Colour-Music: The Art of Mobile Colour: Prefatory Notes by Hubert von Herkomer and W. Brown

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

AUTHOR’S PREFACE 5

INTRODUCTORY NOTE 7

NOTE UPON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF COLOUR-MUSIC 9

ILLUSTRATIONS 10

CHAPTER I — A MOBILE COLOUR ART 11

CHAPTER II — THE USES OF COLOUR-MUSIC 13

CHAPTER III — RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN MUSIC AND MOBILE COLOUR 15

CHAPTER IV — THE COLOUR SCALE AND MOBILE COLOUR 17

CHAPTER V — POINTS OF ANALOGY BETWEEN SOUND AND COLOUR 24

CHAPTER VI — CONSTRUCTION OF COLOUR-ORGAN AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS 30

CHAPTER VII — EFFECTS PRODUCED BY COLOUR-MUSIC 38

CHAPTER VIII — THE COLOUR SENSE AND ITS DECAY 46

CHAPTER IX — THE EMOTIONAL INFLUENCES OF COLOUR 53

CHAPTER X — THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF COLOUR-MUSIC 57

CHAPTER XI — MOBILE COLOUR AND THE ARTIST 60

CHAPTER XII — SOME SCIENTIFIC OPINIONS 64

CHAPTER XIII — REMARKS UPON CRITICISMS AND APPRECIATIONS OF COLOUR-MUSIC 69

CHAPTER XIV — SOME FURTHER REMARKS AND SOME PAST PROPOSALS 76

CHAPTER XV — COLOUR-MUSIC AND PSYCHOLOGY 80

APPENDIX 84

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF VISUAL AND AUDITORY SENSATIONS 84

MUSIC AND COLOUR 88

Recent Works on the Psychology of Music 88

Primitive Musical Scales 88

Origins of Polyphonic Music 88

The bearing of this upon Colour-Music 89

COLOUR-MUSIC

THE ART OF MOBILE COLOUR

COLOUR-MUSIC

THE ART OF MOBILE COLOUR

BY

A. WALLACE RIMINGTON A.R.E., R.B.A.

PROFESSOR OF FINE ARTS, QUEEN’S COLLEGE, LOND.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

PREFATORY NOTES

BY

SIR HUBERT VON HERKOMER, R.A, M.V.O.

AND

DR. W. BROWN, King’s Coll., Lond.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

THE interest aroused in the whole subject of Colour-Music seems to have become so widespread, and I have received so many inquiries with regard to it, that a short volume giving a brief description of the present position of the new art, and replying to some of the questions that are frequently asked about it, may perhaps not be unwelcome. Hitherto it has hardly seemed advisable to publish a book upon the subject, because fresh experimental work and frequent modifications of the instruments used in the production of Colour-Music have carried the art further and further into the field of the untried, but some statement of what has been and is being done should perhaps not be further delayed.

In writing these pages I have felt myself to be addressing two classes of readers, namely, those who know something of the art of Mobile Colour, its past history, its hopes and its aims; and others who have never even heard of the subject. To the former, including, as it does, many of those who have followed and assisted in the experimental work carried out by me for a good many years past, I would take this opportunity of expressing my thanks for the keen interest they have shown in it, and the many excellent suggestions I have received from them; and, from the latter, I would ask for as open-minded a consideration of the subject as they can give me, more especially in view of the difficulty of placing it before them without being able, at the same time, to give practical demonstration of some of the points dealt with.

Upon a subject so new misconceptions are sure to arise again and again; but in the present statement of the case for Colour-Music, I have used my best endeavours to guard against them, and, discarding much more that might have been said from the artistic and technical standpoint, to write as clearly and simply as possible. I make no claim to absolute originality of conception with regard to the whole matter. Since I first took up the question of the need for, and possibility of, such an art as Colour-Music, it has come to my knowledge that even from very early times—perhaps prior to the Christian era—the possibility has been alluded to by various writers, and, in the sixteenth century, it took somewhat more tangible form in the mind of a Jesuit, Lewis Bertrand Castel. It was also referred to in an eloquent passage by the late Mr. R. H. Haweis, which I have quoted, with regretful memory of the author, in the Appendix, Mr. Haweis having afterwards become one of the warmest supporters of the forms given to the new art.

Starting from my original belief in the need for and the importance of such an art, which, when I first conceived of it, I supposed to have been hitherto unthought of, my personal part has been to devise instruments for bringing it into practical being and to develop, through a long series of experiments, some of the principles upon which Colour-Music compositions can be produced. This has demanded the expenditure of much time and thought upon the construction and reconstruction of successive instruments and experimental apparatus, and I have been tempted further and further in the direction of fresh modifications and improvements which have necessarily meant long delays. It took centuries to evolve an instrument like the pianoforte, and therefore no excuse need be made for the amount of time which it has required to produce the Colour-Organ and its allied instruments. Others will, I hope, in their turn, improve the forms and powers of these, and build upon the foundations I have laid. The development of Colour-Music is not a commercial undertaking, and I have no wish to exclude rivals, but rather to welcome them.

I should wish to express my indebtedness for valuable advice and assistance—or personal interest in the experimental work—received from the late Sir George Grove, Sir Wyke Bayliss, Capt. W. B. Marling, Mr. W. Basil Wilberforce, Mr. De Vere Barrow, Sir Hubert von Herkomer, and Professor Gregory, amongst many others; also to Professor Silvanus Thompson and Dr. W. Brown, who have made suggestions as to the chapters of this book dealing respectively with the physical and psychological aspects of the subject. The notes contributed by the latter and by Sir Hubert von Herkomer will, I am sure, be read with special interest.

Whatever may be the divergencies of opinion as to how far the analogies between colour and sound extend, one thing at least is certain, namely, that Colour-Music opens up a new world of beauty and interest as yet, to a great extent, unexplored.

A. W. R.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

BY

SIR HUBERT VON HERKOMER, R.A., M.V.O.

THE analogy of music to colour has occupied many minds, but, so far as I know, no attempt has been made before to bring it within the scope of physical demonstration; therein lies the great value of Mr. Wallace Rimington’s pioneer work in this fascinating field of thought. Although he calls his chief instrument, for the present, a Colour-Organ, he does not propose to prove by means of it that certain waves of light have their exact parallel in certain waves of sound. He uses the musical keyboard merely as a convenience, and has, for the same purpose, split up the spectrum-band in accordance with the musical octave, but he does not necessarily base his general contentions upon any such division.

One of the instruments with a musical keyboard, which the author has designed, and by means of which he projects his colour on to a screen, can be either mute, or made to produce musical sounds simultaneously with the colour.

It has been denied by some that colour suggests musical sounds, and that musical sounds suggest colour. But it is safe to say that a psychological affinity is felt by artists and musicians between sound and colour, hence the use of common terms of expression between them. The painter speaks of a note in a painting, and a musician of a tone picture.

Amongst other claims put forward by the author is that of providing a new source of pleasure—a new art appealing to the mind and the senses—by means of colour alone, without form. But I see something besides all this in it—I see in it something medicinal for the painter, a tonic for the colour-sense of the artist, a suggester, a corrector, and a purifier.

Most painters in their career pass through several colour phases in their work that are difficult to account for. If there is such a thing as habits of thought (and we know there is), one may declare that there is such a thing as habits of colour in the painter. These habits of colouring will enable the spectator to spot a certain painter’s work at a glance, and I cannot see that a painter’s work can keep fresh and vigorous if he plays on one note of colour throughout his life.

Let me here say that the colour-sense is by far the most sensitive and delicate of all the faculties that go to the making of the artist’s brain. The sense of form is far more robust and can bear severe handling. For instance, a painter can, by pegging away from a model, get his drawing right in the end, that faculty having something physical in it. Not so with colour; no pegging away can make colour good in a picture. Hence the painter surrounds himself with all manner of richly coloured rugs and hangings, in order to stimulate his sense of colour. I can,