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Consonance and Dissonance in Visual Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2012

Bill Alves
Bill Alves*
Affiliation:
Harvey Mudd College, The Claremont Colleges, 301 Platt Blvd, Claremont CA 91711 USA
*
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The concepts of consonance and dissonance broadly understood can provide structural models for creators of visual music. The application of words such as ‘harmony’ across both music and visual arts indicates potential correspondences not just between sensory elements such as pitch and colour but also with the manipulation of tension and resolution, anticipation and stability in visual music. Concepts of harmony have a long history in proportions of space, colour and motion as well as music that artists can now exploit with new technologies. I will offer examples from my own work as well as techniques from artists such as Oskar Fischinger and John Whitney.

Type
Articles
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 17 , Issue 2: Composing Motion: A visual music retrospective , August 2012 , pp. 114 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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