In the twentieth century there is a great cultural revolution, a real formal break up with the past
and all the musical and pictorial art evolves, first gradually and subsequently in a peremptory manner for to affirm new ideas, a new philosophy
of art.
Continuing this parallel between music and painting, the musician Aleksandr Nikolaevič Skrjabin makes an evolutionary cultural journey that leads him to color the sound, to look for the total work of art, to use multimedia, to invent new musical instruments, new pianos.
"But the attention-getter here is the color organ built by Scriabin’s friend, the scientist Alexander Mozer, designed for use in a performance of the composer’s mystical orchestral work “Prometheus: The Poem of Fire” (1910). It’s a small wooden circle of 12 electric lamps in a spectrum of colors that fits easily on the desk in this music room. “Prometheus” was likely the first music score to include instructions for projecting colors corresponding to the tones being played. At the 1911 first performance under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky, those little light bulbs were to be presented at the front of the stage, but the composer withdrew the device because of technical problems. It’s hard to imagine that this small contraption would have had any effect in a concert hall. Later attempts made use of a screen. "
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