Color organ

In the late 19th - early 20th century Europe was embraced by mass experimentation and the search for new ways in art. Professional artist, the Englishman Alexander Rimmington conceived to combine painting and music and built a special device for extracting light - a color organ. He finished it in 1893, and two years later gave the first concert of color music. The organ was a huge structure, including a keyboard for color management and a panel with colored lights that light up from the keystrokes. The game on the color keyboard resembled a performance on a musical instrument. Color light projected onto the screen, which was used as canvas, draperies, veil, stretched threads.

Professional artist, the Englishman Alexander Rimmington conceived to combine painting and music and built a special device for extracting light - the color organ

The inventor of the color organ believed: the spectrum can be divided into five octaves in lightness, which is reflected in the structure of the color keyboard. Displacement of colors on the screen Rimmington received using three primary colors: red, green and blue. He tried to introduce forms into the color composition, for which he put obturators, curtains, stencils on the path of the projection beam. The color part of the organ was performed under the accompaniment of a piano, organ and orchestra. After the first concert of color music to the inventor came a noisy success. He begins to experiment intensively. In 1911 he published the book "Tsvetomuzyka: Art of Movable Color".

Although Rimington came to the idea of color music using a color organ himself, later he became acquainted with the work of the Russian composer A.N. Scriabin, including his famous symphony "Prometheus", which included an innovative "party of light". Rimington intended to perform the work of the Russian composer, but the outbreak of the First World War mixed his plans. Unfortunately, the original Rimington color organ was not preserved.

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