Cartesian Rainbow

While looking for a text to punctuate the percussive continuum of what was later to be called Cartesian Rainbow, I came across Descartes’ explanation of how rainbows are formed. I was surprised to see how imaginative the names of colors are. By comparison, the labels for tone color are bland and cumbersome. Once again, the eye triumphs over the ear—no wonder the saying is “a picture is worth a thousand words”. The text spoken by the percussionist lists the colors of the rainbow and colors found with equidistant frequency before or between them: [Rosewood, guardsman red], red, orange, [blaze orange], yellow, [electric lime, chartreuse, bright green], green, [cyan, dodger blue, azure radiance, blue ribbon], blue, [electric violet, pigment indigo, ripe plumb, pompadour], indigo, violet.
Mike Svoboda