Re: color and music

on 10/7/01 7:55 AM, tuning@yahoogroups.com at tuning@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Message: 1

> From: "Haresh BAKSHI" <hareshbakshi@hotmail.com>

> The colours of the notes, as given in 'sangitaratnakara' [1.3.54-55],
> are as under:
> Sa, shining red; Re, yellowish; Ga, golden yellow; Ma, brilliant
> white; Pa, black; Dha, plain yellow; Ni, variegated.

and

> Message: 8

> From: Pitchcolor@aol.com

> Funny that I should check back to the tuning list for the first time in
> months to see this question posted. The topic of pitch and color is kind of
> an obsession for me. I have my own ideas about it which I apply to writing
> music in pure intonation, and I've invented an electronic wind instrument
> based on these ideas. As I've been working on a book about it for a while
> now, I can give you a partial bibliography of interesting sources.

Thanks Haresh and Aaron for these posts. Sure to keep us all busy for
months.

The teacher with whom I studied in Philadelphia during the late 70s, Edgar
Stanistreet, often talked about improvising music from pitches based on
colors. He told me he'd played some art museum gigs in Paris in the '20s
where he spontaneously improvised pieces on the mandolin based on Picassos'
works exhibited there, and that Picasso later painted his painting "the
mandolinist" with himself as the model. At some point I asked him what the
colors corresponding to each of the notes were, he didn't answer this
directly, he said instead that I just had to look and I'd see them! 25 years
later, I'm still looking :-)

The fall colors are beautiful this morning here in New Hampshire, I am going
to go out and enjoy them, and come back and play music.

Seth

--
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
emails: seth@sethausten.com
klezmusic@earthlink.net