Color Music: Visual Color Notation for Musical Expression

In this article, the author de-scribes Color Music, an alternative notation system for musical expres-sion. The system uses colors and shapes-powerful tools of expres-sion-in conjunction with sound to form a new language for musical no-tation. The author briefly describes the history of color/sound relation-ships since the time of Aristotle and discusses the use of color in scores by Alexander Scriabin, Arnold Schoenberg, John Cage, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gyorgy Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen and other contemporary composers who recognized color as a tool of expression for musical no-tation. He also discusses the psy-chology and musical meaning of col-ors, along with the role of performers as interpreters of Color Music, and the use of standard mu-sical forms as structural devices for applying color to scores. He de-scribes his Color Music: Toccata and Fugue (1995) in detail.