TIMBRE!

Color me Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple

What color, what tone are you?

Listen to the work "Color for Trombone", visualize the color it inspires. What does your imagination conjure? Synesthesia is  seeing color when hearing music. I have wondered throughout this fall season of music, and the thematic version of this year's show, if there is not a connection to synesthesia.

The trombone work is especially visual. It written especially for the Belgian trombonist Ben Haemhouts and was created on Dec. 29, 1998 in Ravels. "Colors for trombone" is a virtuous composition based on four colors, "Yellow", "Red", "Blue" and "Green". Each Color characterizes a typical musical quality. This masterpiece of Bert Appermont is undoubtedly a superb addition to the trombone repertoire!

When I am inspired, as I often am, it is difficult to say if I adhere to the concept that I am not really "creative, and creativity is just a myth as David Bryne suggests in his book, How Music and Creativity Work.
 

It’s usually assumed that much Western medieval music was harmonically ‘simple’ (having few kew changes) because composers hadn’t yet evolved the use of complex harmonies. In this context there would be no need or desire to include complex harmonies, as they would have sounded horrible in such spaces. Creatively they did exactly the right thing. Presuming that there is such a thing as ‘progress’ when it comes to music, and that music is ‘better’ now than it used to be, is typical of the high self-regard of those who live in the present. It is a myth. Creativity doesn’t ‘improve.’

How Music and Creativity Work  David Byrne 2012

However - I am not sure I believe my inspiration is something fixed like a kernel of corn either, like seed corn such as Brahms suggests. David Bryne's work agrees with E. M. Harding's seminal work The Anatomy of Inspiration, though each approach the idea of creativity and inspiration from opposite positions. While Byrne seems to suggest that creativity is a myth and has no way of improving what music has existed, Harding suggests that the artist is only a shaper, a pruner of the original idea. Both seem to suggest that the artist, himself or herself, is not the creator of an original idea.

The true novelist, poet, musician, or artist is really a discoverer. Ideas — the theme of a plot, a poem, a picture, a theme of music — come to him as a gift. The idea, ‘the seed-corn’ as Brahms called it, he allows to develop naturally. There may come a point where it branches in one or many directions; he is free at this point to follow one or other. And it is here and here only that the judgment or choice of the true artist may legitimately be exercised. In fact the artist is in much the same position as a gardener growing prize rose trees, who in order to produce beautiful roses lops off unwanted shoots and suckers.

The Anatomy Inspiration E. M. Harding 1942
Today, and yes tomorrow I might change my mind, but for today, I believe that inspiration comes either from the artist or from God. While we humans might be vehicles for art, I do think through free will we make decisions that 'create' the art; create beyond the point of shaping a phrase of music or dance. I have listened and witnessed to many performances of the same exact work and something is missing that makes it magically art. The performer has to bring something more than the shape of foot, the notes music, the turn of a phrase. It artist brings an intangible that is yes created for a moment, fleeting as it might be. Watch the video below and maybe it might convey what I am attempting to say.

 

I used to think I had a weird brain, that I would see these random colors when I heard music. I would especially "see" these colors in my thoughts when I danced, moved, or had a chance to sit really, really still in the dark.

This weekend, I watched a show that uses the spectrum of color, movement, music, while blending the spectrum of emotion to convery a tone - but it was not a dance. It was less articulated. 

I now know what it this process is called. SYNESTHESIA.

Good to know. Maria Popova explains this concept so well in the article below.

Synesthesia Spotlight: 3 Visualizations of Music

by Maria Popova

What Vivaldi has to do with motion graphics, John Coltrane and skyscrapers of color.

Synesthesia is a rare neurological condition that leads stimulation in one sensory pathway to trigger an experience in another. Basically, a short-circuiting in the brain that enables such strange phenomena like perceiving letters and numbers as inherently colored (color-graphemic synesthesia) or hearing sounds in response to visual motion. More than 60 types of synesthesia have been identified, with one of the most common being the cross-sensory experience of color and sound — “hearing” color or “seeing” music.
These neurological eccentricities, however, can often be a source of tremendous artistic inspiration. Today, we look at three mesmerizing near-synesthetic ways of experiencing sound and color.

MICHAL LEVY

Israeli artist and jazz musician Michal Levy (who also happens to be a dear friend) is an actual synesthetic: When she listens to music, she sees shapes and colors as different tones, pitches, frequencies, harmonies, and other elements of the melody unfold. Her fantastic animated film, Giant Steps, captures this unique experience, visualizing the iconic John Coltrane masterpiece as Michal sees it in her mind’s synesthetic eye.

and one more

MUSIC MARRYS LITERATURE

One of My favorite projects is to marry literature and music. Natalie Merchant's  2010 project is especially unique in that it takes British and American poets and sets these poets' words to music bringing their words to life.

What I really enjoyed about this project was reviving these people’s words, taking them off the dead flat pages, bringing them to life. Bringing them to light.

These poets words inspire prose, haunting metaphors  that cross pollinate the arts. Perhaps it is one of the most inspired works to date.

Enjoy the TED performance. I looked for it because of the work Spring and Fall that explains death to a child.