The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1917-01-26
DAWN" ITO the Evening Star"
and Might" Are Numbers
Selected.
ART HAS MET CRITICISM
Washington Will Become Ac-
quainted With New Enter
tainment This Season.

The Motet Choral Society is to give
Washington its first acquaintance with
the new and much discussed art OF
Color Music" at its first concert OF
the season. This new art aims to
transfer upon a screen a flowing
blend OF colors whose hue and in
tensity.. together with the velocity
and the adjustment of color masses.
will bear a definite analogy to Nthe
3usic that is being heard.
The Motel Choir does not seem to be
attempting the impossible, nor to be
making its experiment too abstract.
The musical selections used for this
exploitation lend themselves admir-
ably to the idea OF a color interpreta-
ton. They are, first, Dawn" a sub
ject that can be conveyed convinc-
ingly with a mobile color scheme;
second. ITO the Evening Star" de-
handing a more subtle treatment,
one would think; and, lastly, Might"
in all Of these a story is carried.
1t is program music with well
thought out color scheme that was
analysed and perfected last summer
by Otto Torney Simon, director of
the Motel, and Mrs. Simon during
their sojourn in Colorado Springs.
Source Of Criticism.
The history OF this new art has
been, thus far, source for criticism
that has ranged all the way from
prophecy OF something vitality import
ant in the esthetic world, to denuncia-
ton the most virulent. As far back
as 1900 Haweis, on Music and
Morals" speaks of "a color-art ex-
actly analogous to the sound art of
music being possible new art"
He continues: why should we not
go down to the Palace of the People
and assist at a real color-preIude or
symphony, as we now go down to
hear q work by Mozart or NendAls.
SOM! But the color-art must be con-
stituted, its symbols and phraseoloEy
discovered, its Instruments invented.
ana Its composers born. Up to that
time music will have no rival a. an
art medium of emotion"
Happens Since 1911.
And this fs what has happened. In
fs11 scriabine. the foremost exploit
or Of color-music or the affinity be-
tween sound and color, was given in
Moscow the premiere Of .his novel
composition "Prometheus, the sym
phony OF Fire, as il II called, &C |
oompanied by colorrays from a Key
board Of light used much a. an organ
keyboard. Alexander Scriabine (or
Shryabinl was the apostle of an IN |
volved philosophy that IL said to |
have combined the emotional elements
OF Chopin, Of Liszt, and of TheosophS. |
This yielded, in hts creative achieve |
nents, seventy-four works in all.
OF these his first symphony is call |
ed "A Hymn Of Praise to Art As Re-
ligion." His second symphony IL sup
posed to portray "'the emancipation 90
the soul from its letters. the self-ex-
preston Of personality" It is musical |
Psychology.
His "Prometheus" is his most ad-
yanced work. Scriablne was peculiar
ly sensitive to the association of
sound and color, and in his last un-
finished creative work, entitled "Mys-
terry" he designed a combination of
music, words. and gestures, accom-
panied by color with the added emo
tional effect of perfume, the associa-
ton Of which with its psychic influ-
ences, has remained, till now, solely in
the ritual OF the Roman Catholic
Church.
Produced In New York.
"Prometheus" was produced in New
York in 1918 with light and color. 1t
received what has been called "a
general unintelligent denunciation"
Clarence Lucas in the Musical Courier,
said ii must die OF apopIexy!" John
+. Runciman, writing on Noises,
Smells, and Colors," calls it Moon
shine gone utterly lunatic."
Modest Altschuler, of the Russian
symphony Orchestra, gave some color
in New York in connec-
ton with the Edison-MiIler testing ex-
pert. This, we are told, was. how
ever. purely scientific, with the limi-
tations put upon the educational
scheme OF exact science. now in vogue,