The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-05-03
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, ID. G.
SIGHT AND SCENT HARMoNIEs.

your nose educated? Can you tell.
for instance, the difference between
lavender and garlic with your eyes
shut? If not, you had better begin to
give your nose daily setting-up exer-
cises. for the long neglected sense of
smell is coming into its own.
Perfume concerts are the latest con-
tribution of science, to aestheticfsm,
and persons who have always de-
pended largely on convention to tell
them what to like and dislike in the
category of scents are said to be at a
loss when turned loose among futuris-
tic perfume harTnonies.
The perfume concert is a recent
scientific experiment. 1t has long
been held by some scientists that har-
monies of color, scent, or taste, are as
capable of giving aesthetic pleasure as
harmonies of sound If we enjoy a
series of musical chords, they rea-
soned, why should we not enjoy a
series of perfume harmonies, or a
series of blended colors. A dress or
painting may be beautiful by reason
of it's colors alone. But both color and
serve as accessories. They have been
ignored as aesthetic stimuIants. Yet
both can be fixed in a scale, similar
to the musical scale, scientists find.
Using these scales, harmonious or
clashing chords and sequences can be
evolved, just as in music. This. in a
general way, is the theory of the scien-
lists who have experimental with per-
fume and color.
So far as taste goes, it will be re-
menbered that Huysmans in one of
his novels, describes a liquor organ.
This was made up of a scale of liquors
in glasses; and com binations were
formed and tasted by the operator.
The symphony of taste would seem to
be a more far-fetched idea than the
concert of color or scent. 1t is espe-
ciaIIy far-fetched now in this country,
for few aesthetics would be able to rig
cut complete set of liquid notes for
an organ.
Sale of Soft Stuff.
More practicable, perhaps, would be
a soda fountain organ, with a scale
running from strawberry to vanilla.
The difficulty is that one sample at a
time of the soda clerks skill at har-
monies is enough for most people. a
complete symphony, consisting of a
succession of allegros, adagios, college
delights, and cherry whoops would
knock almost any patron of the arts
into transports of indigestion. The
American stomach will have to be
strengthened before the American
sense of taste can be very much de-
veloped to appreciate the soft drink
concert.
The color organ presents fewer diff
ficulties- At least. it offers no internal
danger to those testing its delights. 1t
has been used for some time as an in
teresting novelty.
The score for a color composition
is generally written in advance, and
the colors are projected on screen
in the combinations and order that the
score directs. The concert is produced
nv a nTU1n-lilZa inEtTll-
meut with a key board and stops
which control different light rays.
Almost any one who is not color
blind or who is not entirely devoid of
"a feeling for beauty can get some
pleasure from a simple color concert,
it is claimed. Very subtle harmonies
require a more sensitive audience or
course, at any color performance the
person who is a. critic and a lover OF
colors can get much more out of the
display than a person who is indiffer-
ent to the appeal of the spectrum.
Civilized man is used to depending
on his eyes for information more than
on his ears, nose, or fingers. For that
reason, at least, the color organ has
"a chance for popularity. When it
comes to the neglected nose, it seems
likely that at first only a few sensitive
souls will be able to enjoy fully the
subtleties of a perfume concert.
A perfume scale has been fixed by
Dr. SeDt1muS R1eSSe. Il n
ist. He uses delicate and pungent
scents for the high notes and the
heavy scents for low notes. Tho
few of the doors of his scale are not
familiar to the layman, most of them
are: so we quote the plan of the per-
fume keyboard:
Patchouli to Civet.
Starting with the base clef, three
octaves below middle c: Do, patch
Gull; re, vanilla; mi, Glove bark; ia,
benzoin; sol, frangipane; Ia, storaX;
81, Glove; do, sandalwood; re, clematis;
mi, rattan; ia, castoreum; SOL per-
gulaire: la, balsam of Peru; 81, carna-
ton; do, geranium; re, heliotrope; mi
iris: ia, musk; sol, pois de sonteur;
la. balsam of Tolu; 81, cinnamon; do,
rose.
Rose corresponds to middle C. The
treble rises with re, violet; mi, cassia;
ia, tuberose; sol. orange flowers; la,
newmown hay; 81, aurone; do, cam
phor; re, almond; mi, Portugal; ia,
jonquil; sol, syringa: la, tonka bean;
81, mint; do. jassamine; re, bergamot;
mi, citron; ia, ambergris; sol, magno-
liza; Ia, lavender; 81, peppermint; do,
pineapple; re, citronel; mi, verva1n;
ia, civet
From this keyboard the skilled per
fumer can draw harmonies by com
bining the essences into chords for the
delectation of his audience
1t seems possible that man might
develop greater SenSItlveneSS to per
fumes. The Arabs cultivated the
sense of smell as an instrument of
pleasure Bile sensation. 1t is written of
their gardens that near the entrance
were planted pungent, not always
pleasant smelling, plants. Farther
along the scents grew more softly
fragrant. and in the heart of the gar
den the perfumes blended so delicate
ly that only highly attuned olfactory
nerves could appreciate them fully.
The Arab garden is possible to few
of us in this country But we may
soon be able to achieve the same de-
gree of stimulation that the Arab did
thru perfume concerts emanating
from tiny walls and tubes of essences.
Keen Scent Not Essential.