Artificial-Synaesthesia – Emulating Practice, Not Output: Richard Abrahams

May 27, 2020 | 2:00 pm 3:00 pm
Online Seminar (Zoom meeting ID: 92660370213)

This will be a seminar discussing synaesthete composers and their methods;
most notably Olivier Messiaen and Alexander Scriabin. A distinction is made between seeking to work like a synaesthete and seeking to sound like a synaesthete.

If attendees wish, they may familiarise themselves with the following examples of work from two highlighted synaesthete composers;

Olivier Messiaen writes music inspired by birdsong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhEHsGrRfyY

Olivier Messian writes the colours of an imagined celestial city:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A61Wg4goNY0

Scriabin uses his association in performance as well as composition to explore the story of 
Promethius. Music, colour, story all intergrated [begins with an interesting explanation of 
the performance, music begins at 9:43]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3B7uQ5K0IU

These examples are exemplar but not exhaustive of the discussion.