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Formal Filters
Two points must be pressed: first the ability of light to transform. I use the word quite literally, as in "trans" plus "form," to imply that light, color, hue, shadow, tone, timbre, all these things not only transcend form, but also have the tendency to change the way we perceive it. At the risk of oversimplification, I suggest we start by thinking of forms as perceptually autonomous--existing independently of how we may or may not apprehend them. Take, for example, the Rouen Cathedral. On the darkest moonless night, you might be standing three feet away and not perceive anything at all. Yet the form of the cathedral exists, through the blackness, independently of your inability to be cognizant of its existence. But, when the sun rises, you surely shall perceive it, as Monet's paintings have shown, dancing to the time of day. The light has become a "formal filter" by means of which it is possible to apprehend form but not without a high degree of variation depending upon the conditions.The same holds true for music. A sonata-allegro is, in and of itself, whether or not we perceive it. And the only way to perceive it is in sounds--sensual things having color, tone, dynamic and brilliance not inherent in the form but inherently pleasant or appreciable apart from form. Timbre therefore can be said to transcend form. It is "sensual" because it can be perceived directly: by the senses. It is sensual, further, because it is pleasant to experience apart from the formal context in which it is heard. Though they have no form, two notes on a flute do give the ear a certain pleasure distinct from that which attends the perception of the form or process of a Bach sonata. By contrast, there is no such direct, or sensory, perception of forms or processes--they may be apprehended only by the mind, and then only after the sensory experience of having heard the sound of the flute. This is what I mean by the "transcendence" of light/timbre and their tendency to transform.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
