A Contribution to Musicalism: An Attempt to Interpret Music in Painting

Throughout history, attempts have been made to associate music (sound) and visual arts (space) with respect to both their figurative and abstract components. In this article the author describes his personal attempt to transpose the basic rules of music (rhythm, notes and sol-fa) into painting on a formal basis: times and bars are transposed into spatial elements (lengths, angles or surfaces); notes are transposed into lengths proportional to their frequencies. This formal basis acts as a score, providing a structure for abstract pictures that are ‘interpretations’ of pieces of music. The bars are placed on basic lines. These lines transpose the time needed for listening to the piece. Shapes of the basic lines and colours attributed to the notes follow rules of interpretation. Up to now, the aim of his research essentially has been to interpret classical and romantic music in painting.