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Color and Music - Priya Dharshini
Color and Music - Priya Dharshini
Priya dharshini
2020701519
MUSIC THEORY
Music theory is a practice musicians use to understand
and communicate the language of music. Musical theory
examines the fundamentals of music. It also provides a
system to interpret musical compositions.
Music fundamentals
Music fundamentals
● What is a harmony?
In music, a harmony refers to two or more
complementary notes played or sung at the
same time. For example, a choir may sing in
harmony, with one section singing the melody
while other sections sing the accompanying
harmony.
● music engages the brain in remarkable ways the brain responds to music with
profound cellular signals that evoke emotions.
● brain on a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine or fMRI for short you will
see multiple areas light up when a person is listening to music.
● Music chosen for its emotional impact activates brain cells, affecting attention,
memory, movement, coordination, and emotion. It engages the complex
network of neurons and chemical conversations, affecting our complex
emotional networks
● Greek philosopher Pythagoras born 570 BC would prescribe musical scales in various
modes to treat different ailments this was over 2,500 years ago an infamous biblical
story accounts
● David played the lyre for King Saul to soothe him from an evil spirit, which is
believed to cause depression or anxiety. This ancient music usage influenced
modern use of music to soothe our bodies and minds.
● A 2014 study found music therapy effective for mental and behavioral disorders. Late
neurologist Oliver Sacks' polyvagal theory suggests music is an intrinsic part of the
human experience, but a single brain circuit is not yet identified.
Ted talk -`2
Sound Therapy for Anxiety and Stress_ Jonathan Adams and Montana Skies
● sound and music are not only great ways to entertain us but that sound itself
can also have many deep therapeutic benefits for us mentally and physically
● Sound therapy can help individuals relax their brainwaves, body, breathing,
heart rate, and muscles, reducing stress caused by the fight-or-flight response.
This can lead to the production of harmful chemicals like adrenaline and
cortisol. By using sound therapy as a tool, individuals can not only avoid
anxiety but also experience improved health and well-being. By consciously
relaxing and using sound therapy, individuals can experience a more balanced
and positive life.
● the original sound therapy they've been around for thousands of years and
create those sounds that can help to synchronize our brainwaves
● music stimulates diverse places in the brain simultaneously and some of that
allows the brain especially if it's pleasurable music to release its own
endorphins in kathlynn serotonin our body's natural opiates which can have
an express effect on our emotions
● music therapy and it's techniques allow and promote the creation of new
neural pathways in the brain that circumvent the damaged areas creating a
new route and to enable us to sing or to talk alright
● Music therapy can improve confidence and socialization in children with IEPs,
Alzheimer's, dementia, and traumatic brain injuries. Sundowning music
therapists can decrease agitation, while rhythmic auditory stimulation can
stabilize gait in individuals with Parkinson's disease.
These studies showed that during synesthetic experiences, the brain simultaneously activates
different sensory areas, and modern techniques of functional neuroimaging demonstrate that.
for example, the areas used for auditory perception are simultaneously activated with visual or
olfactory areas, allowing a kind of double perception of the stimulus normally perceived and
analyzed by only one sense. This cross-activation of the areas of the sensory cortex, which in most of
us function independently, may be based on an excess of anatomical neural connections between
different areas. There is some confirmation that this hyperconnectivity is also present in primates
and in other mammals during the fetal period, and some studies indicate that babies’ senses aren’t
well differentiated, but mixed them in a synaesthetic confusion. This sort of confusion comes to an
and at around the age of three months. A clearer separation of the senses can be seen with the
cortical maturation, which makes the appropriate combination of different perceptions possible. So,
one thinks that, in individuals with synesthesia, a genetic disorder prevents complete cancellation of
hyperconnectivity, so that a more or less conspicuous part of it remains in adulthood.
The ancient Greeks were the first to construct a color scale divided into seven parts, in analogy with
the seven notes of the musical scale and the seven known planets and the Aristotelian theory of
color was considered valid until the XVII century.
Arcimboldo used the pythagorean harmonic proportions of tones and semitones as his starting point
which he subsequently translated into their corresponding color values, using both his artistic
instinct and a scientific method. The painter, in creating of a special grayscale, managed to correlate
the relationships between the musical scale and brightness of colors.
With this system he was also able to divide the semitone into two equal parts, conceptually
anticipating the arrival of the tempered scale by 150 years. “This extremely inventive painter, wrote
Comanini, knew not only how to find the relevant semitones, both small and large, in his colours, but
also how to divide a tone into two equal parts; very gently and softly he would gradually turn white
into black, increasing the amount of blackness, in the same way that one would start with a deep,
heavy note and then ascend to the high and finally the very high ones”. In this way, step by step,
starting from the purest white and adding more and more black, he managed to render an octave in
twelve semitones, with the colours ranging from a deep white to a high black. He then did the same
for a range of two octaves. “Just as he would gradually darken the color white and use black for
indicating heights, he did the same with yellow and all the other colours, using white for the lowest
notes that one could sing, then green and blue for the middle ones, then brightly glowing colours
and dark brown for the highest notes: this was possible because one colour really merges into
another and follows it like a shadow. White is followed by yellow, yellow by green, and green by blue,
blue by purple and purple by a glowing red; just as tenor follows bass, alto follows tenor and canto
follows alto”. This account of Gregorio Comanini probably only describes the beginning of
Arcimboldo’s research. As the artist himself did not leave any notes, we can only speculate that he
intended to extend the system along the lines of a theory of perception.
Athanasius Kircher theory :
Athanasius Kircher drew up complex tables of analogies, among other things associating musical
notes, colours, intensities of light and degrees of brightness in relation to eachother
Newton correlated musical notes with colors through a direct analogy between acoustic and optical
phenomena, suggesting a close correspondence between the seven colors of the rainbow and the
seven notes of the musical scale.
An increase of the oscillation frequencies of light in the color spectrum from red to violet, made a
corresponding increase in the frequency of oscillation of sound in the diatonic major scale.
He simplified the relationship between colours and tonal intervals to a relationship between colours
and notes, liberated it from its cosmological context, and at the same time attempted to transfer it to
art as Farbenmusik (‘colour music’). Father Castel wasn’t motivated only by factors of a speculative
science, but also by ethical and practical purposes. This gave birth to the idea of building a musical
instrument that could transform the sound into color, not just in order to create a particular art form,
but also to enable deaf people “see” the music. Thus over a period of thirty years, through several
attempts, he built several models of colored clavichord “Clavecin Oculaire”
The instrument worked in this way: by pressing a button, small panels appeared in a box above the
clavichord, showing different pre-set colors, according to a correlation between the musical scale and
color spectrum. In other experiments Castel used colored crystals of different sizes. However, the
light source available at that time – the candle – wasn’t powerful enough to produce the desired
effects.
Later, he perfected his system and he proposed a range of twelve colors corresponding to the
semitones including the eighth: C-Blue, C #-Veronese Green, D-Green, D #-Olive Green, E-Yellow, F-
Aurora, Orange-F #, G-Red, G #-Crimson, A-Violet, A#-Agatha (bluish purple), B-Violet blue. In this
way he was able to extend the system to multiple octaves with the simultaneous application of a
scale of values based on shade, ensuring the principle of cyclicity (every octave has the same color,
that becam lighter and lighter). Castel’s work piqued the interest of contemporary musicians,
Bainbridge Bishop Color Organ
He had some trouble in deciding how to space the intervals of color, and what colors to use, but
finally decided to employ red for C, and divide the prismatic spectrum of color into eleven semitones,
adding crimson or violet-red for B, and a lighter red for the upper C of the octave, and doubling the
depth and volume of color in each descending octave, the lower or pedalbass notes or colors being
reflected evenly over the entire ground. The whole effect was to present to the eye the movement
and harmony of the music, and also its sentiment. The instrument was arranged with a stop so that
music and color could be played separately or together.”
Wilfred was the first to speak of light as a formal artform. He coined the term “lumia” to describe “an
eighth art” where light would stand on its own as an expressive artform. He described his opus as
silent art. Wilfred first used light in a purely abstract manner, but he later decided form and
movement were essential. These he achieved via filters which permitted the projection of moving
geometrical shapes onto a screen.
he also took part in collaborative performances where music was interpreted in colored light. For
example in 1926 he collaborated in a presentation of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade with the
Philadelphia orchestra directed by Leopold Stokowski.