate ether vibrations Mil, mil, per sec. | 395.0 | 433.0 | 466.0 | 500.0 | 533.0 | 566.0 | 600.0 | 633.0 | 666.0 | 700.0 | 733.0 | 757.0 | Invisible |
| Approximate colour | Deep red | Crimson | Orange-crimson | Orange | Yellow | Yellow-green | Green | Bluish green | Blue-green | Indigo | Deep blue | Violet | |
| Musical note | (Middle) C |
C# | D | D# | E | F | F# | G | G# | A | A# | B | C1 |
| Vibrations per sec. | 256.0 | 277.0 | 298.0 | 319.0 | 341.0 | 362.0 | 383.0 | 405.0 | 426.0 | 447.0 | 469.0 | 490.0 | 512.0 |
1. Because in the absence of ocular demonstration for the majority of readers of this book, it seems well to include some few descriptions of the effects produced upon entirely unprejudiced eyes and minds.
2. Because it affords an opportunity of making one or two further replies to criticisms which it seems fairer to quote verbatim.
In an article upon the subject, its author stated that "the keynote of the new art" was "mobility introduced into colour, enabling time, tone, and rhythm to be expressed in modulations." The keyboard of the colour-organ was described as being "like a palette on which all the subtle gradations of hue and tone are evolved but not fixed. Fleeting and momentary as sounds, the whole gamut of colour was thrown on to the screen in slow or rapid successions in infinite combinations . . . and in waves of intense and most lovely colour, the tints blending and neutralizing each other, and presenting subtle tones, taxing the eye to seize and follow them; now deepening into sombre hues, now passing into infinitely delicate gradations, and now bursting into full pure hues of surpassing beauty, the magic evanescent colour flitting across the vision in indefinable harmonies."
This is interesting as a description of the impressions made upon an unprejudiced person unknown to the author, who evidently belonged to those who, witnessing a demonstration of colour-music for the first time without any special training for it or experience of its possibilities, are yet able at once to appreciate and enjoy it.
In an article in The Times written after a demonstration of colour-music, after describing the effects produced and remarking that the tints with which the screen was filled were often very beautiful, the writer went on to say that "there is perhaps force in the suggestion that our eyes are not yet sufficiently practised to make us competent judges of colour as expressive of emotion; but it may be remarked that even were the physical analogy between sound and colour complete—which it is far from being—it does not follow that the emotional effects are analogous."
This is, of course, perfectly true, and the analogy has to be demonstrated. But to return to a question already somewhat fully discussed, the physical analogy in view of very similar physiological action through the nerves makes it probable that there would be similar emotional effects, and following upon this probability experiment shows this to a considerable extent, at any rate, to be so.
The following are extracts from another article:
"As concords and discords in proper relation and succession build up a musical structure to the ear, so they do to the eye. The trained ear anticipates certain successions of harmonies, and is held in suspense until the succession is completed. Likewise does the eye, artistically vexed for the moment by certain discordant combinations of colour, await in suspense the concord which must artistically follow."
The writer concludes with the following remarks: "Wherein the art differs from painting is, firstly, that the colours in their concord or discord are not necessarily associated with definite form. And, secondly, that whilst any picture, once painted, remains fixed in its single harmony of combination, the notes or colours of the colour-music flow successively one into the other, as if we could conceive a picture or a colour design in which the group or multitude of hues were constantly being replaced by others, under government of the same intellectual laws which regulate the musical successions."[1]
Many interesting articles have appeared on the Continent showing an intelligent appreciation of the subject, and the following curious extract from Le Temps, written in a vivacious and somewhat figurative style, may perhaps be read with interest:
"Dans l'exécution d'un morceau de musique, la succession des couleurs répond à l'agilité du doigté et au mouvement de la page écrite; l'instrument donnant en tons la mesure, le rythme et l'harmonie du son.
"A la première rencontre c'est la surprise, un peu l'éblouissement qui dominent; mais on s'habitue bientôt à discerner le coloris des maîtres, à reconnaître la pourpre de Richard Wagner, le bleu céleste de Mozart, les ors profonds et les rubis étincelants que charrie l'œuvre de Saint-Saëns; et l'on conçoit peut-être de la page entendue une impression plus vive, plus facile et plus sincère.
"Il en resulte que, grâce au 'colour-music,' on ne doit pas désespérer d'arriver à donner une sensation musicale à un sourd de naissance. L'inventeur ne pense nullement que cette sensation soit jamais parfaite et complète, mais il n'est pas douteux que la vue de ces lumières rythmées, furtives, vivantes, fasse naître dans les esprits mûres aux sons des idées de cadence, de mesure et un sentiment d'harmonie générale dont il est facile de pénétrer le sujet.
"Le prélude de Lohengrin n'a point la même 'couleur' qu'un refrain populaire. Longtemps avant l'instrument dont nous nous occupons, la critique musicale se servait volontiers de ce mot 'couleur' pour rendre des effets que sa technique ne lui permettait pas d'exprimer avec une netteté satisfaisante; mais Herold—qui usait volontiers de cette formule—ne soupçonnait pas sans doute que quelque jour un instrument mathématique traduirait cette couleur des maîtres pour nous montrer tous les soleils de la Crau dans 'l'Arlésienne' de Bizet, les horizons du Sahara dans le 'Désert' de Félicien David, des blancheurs de lis dans Gounod, des pâleurs d'aurore dans Léo Delibes, et des tempêtes, des gloires, des pourpres allumées, des embrasements de batailles dans une phrase de la Marseillaise qui passe.
"Quel peut devenir l'utilité du 'colour-music'? . . . C'est aux savants d'examiner, de mediter et de conclure. Un premier pas a été franchi dans une voie inexplorée, vers un but mystérieux."
This article, written some time since, of course lays far too much stress upon some of the experimental "direct translations" of musical writers which were then given, but as I have frequently explained, such translations, founded as they must be upon musical and colour scales, both of which are arbitrary although they show strong points of resemblance and produce very beautiful colour effects, are not the objective of colour-music.
Music and Colour
Recent Works on the Psychology of Music
The following conclusions, quoted from a summary, by W. B. Pillsbury, of papers read at the Fourth Congress of Experimental Psychology at Innsbruck, in April, 1910,[2] are of interest in regard to some of the points already discussed in the body of this book:
"W. Kohler presents a suggestive note on the possibly discontinuous character of the tone qualities. His experiments grew out of the tendency to refer a vowel quality to certain pitches. In two subjects he found that a note of about 265 v.d. was similar to u, 528 to o, 1054 to a. The suggestion is that these sounds have the same relation to the musical scale that the primary colours have to the spectrum. In answer to questions he asserted that there was a quality lower than u that corresponds to the m sound, and probably others still lower that give critical points for sensational qualities as the vowel sounds do for the upper notes."
Primitive Musical Scales
"Messrs. Stumpf and Hornbostle reported on the results obtained from a study of the phonographic records of primitive music that the psychological institute at Berlin has been collecting. Prof. Stumpf discusses two conclusions that have already been reached. First the tendency to equal-interval scales of five and seven tones, second the widespread use of fifth and fourth relations in part songs. In the Javanese five-tone scale the notes are related , the tones of the seven-note Siamese scale as . These prove that the occidental scale is not the only relation that may be used in music. Stumpf rejects Wundt's suggestion that the scale has arisen from making the differences in the blocks of the zylophone or metallophone (the musical instruments used in Java) proportionately equal, for observation of the blocks show that they have been hollowed out in the course of tuning. It is evident that the tuning is by the ear rather than by the eye, and that the scales represent a maximum of beauty to the natives. On the problem of the harmonious relations of simultaneous tones, the author reaches the result, that the intervals of the octave, fourth, and fifth at first appeared by chance among a large number of other relations, and were selected and retained because they were the more pleasant on account of the close approach to the unison effect that makes the words more easily appreciated. These are only preliminary to the many results that may be expected from a careful study of phonographic records of primitive and other music."
The origin of and differences between musical scales are of importance in any consideration of the analogies between colour and music.
Origins of Polyphonic Music
V. Hornbostle suggests other ways in which polyphonic music might originate. The antiphonic parts might easily overlap, first by chance, then be repeated intentionally when the effect was found to be pleasant; or the use of falsetto that is found in primitive music might, in singing with others, give a consonant effect with the voices of others and be repeated through its agreeableness. Possibly the interval of the major second that is found among the Admiralty Islanders might have been developed through the failure of some voices to sing in unison. He also remarks on the complexity of the rhythm and of the melodic structure of primitive music.
The bearing of this upon Colour-Music
The history of the development of opinion amongst certain races as to what colours can be harmoniously combined would be of equal interest in connection with colour-music problems.
If this variety of scale, founded upon varieties of feeling, exists in music there is no cause for surprise at some divergency of feeling with regard to harmonious and discordant combinations in colour. A mobile colour art may well assist in bringing about more unanimity of opinion as to fundamental principles of harmony, and by its means experimental tests can be applied with great ease to large numbers of persons and the results tabulated and analysed. Such results may, and probably will, lead in the end to the construction of new colour scales to which the present forms of instrument could easily be adapted. They would also serve as the basis for new forms of mobile colour composition, and I have this object in view in present experimental work.
Musical scales and compositions must be founded more or less upon some general unanimity of opinion and feeling, amongst those to whom music appeals, as to what is beautiful in tone combinations and sequences and what is unpleasant, and the knowledge of that unanimity—which lies at the root of the art of the musician—has only been gradually acquired. Thus it must also be with colour. But it is only now—for the first time in the history of the uses of colour—that mobile colour instruments give a ready means of obtaining similar points of unanimity.