R. Hohensee   7/92
pob 11340 w,d.c. 20008


mcf2 is an implementation of a concept I have dubbed cycluphonics.
Cycluphonics is based on the idea that there is some similarity in the
feelings suggested by combinations of hues and combinations of pitches. All
previous attempts at correlating musical sound to color that I am aware of
have been based on attempts to find a particular musical pitch which is
equivalent to some particular hue or shade of color. None of these methods
have met with any lasting success or popularity. This is due to (what I
consider the fact) that there is no natural basis for this approach. 

Suspicions that a "working" color-organ is possible persist, however. Human
language is rife with cross-references between the sonic and the visual
domains. It happens that by implementing a particular form of indirection,
i.e. by use of a system based on "same difference" rather than direct hue to
pitch correlation, a method emerges where the implied feelings of a sequence
of colors can clearly be seen to relate semantically to the implied feelings
of a musical sequence. Dr. Vacarro's program mcf2, included in this
directory, generates colors from sounds. The fundamental cycluphonic
transform can also be used to generate sounds from colors , or to generate
both from intermediate "condissance" arguments.

Stated simply, cycluphonics is achieved by mapping the twelve named notes of
the equal-tempered scale to the hues of a twelve hue color wheel. This is
nothing new. The crucial point is that the pitches are not to be in chromatic
order. The order of the musical pitches is given by the well-known
construct, the cycle of fifths. In other words, cycluphonics is a matter of
mapping a cycle of fifths to a color wheel.

This method causes a certain emotional resonance between the visual and the
aural because a color wheel and a cycle of fifths have similar harmonic
geometries. Colors opposite each other on a color wheel clash, and blend to
black in subtractive systhesis or white (white noise?) in additive
synthesis. notes opposite each other on the cycle of fifths differ by six
semitones, a flatted fifth, which is quite dissonant. In both domains nearby
things tend to blend and things at a distance tend to clash. Also, in both
domains the harmonic geometry of the wheel or cycle is identical once  any
keynote or main hue is picked as a reference point. Thus, the initial
assignment of keynote to hue is arbitrary. C can be red or blue or any pure
hue. This agrees with the fact that cycluphonics is about 'same difference',
and not about a direct hue to pitch relation.

Once a mapping has been chosen, for example c is set to yellow, and both
'wheels are aligned' accordingly, this mapping has to remain constant for
some period of time to have any meaning. However, realigning the mapping
periodically constitutes a sort of meta-modulation, and would no-doubt add
to the process of cycluphonics.

Cycluphonics exists in a very treacherous domain between visual art and
music and science. The similarity of the two wheels in question is not even
as good an approximation as the twelve tone system of pitches or the RGB
system of color imitation. The only meaningful results are your feelings.
Therefor, I truly hope you enjoy mcf2. Stay tuned for the aroma and geometry
of cycluphonics . ( or not. )