New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-21


majestic (agreeing here with Bee
thoven's remark just quoted; ID g.y'
noisy and rather commonplace; A-hat
soft. yelled, very noble; minor
gloomy; ID minor lugubrious, sonorous'
somewhat commonplace; sharp
minor tragic, sonorous, incisive; A
fat minor very dull, and moprnful but
noble dull but noble sounds li,tle
paradoxicaD; minor very sonorous,
wild, rough, ominous, violent. We have
never heard composer give his as
sent TO Berlioz's Characterization The
French composer and arch orchestrator
before Wagner thought that minor
was "screamy and slightly common
place.; but Schubart, the German com
poser and esthetician. described the
kew as naive, feminine, the declara-
ton of innocent love, q lamentatlon
with querulous complaint, signing,
with only a few tears" as speaking OF
serenest hope, (which finds happiness
by flowing into C major" Schubart
also saw n color in the key Of Z minor'
"As E minor hes naturally only one
color. the tonality may be likened unto
q maiden robed in white with rose
red bow on her breast
Various t0lOr-iOne fueds.
Some years ago Mr.. Philip Hale IL
Illuminated the pages OF one Of the pro-
gramme books Of the Boston symphony
Orchestra with a scintillant essay on
what might be called sound, color,
taste and odor addition. From II we
learn that Raft, who was of an eX-
tremely sensitive organization. held
the tone of the flute to be intensely
sky blue; that of the oboe clear yellow
10 bladder green; trumpet, scarlet;
fageolet, dark gray; trombone,
purplish to brownish violet; horn.
hunters green to brown; bassoon'
grayish black. "Did not" says Mr..
Hale. Louis Ehlert declare that A
major says green? II the flute seemed
red TO L. Hofmann in 1886 it seemed
en- intense sky blue TO Raft In 1855; II
the trumpet was bright red to Hof-
mann il was green to young ply
stefan who was examined in 1879.
Bleuler and Lehman expert
mented in 1879 with a girl of sixteen
years, an excellent musician. Thunder
to her was gray; a saw in action, yell
low; the rumbling Of carriage, black;
the collie, green; toothache, red; head
ache. brown. Suarez de Mendoza in
1890 found a woman of forty-nine to
whom the music of Mozart was blue;
that If Chopin. yellow; that of Wag-
ner, a luminous atmosphere with
changing colors. To another subject
Aida and 'Tannhauser' were blue,
while The Flying Dutchman' was
misty green"
Whether or not associations Of color
and sound remain permanent IN the
minds of persons who profess to feel
them we do not know. That they may
be passing phenomena and attributable
to causes not observed by the subject
is suggested by an incident OF when
The Tribune contained record three
wears ago. At that time Mr.. Reginald
/ be Koven burst upon the unsuspectlng
world with a promise (made through
| The Tribune but never fulfilled) that
he would produce an instrumental piece
at the New Amsterdam Theatre III
which there should be shown a correla-
/ ton of instrumental voices and colors.
/ Some discussion of the matter IN TINS
! journal called out a letter from the
mother Of Mr.. Robert Chambers, the
novelist. who was not only an ardent
| lover of music, but woman OF hign
} intelligence, great refinement and Keen
sensibilities. Once in her life. when
she was still a young girl. wrote Mrs
| Chambers, she had seen color in music
| Everything had turned 10 gold before
her eyes at her first hearing OF the
brass choir in LISTS "Les Prelude"
mot solid, glttering gold, but soft,
translucent" like the soap bubbles oil
her childhood. She had never seen
colors while hearing music again, but
/ she added, "wnen I want to say, &C
/ cording 10 all my subsequent light, that
/ the idea of tone and color equivalent IS
only imaginary, | have TO pause and
think: If it could be once for me, why
I not all the time for others"
Music and Liquors.
Mr.. Halc's instances OF color audi
ton run out in some perslfage assocl
/ atinC colors with sensations and sent
ments and orchestra instruments win
the taste of liquors. He gives us
description from a book by j. X. Hugs
mans of sort of gustatory organ, Q
veritable barrel organ indeed, com
posed of a set of little kegs containing
various liquors and so contrlved that
"bv pulling stops labelled flute horn,
'voix celeste a few drops could be
drawn from each" Combinations could
! also be made. This "orgue bouche'
/ satisfied sight (the liquors were col
ored), taste and hearing at the same
| time; for this nevrose believed ina,
each liquor correspOnded to the SOUND
! of a musical instrument: Curacao To
/ the clarinet, ktimmel 10 the nasal oboe
mint and anisette to the flute, both
peppery and sweet. Kirsch is the
( fierce blast of the trumpet, gin and
whiskey are strident comets and from
bones. and rakis of Chios and mastics
give in the mouth the thunder Of Gym
/ balls and drums clashed and beaten with
corybantic fury. He also thought that
/ the violin is, as old brandy, smoky
fine, prickly," etc.
Now that music is to be made TO
appeal to other senses than that OF
| hearing, there seems to be no reason
why the principles of musical symbol
| ism should not be extended TO include
| smelling and touch and taste as well.
VI. Scriabin, il is said. has work IN
/ hand in which music. colors and odors
are to be synthetZed. II he succeeds
he may do il better, but he will not
do anything different in principle than
things that have been done for ages.
Mention was made in our description
Of "Prometheus" last Sunday OF the
combination of scenery, dance, muSic:
and odors in Apuleius's description OF
an Alexandrian pantOmime in the sec
ond century. Mr. Hale gives US an ac-
count of an entertainment IN Farls on
December II. 1891, in which simulta-
neous appeal was made to eyes, ears
and nose. The piece was called Inc
SOM of Solomon" symphony Of
spiritual love in eight mystical devices
and three paraphrases." The
description of the first scene shows
that IN the recitation the vowels |
and O dominated, the music was in the
lev of ID major, the stage decorations