Glimpses of Color Suite

Instrumentation

Two flutes

Duration

16:56

Movements

I: Peach

II: Red

III: Tangerine

IV: Pale Yellow

V: Gray

VI: Seafoam

VII: Deep Green

VIII: Blue

IX: Blue-Violet

Delivery Method

Digital Download

Notes on the piece

Glimpses of Color is a suite for two flutes about synesthesia. Synesthesia is the phenomenon of a person seeing colors in their mind’s eye when hearing music. For me, all pitches have a unique color, but key signatures in general have an overarching hue that defines them. For example: A minor is red and A major is pink. Glimpses of Color is composed of nine short duets (hence ‘glimpses’), each in a certain key signature (or multiple certain key signatures) that call forth the color of the movement. The first movement, Peach, is in both A major and B major, as both call forth shades of peach and light pink. Within each movement, the first and second flute parts weave together so tightly it become difficult to tell them apart or identify who is playing the melody. In fact, most of the time both flutes together create the melody! This exploration of synesthesia follows roughly the order of colors in the rainbow, and ends softly in the blue-violet key of Bb minor.