VISUAL MUSIC
These images are interpretations of classical, contemporary, folk and pop music. The colours represent sounds and the shapes represent rhythms.
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Rose Red, English folk song sung in a round. Each of the 4 voices has its own layer in the animation.
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I started translating music into coloured patterns because I was curious to see what music looked like. I wanted to see what Chopin heard (loosely speaking). Though I sense the structure of music in my body, I wanted to see it with my eyes to discover whatever secrets lay within, perhaps the key to music's profound effect on our emotions. The idea came from a vision of the colour wheel rolling down the piano keyboard, each colour hitting a different note.
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Sometimes I weave the designs into tapestries with thousands of tiny glass beads. I love coloured glass; watching it dance with light stirs the same sense of awe I feel when listening to music. The beads I use come in hundreds of different colours, textures, and finishes, providing a powerful set of tools for expression.
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Sometimes I confer with the composers when I am designing a Visual Music piece. Ryan Molloy kindly provided me with this feedback on the visual music of one of his pieces.
"... with this [colour] scheme it becomes clear how strongly D-centric this passage is and also how much C (or surrounding inflections) gravitates around that pitch. This highlights an interval of a minor 7th which I've long been very close to and I've known it influences my music but this actually flags it up in black and white! (Or in Red and Blue in this case!)"
"... with this [colour] scheme it becomes clear how strongly D-centric this passage is and also how much C (or surrounding inflections) gravitates around that pitch. This highlights an interval of a minor 7th which I've long been very close to and I've known it influences my music but this actually flags it up in black and white! (Or in Red and Blue in this case!)"