2700 years ago a Greek philosopher named Pythagoras standardized musical tuning into a system he called the Circle of Fifths. It was he who diagrammed the relationship of our twelve major keys, an invaluable tool for composers and musicians in Western music.
Within Pythagoras' Circle of Fifths, we can locate any key and find its related chords. Here's how it looks:
To see how this works, locate C on the circle. Glance to the left of C and you'll see F, look to the right to find G. C, F and G
are the three major chords in the key of C. In the little circle underneath them are the minor chords related to the key of C. Each of the keys work this way.
Now here's the fun part: four hundred years ago the traditional Color Wheel was diagrammed by Sir Isaac Newton. This wheel also is a
twelve-part unit.
No different from the Circle of Fifth's importance to musicians, the Color Wheel is the work horse of visual artists. For example
each color on the wheel has colors to the right and left of it that are harmonious neighbors. Further, all colors containing a primary in common are analogous, meaning they can key a painting.
So not unlike how a composer sets a musical piece in a key, the artist has the ability to set the key of a painting, giving it the same sort
of unity as a key gives a piece of music.
The paintings above are similar in that each features a person engaged in doing something, but their major difference is their key.
Robert Genn's has keyed his piece in cool colors (colors in the bluish range) whereas Richard Schmid's painting is keyed in warm colors (colors in the yellow/red range).
Here is how each is positioned on Newton's Color Wheel:
What's so much fun about all this is the similarity between the two diagrams we artists and musicians depend upon and the many
parallels in the ways they are used.
(Edited and reprinted from my Compose Blog: April, 2011)
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