Color Field

Color Field was commissioned by Bonnie McElveen-Hunter as a gift to honor her friend Melanie Sabelhaus, celebrating Sabelhaus’ trailblazing work for women in business and philanthropy. Upon meeting Melanie, I learned of her love of the color orange – in particular Hermès Orange – and thus began my exploration of color in music. This led me to Mark Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow (1961) – a powerful example of the artist’s Color Field paintings, featuring red and yellow framing a massive swash of vibrant orange that seems to vibrate off the canvas.

Whilst creating music that evokes colors, I explored synesthesia - a perceptual phenomenon whereby a person can hear sound, pitch or tonal centers and then correlate them to specific colors, and vice versa. In the case of composer Scriabin, he associated specific pitches with specific colors, which I have adopted as tonal centers for the three movements of this piece: "Yellow" = D, "Red" = C, and "Orange" = G.

Each movement of Color Field weaves in elements of Melanie's life, where music was always present. "Yellow" evokes a hazy warmth and incorporates a traditional Serbian melody, first heard as a very slow bass line, and then revealed in the middle of the movement in the strings and winds. In "Red," the fires blaze with bold percussive patterns and lilting lines. In "Orange," the music becomes still and breathes, and then escalates once more, incorporating elements of "Yellow" and "Red" to create "Orange."
–Anna Clyne

Reproduction Rights:
This program note may be reproduced free of charge in concert programs with a credit to the composer.