AT THE SOURCES OF THE IDEA OF "VISUAL MUSIC" IN RUSSIA

Bulat M.Galeyev

The entire issue of the newspaper "Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti", No 35, 29 April, 1742 is dedicated to the coronation of Elizabeth I.Among other news items is the following brief communication from the world of science:

"This morning the Imperial Academy of Sciences held a public meeting to bring the festivities to a close. Mr Kraft, professor of physics, delivered a speech on the eye pleasing clavichord recently invented in France. He also endeavored to resolve on a physical basis the following question: Can colours, if arranged in a particular manner, provide a deaf person with the same type of enjoyment as we experience when our ears perceive a harmonious consonance of musical tones? This was answered by Doctor Weitbrecht, professor of physiology..."

These "Speeches, delivered during the public meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences on 29 April 1742" have been preserved. Up to now they have not been given due attention, having received only brief mention [28]. However, familiarity with the "Speeches" makes it evident that they deserve a more thorough consideration - especially in the light of the present revival of interest in the idea of "visual" music.

What is this "clavichord oculaire", devised by the French Jesuit monk L.-B.Castel, known for his work in mathematics and physics? For clarification one must turn to even more distant times.

Pythagoras (6th century B.C.), through his experiments with string, discovered that the structure of the musical scale is in keeping with strict numerical proportions. As is obvious today, Pythagoras's discovery represented for European science in general the first physical law to be expressed in an explicit mathematical form [29]. Thus it is not surprising that, considering this law as unique and universal, Pythagoreans used the proportions of musical acoustics to explain all other phenomena of nature, including Cosmos, which they thought of as a huge harmonically tuned instrument of divine origin. According to the Pythagoreans, all the "planets" (including both the Moon and the Sun) rotated around the Earth along orbits proportional to the gradations of the scale, continually producing the inaudible sounds of the so called "music of spheres". The students of Pythagoras even managed to obtain concrete data about this extraterrestrial space music. According to one version, Saturn produced a sound similar to the note B, Jupiter - C, Mars - D, the Sun - E, Mercury - F, Venus - G, the Moon - A. It is amazing that a similar type of musical cosmology was developed, independently of the Pythagoreans, in ancient Oriental cultures (principally in India and in China [30]). This yet again testifies to the existence of a distinct unity in the development of diverse cultures [31].

Isaac Newton, who fell under the spell of Kepler's "Harmony of the Universe", compelled himself to "hear" echoes of "music of spheres" in the light spectrum as well, dividing it specifically into seven colours, and not any other number of colours (even though in Europe at the time it was customary to single out five independent colours; other people, by the way, even today divide the spectrum differently).

Newton was by no means thinking of creating a new art on the basis of this analogy of "seven tones of the scale - seven colours of the spectrum" (a fortuitous analogy as we see it, devoid of any true physical content). This was left to Castel (1688 - 1757) who, after reading Newton's "Optics", proposed devising a "colour clavichord" which, when its keys were pressed, would produce simultaneously both the sound and the colour "corresponding" to the given tone. His project brought about a storm of discussions in scientific circles all over Europe. His extraordinary ideas were received favorably by the composers Rameau, Telemann, Gretry. Critics of Castel's "musique oculaire" included such celebrated contemporaries as Rousseau, d'Alembert and Diderot, who expressed their sharply negative attitudes toward his ideas in their famous Encyclopaedia. Voltaire sarcastically nicknamed him the "Don Quixote of mathematics".

The above-mentioned academicians from St.Petersburg subjected Castel's "musique oculaire" to a thorough analysis. The discussions were based on Castel's well-known publications in French journals as well as on a certain letter "from Paris", which had been received, as reported by Kraft, by the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1741, exactly one year earlier. (Judging by the evidence, Russia at the time was not familiar with Castel's principal work [33] nor with the book of his interpreter G.F.Telemann [34]).

Kraft began his criticism by turning to Galileo, who had noted a definite relationship between the observed oscillations of the pendulum and its length - an indisputable fact yet one that irritated Kraft in that Galileo used relationships and terms such as "fifth" and "octave". "It is true", reasoned Kraft, "that he has presented an agreement, but it is one that is lifeless, neither alive nor musical. Instead of a living and fullblooded body there are dead and dry bones; instead of magnificent palaces, a base shelter of branches". In his criticism Kraft, speaking as a physicist, argued seriously that the low frequency of the oscillations of Galileo's pendulum accounted for their inaudibility and consequently the impossibility of admitting them into the realm of music. And he linked the emergence of an audible sound with the frequent "vibrations" of the string. He saw the ideas of transferring musical proportions into the realm of colours as providing an even greater basis for criticism. "I do not believe", he said, "that there would exist a physicist who could prove that light also possesses vibratory motions" (i.e. Kraft denied light its wave property). As a result, since there is no basis for proportion in "vibrations", since "there is no fifth", Kraft concludes, "there is no music".

Nor did Kraft ignore the abovementioned fact of dividing the spectrum into seven colours, which had been undertaken by Newton. However, attempting to justify Newton, he pointed out that "we do not immediately perceive" the zones dividing the spectrum into separate colours, but rather discover them "by means of our mind", and that Newton himself "did not think of establishing musical agreement from colours". One might just as well, maintained Kraft, imagine a person "who on sheets of paper would write down numbers forming a harmonic or some other progression and then after shuffling them, would expect them to yield some form of musical enjoyment". Kraft's arguments remain valid even today.

The arguments of the second speaker, academician I.Weitbrecht, "doctor of medicine and professor of physiology", were more fundamental. He spoke more sharply than Kraft, who had been fascinated at times, during this discussion, by physical analogies and often had been "under the influence" of Castel, arguing about insignificant details. "I have always been of the opinion", said Weitbrecht, as he took the floor, "that it is easier and simpler for a legless man to learn to walk on his hands than for us to perceive with our eyes sounds presented in various colours and to perceive them with the very same sweetness with which they enter our ears".

Discriminating between the abilities to see, hear and reason, Weitbrecht backed Kraft in that, by its physical nature, colour cannot affect eyesight the way sound affects hearing. He also pointed out that the organs of vision and of hearing have different structures, which rules out the possibility for them to affect "our soul" in the same way. And finally he came to his main argument that it is impossible for "our thoughts about diverse and specific objects, represented in different ways, to evoke the same or similar reactions (either positive or negative)".

Thus he arrived at the following conclusion: "Accords in music are pleasing and colors are also pleasing, but in a completely different way". Music is constructed on the change of tones, whereas the effect of colour is based on constancy:

Weitbrecht believed that if Galileo did wish to hear "music" in the oscillations of the pendulum, then this music was "imaginary and philosophical". This is precisely how Castel regarded his own idea, for he considered himself a philosopher and readily renounced his fame as the inventor of the new instrument.

Until the end of the nineteenth century, it was a matter dealing only with the idea of visual music (and not with the art itself). I should also point out that for Castel's supporters and critics this idea was first and foremost a philosophical problem and more specifically, the one that concerned the natural sciences. Castel's ideas of seeing sounds and of a "music for eyes", which he intended only for the "philosophical" eye, not merely became known as fancies of the mind [35] or as the symbol of the absurd, but turned into a touchstone of sorts on which the blade of polemics was sharpened. It was used by: Condillac in his arguments with the rationalist school in philosophy ("Treatise on systems"); Diderot and d'Alembert arguing with Rameau about whether harmony is a science (Encyclopaedia); Rousseau supporting the "encyclopaedists" in their criticism of the "mathematicization" of art and pointing to the difference in the perception of sound and colour according to the role played by, to use current terminology, the "reflex to the relation of the irritants" ("A study on the origin of language"); Goethe and Buffon pointing to the fortuity of Newton's analogy and stressing that, in the nature and for human organs, sound and colour appear as independent processes ("Theory of colour" and "Observation of random colours", respectively); it becomes Herder's argument in his dispute with Lessing concerning the difference between "action" and "consequence" in classifying the arts ("Critical scaffolding or considerations relating to the science of the beautiful and art, on the basis of recent investigations"); etc.

It is plain to us today that Castel's ideas are non-artistic and non-aesthetic in content and natural-philosophical by origin, following the course of a metaphysical quest for confirmation of the unity of the universe, apprehending it as the discovery of universal constants and analogies of a Pythagorean kind. All the opponents of Castel mentioned above, both foreign and Russian, analyzed and criticized in the main this natural-philosophical analogy of "spectrum-scale", the idea of the simple mechanistic transformation of music into colour. At the same time, however, many of them questioned the hypothetical possibility of seeing music altogether; many, but not all. Weitbrecht, although he had leveled harsh criticism at Castel, concluded his speech with the following words "It may easily come about that some kind of enjoyment will be found for our eyes that will delight us no less than music ..."

M.V.Lomonosov, who was present at this memorable session, also did not ignore this problem. He subsequently noted in one of his physics papers: "Colours agree amazingly with music ..." [36]. And in the ode commemorating the anniversary of the coronation of empress Elizabeth I, he introduced the following lines, which were incomprehensible to the readers:

Hush, ye flaming sounds,
Stop shaking light...

Soon after the discussion of Castel's ideas, L.Eiler, another academician from Petersburg, presented his special investigation "Physical observations relating to the propagation of sound and light", which contained meticulous computations of the frequencies of musical tones. In consequence, he is commonly regarded as an adherent of Castel's ideas. But in his papers he did not draw any analogies between definite sounds and colours, although, for the first time in science, the difference in colours was related to the difference in the frequency of the corresponding vibrations of ether [37]. (By the way, Castel's followers, if they had known this fact, could have deprived Kraft of his principal critical argument). Naturally, he did not have thoughts of devising "musique oculaire". Comparing sound and light was necessary only for comparing their methods of propagation. Of course, light propagates in a different medium, and if air were as "thin and elastic" as ether, maintained Eiler, sound would have a speed of propagation equal to that of light.

It is of interest to pursue further the destiny of Castel's ideas in Russia and to compare the new criticism with the conclusions of the Petersburg academicians. For Russian readers another significant impetus, stimulating their interest in "musique oculaire", was the book by the German writer K. Eckartshausen, "The Key to the Mysteries of Nature", which was widely known in Europe during the late eighteenth century and was translated into Russian many times. The film director S.Eisenstem cites vast passages of it his "The Vertical Editing":

But the principle proposed by Eckartshausen differs substantially from the ideas of Castel. Eckartshausen abandoned speculative physical analogies: "Just as musical tones should be in accord with the author's narration in a melodrama", he supposed, "so too should colours correspond to words", for "colours can express the sentiments of the soul..."

The Italian theatre artist P.Gonzaga (1751 - 1831), who had worked for many years in Russia and published his work "Musique Oculaire" [39] here, came even closer to an artistic treatment of the problem of visual music. In his numerous productions, he sought to give a plastic presentation of music and drama, attempting to obtain a harmonious audio-visual unity; and in some performances, even the changing of scenery occurred in accordance with the music. He stated that the musical element was predominant in the theatrical culture of his time and noted the lack of interest in the visible, which, so he thought, had a "music" of its own. Gonzaga did not rule out the existence of analogies between the spectrum and the octave, but he considered it wrong to use them to produce "musique oculaire" in accordance with Castel's principle:

(We may note that this has much in common with the anti-Castel arguments of Rousseau, Weitbrecht and Herder). Gonzaga compared space and colour to musical accents and tones and believed that for making visual music "spatial rhythm and colour modulations are required". He proposed to divide space in a manner similar to the division of time.

If Castel's works became widely known in Europe in due time and his analogy, his "music of colour" became even a sort of trite metaphor in the literature and poetry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, then Gonzaga's contribution to the development of the concept of visual music is known but little among specialists in aesthetics and musicologists, especially among foreign ones. It was Gonzaga who was the first to point to the feasibility of an actual "musical" vision. At the same time, he realized the triviality and emptiness of Castel's colour modulations. He compared music with the richest realm of visible shapes, and it was with contours, drawings, that he compared, as did Rousseau, melody - the principal "information carrier" in music. He could also discern the hypothetical possibility of realizing the "music for eyes'" metaphor when paying attention to the unique artificial light-dynamic phenomenon, specially intended for art purposes - a fireworks. Gonzaga believed that fireworks possess a striking similarity to music in the proper sense of the word:

This period of direct critical appraisal of Castel's ideas in Russia can be regarded as finished. As shown above, these ideas were called into being not because of the requirements of art, but rather because of the attitude of the past centuries that was ready to treat music as "one of the applications of mathematics" (as V.F.Odoevsky put it). This detailed account of Castel and his critics is not presented here merely to provide a complete historical background. We are dealing with an amazing experiment staged by history: Castel with his theory (even though it has no direct bearing on art) literally forced his contemporaries, though prematurely, and as if "accidentally", to state their opinions on the very idea of visual music. True, many of his critics could not go by themselves beyond the framework of metaphysical speculations; however, the explanations as to why Castel was wrong contained many correct observations.

The concept of instrumental "music for eyes", lacking the stimulus of genuine aesthetic inquiry and the technical prerequisites for testing, stiffened in a scholastic stupor and developed no further, although in Russia as well as in the West from time to time information was published about either Castel himself (in reference books) or fresh discoveries of the idea of the "color clavichord" [40]. But the largest publication along this line at the beginning of the nineteenth century was a satirical article that derided not only Castel but his supporters - Gretry, etc. [41]. Russian readers were familiar with the later criticisms of Castel contained in the works of J.W.Goethe, H.Helmholtz, W.Ostwald, M.Mendelssohn. T.Seemann's musicomorphous concept of pictorial colouring had revived a short lived interest in the problem; it had been popularized in various forms by Russia's own followers of Castel up until 1910, the year the composer A.N.Scriabin created "Prometheus", the first light-musical composition in the world [42-47]. They are mentioned here merely to illustrate the belated and unmotivated recurrence of mechanicalism and reductionism in art. Already by the late nineteenth century, after electricity had been mastered and attempts were being made to build working "colour organs", spectators could see for themselves that the flashing of colours according to the "law" of Newton (or Castel, Seemann, etc.) in no way coincided with the artistic and emotional influence of the music that had been "translated" into colour: the experiments of B.Bishop in the USA , B.Taillet in France, A.Rimington in Britain, A.Scriabin in Russia. The conclusions of the Petersburg academicians proved prophetic.

It becomes evident that the laws of "audio-visual harmony" should be sought not in the sphere of physical extra-human analogies [48], but on the basis of comparison of the physiological, psychological and, ultimately, aesthetic influence of light and colour (which correspondingly characterizes the notions of "audio-visual unity" and "audio-visual harmony" as a gnoseological category). And it is here that real possibilities exist for the advancement of the ideas of "visual music", as manifest in the current practice of the so-called music-kinetic art [49-53].

REFERENCES AND NOTES

1. It can be argued that the idea of "visual music" was first stated by the French monk L.-B.Castel as early as the eighteenth century, but actually Castel's conception did not deal with art. It is worth noting that Castel's ideas were subjected to profound theoretical analysis in Russia; for a detailed discussion of the history of the idea of "visual music" in Russia, see the Appendix for a translation of my article "At the sources of "visual music" idea in Russia", first published in: "The Problems of Natural Sciences and Technology History", No2, pp.130-135 (1985) (in Russian).
2. I would like to correct those Western sources that claim this work was originaly published abroad, first in Munich (1912) and then in London (1914), and that a Russian version was published only in 1967 (in the United States). In fact, the paper was delivered in Russian even earlier: in 1911 it was presented at the All-Russia Congress of Artists in Petrograd and was published afterwards in the Proceedings of the congress.
3. B.M.Galeyev, "Music kinetic art: the formation and essence of the new art". - Kazan: Tatknigoizdat, 1976; "The singing rainbow". - Kazan: Tatknigoizdat, 1980; "The harmony of the senses and the synthesis of the arts". - Moscow: Znanie, 1982 (in Russian).
4. A.V.Lunacharsky. "On Fine Art", in two volums. - Moscow: Sovietsky chudozhnik, 1967, v.1, p.184 (in Russian).
5. The anthology does not contain the musical score. Years later attempts were made to make it up; the Soviet composer A.Shnitke tried in 1973, and the American composer G.Shuller in 1981.
6. This possibility was recognized by the artist R.Delaunay and the sculptor A.Archipenko, both suggested that light be used to "animate" abstract paintings. The non-figurationist painter A.B.Klein, who realized the possibilities of light, became a leading British specialist in music kinetic art, (see his book "Colour Music: The Art of Light". - London: 1926). The French artist P.Survage and the Swedish artist and filmmaker V.Eggeling instinctively used the new technique of film projection to achieve these unusual aims.
7. S.O.Khan-Magomedov. "V.Kandinsky on the perception and effect of the means of artistic expressiveness". In: "The works of VNIITE: technical aesthetics", vol.17. - Moscow: 1978, pp.77-96 (in Russian).
8. I.L.Vanechkina. "The line "Luce" as the key to Scriabin's late harmony". - "Sovietskaya Muzyka", No4, pp.100-103 (1977) (in Russian).
9. This was also confirmed by the questionnaire that members of Institute "Prometheus" distributed in 1966-71 to Soviet musicians.
10. L.Sabaneyev, the composer's biographer, mentions that Scriabin had marked by hand on a copy of the "Prometheus" score what his ideas were regarding this kind of revision to the "Luce". This hand-marked score is not in the collection of the Scriabin Museum. Perhaps it is the copy presently kept in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (where it was placed after Sabaneyev's death). Verification of this by French scholars would be a worthy endeavour.
11. These have been scrupulously collected from the reminiscences of his contemporaries and have been presented in a special monograph, see: I.L.Vanechkina, B.M.Galeyev. "The poem of fire (Scriabin's idea of the synthesis of light and music)". - Kazan: KGU Press, 1981 (in Russian).
12. The Soviet composer A.Nemtin has "made up" the score of "Preliminary Action" on the basis of the musical extracts that have been preserved. The light score is again in keeping with the former principle (rejected by Scriabin) of the "Prometheus" Luce, which makes it possible to dispense with the light accompaniment (as was actually the case with the first performances). The light scores in the music kinetic artworks of other successors to Scriabin's idea of a "lighting symphony" are similarly devoid of organic unity; for example, V.Shcherbatchev's "Nonet" (1919), V.Polevoy's piano "Poem" (1966) and R.Shchedrin's cantata "Poetona"(1970).
13. M.-A.Bute later gained fame with her "visual music" films which included "The Colour Rhapsody", "Anitra's Dance", "The Evening Star" and "Tarantella".
14. G.I.Gidoni. "The art of light and colour". - Leningrad: 1930, p.16 (in Russian).
15. In my opinion, Wilfred's achievements have been underrated in America. As is known, his principal theoretical work on "lumia" still remains unpublished, see: D.Stein. "Thomas Wilfred: Lumia". - Washington: DC, 1971, p.61.
16. S.M.Eisenstein. Selected works, Vol.2. - Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1964 (in Russian).
17. Norbert Wiener. "God and Golem, Inc". - Cambridge: MA MIT Press, 1964
.
18. K.L.Leontiev. "Music and colour". - Moscow: Znanie, 1961; "The colour of "Prometheus". - Moscow: Znanie, 1965 (in Russian).
19. See B.M.Galeyev. "Music Kinetic Art Medium: On the Work of the Group "Prometheus" (design office), Kazan, USSR". - Leonardo 9, pp.177-182 (1976).
20. All these were demonstrated at the AllUnion Conferences on "Light and Music", organized by "Prometheus" and held in 1967, 1969, 1975, 1979 and 1986. For the table of contents to the Proceedings of the Third Conference "Light and Music", see "Kinetic Art: Third Conference "Light and Music", Kazan, USSR, 27 June - 4 July 1975" - Leonardo 9, pp.238-239 (1976). See also, Conference "Light and Music" (theses). - Kazan: KAI Press, 1969 (in Russian);
    Proceedings of the Third Conference "Light and Music". - Kazan: KAI Press, 1975 (in Russian);
    All-Union school of young scientists and specialists "Light and Music" (theses). - Kazan: KAI Press, 1979 (in Russian);
    Scientific-technical seminar "Music-kinetic art devices as consumer goods" (theses). - Kazan: KAI Press, 1986 (in Russian);
    Scientific-technical seminar "The synthesis of the arts in the epoch of scientific and technical revolution" (theses), 20-30 September 1987 (held as part of All-Union school-festival of young scientists and specialists "Light and Music"). - Kazan: KAI Press,1987 (in Russian).
    Concerning similar types of specialized events outside of Russia, the only ones of which I am aware are the three "Farbe-Ton-Forschungen" congresses held in Hamburg, Germany, in 1927, 1929 and 1931.
21. B.M.Galeyev, S.A.Andreyev. "Principles for designing music-kinetic art devices". - Moscow: Energiya, 1973;
    "The art of luminous sounds". - Kazan: KAI Press, 1973;
    "Artistic and technical experiments of the design office "Prometheus"". - Kazan: KAI Press, 1974;
    B.M.Galeyev, R.F.Sajfullin. "Lumia music devices". - Moscow: Energiya, 1978; "Discotheque equipment". - Moscow: APN USSR, 1983;
    B.M.Galeyev, S.M.Zorin, R.F.Sajfullin. "Music kinetic art instruments" - Moscow: Radio i svyaz, 1988 (in Russian).
22. It is worth noting that "Son et Lumiere" performances, though infrequent in the USSR, USA, GFR and Japan, are popular in the Mediterranean countries, where they play a role in tourism.
23. See, for example, Soviet newspapers: "Pravda", 5 February 1981; "Sovetskaya Kultura", 18 November 1980; "Sovetskaya Kultura", 21 July 1987.
24. "Music-kinetic art experiments of the design office "Prometheus": bibliography (1962-1978)". - Kazan: KAI Press, 1973;
    "Music-kinetic art in Russia and USSR: bibliography (1742-1982)". - Kazan: KAI Press, 1983 (in Russian).
    
25. In addition to the books already mentioned, I would like to bring the reader's attention to the following: F.I.Yuriev. "Music of light". - Kiev: Muzichna Ukraina, 1971;
    A.G.Dzyubenko. "Colour music" - Moscow: Znanie, 1973;
    L.N.Melnikov. "Programmes, algorithms, constructions: synthesis of colour and music" - Moscow: Nauka, 1980;
    Yu.V.Pukhnachev. "Number and thought: four dimensions of art". - Moscow: Znanie, 1981;
    "Musical synthesizers". - Moscow: Znanie, 1983;
    V.V.Efimov. "Music kinetic art? It is very simple!". - Kiev: Radyanska shkola, 1985 (in Russian).
    Regrettably, none of these books by Soviet authors have been translated, which I feel is to the detriment not of the authors, but of Western readers.
26. B.M.Galeyev. "Man, Art, Technology (the problem of synaesthesia in art)". - Kazan: KGU Press, 1987 (in Russian).
27. Stein [15] p.68.
28. A.Kirilenko, V.Orlov. "Colour music". - "Technika-molodezhi", No.10, p.37 (1965);
    A.Ossovski. "Reminiscences. Investigations". - Leningrad: Muzyka, 1968, pp.134-135. (in Russian).
29. "Feynman lectures on physics", Vol.4, p.200. - Moscow: Mir Publ., 1965 (Russian edition).
30. "Musical aesthetics of Oriental countries". - Leningrad: Muzyka, 1967, pp.11-33 (in Russian).
31. For a more detailed account see B.M.Galeyev "Antique doctrine of "music of spheres" and music kinetic art" in: "The art of luminous sounds" - Kazan: 1973;
    "From the natural philosophic conceptions of visual music to music kinetic art". - "Filosofskie nauki" No.3 (1982);
    "Musical acoustics and concepts of the universal harmony of the world" in: "Reports of the 10th All-Union acoustics conference". - Moscow: 1983 (in Russian).
32. For a more detailed treatment see Yu.A.Danilov, Ya.A.Smorodinski. "Johannes Kepler: from mystery to harmony". - "Uspekhi fiz. nauk", Vol.100, No1, pp.175-209, (1973) (in Russian).
33. L. - B.Castel. "Optique des couleurs". - Paris: 1740.
34. Y.Ph.Telemann. "Beschreibung der Augen Orgel oder Augen Clavicimbels". - Hamburg: 1739.
35. It is precisely so: the anonymous posthumous edition of Castel's works was entitled: "Esprits, Saillies et singularites du P.Castel". - Amsterdam: 1763.
36. М.V.Lomonosov. Complete works, Vol.3. - Moscow-Leningrad: AN USSR Publ., 1952, p.252 (in Russian).
37. "Nova theoria music ac colorum" in: "L.Euleri opuscula. Varii argumenti". - Berlin: 1746;
    "Lettres a une princesse d'Allemagne sur divers sujets, de physique et de philosophie", Vol.2, (1768-1774) pp.246-259.
38. Eisenstein [16] p.200.
39. The original edition of this book was published anonymously in French in 1800. The first Russian-language account of Gonzaga's views was published in: N.Gilyarovskaya. "Music for the eyes". - "Teatr i dramaturgiya", No.7 (1935).
    See also, P.Gonzaga. "Music for the eyes" (fragments from the book). - "Dekorativnoe iskusstvo USSR", No.12, (1970);
    The complete text of Gonzaga's book is given in the supplement of F.Ya.Syrkina "Life and creative work of P.Gonzaga". - Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1974, pp.89-120 (in Russian).
40. "The invention of a harmonica with visible tones" - "Vestnik Evropy" Vol.59, No.9 (1811);
    The article "Castel" in: H.Riemann. "Musical dictionary". - Moscow: 1896 (in Russian).
41. "Piano for the eyes, nose, mouth and ears". - "Bibhoteka dlya chtemya" No.34 (1830) (in Russian).
42. F.Petrushevskij. "Harmony of colour", in: "Entsiklopedicheskij slovar F.Brokgauza i I.Efrona", Vol.8 (15). - Petersburg: 1892 (in Russian).
43. N.Stepanov. "Castel and his clavecin for the eyes". - "Mir iskusstva", No. 11-12 (1940) (in Russian).
44. [A Unkovskaya]. "The method of colour-sound numbers". - "Russkaya muzykalnaya gazeta", No.6-7 (1909) (in Russian).
45. M.Lippold. "A trial of popular interpretation of the elementary theory of music". - Petersburg: 1906 (in Russian).
46. D.I.Chmelnitski. "Trials of providing aesthetic pleasure by means of music-colour combinations on the basis of the analogy between colour and sound". - (Nizhni) Novgorod: 1913 (in Russian).
47. V.Svetlanov. "Symbolical symphony", in: "Bej! (Ego-futuristy)" 6, 1913 (in Russian).
48. Unfortunately, such analogies are found, strange as it is, even today; for example see Yunev [25] and M.Z.Xodzhaev "A system of musically harmonious colours". - Tbilisi: 1972 (in Russian).
49. Galeyev. "Music-kmetic art" [3].
50. Galeyev and Sajfullin. "Lumia music devices" [21].
51. Galeyev. "The singing rainbow" [3].
52. Vanechkina and Galeyev, [11].
53. Galeyev. "The harmony of the senses" [3].

Published in Leonardo, vol.21, N4, pp. 392-396, 1988