Visual music
Encyclopedia
Visual music, sometimes called "colour music," refers to the use of musical structures in visual imagery, which can also include silent film
s or silent Lumia
work. It also refers to methods or devices which can translate sounds or music into a related visual presentation. An expanded definition may include the translation of music to painting; this was the original definition of the term, as coined by Roger Fry
in 1912 to describe the work of Kandinsky.
Visual music also refers to systems which convert music or sound directly into visual forms, such as film
, video
or computer graphics
, by means of a mechanical instrument, an artist's interpretation, or a computer. The reverse is applicable also, literally converting images to sound by drawn objects and figures on a film's soundtrack, in a technique known as drawn or graphical sound
. Filmmakers working in this latter tradition include Oskar Fischinger
(Ornament Sound Experiments), Norman McLaren
, Steven Woloshen
and many contemporary artists.
Visual music overlaps to some degree with the history of abstract film
, though not all Visual music is abstract.
There are a variety of definitions of visual music, particularly as the field continues to expand. In some recent writing, usually in the fine art
world, Visual Music is often confused with or defined as synaesthesia, though historically this has never been a definition of Visual Music. Visual music has also been defined as a form of intermedia
.
Sometimes also called "color music," the history of this tradition includes many experiments with color organ
s. Artist or inventors "built instruments, usually called 'color organs,' that would display modulated colored light in some kind of fluid fashion comparable to music."http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.1/articles/moritz2.1.html Several different definitions of color music exist; one is that color music is generally formless projections of colored light. Some scholars and writers have used the term color music interchangeably with visual music.
The construction of instruments to perform visual music live, as with sonic music, has been a continuous concern of this art. Color organs, while related, form an earlier tradition extending as early as the eighteenth century with the Jesuit Louis Bertrand Castel
building an occular harpsichord in the 1730s (visited by Georg Philipp Telemann
, who composed for it). Other prominent color organ artist-inventors include: Alexander Wallace Rimington, Bainbridge Bishop, Thomas Wilfred
, Charles Dockum and Mary Hallock-Greenewalt
.
), which are now lost. Mary Hallock-Greenewalt
produced several reels of hand-painted films (although not traditional motion pictures
) that are held by the Historical Society of Philadelphia. Like the Futurist films, and many other visual music films, her 'films' were meant to be a visualization of musical form
.
Notable visual music filmmakers include: Walter Ruttmann
, Hans Richter
, Viking Eggeling
, Oskar Fischinger
, Len Lye
, Jordan Belson
, Norman McLaren
, Mary Ellen Bute
(who made a series of films she called Seeing Sound films), Harry Smith
, John
and James Whitney
, and many others up to present day.
In 2005, a US exhibition called "Visual Music" at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
in Washington DC included documentation of color organs and featured many visual music films http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/VMFilms.htm and videos as well as paintings and some color organs.
The Center for Visual Music in Los Angeles has the world's largest collection of visual music resources, including the papers of Oskar Fischinger and the original research collection of visual music historian Dr. William Moritz. Their collections contain films, video, digital media, papers, monographs, clippings, artwork, posters, artifacts and much more. CVM distributes a number of visual music DVDs as well as curated film programs of visual music work, from historical to contemporary.
made possible the oscilloscope
, an early electronic device that can produce images that are easily associated with sounds from microphones. The modern Laser lighting display
displays wave patterns produced by similar circuitry. The imagery used to represent audio in digital audio workstation
s is largely based on familiar oscilloscope patterns.
The Animusic
company (originally called 'Visual Music') has repeatedly demonstrated the use of computers to convert music — principally pop-rock based and composed as MIDI events — to animations. Graphic artist-designed virtual instrument
s which either play themselves or are played by virtual objects are all, along with the sounds, controlled by MIDI instructions.
In the image-to-sound sphere, MetaSynth
includes a feature which converts images to sounds. The tool uses drawn or imported bitmap images, which can be manipulated with graphic tools, to generate new sounds or process existing audio. A reverse function allows the creation of images from sounds.
Some media player software generates animated imagery or music visualization
based on a piece of recorded music:
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s or silent Lumia
Lumia
Lumia is the term coined by 20th Century Artist Thomas Wilfred to refer to art created from light.Lumia as conceived, was a self contained and silent art, not to be combined with music or dance...
work. It also refers to methods or devices which can translate sounds or music into a related visual presentation. An expanded definition may include the translation of music to painting; this was the original definition of the term, as coined by Roger Fry
Roger Fry
Roger Eliot Fry was an English artist and art critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developments in French painting, to which he gave the name Post-Impressionism...
in 1912 to describe the work of Kandinsky.
Visual music also refers to systems which convert music or sound directly into visual forms, such as film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
or computer graphics
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
, by means of a mechanical instrument, an artist's interpretation, or a computer. The reverse is applicable also, literally converting images to sound by drawn objects and figures on a film's soundtrack, in a technique known as drawn or graphical sound
Graphical sound
Graphical sound or drawn sound techniques are a consequence of the sound-on-film technology and based on the creation of artificial optical polyphonic sound tracks on transparent film. The first practical sound-on-film systems were created almost simultaneously in the USSR, USA and Germany...
. Filmmakers working in this latter tradition include Oskar Fischinger
Oskar Fischinger
Oskar Fischinger was a German-American abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter. He made over 50 short animated films, and painted c. 800 canvases, many of which are in museums, galleries and collections worldwide. Among his film works is Motion Painting No. 1 , which is now listed on the...
(Ornament Sound Experiments), Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada...
, Steven Woloshen
Steven Woloshen
Steven Woloshen in Montreal, is a film animator and a pioneer of drawn-on-film animation.Woloshen first attended Vanier College, where he worked with Super-8 film and video, then specialized in 16 mm independent film techniques at Concordia University in Montreal...
and many contemporary artists.
Visual music overlaps to some degree with the history of abstract film
Abstract film
Abstract film is a subgenre of experimental film. Its history often overlaps with the concerns and history of visual music. Some of the earliest abstract motion pictures known to survive are those produced by a group of German artists working in the early 1920s, a movement referred to as Absolute...
, though not all Visual music is abstract.
There are a variety of definitions of visual music, particularly as the field continues to expand. In some recent writing, usually in the fine art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
world, Visual Music is often confused with or defined as synaesthesia, though historically this has never been a definition of Visual Music. Visual music has also been defined as a form of intermedia
Intermedia
Intermedia was a concept employed in the mid-sixties by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the ineffable, often confusing, inter-disciplinary activities that occur between genres that became prevalent in the 1960s. Thus, the areas such as those between drawing and poetry, or between painting...
.
Instruments
Since ancient times artists have longed to create with moving lights a music for the eye comparable to the effects of sound for the ear.
– Dr. William MoritzWilliam MoritzWilliam Moritz , film historian, specialized in visual music and experimental animation. His principal published works concerned abstract filmmaker and painter Oskar Fischinger...
, the best-known historian of visual music writing in English, his speciality being the work of Oskar FischingerOskar FischingerOskar Fischinger was a German-American abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter. He made over 50 short animated films, and painted c. 800 canvases, many of which are in museums, galleries and collections worldwide. Among his film works is Motion Painting No. 1 , which is now listed on the...
.
Sometimes also called "color music," the history of this tradition includes many experiments with color organ
Color organ
The term color organ refers to a tradition of mechanical , then electromechanical, devices built to represent sound or to accompany music in a visual medium—by any number of means. In the early 20th century, a silent color organ tradition developed...
s. Artist or inventors "built instruments, usually called 'color organs,' that would display modulated colored light in some kind of fluid fashion comparable to music."http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.1/articles/moritz2.1.html Several different definitions of color music exist; one is that color music is generally formless projections of colored light. Some scholars and writers have used the term color music interchangeably with visual music.
The construction of instruments to perform visual music live, as with sonic music, has been a continuous concern of this art. Color organs, while related, form an earlier tradition extending as early as the eighteenth century with the Jesuit Louis Bertrand Castel
Louis Bertrand Castel
Louis Bertrand Castel was a French mathematician born in Montpellier, and entered the order of the Jesuits in 1703. Having studied literature, he afterwards devoted himself entirely to mathematics and natural philosophy...
building an occular harpsichord in the 1730s (visited by Georg Philipp Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually...
, who composed for it). Other prominent color organ artist-inventors include: Alexander Wallace Rimington, Bainbridge Bishop, Thomas Wilfred
Thomas Wilfred
Thomas Wilfred born Richard Edgar Løvstrom, was a musician and inventor. He is best known for his visual music he named lumia and his designs for color organs called Clavilux...
, Charles Dockum and Mary Hallock-Greenewalt
Mary Hallock-Greenewalt
Mary Elizabeth Hallock-Greenewalt was an inventor and pianist who performed with the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh symphonies as a soloist...
.
Visual music on film
Visual music and abstract film or video often coincide. Some of the earliest known films of these two genres were hand-painted works produced by the Futurists Bruno Corrahttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0180651 and Arnaldo Ginna between 1911 and 1912 (as they report in the Futurist Manifesto of CinemaFuturism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
), which are now lost. Mary Hallock-Greenewalt
Mary Hallock-Greenewalt
Mary Elizabeth Hallock-Greenewalt was an inventor and pianist who performed with the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh symphonies as a soloist...
produced several reels of hand-painted films (although not traditional motion pictures
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
) that are held by the Historical Society of Philadelphia. Like the Futurist films, and many other visual music films, her 'films' were meant to be a visualization of musical form
Musical form
The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...
.
Notable visual music filmmakers include: Walter Ruttmann
Walter Ruttmann
Walter Ruttmann was a German film director and along with Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling was an early German practitioner of experimental film....
, Hans Richter
Hans Richter
Hans Richter may refer to:*Hans Richter , Austrian conductor*Hans Richter , designer of the Volksbühne in Berlin and villa Heller in Ústí nad Labem...
, Viking Eggeling
Viking Eggeling
Viking Eggeling was a Swedish artist and filmmaker. His work is of significance in the area of experimental film, and has been described as absolute film and Visual Music....
, Oskar Fischinger
Oskar Fischinger
Oskar Fischinger was a German-American abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter. He made over 50 short animated films, and painted c. 800 canvases, many of which are in museums, galleries and collections worldwide. Among his film works is Motion Painting No. 1 , which is now listed on the...
, Len Lye
Len Lye
Len Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye , was a Christchurch, New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives such as the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Pacific...
, Jordan Belson
Jordan Belson
Jordan Belson was an American artist and filmmaker who created nonobjective, often spiritually oriented, abstract films spanning six decades.-Biography:Belson was born in Chicago, Illinois....
, Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada...
, Mary Ellen Bute
Mary Ellen Bute
Mary Ellen Bute was a pioneer American film animator significant as one of the first female experimental filmmakers. Her specialty was visual music and, while working in New York between 1934 and 1953, made fourteen short, abstract musical films...
(who made a series of films she called Seeing Sound films), Harry Smith
Harry Everett Smith
Harry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic...
, John
John Whitney (animator)
John Whitney, Sr. was an American animator, composer and inventor, widely considered to be one of the fathers of computer animation.-Life:...
and James Whitney
James Whitney (filmmaker)
For other people named James Whitney, see James Whitney James Whitney , younger brother of John, was a filmmaker regarded as one of the great masters of abstract cinema...
, and many others up to present day.
In 2005, a US exhibition called "Visual Music" at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
in Washington DC included documentation of color organs and featured many visual music films http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/VMFilms.htm and videos as well as paintings and some color organs.
The Center for Visual Music in Los Angeles has the world's largest collection of visual music resources, including the papers of Oskar Fischinger and the original research collection of visual music historian Dr. William Moritz. Their collections contain films, video, digital media, papers, monographs, clippings, artwork, posters, artifacts and much more. CVM distributes a number of visual music DVDs as well as curated film programs of visual music work, from historical to contemporary.
Computer graphics
The cathode ray tubeCathode ray tube
The cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms , pictures , radar targets and...
made possible the oscilloscope
Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of constantly varying signal voltages, usually as a two-dimensional graph of one or more electrical potential differences using the vertical or 'Y' axis, plotted as a function of time,...
, an early electronic device that can produce images that are easily associated with sounds from microphones. The modern Laser lighting display
Laser lighting display
A laser lighting display or laser light show involves the use of laser light to entertain an audience. A laser light show may consist only of projected laser beams set to music, or may accompany another form of entertainment, typically a dance concert or other musical performance.Laser light is...
displays wave patterns produced by similar circuitry. The imagery used to represent audio in digital audio workstation
Digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. DAWs were originally tape-less, microprocessor-based systems such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI...
s is largely based on familiar oscilloscope patterns.
The Animusic
Animusic
Animusic is an American company specializing in the 3D visualization of MIDI-based music. Founded by Wayne Lytle, it is incorporated in New York and has offices in Texas and California...
company (originally called 'Visual Music') has repeatedly demonstrated the use of computers to convert music — principally pop-rock based and composed as MIDI events — to animations. Graphic artist-designed virtual instrument
Virtual instrument
Virtual instrument may refer to:* A Software synthesizer* A program that implements functions of an instrument by computer, sensors and actuators. This can be a program written in the LabVIEW or in other programming languages ....
s which either play themselves or are played by virtual objects are all, along with the sounds, controlled by MIDI instructions.
In the image-to-sound sphere, MetaSynth
MetaSynth
MetaSynth is an application for the Macintosh operating system that allows the creation of sound from images. It was most notably used on The Matrix , but has also appeared in the electronic artists Aphex Twin's song entitled 'Equation'....
includes a feature which converts images to sounds. The tool uses drawn or imported bitmap images, which can be manipulated with graphic tools, to generate new sounds or process existing audio. A reverse function allows the creation of images from sounds.
Some media player software generates animated imagery or music visualization
Music visualization
Music visualization, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music...
based on a piece of recorded music:
- autom@ted_VisualMusiC_ 4.0 planned and realized by Sergio MaltagliatiSergio MaltagliatiSergio Maltagliati is an Italian Internet-based artist, composer, and visual-digital artist.His first musical experiences with the Gialdino Gialdini Musical Band in in early 70s.-Biography:...
. This program can be configured to create random multiple visual-music variations, starting from a simple sonorous/visual cell. It generates a new and original audio-visual composition each time play is clicked.
The Art of Science of ...
- Music visualizationMusic visualizationMusic visualization, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music...
- Color organColor organThe term color organ refers to a tradition of mechanical , then electromechanical, devices built to represent sound or to accompany music in a visual medium—by any number of means. In the early 20th century, a silent color organ tradition developed...
- CymaticsCymaticsCymatics is the study of visible sound and vibration, a subset of modal phenomena. Typically the surface of a plate, diaphragm, or membrane is vibrated, and regions of maximum and minimum displacement are made visible in a thin coating of particles, paste, or liquid...
- Synesthesia in artSynesthesia in artThe phrase synesthesia in art has historically referred to a wide variety of artistic experiments that have explored the co-operation of the senses The phrase synesthesia in art has historically referred to a wide variety of artistic experiments that have explored the co-operation of the senses The...
The Industry of ...
- VJing - The art of performing visual music
- Audiovisual artAudiovisual artThe exploration of kinetic abstract art and music set in relation to each other.Visual music, abstract film, audiovisual performances and installations.- See also :* Abstract film* Color organ* Experimental film* Sound art* Sound installation* Sound sculpture...
- Motion graphicsMotion graphicsMotion graphics are graphics that use video footage and/or animation technology to create the illusion of motion or rotation, graphics are usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects. Motion graphics are usually displayed via electronic media technology, but may be displayed via...
- a process or technique often used in contemporary visual music
Similar Types of Art
- Abstract filmAbstract filmAbstract film is a subgenre of experimental film. Its history often overlaps with the concerns and history of visual music. Some of the earliest abstract motion pictures known to survive are those produced by a group of German artists working in the early 1920s, a movement referred to as Absolute...
or Experimental filmExperimental filmExperimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
or Video artVideo artVideo art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. . Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations... - Sound artSound artSound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
or Sound sculptureSound sculptureSound sculpture is an intermedia and time based art form in which sculpture or any kind of art object produces sound, or the reverse...
or Sound installationSound installationSound installation is an intermedia and time based art form. It is an expansion of an art installation in the sense that it includes the sound element and therefore the time element...
External links
- Center for Visual Music online library
- Visual Music Archive by Prof. Dr. Heike Sperling
- Color and Sound - Visual Music by Maura McDonnell
- Oskar Fischinger - Oskar Fischinger, The Father of Visual Music; and Oskar Fischinger Research Pages at CVM
- What is Visual Music?
- RhythmicLight.com, site dedicated to visual music; includes timeline, annotated bibliography & many links
- A Lifetime in Animation: The Glamorous Dr. William Moritz by C. Keefer, 2003, in Animation World MagazineWorld (magazine)WORLD Magazine is a biweekly Christian news magazine, published in the United States of America by God's World Publications, a non-profit 501 organization based in Asheville, North Carolina. WORLD differs from most other news magazines in that its declared perspective is one of conservative...
online. - Correspondence of Sound and Colour creativelab.kiev.ua
- The Electric Collage light show
- 'Visual music: an inquiry into the musical potential of the image by Stefan Beyst
- Music Animation Machine, generates piano-roll-style graphics
- autom@ted Interactive net >VisualMusiC by Sergio MaltagliatiSergio MaltagliatiSergio Maltagliati is an Italian Internet-based artist, composer, and visual-digital artist.His first musical experiences with the Gialdino Gialdini Musical Band in in early 70s.-Biography:...
. - scientific and curatorial project on visual music by fluctuating images
- VJ Theory - Publishes online texts, interviews and discussions related to philosophy and theory within VJing and realtime interaction.
- The Middle Of Nowhere - the online art gallery created by visual music artist Steven Johannessen featuring 3D worlds, 3D surreal and landscape art, visual music videos and music compositions
- iota - an organization devoted to Abstract Cinema and Visual Music
- Visual Music Village - a global network of artists, venues and fans of Abstract Visual Music
- VJ Central - Largest online community of realtime video artists