MUSIC AND COLOUR.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1716, 5 April 1913, Page 11

MUSIC AND COLOUR.

NEW SENSATIONS.

In London last month there was performed twice over (at the Queen's Hall) a remareable symphony, "Prometheus," by a Russian composer, Scriabin. The feature of it is that for tho full interpretation, of the music, tho composer requires tho novel aid of colour thrown upon a screen to indicate the temperamental phases of his music. And another composition on which he is now engaged calls lor the use of perfumo to give full meaning and interpretation to tho composer's mood. There is now in London a ' London art professor who lias perfected such an idealistic invontion ns a colour-organ." A most interesting article by Mrs. S. A. Tooley in the "World's Work," tells how the colour-organ caino into being, and what its maker hopes to achieve with it. "Professor Rimiiigton,. an artist and professor of Art at Queen's College, London, has demonstrated by his wonderful instrument and his (system of colourmusic that colour may be made ds ravishing to, tho senses as beautiful music. Ho would have-us, enjoy concerts of colour. Wo may liavo chords of colour, as of music, which aro capable of giving aesthetic and emotional enjoyment. Moreover,. the art of colour-music gives us what the finest impressionist or expressionist, even Turner himself, can never give upon canvas. To quote Sir Hubert von Herkomer, Professor Kim-, ington's colour system is a method to enablo one 'to see sound and hear colour.' His l colour-organ will flood tho most prosaically dull room in London's murky atmosphere with vibrating rainbow hues which bring music to the soul of those cultivated to receive tho impression. I fajicy, indeed, that, the Professor gives up more than the rainbow tints, for there is no limit to the delicate tones and, shades which his organ plays upon the screen. Th 6 Colour-Organ. "Through a long series of experiments Professor Rimington, working on absolutely original lines, developed the principles of colour-music, and sixteen or more years ago gave colour-music concerts and lectures in, London. Tho subject at the time met with great opposition from tho musical world. That feeling has given place to-day to warm sympathy. Patiently ho triumphed over difficulties until at length a colour-organ which is a great advance upon his earlier instruments has crowned Professor Rimington's experiments. _ "I recently had tho privilege of seeing this novel instrument' in the professor's studio, at Penibridge Crescent," says Mrs. Tooley. "Parsing down the oak staircase leading from the drawing-room to the studio, which he has had specially built, I entered the charmed world of. mobile colour art and the laboratory of the inventor. Tho finished instrument, the only colour-organ in tho world, stood to tho left at' the bottom 'of the staircase.

How Is It Played, "This wonderful invention has a key-boardlike-that of. the organ or the piano, and is controlled by means of stops. Running above tho keyboard is a line oi ' colours' called tho spectrum-band, and the colours of-tlie band correspond to the notes in the musical octave represented by tho keyboard.. The higher and-lower octaves of paler and deeper intensity in the colour-scale are somewhat analogous to the higher and lower octaves of tho ■musical scale. "The .method °f playing the colour-or-gan is, in non-technical language, to press o. certain key, which causes a given colour to flash upon the screen. For oxample, you strike, the middle C of tho keyboard and the lower red of the spec-trum-band is flashed upon tho screen. You striko a chord and .combined colours make their appearance. "The screen is placed at the further end of the studio, and is composad of whito material- hanging in soft folds, not a tightly-stretched canvas. The folds help to disperse and soften the coloureffects. Tho colours aro produced -by electric light, and the apparatus for their transmission . rises at the back of the organ, and'looks to the uninitiated like a cabinet with pigeon-hole lights. Colour and Music; "A colour composition may be accompanied by music. A Wagnerian trumpetKast, for example, may bo accompanied on the screen with intense orange, which palpitates with tho harmonic colours corresponding to a subordinate passage upon some of tho other orchestral instruments. The blast ceases, thero is a faint echo of it upon tho violins, while the screen pulsates with pale lemon and saffron hardly discernible. Again comes tho blare of tho trumpets, and once more the screen flames with orange modulations.' This affords a simple example of how a partnership may bo established between the colour-organ and a musical .orchestra, thus affording a double feast of sound and colour. The Colour Sense. "It is the* hope of Professor Rimington that a system of colour-inusie, if popularised amongst tho people, might provo tlio means of bringing them back to that fine sense of colour which existed in mediaeval times. 'Ho thinks that' those living in artistic circles arc in danger of underrating this decay of tho colour sense. The great majority of the lower and middle working classes aro not only absolutely inartistic in their tasks, but are incapable of appreciating good colour. The British working man cannot be trusted to carry out the smplest scheme of 0010-jr on his own initiative. And this applies with equal forco to most other European countries. "Colour-music enters also, the ProfesEOr points out, tho realm of psychology, and a wide field is opening out for studying tho emotional effects of colour. One object of colour-music is to appeal to the mind and tho emotions, to the mental sense of colour, and to its intellectual or emotional effects upon us. Tho first untutored genius who drew a horse-hair bow over o. tightened gut-string could never have anticipated that vast, andienccs would listen spell-bound to 11 Png.-umii. Tho future may hold as wonderful ;i development for the colour-organ, and it may provo an unrivalled sourco of elevating pleasure to couatless thousands."-