CROMOSON or Song of the Objects
an introduction to Octavian Nemescu's first Imaginary Music score, a sheet of instructions translated into English for the first time and a series of free-form research tangents from the team
CROMOSON or Song of the Objects – For an Imaginary Music Practice
In the mid ‘60s, Octavian Nemescu was fresh at the helm of a novel avant-garde movement in contemporary composition taking form in Romania. As his close colleague Corneliu Cezar was experimenting in an electronic music studio with spectralist ideas way before the French Itineraire group for example, Nemescu started to develop a form of practice equally mystical and conceptual as that of his friend. What is important in understanding the music he makes even today is that he started taking cues from Jung’s idea of the archetype. The composer started thus developing a set of musical theories that frame his work according to three degrees of archetypes. In this system, he considers things that are eternal such as the Divine as being first degree archetypes; second degree archetypes being represented by all things made by nature; while the third degree he reserved for cultural archetypes, such as melodies and cadences passed down through generations. Concentric (1969) is the first piece in this style, showcasing a layered sonic approach with resonant harmonics as the natural archetype base upon which he gradually builds different sets of cadences with nods to specific historical periods.
This set of conventions is the very basis of Nemescu’s world building, his entire approach to music being infused by the concept of the archetype. Sonically, he further expands his thinking into creating a set of conventions for interpreting notions such as rhythms and dynamics through the archetypal framework. He marks the iambic tetrameter as the heartbeat-and-breathing archetype, not just for humans but for animals and birds alike. “It is the rhythmic archetype and the life pulse”, says the composer in a 2016 interview. “A lot of the cosmic vibrations are iambic. In the dynamic section we have three types of archetypes: fortissimo-forte, mezzoforte-mezzopiano and piano-pianissimo. Fortissimo is the symbol of the superconcious, forte represents the conscious, mezzoforte-mezzopiano the subconscious and piano-pianissimo the unconscious. Physicists are talking today about multiple realities, the multiverse and energies that discreetly maintain these universes which we can’t perceive because they’re vibrating in pianissimo, on a different wavelength. They cannot be heard with our physical hearing, only with our inner hearing, in special conditions of total calm and quiet.”
The quest for connecting to the Great Unheard is most evident in his Imaginary Music (Muzica imaginară) series, where everything takes place inside the mind of the interpreter. Disenchanted with the main tendencies in society at large, Nemescu pivoted towards works dismantling the spectacle altogether. In response to Stockhausen’s increasingly long compositions, he composed Spectacle for an Instant (Spectacol pentru o clipă) in the early ‘70s, a piece that would only last for a couple of seconds. His vision was one of a sonic lighting striking, creating a hyperdense space akin to a black hole. In the composer’s mind, the anti-spectacular route was the sole route that could lead to genuine innovation, untainted by society’s growing decadence.
Imaginary Music became over the years the epitome of his anti-spectacle sentiment, as well as the purest path to connecting with the archetypal cosmic vibrations. Threading the path between concert score and guided meditation, Muzica imaginară is shaped as the ultimate intimate musical practice. In the same interview with Andra Frățilă, Nemescu describes it as “an individual and interior music that you only create for yourself- without critics, without spectators. The scores are not to be interpreted, neither with an instrument nor by voice. Instead, by yourself, you just imagine how the stones, the mountains and the waters are vibrating. Some dismissed my idea as foolish, but the true music lovers, those who cannot live without music, those who constantly hear melodies, even when walking down the street, truly saw themselves in this concept.”
Perhaps the most technically developped of the Imaginary Music series, CROMOSON or Song of the Objects (1974-75) offers extensive and precise instructions on translating the visual sensations into inner sounds. The score is painstakingly intricate, describing scores for every color in the ROYGBIV (rainbow) sequence, alongside additional elements such as black, grey, white and mixed colors like brown. Nemescu developed an entire system for interpreting the sounds, using categories such as tone, timbre, duration, spatialization, intensity and duration. He also differentiates between variables such as natural, artificial light and shade, as well as making a distinction between natural and man-made objects. He describes the result as “looking at a red object and hearing a hyper acute, high-pitched music, seeing a blue object and imagining a deep sound, creating links between the visual and sonic spectrum. You would ‘hear’ a shade of green, such as the leaves, as a slow melody, full of harmonics that slowly escalates, or see a white presence and feel a song that pours down all your limbs, therapeutically: your head, your aura, your eyes, your nose and mouth, your heart follow by your gut and legs. And thus you try to heal yourself through music.”
The practice is meant to help the subject not only to heal, but enrich their inner life and develop a deeper understanding of the world by becoming more attuned to its vibrations.
CROMOSON is an ambitious endeavor, sprawled over 200 pages of preliminary written instructions, incantation-like formulas at the start of the practice for each color and passages that read like free verse, all accompanied by actual musical notations and beautiful graphic interpretation that could read as abstract drawings out of context. The score is entire hand-written in bubbly cursive by the composer, with the section for each color rendered in its corresponding shade. It creates a gorgeous visual document, even for those who do not speak Romanian. Art critics would argue that the physical score is in itself worthy of attention, not unlike an artist book or unique object.
As part of our ongoing muzică imaginară project of exploration, analysis and distribution of Nemescu’s music, pianist and conductor Bogdana Dima will start a series of Zoom workshops to facilitate the practice of Imaginary Music, regardless of whether or not the participants have experience with reading music. The sessions will be archived and made available to the public, together with additional materials.
Here are some preliminary thoughts from her for the participants:
I would like to ask you to reflect on the purpose of this practice, which would consist of, as Nemescu puts it, “the conditional response to the visual stimuli with an imaginary sonorous object”, and add your own goal or personal intention.
I would also like to point out that Nemescu does not focus on the correlation between the sound’s frequency and the color, as in other synesthesia “systems” (trying to connect a particular sound to a color), but rather express the complex vibration of an object (natural or manmade), which could be determined by sounds, but is mostly defined by timbre (“the timbre of the sounds is the most important aspect of imaginary music”). This means that after I try to establish some musical guidelines in regards to the notation, part b) that pertains to the timbre (for which the explanations are rendered through the drawings and text) would be up to everyone’s imagination to interpret and that’s the beauty of this score!
Find the score’s introductory instructions in full here.
Spontaneous Research Rhizome
this section is dedicated to sharing thoughts, links and other tangential research stemming from or connected to the issues touched on in Imaginary Music
Our archivist Ana Szel has excavated this reprint of an 1982 article published in Romanian contemporary art print and online publication Revista Arta by Octavaian Nemescu titled “Imaginary Music. Consequence and Power”, which is a fascinating read on the composer’s own presentation and framing of his concept.
Sound designer and musician Stefan shared this very informative lecture on polyrhythms.
Project coordinator Octav shared an array of links exploring the relationship between sound and color, including this chakra color chart and a very cute interactive sound project working with textiles, Arduino and triggering specific sounds by color.
Some further thoughts from Stefan on discovering Nemescu’s music and how that impacted his own musical understanding and research
I discovered the music of Octavian Nemescu in 2012, when I started my masters in Sonic Arts. That’s when I’ve been introduced to a new musical language by the name of electro-acoustic music, where I discovered that music can be defined and structured by employing many other notions besides melody, harmony, rhythm and so on. Notions such as timbre, spectromorphology, spatiality, texture, sound object became more and more of interest for me as they connected my love for music, in the traditional sense, and sound design, which takes no aesthetic theory into account, by the help which new sonorities, both familiar and unheard can emerge. I interpreted the new language of electro-acoustic music as a bridge between the two worlds and I started to discover that many other experimental or avant-garde genres of music contributed to this new musical manifestation. Some of those genres belonged to the music of Octavian Nemescu.
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Thank you 4 reading and tune in next week, when we will finish our exploration of the score for the color Red, sharing thoughts and sound pieces from our personal and group research.
Till then stay safe, cuties!