A color in the arts. Black absorbs all light and reflects or emits no light.
black, the color of a womb-like stillness and potential [anon]
Russell
"Two black arms of gravitating father-light pull spirally inward from the heavens toward the poles of the centering giant sun to generate the sun in incandescent oneness of all form. Gravitation is the male principle of Creation. Gravity refolds toward the seed. Radiation is the female principle of Creation. Radiation unfolds from the seed. The generating light of gravitation and the degenerative light of radiation are projected through each other from rest to rest in pulsing sequences to manifest idea by borning father-mother forms of idea through their voiding interchange. This principle of rhythmic balanced interchange between father-mother lights of gravitation and radiation is fundamental in all creating things. It is the principle of two-way equal giving which manifests the quality of Love in the Light of the One." [Russell]
THIS plate is a Pendulum illustration of the System of musical vibrations. The circular lines represent Octaves in music. The thick are the octave lines of the fundamental note; and the thin lines between them are lines of the other six notes of the octave. The notes are all on lines only, not lines and spaces. The black dots arranged in these lines are not notes, but pendulum oscillations, which have the same ratios in their slow way as the vibrations of sounding instruments in the much quicker region where they exist. The center circle is the Root of the System; it represents F1, the root of the subdominant chord; the second thick line is F2, its octave; and all the thick lines are the rising octaves of F, namely 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64. In the second octave on the fifth line are dots for the three oscillations which represent the note C3, the Fifth to F2, standing in the ratio of 3 to 2; and the corresponding lines in the four succeeding Octaves are the Octaves of C3, namely 6, 12, 24, and 48. On the third line in the third Octave are 5 dots, which are the 5 oscillations of a pendulum tuned to swing 5 to 4 of the F close below; and it represents A5, which is the Third of F4 among musical vibrations. On the first line in the fourth Octave are 9 dots. These again represent G9, which stands related to C3 as C3 stands to F1. On the seventh line of the same octave are 15 dots; these represent the vibrations of E15, which stands related to C3 as A5 stands to F1. On the sixth line of the fifth Octave are 27 dots, representing D27, which stands related to G9 as G9 stands to C3, and C3 also to F1; it is the Fifth to G. And last of all, on the fourth line of the sixth Octave are 45 dots, representing B45, which, lastly, stands related to G9 as E15 stands to C3, and A5 to F1; it is the Third to this third chord - G, B, D. The notes which arise in each octave coming outward from the center are repeated in a double number of dots in the following Octaves; A5 appears as 10, 20, and 40; G9 appears as 18 and 36; E15 appears as 30 and 60; D27 appears as 54; and last of all B45 only appears this once. This we have represented by pendulum oscillations, which we can follow with the eye, the three chords of the musical system, F, A, C; C, E, G; and G, B, D. C3 is from F1 multiplied by 3; G9 is from C3 multiplied by 3; these are the three Roots of the three Chords. Their Middles, that is their Thirds, are similarly developed; A is from F1 multiplied by 5; E15 is from C3 multiplied by 5; B45 is from G9 multiplied by 5. The primes 3 and 5 beget all the new notes, the Fifths and the Thirds; and the prime 2 repeats them all in Octaves to any extent. [Scientific Basis and Build of Music, page 102]
Hughes
On colours developing by the same laws as musical harmonies
—The physical properties of light and darkness briefly considered
—If the laws are correctly gained, harmonics of tones and of colours will agree
—Quotation from a lecture by Professor W. F. Barrett on the order of sonorous and luminous wave-lengths
—Fountain of musical harmonics, E root of B; in colours yellow and ultra-violet, being tints and shades of white and black
—All harmonics of sound and colour condense into a primo springing from the fountain
—Multequivalency of tones and colours
—Wünsch's views nearly one hundred years ago
—Clerk Maxwell's, Lord Rayleigh's, and [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Table of Contents1 - Harmonies]
The fountain or life of musical harmonies and colours is E, or yellow; the root B, or ultra-violet: these being, in fact, tints and shades of white and black. Ascending, they partake more of white; descending, of black: the former drawing tones and colours higher, the latter lower. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, On Colours as Developed by the same Laws as Musical Harmonies2, page 19]
| C rises from the fountain, and contains all tones within itself. | Red also rises from the fountain, and contains all colours, with white and black. | ||
| D=the notes C and E mingled. | Orange, red and yellow mingled. | ||
| E=the root of the fountain. | Yellow, containing all colours, is white in its extreme. | ||
| F=the notes E and G mingled. | Green=yellow and blue mingled. | ||
| G contains all tones. | Blue, with more or less of black and white. | ||
| A=G and B mingled. | Violet=blue, and all colours, inclining to black. | ||
| B, the key-note of the fountain. | Ultra-violet=violet mingled with more black: a deeper shade of all colours—in its extreme, black. Orange, red and yellow mingled. | ||
Notes and colours are thus condensed into a pair springing from the fountain, and mingling with each other in an endless variety. Although yellow as a colour is explained away as white, it is, nevertheless, the colour yellow in endless tints and shades throughout nature, and proves to us that the three great apparent primaries correspond to the tonic chord of the scale of C—i.e., C, E, G = red, yellow, blue; or more correctly, C and G correspond to red and blue with the central fountain of E, white and black mingled, from which all tones and colours arise. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, On Colours as Developed by the same Laws as Musical Harmonies3, page 20]
The tones between the seven white notes of keyed instruments, and the tints and shades between the seven colours, cause the multequivalency of colours and of tones; consequently every colour, as every musical harmony, has the capability of ascending or descending, to and fro in circles, or advancing and retiring in musical clef. It is a curious coincidence that Wünsch, nearly one hundred years ago, believed in his discovery of the primary colours to be red, green, and violet; and in this scheme, red, answering to the note C, must necessarily be the first visible colour, followed by green and violet, but these not as primary colours, all colours in turn becoming primaries and secondaries in the development of the various harmonies. To gain facts by experiment, the colours must be exactly according to natural proportions—certain proportions producing white, and others black. In this scheme, green and red are shown to be a complementary pair, and therefore (as Clerk Maxwell has proved) red and green in right proportions would produce yellow. The same fact has been proved in Lord Rayleigh's experiments with the spectroscope. Yellow and ultra-violet, [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, On Colours as Developed by the same Laws as Musical Harmonies3, page 20]
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]
Leonardo da Vinci
"A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light." [Leonardo da Vinci]
See Also
black cathode hole
black gap
Black Holes
Black Light
Blacklight Power
Color
Darkness
Ether - Black
Figure 13.23 - Three Actuators on Shaft and Black and White Coatings
Figure 20.12 - Black Interior Treatment