What Color is G Flat?

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1866, 21 June 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

What Color is G Flat?

A question has lately been asked in one of the London daily journals, " What color is G flat ? " And there has ' arisen a discussion as to whether the question is an intelligible one, and if so, what is the correct answer? As the subjeot is probably not a familiar one to ordinary readers, we will endeavor to show what is meant by the question and how far it can have a satisfactory reply. There has long been observed some apparent connection between the seven notes in an octave of the ordinary musical scale and the seven colors observable in a minbow, commonly called the prismatic, colors. the use of the words chromatic soale, derived from the Greek word, chroma, color, tells us that such a connection has been noted. This chromatic scale is the one in which are registered all the notes, both tones and semitones, of the common musical scale ; and the word chromatic points to the idea that there is an apparent or supposed connection between the various shades of color in the solar spectrum, and the various numbers of vibrations which give rise to the different notes in the common scale. In this complete scale, G sharp and D flat are not strictly the same, but they are represented by one note on the keyboard of a pianoforte. Similarly of F sharp and Q flat. The difference may be represented on a violin, but not on a pianoforte. And if it can be shown that there is a relation between the number of vibrations of a string and a certain musical note, as the natural 0, and that there is a similar relation, through an ascending scale of vibrations, corresponding to and producing the successive notes of the octave from 0 to B, then there is clearly seen a close connection between the number of vibrations and the tone resulting from these vibrations. If, again, it can be proved that there is a relation between the number of vibrations, not of a string, but of a very different substance—namely, a very subtle invisible fluid termed ether, and the sensation of light, with its numerous varieties of color, so that there can be found a certain number of vibrations — or undulations, as they are called—producing the color red ; and thea through an ascending scale of these undulations other numbers corresponding to the various colors, from red, through orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, up to violet, there can be again seen a close connection between certain numbers of vibrations and certain colors in the solar spectrum. Seeing, then, that the ascending scale of vibrations of musical strings passes through a gradation of seven, and conveys to us the sensation of sounds which please and satisfy the ear ; and a certain scale of other vibrations passes also through the gradation of seven, and conveys to us the sensation of definite colors which please the eye, it seems as though there were established a very deoided analogy between the sound emitted by a musical note and some special color. It seems, then, possible to give some intelligible answer, if not to the question, What color is G flat? yet at least to the question, What color in the solar spectrum corresponds to the musical note to whioh we give the name of G flat? It is now worth while to mention the number of vibrations of whioh we have been speaking, whereby these two different effects of sound and color are produced. The difference in the magnitude of the numbers in the two oasesis very startling. We will first speak of the vibrations of musical strings. Most persons know an ordinary tuning-fork, with whioh a singer, and especially a teacher of singing, desires to produce the sound of a given note, from which note he may commence the musical soale, and so pitch his voice in harmony with that note, that he o&n thence rise to any note that he pleases in the octave whioh best suits the compass of 'his voice. And if we observe a tuning-fork marked o—that0 — that is, the first note of the ordinary scale— we shall find it stamped with a certain number. That numeral indicates the number of vibrations make in one second by the fork, which, when struok against a hard substance, emits the note 0. If this is the C whioh is about the middle of the keyboard of* pianoforte, the number will be about 612.

Various nations and authorities have differed somewhat as to the pitch selected, the numbers variously accepted being 512, 528, and 546. The first number has in ita favor the very high authority of the late Sir J. Hersohel.' If we had a fork marked F, in the same octave, it would have a higher number, and so on through the ootave ; and of B it would be the highest, namely, 960. This would be the range for one pariioular ootave. And if we had forks which would produce notes of higher ootaves, the figures would be in the same ratio, though larger. produce the lowest C on a grand pianoforte, the fork would require to make thirtytwo vibrations per second ; for the highest C, 2048; the whele series being 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, in whioh series it is easily seen that each number is double of the one preceding it We need not here introduce all the complicated numbers whi«h are found to represent the number of vibrations corresponding to all Che notes on the keyboard of a pianoforte. But we may mention that if the number corresponding to the C in any octave be denoted by the number 1, and the number corresponding to the next G by 2, the six notes lying between the first and seoond C will be represented by the fraction 8-9ths, 4-sths, 3-4ths, 2-3rds,3-sths, 8-15ths; so that if the vibrations producing the first G are 512, and those producing the second 0 are 1024, the intermediate numbers will be obtained by taking the above fractional parts of 512 ; and they will be found to be 576, 640, 682|, 768, 853J, and 960. We have now to try and ascertain what are the numbers ot vibrations of ether corresponding to the various prismatic colors, just as we have ascertained tne numbers of vibrations of a string representing the seven natural notes in one octave of the diatonic scale. These vibrations or waves are extremely minute, their length varying from ■0000257 to -0000165 of an raoh; and the corresponding number of waves that pass into the eye in one second to produoe the eliect of red is no less than 458 billions ; and to produce violet is 727 billions. But since few persons can form any intelligent idea oi the vibrations of ether, and especially of the abore enormous numbers, we may borrow a beautiful illustration of their possible production from a lecture on the Senses delivered in Manchester in 1872 by Professor Groom Eobertson. He imagines a rod whirled round in a perfectly dark room, the number of its rotations rising from sixteen or twenty per second to nearly forty thousand. The ettect will be that there will be emitted every species of note from the lowest growl to a shrillness that would be almost unbearable ; and then all would be still. But let the number of rotations keep increasing till it reached some millions in a second, then faint rays of heat would begin to be felfc, increasing until, when the number reached the almost inconceivable figure of four hundred billions, a dim red light would become visible in the gloom. And as that number increased, till it reached nearly eight hundred billions, there would be emitted rays of all the colors of the solar spectrum from red to violet ; till again there would succeed a stillness never to be broken. As we proceed from red to violet in the spectrum, we of course meet with every variety of number of waves, corresponding to the infinite variety of mixture of colors. For as we leave one color, say red, and commence the orange, there cannot be drawn any very sharp line of demarcation between the two colors ; but there must be a fusion. Indeed, it is well ( known that the ordinary Beven prismatic colors are produced by a fusion of the three primary colors, red, yellow, and blue. All these three colors are found through the whole length of the spectrum, as first observed by Sir Isaac Newton. And the resulting colors are produced by the greater or less preponderance of one of the three over the other two. When, therefore, we come to ask, "What color is G flat ? " we are simply asked to superimpose a certain length which may be taken as representing the length of one octavo of the diatonic scale, or the chromatic scale, upon a similar length representing the solar spectrum. If the upper length were made of transparent glass, and only the notes of the whole chromatic scale marked thereon, so that we could, through this upper glass, see the colors of the spectrum beneath, we should see what was the special color corresponding to any particular note, or even to any intermediate number of vibrations to which no name of any note is given. And just as we could conceive of the number of vibrations proceeding from the number five hundred and twelve up to ten hundred and twenty-four, even by Bingle units, so there would be a color in the solar spectrum corresponding to every such step. What name should be given to the color lying beneath any special line in the glass on which the notes of the scale were marked, might be settled by arbitrary decision. The number of new names given to various varieties of color, as mauve, magenta, solferino, &a,, has greatly increased of late years. But we have not yet given a name to every combination of colors that could correspond to each successive number of vibrations. In the correspondence alluded to at the commencement of this article, one writer gives " Chalons Brown " as the proper color corresponding to G flat. Whatever may be the true answer for each particular note of the scale, we think we have made clear what is intended by the question, " What color is G flat ? " and have indicated the way in which the question can be correctly answered. — Chamber's Journal.