Art, Symbol & Imagination
Music of Gounod
Plate G presents a many-coloured form above a church as the supposed clairvoyant effect of an organ performance of a chorus by Charles Gounod. Besant and Leadbeater contrast its massed, brilliant colours with the gentler Mendelssohn plate, explaining that the artist sought to represent a succession of forceful chords rather than individual notes. The repeated church provides a scale and a comparison between the three music plates, while the interwoven contours translate their account of sound into a visual architecture. The passage does not name the chorus, and its claims about a form floating above the tower belong to the authors' Theosophical model rather than measured acoustics.
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Citation
"Music of Gounod" [editorial title]. In Thought-Forms, Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater. 1905, Theosophical Publishing Society. Source scan leaf 62. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/art-thought-music-two
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Composer identification is supported by the adjacent printed text. The musical work, depicted church and individual plate artist are not established here.
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Music of Gounod. Thought-Forms. Scan leaf 62. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/art-thought-music-two