Coloful Music: Music, Color, and Form

"Music isn't just heard with the ears; it's seen in the vibrant colors of the cosmos."

MIA?

10/19/20235 min read

Colorful Music

Music, Color, and form

If we take the patterns used by music and assume the Fractal model it employs in its notation, we can make a variation in the chromatic circle and build a harmonic circle based on the modern musical rule of fifths. In this model, we can use not only musical notes but all the scaffolding around the construction of chords, melodies, and harmony that music uses through color.

Can you imagine how many written songs deserve to be interpreted through color, and what delicious color sequences we will find along the way? And how easy will it be to tune the color in any pictorial composition?

From time immemorial, music has been that whisper of the soul that connects us with our emotions, evoking sonic landscapes that are etched in our hearts and memories. But what happens when these melodies transform into colors and shapes on a canvas? The answer lies in the mathematical logic of musical harmonic circles, which become the bridge between two seemingly different but not so distant worlds. Transforming the chromatic circles of color, leading them down the path of musical harmony.

Welcome to this exhibition where the artist Alberto Rubio explores the deep connection between music, color, and shapes, and in his work, invites us to go beyond the regular conventions of color.

Thus, one of the proposals in this work is a pictorial interpretation of what should be the first color chords, according to this new and refreshing theoretical reading of music in color. The relationship between sound and color is not new, and it makes sense as sound has been interpreted through color, hand in hand with scientists and artists (Pythagoras, Newton, Castel, Wallace, Scriabin, and De Maistre, among others).

Both sound and light are vibrations with specific frequencies, suggesting a potential to correlate the frequencies of sound and light. This has led to the possibility of creating a "color palette" based on musical theory and the concept of "tuning" colors like musical notes and chords.

2. E represented in yellow with a dominant ft

1. C represented in red with a dominant ft

A second proposal added to the intersection between music and color is the chromatic game of the tonal values of color to create incredible negatives that can be appreciated beyond color if the result of the work is observed in black and white (as seen in works number 7 and 8 of this exhibition).

And a third and no less interesting proposal is the interpretation of color on shapes that takes us on another journey, a geometric one, exploring patterns and symbols that resonate in universal syncretism, creating windows to the collective unconscious, reminding us of shared stories and memories, which have been present for much of human history.

These shapes and geometric patterns are designed intertwining the foundations of Yantric theory, a philosophical and spiritual approach that focuses on the interpretation and application of these geometric diagrams in various aspects of life and spirituality. In their simplicity, they represent sonic vibrations that invoke divine energies, being their pictorial representation.

3. G represented in blue with a dominant ft

4. E represented in red with a dominant ft

Thus, from its very definition, the word Yantra, derived from Sanskrit, means "instrument" or "machine", is a geometric representation used as a spiritual tool in the Hindu tradition. While a mantra is an auditory tool that uses sound to channel energy, a yantra is a visual tool that uses shapes and symbols and is built from geometric patterns and specific proportions that are associated in many cultures with perfection (for example, the circle, Platonic solids, the golden rectangle, the golden number, and the Fibonacci number among many others).

With this combination, Rubio wanted to create his first color chords, capturing them in Yantric representations that allow the viewer to venture into the shapes and colors of their own imagination. That's why the exclusively geometric works do not carry a signature, avoiding creating a fixed position and direction, allowing the viewer to discover the best and most convenient way to read the message inscribed in their own unconscious mind in each painting.

4. g represented in blue with a dominant ft

The description and names of the works are as follows:

"Primary Nahuales" is the name of these first three paintings, which respectively represent the tonic note, its Major chord, and its respective dominant fifth, of the musical notes C, E, and G, speaking of power animals and their gaze:

  1. C represented in magenta red with a dominant fifth

  2. E represented in yellow with a dominant fifth

  3. G represented in blue with a dominant fifth

  4. "Monarch" in F#

  5. "Butterfly Nahual" in D Major

  6. "Eyes"

5. butterfly Nahual ub D major

"Harmonic Progressions" in F and C: these works represent the positive and negative tonal of two notes that together are a tonic note (F) and its dominant fifth, whose main function in music is to create tension, which is then released when resolving to another chord, typically the tonic.

This interaction between tension and release is fundamental to progression and development in Western music.

These two works are designed on the same geometric shape, however, their tonal interpretation analyzed from their chromatic values (which are the amount of light or darkness that colors have) is opposite, that is, light colors represented in one of the works correspond to their dark opposites in the other work.

This is best appreciated in the black and white work.

  1. "Harmonic Progression" in F

  2. "Harmonic Progression" in C

  3. "Stars in C

6. Eyes

The invitation is for you to follow the artist on his social media and join us in this wonderful symbiosis that exists between music, color, and form, intertwining in a harmonic dance that once again highlights this deep synesthetic relationship between hearing and sight.

Follow the links provided and register your details on the page if you are interested in learning more about his work, the theory of color music, its advances, scope, and impact in the pictorial world.

@maria_iribarne_art_lab

mariairibarne.com

@MIaArtlab


7. Harmonic Progression" in F and back & white

7. Harmonic Progression" in C and back & white

9. Stars in C

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