When listening to music, have you ever watched your visual imagination correspond to the auditory reception? Perhaps nearly every single human being has virtually 'seen' something in their mind upon hearing musical sounds of any type, style, genre, and instrumentation. The reason is because our senses are very often much more interconnected than they seem to be. We tend to respond with several of them, when only one is affected. For example, when one hears a piece of music, it might bring back memories, visualize one's own dreams, and even unrelated story lines as vivid 'films' in a way (not mentioning random, non-consistent passing ideas). Some people have an ability to see colors connected to musical sounds (synesthesia): in this case they are either naturally synesthetic, (the relation happens on its own) or exactly the opposite, meaning they use a thoroughly-developed complex system of relativity between musical tones and color shades.

Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915) was in the latter group: although many do believe that he was naturally synesthetic, there are studies that clearly display a detailed scientific approach to the concept. He has been developing as an interdisciplinary composer throughout his entire life. In “Prometheus, the Poem of Fire”, op.60 he even notated a part for lights of various colors in the orchestral score, as well as has planned doing so for the unfinished “Mysterium”. However he was not yet so specific in his early works: this brought up a special challenge for the Intertwining Arts team to create a crossover project that would be binding the 24 Preludes, op. 11 (1888-1896) and a simultaneous live creation of a painting on stage (projected onto the background) while the music is being performed. The Preludes would lead the first half of the project through a journey of diverse impressions, emotions, and feelings: often sudden and transience. Through these the visual performance would be developed to its fullest capacity and bloom during the Third Piano Sonata of Carl Vine: a contemporary Australian composer (b.1954). The Sonata is, of course, a piece of a different scope: nearly a through-composed large deep work. Each movement follows the previous one immediately [attaca] and is interconnected with the others by recurring motives and harmonies. There is a lot of material still to be explored: it is was written in 2007 and, unfairly, has not been played often.

Full description: https://intertwiningarts.org/transien...

From Anna Prydatko, the artist:

The artistic approach to the expression of the colors of Scriabin's music was not particularly different from the creation of any other painting. I started with a simple color reflection separately for each prelude, labeling every piece for myself in simple categories of tonality and warmth: “light/dark”, “cold/warm”.

I cannot say that my reflections completely coincided with Scriabin’s well-known colored circle of fifths. Nevertheless we wanted to give credit to the composer and build on his ideas first of all.

The difficulty with Scriabin’s Circle lies in the fact that he did not point out the differences between minor and major tonalities. His Circle represents only the major keys. Therefore, for the minor keys I mostly used the same colors as for their relative major ‘siblings’, however the tones were more complex and with a reduced intensity, which better corresponds to the minor preludes, in my opinion.

As for the Vine Sonata, on the one hand it was more complicated, since there are no direct approaches to reading his music from the synesthetic point of view. On the other hand it was in fact easier, for the same exact reason, since it was possible to rely on a more integral perception of both music and paintings. How united everything ended up as a single work is up to you to reflect upon.

List of Works:

Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915) 24 Préludes, op.11 (1888-96)

00:21 No. 1 in C major – Vivace

01:30 No. 2 in A minor – Allegretto

3:17 No. 3 in G major – Vivo

04:17 No. 4 in E minor – Lento

06:43 No. 5 in D major – Andante cantabile

08:25 No. 6 in B minor – Allegro

09:09 No. 7 in A major – Allegro assai

10:02 No. 8 in F♯ minor – Allegro agitato

11:48 No. 9 in E major – Andantino

13:26 No. 10 in C♯ minor – Andante

14:32 No. 11 in B major – Allegro assai

16:03 No. 12 in G♯ minor – Andante

17:21 No. 13 in G♭ major – Lento

19:23 No. 14 in E♭ minor – Presto

20:30 No. 15 in D♭ major – Lento

22:31 No. 16 in B♭ minor – Misterioso

24:11 No. 17 in A♭ major – Allegretto

24:48 No. 18 in F minor – Allegro agitato

25:42 No. 19 in E♭ major – Affettuoso

27:11 No. 20 in C minor – Appassionato

28:23 No. 21 in B♭ major – Andante

29:31 No. 22 in G minor – Lento

30:39 No. 23 in F major – Vivo

31:15 No. 24 in D minor – Presto

Carl Vine (*1954) Piano Sonata No.3 (2007)

32:10 I. Fantasia

39:06 II. Rondo

43:03 III. Variations

47:18 IV. Presto

Copyright © 2007 by Faber Music Limited

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