# Colorful Composers



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Which Composers had a lot of eccentric colors in their music?

Stravinsky, Beethoven, Ravel and Debussy come to mind right away!


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Scriabin! The man was a synesthete and even had his own theory on colors and sounds, which he applied to his music of course.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Allerius said:


> Scriabin! The man was a synesthete and even had his own theory on colors and sounds, which he applied to his music of course.


This is awesome!


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## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

Berlioz is who I immediately thought of when reading the thread title.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Messiaen once told an interviewer, "I'm modal, tonal, serial -- as you like, in fact, I'm colorful. And when you think you hear a series of tones, even triads, you're wrong. Those are colors." And he wrote music as if he were painting with them.

In an explanatory note to his 'Couleurs de la Cité Céleste', Messiaen says "The form of the piece depends entirely on colors. The melodic or rhythmic themes, as well as the complexes of sounds and timbres, evolve as colors do. In their constantly renewed variations, there can be found (by analogy) warm and cool colors, complementary colors that influence those against which they are contrasted, colors that dissolve toward white or that shade into black. These transformations can be compared to characters acting on various stages ... with several different plots unrolling at once."


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Gallus said:


> Berlioz is who I immediately thought of when reading the thread title.


Interesting. Because of his innovative, colorful orchestration?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Never thought of Beethoven as colorful. But Respighi, Messiaen, Rautavaara, Kalevi Aho, Norgard


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Charles Koechlin wrote some very colorful music. Here is his Les Bandar-log symphonic poem based on the Jungle Book.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

starthrower said:


> Never thought of Beethoven as colorful. But Respighi, Messiaen, Rautavaara, Kalevi Aho, Norgard


Beethoven is a sith lord! Not unlike Miles Davis, he posses dark voodoo power.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Szymanowski, of course.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Hector Villa-Lobos
His symphonies and string quartets are wonderful and very colorful.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Ligeti is another colorful composer.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Beethoven is a sith lord! Not unlike Miles Davis, he posses dark voodoo power.


Beethoven also channels the light every once in a while (Symphony 6)


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Rimsky-Korsakov came to mind right away.


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## Dimace (Oct 19, 2018)

For me the most characteristic (this moment) is *George Bizet.* So much light! So much pathos! So much love! So much Spain!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Manxfeeder said:


> Szymanowski, of course.


jus put on his symphony 3, good stuff!


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## jdec (Mar 23, 2013)

For me, Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, Debussy, Respighi, Stravinsky, R. Strauss, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, are some that come to mind.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Berlioz liked to blow soap bubbles, in part because of the patterns of iridescent colors on the surface. (He once made a bubble blower out of an old oboe.)


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

To all the other worthy contenders, I would add Khachaturian - listening to his music is like watching a fireworks display:






And how about Janacek?


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Some of the most colorful composers are men whose music isn't all that well-known, but their scoring is utterly brilliant - sometimes the only redeeming quality to be honest. Just a few names:

Pancho Vladigerov
Kurt Atterberg
Ture Rangstrom
Felix Weingartner
Arnold Bax
Wilhelm Petersen-Berger
Florent Schmitt
Rued Laangard
Jaromir Weinberger


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

starthrower said:


> Never thought of Beethoven as colorful.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Messiaen#Colour
"Colour lies at the heart of Messiaen's music. He believed that terms such as "tonal", "modal" and "serial" are misleading analytical conveniences. For him there were no modal, tonal or serial compositions, only music with or without colour. He said that Claudio Monteverdi, Mozart, Chopin, Richard Wagner, Mussorgsky and Stravinsky all wrote strongly coloured music."

I'm pretty sure if we asked him "whatabout Beethoven?", 
he would have said
"yeah sure, Beethoven is pretty colourful, I might as well add him in the list. Why not?"


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

This documentary on the unconventional life and ground-breaking music of the Russian pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) sheds light on the mystical ideas which inspired him. He became consumed by a vision of a union of the arts, a coalescence of music, words, movement, light, colour and ideas, to create transcendent experiences. Contributors to his fascinating exploration of the composer's life and work are musicians Vladimir Ashkenazy and Vladimir Horowitz; conductor Mikhail Pletnev; and Scriabin's daughter, Marina. The programme draws on Scriabin's writings, archive photographs and documentation, and footage shot in Switzerland, Italy and Moscow. Among a wealth of musical extracts, Scriabin himself is heard playing his Poem Op. 32 No. 1, recorded in 1908 on a Welte Mignon player-piano.

A film by Oliver Becker


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Takemitsu
Scriabin
Dvořák
Messiaen
Gliere (I know only his symphonies)


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Good calls w/ Strauss and Dvorak!


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