New-York tribune., 1912-05-26
REGINALD De KoVEN.

struments than there are primary colors,
there is bound 10 be a repetition Of color,
which may prove another source OF danger
70 the listeners For instance, u is sug-
gested that both drums and flute are blue.
Yet II IS obvious that the emotion aroused
BY drum Is different from that which
responds TO a flute. The difficulty With
this conflict OF course, is that when blue
lights are poured upon the screen, half the
audience will at once be plunged IN the
depths Of q drum ecstasy. While the other
half. the keener OF ear and the more ex-
pert musicians, recognizing that the in
strument being played is a nute, will soar
into a huty paradise, which will be so out
OF harmony with the drum mood that It
is hard to foretell what the variously in
fiuenced listeners may be guilty Of toward
each other.
There is further possibility which.
though OF course very remote. is still worth
consideration. II IS the possibility that the
color music combinations may have df-
ferent results on different people. Possibly
the blueness Of the drums, while II will
no doubt soothe some, will irritate others.
Maybe even the red fanfare Of trumpets
will produce a. much anger as It will
are so varla BILE and on the surface OF the
thing so bitterly inconsistent II those who
sit shoulder 10 shoulder should some Of
them be in state OF optimistic excite
nnent. some OF them IL tears. some lugu-
brious, others sentimental. and the rest
with blood in their eye, all simultaneously
as the result Of an orchestra illumination,
II would be well for the cautious and the
timid to engage q box and segregate them
selves therein.
An interesting experiment, and no doubt
one that will be made when color sympho-
MES become universal, would be 10 furnish
each person in the audience with a little
battery OF lights with which lie would be
expected 10 light the symphony according
10 the color suggested to him by each
sound Smoked glasses could be furnished
by the management 10 guard against the
dangers TO the eye Of color discords. In
case people should have different and in
harmonious interpretations.
II Is understood, Of course that In the
cooring Of Mr.. De Koven's Crimson
Tulip" il is not planned to throw on the
screen the color Of every instrument used
in the production Of chords. etc. Only tho
color Of the instrument playing the motif
will be thrown on the screen or sifted
through the auditorium.
What MI De Koven himself says about
this unique plan Of his, which he is TO
carry out within the next week or two at
the New Amsterdam. throws a light upon
the far-reaching possibilities OF his color
music idea.
IF purely instrumental art" said the
composer yesterday. has said its last
word. and so reached perfection from at
least a tonal standpoint. have we not here
an avenue 10 developments on new
and untried basis? Why is II not possible
~ intensity the dramatic effect OF even
Beethoven symphony by an appropriate
Background and accompaniment Of animate.
living. moving color, changing glowing and
deepening with the changing harmonies.
the varying orchestration? The associa-
tlon OF red with trumpets, Of purple with
'cellos. and so on. might seem perhaps at
first both arbitrary and unmeaning, but X
there are sympathetic relations between
IND and color. with which we are as
unfamiliar II would be well TO gain a
.irtber knowledge Of and an acquaintance
with so important an aid to emotionai ex-
nresson II such relations were found not
TO exist. an artistic fallacy would be cor
rected and an artistic truth elucidated by
such an experiment. II a new order OF
symphonic work such as my Crimson
Tulip be written with the addSd element
of moving color as an aid TO the express
sion of thought or emotion. may not tho
composer of such work be permitted
almost, If not altogether, to discard the
conventional symphonic form of logically
and technically developed ideas and 10
make q graduated sequence of orchestral
color, the varying differences Of tone and
timbre obtainsble from the almost un-
limited combinations OF the different In
atruments rather than the more or less |
conventional treatment and development pf |