COLOUR THINKING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20792, 7 February 1931, Page 6 (Supplement)

COLOUR THINKING.

BY MARGARET A. PARKER. " Architecture is frozen sound." The person who made this pronouncement was evidently able to hear what he saw, even if ho could. not see what he heard. .To possess the gift of " seeing " sounds is to enjoy a privilege which can add wonderfully to the interest of life. To some listeners sounds can have shape. There are melodies which sound like the look of long, gracefully sweeping curves. There aro themes in music so precise in rhythm, i.o uniform in development as to convey the outlines of solid buildings, and possessing all the clear beauty of geometry. This interchanging of the senses, the seeing of sounds, the hearing of sights, ,would seem to be a new tendency in the development, of mankind, presaged by some to become in time a new sense. Colour thinking, or as it were " colour hearing," offers one of the most beautiful arenas of imaginary investigation, beneath the charm of which orchestras become nosegays of sound, and the concert hall a bower of new delight. The sound of the trumpet is perhaps Ihe most vivid example of this novel art. To some people the blast of the trumpet instantly presents to the mind spurts of scarlet, this noise having that bold texture in sound which suggests tho quality of scarlet in colour. The sound of the French horn, soft and uncertain, serves to suggest the colour of heliotrope, an unstable colour at any time.

To some people the colour of violins is n canary-yellow, toning down to amber on the G string,, while the 'cello, beginning in amber tones, deepens into a rich, deep brown.

Flute notes look like blue silver, if there were such a thing, or like mercury, while the piccolo is more purely silver in tone. Drums have the black greyness of thunj tier-clouds. The bassoon, grey, toning ' down to black, a velvety blackness, not the indefinite blackness of the drums. The harp is thin gold. To some people the cornet sounds a hard blue. . . It all depends upon your own imagination. ' Finding all these, or finding whatever colours own mind suggests, makes listening a revolution in revelations. Composers, too, seem to have their colours. Debussy's rich conceptions, his langorous rhythms breathing of hot noontides or the long laziness of leisured afternoons, are sensitive pastels in which heliotrope and gold would seem to predominate, relieved here and there with sudden sharp tinges of cerise in the "Z " sounding chords. Debussy is one of the aeronauts of music; Most Of the music that ; he has written conveys a sense of elevation that continues to the end. Debussy is an aviator 'who , never alights. His last chords land you " somewhere in the i air."

In contrast, the music of Bach, like the poetry of Chaucer, has all the priceless colourings of old tapestries, sedate browns and tawny yellows, mingled with touches of old-world blues and time honoured crimsons.

In Beethoven we find the Shakespeare of music, for those who prefer that. The general colouring of Beethoven's music might appeal* to you to be a mellowing of greens and blues, but brighter and newer than Bach's greens and blues. In his gayest moods Beethoven displays all the brilliant colnuriiigs of the' peacock, .while his rhythms maintain a stately regularity in keeping with the dignified movements of that most gorgeously plumaged bird. Twins in-art also are Mendelssohn and Tennyson. Perhaps from the sibilance of sound of their names springs an impression that the work of these two geniuses has the quality of apple blossoms, a sprinkling of light flowers upon dark boughs. Their , art speaks with a gentle serenity, it has a delicacy of perception springing from fine tastes well nurtured. The dainty tints of springtime are to be heard in the works of Mendelssohn and Tennyson.

Wagner, oh the other hand, ill-fed in early life,, and at war with Fate from the first, composed music that startled tho audiences of his time with its vivid colourings. He has jftoduced an art which is as fierce as it is beautiful. Black and yellow are the predominating colours in Wagner's music, for there is so often a tigerish element in his emotions which suggests the juxtaposition of these two colours.

Wagner was born in the dawn-time of great modern scientific developments, but his spirit had the force of tho decades which liavo produced aeroplanes 'and submarines; yet if only on the threshold, lie drew forward from the past a massive stateliness, indeed a mighty dignity, joined with a ghoulish texture born of a great discontent. And so, from spur to spur the imagination, may lead us on in this pursuit of tcolour-thinking.