1 / 51
0:00/0:00
Solo
2017
Unpitched Percussion
- Program Notes
- While looking for a text to punctuate the percussive continuum of what was later to be called Cartesian Rainbow, Icame across René Descartes' explanation of how rainbows are formed (Discours de la méthode, 1647) and was inspired to investigate the color spectrum more closely. I was surprised to see how imaginative the names of colors are; for example, there is a shade of blue called "azure radiance", or the name "electric lime" is used for a bright green. By comparison, the labels for tone color are bland and cumbersome, such as "contrabassoon, contra-Bb ni fortissimo" or "french horn, middle-c, stopped, ni pianissimo". Once again, the eye triumphs over the —ear no wonder the saying is "a picture is worth a thousand words". The text spoken by the percussionist lists the colors of the rainbow and colors found with equidistant frequency before or between them: [Rosewood, guardsman red], red, orange, [blaze orange], yellow, [electric lime, chartreuse, bright green], green, [cyan, dodger blue, azure radiance, blue ribbon], blue, [electric violet, pigment indigo, ripe plumb, pompadour], indigo, violet.
- Performer Credits
- Dino Georgeton, Percussion
- Publisher
- Boosey & Hawkes
- External Links