MUSIC MADE VISIBLE IN WEIRD MOVIE (Nov, 1936)
MUSIC MADE VISIBLE IN WEIRD MOVIE
Futuristic patterns of light and shadow are projected upon a movie screen to accompany the music of Wagner’s “Song to the Evening Star,” in a unique sound film recently completed for exhibition in a New York theater. Marching rhymically across the audience’s field of view, the odd designs were produced by trick photography, with the aid of bracelets, toy balls, silks, and crushed tissue ribbons.
Some of Mary Ellen Bute’s pioneering abstract films can be seen on YouTube, including:
Rhythm in Light (1934) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQBsaot-2rQ
Dada (1936) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R75riVLD2Ug
and Synchromy No. 4: Escape (1938) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRmu-GcClls
Comment by Max — April 30, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
Thanks Max!
All I could find was Dada.
Comment by jayessell — May 1, 2008 @ 8:26 am
Nowadays we just click play on the media player and they come up automatically.
Comment by 4th guy — May 1, 2008 @ 9:27 am
I think this should have an Origins tag since this is clearly the precursor to music videos.
Comment by Benzene — May 1, 2008 @ 4:00 pm