Hughes
Ascending, begin with A in the innermost circle, D being its root. The Key-note A becomes the root of E, E becomes the root of B, and so on. Descending, take the Key-note A in the outermost circle. D, the root of A, becomes the fifth lower Key-note, and G its root, and then G becomes the Key- note, and C its root. The same remarks concerning the writing of the meeting fifths, which are made below the corresponding diagram of the major gamut, apply to this one. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram Shews the Modulating of the 12 Minor Keys, page 41e]
If we examine the line last quoted by the laws of life which regulate the foregoing scheme, we may compare it with the fundamental threefold chord of the scale of C and its relative colours,
C | E | G | C red rises
|
RED. | BLUE. |
from the fountain key-note which contains in itself all tones. "Him first," the Son of God proceeding from the Almighty, and yet in Himself the Trinity in Unity. E, yellow or light. E is the root of B, ultra indigo, or black. "Him midst," the Almighty Father, the Fountain of life, light gradually rising and dispelling darkness. G, blue, "Him last," the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, Trinity in Unity. The Son of God and the Holy Spirit are the complemental working pair throughout the universe; each containing "the seven spirits of life." Red and blue contain all colours in each. C and G are a complemental pair, C rising from the fountain key-note which contains in itself all tones, and C and G combine all tones in each. In Chapter III. it is explained that all varieties of tones and colours may be condensed into this pair, rising from and falling again into the fountain. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Reflections on the Scheme2, page 44]
1872.—"It gives me great pleasure to write to you on this subject. Music deals more with the imaginative faculty than any other art or science, and possessing, as it does, the power of affecting life, and making great multitudes feel as one, may have more than ordinary sympathy with the laws you work upon. You say 'from E, root of B, the fountain key-note F, root of C, rises.' There is a singular analogy here in the relativities of sounds, as traced by comparing the numbers made together by vibrations of strings with the length of strings themselves, the one is the inverse or the counterchange of the other. The length of B and E are the counterchange of F and C, hence they are twin sounds in harmony." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Extracts from Dr. Gauntlett's Letters1, page 48]
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