Five Color Studies

for Clarinet, Baritone Saxophone, Percussion, Viola and Contrabass

Performed by Now Hear Ensemble April 14, 2012
Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall, UC Santa Barbara

I. Frantisek Kupka, “Vertical Planes Blue and Red” (1913)
II. Ellsworth Kelly, “Line, Form and Color: Purple and Orange” (1951)
III. Paul Klee, “Ancient Sound, Abstract on Black” (1925)
IV. Ad Reinhardt, “Abstract Painting, Blue” (1952)
V. Josef Albers, “Homage to the Square: Soft Spoken” (1969)

Five Color Studies derives its musical proportions from visual art. Each of the five movements corresponds to a different 20th century abstract painting. The movements contain separate sections, distinguished by contrasting pitch centers, tempos, rhythms and timbres. Each section is labeled according to the color, from which it derives its length. Specifically, the ratio of a color’s area to the total area determines the ratio between its corresponding section’s length to the total length of the movement. The structure of movements also reflects the arrangement of colors in the paintings. In Movements I, and III, since colors appear in fragments of different sizes, sections appear in smaller pieces of unpredictable order and length. In Movements II and V, since colors with larger areas contain colors with smaller areas, the sections appear in order of this visual hierarchy. The video accompaniment denotes each section by highlighting its color in to each corresponding painting.