THE EAR AND THE EYE

During two years of artistic research at the Hochschüle für Musik in Basel, artistic director Mara Winter completed a cycle of color-informed microtonal pieces for four Renaissance flutes. The resulting program, The Ear And The Eye, uses the acoustic palette of the 16th century traverso consort to explore personal and historical connections between color perception and microtonality.

​

By collecting historical sources which compared color proportions analogous with simple and complex musical intervals, the pieces composed for The Ear And The Eye offer a visually-informed performance practice of chromatic, enharmonic and microtonal music: an attempt to collectivize the sensory experience of "listening to color". These compositions act as psychoacoustic études of historically-inspired harmonic and color proportions, and utilize Winter's own watercolor-based notation system to communicate glissandi, beatings, combination tones, and texture variation.

​

4 musicians

​

MARA WINTER

Artistic direction, original composition, traverso

​​​

RENAISSANCE TRAVERSO CONSORT

Mara Winter​

Charlotte Schneider

Liane Sadler

Johanna Bartz

​

MUSICAL CONTENT

Duration

30-55 minutes (depending on context)

​

HYACINTH 14'

INCARNADINE 8'30"

SMARAGD 15'

​

<< PROGRAMS

​