Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society » A Short History of the Ocular Harpsichord and its Progeny

March 16th, 2006

A Short History of the Ocular Harpsichord and its Progeny

KIRCHERIAN HARMONICS WEEK:

The Ocular Harpsichord, or clavecin oculaire, was invented in 1725 by the Jesuit mathematician and physicist Louis-Bertrand Castel. Each note was associated with a color (B (dark) violet Bb agate A violet Ab crimson G red F# orange F golden yellow E yellow Eb olive green D green C# pale green C blue) :

It consisted of a 6-foot square frame above a normal harpsichord; the frame contained 60 small windows each with a different colored-glass pane and a small curtain attached by pullies to one specific key, so that each time that key would be struck, that curtain would lift briefly to show a flash of corresponding color. Enlightenment society was dazzled and fascinated by this invention, and flocked to his Paris studio for demonstrations. The German composer Telemann traveled to France to see it, composed some pieces to be played on the Ocular Harpsichord, and wrote a German-language book about it. But a second, improved model in 1754 used some 500 candles with reflecting mirrors to provide enough light for a larger audience, and must have been hot, smelly and awkward, with considerable chance of noise and malfunction between the pullies, curtains and candles.

Father Castel’s work spurred others to try their hand at sonic-ocular translation, including the Bishop Color Organ (B violet-red Bb violet A violet-blue G# blue G green-blue F# green F yellow-green E green-gold / yellow D# yellow-orange D orange C# orange-red C red) shown at left, and the Rimington Color Organ at right:

One of the more recent efforts at bridging the ocular-sonic chasm is the Music Animation Machine, a project we find irresisitibly compelling. (Do any of our readers know whether the machine has been used to animate more scores beyond those included in the linked web site?)

For further investigation, we recommend:
** The definitive web site RhythmicLight.com and its terrific timeline and bibliography of visual music
** Instruments and the Imagination by Thomas Hankins and Robert Silverman
** The MOCA exhibit Visual Music
** The Visual Music page

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A Short History of the Ocular Harpsichord and its Progeny

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