Chrome Music Lab: Kandinsky

• Kate Hagen
• Posted 2/8/21
• 0 comments

Wassily Kandinsky’s work inspired the Kandinsky Chrome Music Lab experiment; a Russian artist considered the pioneer of abstract art.  He likened painting to composing music stating, “Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul”.  Kandinsky experienced the neurological phenomenon called synesthesia – where one sense concurrently triggers another reason.  Kandinsky literally saw colors when he heard music and heard music when he painted. 

I use this example from Ratatouille to illustrate synesthesia for my students. 

In the Kandinsky experiment, everything you draw turns into sound.  A couple of hints before you begin.  Students can create line drawings, and they will play from right to left at different pitches.  With young students, this is a great way to reinforce the concept of high and low.    

When students click on the Bi-Colored circle at the bottom to the left of the play button, they can change their composition’s instrumentation. 

The undo button to the play button’s right erases the last line drawn in their compositions, so they can quickly correct any “mistake” in their work. In contrast, the reset button at the top lets them start with a clean canvas. 

When students draw shapes that have connecting ends, they are in for a surprise.  Triangles sound like percussion, squares have musical pitches, and circles grow eyes and a mouth and produce vocal sounds. To be honest, I just recently figured out this feature, and it has quickly become my favorite.  

Adding shapes to the melodic lines allows students to create more complicated music compositions. The ability to change the “instrumentation” using the Bi-Colored circle next to the play button adds even more variety.  

Important to Note: Unlike some of the other experiments, students are not able to save their compositions.   

I started utilizing this app in conjunction with the cross-curricular lesson I do with my art teacher using the children’s book The Noisy Paintbox and Kandinsky’s various artistic works. If you are interested in learning more, you can find the lesson here.

The possibilities for student composition is only limited by their imagination.  The web-based software allows students to work in both online and in-person settings.  For additional ideas on utilizing other Chrome music lab experiments, check out this article by Midnight Music. 

References 

Gagné, M. (2015, November 25). Ratatouille – Synesthesia – HD – FX Animation by Michel Gagné. Retrieved January 17, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLXYILcRoPQ 

Miller, R. (2014, March 19). Wassily Kandinsky’s Symphony of Colors. Retrieved January 17, 2021, from https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/blog/wassily-kandinskys-symphony-colors#:~:text=The%20neurological%20phenomenon%20Kandinsky%20experienced,another%20sense%2C%20such%20as%20sight. 

Kandinsky, Wassily (1911). Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Translated by Michael T. H. Sadler (2004). Kessinger Publishing. p. 32. Retrieved January 17, 2021, Wassily Kandinsky – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky