Music and Visual Color
A Proposed Correlation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3443678 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alan Wells (0000-0002-1637-8150) |
| Year | 1980 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 101 |
| Publication date | 1980-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Leonardo (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0024-094X • E-ISSN: 1530-9282 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1577978 |
| OpenAlex | W2328771414 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 3 |
The author tells of events leading up to finding a possible link between musical harmony and visual color based on complementarity. He points out that an equal division of the musical octave into 12 half-steps permits one to recognize chords built on tones occurring at the interval of half an octave or the tritone interval as being complementary to each other. This corresponds to the equal spacing of 12 hues on a color circle in which complementary hues are located diametrically opposite each other. A circularform of the musical octave divided according to the chromatic scale of 12 half- stepsplaces tones serving as rootsfor complementary chords diametrically opposite each other also. There seems to be a parallel between the equal division of the color circle into 3 primaries and 3 secondaries and the equal division of the musical circle into 6 whole steps or the whole-tone scale. In both circles, colors and chords that can be classified as secondaries are complementary to the primaries and vice versa. The near-complements of a color lying on either side of its complement are more subdued in contrast with the color than the complement is. Chords built on tones on either side of a tritone intervalfrom a given tonal center on the musical circle also produce subdued contrast with a chord built on the tonal center. The relationship of the adjacent chords to a chord built on the tonal center is as of sub-dominant to tonic and dominant to tonic, which is the harmonic basis of the diatonic system. I
Art · Computer vision · Correlation · Geometry · Visual arts · Artificial Intelligence · Color perception and design · Color Science and Applications · Computer Science · Mathematics · Multisensory perception and integration
Introduction
On My Work with the Pioneer of Kinetic Electric Light Art, Zdenek Pesanek (1896-1965)
A Contribution to Musicalism
Toward the Automatic Generation of Visual Music
Synaesthesia
What role does temporal synchrony play in mid-level audiovisual crossmodal correspondences
Sensory translation between audition and vision
On sensory similarities
Project Metamorphosis
Color Intervals
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.22 |
| Citation span | 1980 - 2026 (47) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |