ABSTRACT
Music has frequently been associated with the concept of color since before the time of Aristotle and the ancient philosophers believed that harmony could best be described as the union of varied colored things. Comparisons between music and color have seemed a most natural human activity, and the topic has been of interest to writers in many fields. One consequence of the lively debate over correspondence between colored light and sound was widespread interest in a viable color-transmission instrument which could be operated from a musical keyboard. While Castel’s 18th-century clavecin oculaire and 19th-century innovations such as Rimington’s Colour-Organ had been conceived to reveal physical connections between light and sound, most instruments built during the early decades of this century were not intended to express direct association. Most famous of the experimental color-instruments was the Clavilux, developed in 1922 by Thomas Wilfred at a cost of over $16,000.
