Sunday, 3 November 2019

Painting Music


Tomita talks about the artists he emulated electronically and why he chose Debussy. He speaks of the difference in art with line drawings to colour and tonality. He expressed himself with the Moog in a sense of Timbre and feel space and time, warmth.

I chose Debussy because Walter Carlos worked with Baroque music. It was from a sense of rivalry. That record was a big hit, too. Anyway, Baroque music and Bach are reminiscent of line drawings. Any tone quality or sound would work in the pieces. Whereas Debussy is more about colour. Not chords or melody, but the tone. Because it’s music by a French Impressionist. That’s why I chose Debussy. A sense of rivalry against Walter Carlos.” (Tomita)[1]

This much is prevalent when listening to Tomita’s rendition of Strauss and Wagner, there is a feel to music coming from the sound design Tomita creates, emulating the instruments of the orchestra but also sounding so different. Tonality and timbre are key in what he was creating and trying to portray in his vision of what these pieces could sound like if renditioned in outer space.



[1] Red Bull Music Academy Lecture, Isoa Tomita, accessed on 26/10/2019

No comments:

Post a Comment

Introduction

Isao Tomita (with his Moog), in his studio, Tokyo 1976. (Associated Press). Introduction Here we will look...