Very interesting. I haven't been that strongly taken by the Foulds I've heard (the recentish recordings by Sakari Oramo and the CBSO) but there's at least something in every piece that makes me sit up and listen carefully.

Thank you very much for this information, autoharp! I'm very interested in these kind of books. Synaesthesia is a very interesting subject. Did Foulds suffer from synaesthesia?

Pim - I'll quote from Chapter 7 of the book which is entitled "Colour and music" - this is a subsection entitled "Suggested table of corresppondences" - remember I made a reference to "mumbo-jumbo" . . .

    The truth is that musical sounds do not give rise to colours upon the physical plane at all; consequently all correspondences which have been observed to exist between sounds and colour, and the multitudinous and well-authenticated records of such observations, are to a use of psychic faculty.
    The 'colour-hearing' sense is widespread, and such a serious investigator as Ortmann arrives at the conclusion that it must be classed as a non-auditory response. It is clearly a non-visual one. It is then psychic, and is designated 'synaesthesia'. But a close study of the use of such faculty - surprisingly widespread in this age of increased and increasing sensitivity - shows that it is but an extension of our normal physical faculties and one we would do well to investigate still more seriously than hitherto. Artists, creative artists especially, ought to give it the most serious attention, for along this line will be found solutions of many of their otherwise insoluble problems. In this at least, Scriabin was right.
   Unfortunately, at the present time it is the bringing over of psychic impressions undistorted into the brain that is the least developed and least reliable aspect of the faculty. And it is its unreliability that has caused the discrepancies in the various reports of the correspondence between sound and colour.
    One of the first modern occultists to put this information in clear tabular form was Mme. Blavatsky, whose Secret Doctrine contains the following:

         C - Red: D - Orange: E - Yellow: F - Green: G - Blue: A - Indigo: B - Violet.

    A number of psychics (one of whom is mentioned by Cyril Scott in his Philosophy of Modernism) confirm this table of correspondences. Others, however, do not: hence arise the discrepancies spoken of above. Scriabin's table was different. Rimsky-Korsakov's different again, though not in every detail. But such discrepancies between the reports of investigators, irritating though they may be, cannot be held to vitiate the basic fact itself. Nor, in recognizing the unreliabilty of such reports, should we impugn their sincerity or even their relative truth.
    These divergencies arise because, whilst the observations themselves may be perfectly accurate, certain conditions have been entirely left out of account: conditions which are vital to results.


So, Pim, get the picture ?

OK Pim - so get a load of this . . .

    "It was about this time (1905) that he [Scriabin] came into close touch with the leaders of theosophic thought, with whom he continued to correspond for the rest of his life. And it seems to me (who am no theosopher) only fair to say that it is probably due to their guidance, their advice and experience that no such tragedy overtook Scriabin as those already mentioned in cionnection with Schumann, Smetana, Jullien and others.
    Jean Delville, the famous Belgian painter (who was a close friend of the musician and designed the cover for some of his works), told me that at this period Scriabin was an omnivorous reader of the Upanishads and other early Eastern scriptures, as well as a close student of modern glossorial comments thereon. this study undeniably clarified his thoughts, crystallized his aims and elucidated his inner aspirations.
    Le Poeme de l'Extase, op. 54, clearly shows the results of this expansion and definition of Scriabin's perceptions. Thus, contrarily to the Divine Poem, it exhibits more of the theosophic 'programme'. here he attempts to parallel upon the physical plane the utter joy, the unrestrained ecstasy, the inexhaustible activity which a glimpse of deva life reveals to us. No wonder this music was said (even by admirers) to be as baffling as it was stimulating. It achieves a degree of sonorous beauty hitherto unheard from a modern orchestra.
    Now Scriabin became completely imbued with the devic fire and under its influence his incandescent spirit flamed out in the blinding inspiration of Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, op. 60. This is , beyond question, his greatest work and one of outstanding importance in the progress of modern music.
    Writing to A.N.Briantchaninov after a performance in London in 1913 he says: "The public is particularly moved by the performance of works which have philosophical [mystical ?] ideas as a basis, and copmbine the elements of various arts." (1) If one is unable to agree - amazing, staggering though the work may be, nay is - that it is a complete success, the reasons would seem to be several. First: he was attempting to pour new (deva) wine into old (classical-sonata) wine-skins. Second: his personal karma, his stage in evolution, precluded a greatrewr measure of perception. It may be, too, that the gods in their wisdom deem the time not yet ripe to unloose upon a but-partly-evolved mankind vibrations of the extreme rapidity and potency of the 'shining ones' and their supernatural realms. Again, his tentative employment of a colour-organ in this work (which has already been mentioned as an attempt towards a synthetic presentation of the plurality of arts) confuses those of his audience who are lending a purely musical intelligence to the work, whilst those who bring to bear also a true psychic perception are positively thwarted by the inaccuracy of the instrument and its false correspondences, as already pointed out.
    Now a characteristic trait to be noticed as resulting from contact with devas, is the establishing of a rapport with the Causal sphere (see page 168) of Unity, of Archetypes, of undifferentiaterd ideaions. What is contacted in those realms as a single, undifferentited ideation, manifests in this world of Diversity in a multiform expression - diverse in time and in space.
    From his deva-contacts emanated the Mystery idea which dominated Scriabin's thoughts to the end of his life. He performed progidies, was capable of undreamed-of efforts, lived a few wonderful years in the lambent flame of this lofty vibration, composed work after work under its direct inspiration; and finally summoning to his aid all his resources, inspirational and expressional, in one mighty effort to give to the world a glimpse of the divine Unity which can be reached even from this realm of bewildering Diversity, he set his hand to the 'Initial Act' of the Mystery.

This may be of interest in the context:

http://www.parascience.org/whatis.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Petrovna_Blavatsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_race#Theosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism_in_Nazi_Germany

Thank you so much for this, autoharp! It's so interesting! A lot of these facts are totally new to me.

(I hope you'll like the music of Arthur Lourié I'm going to put up in the
Appreciation-section. It might take a while, but please be patient! )

Is there anybody out there with Inside Knowledge who can tell when this concert will be broadcast? Radio Three's web site is not forthcoming.

Three attempts to book a ticket online have now failed - is it me, or is the Albert Hall booking system crap?