White-light Viewed from the Musical Perspective as Art Technology

Abstract

When white light electromagnetic radiation passes an inclined transparent material such as a prism, it reveals 7-colors of a rainbow caused by the different refractive indices of the colors in white light. Basically, Isaac Newton found this in 1704 and it has been recognized under the name of color-music. The colors of white light have some similarity to the patterns of music. The frequency range of a rainbow from white light was analyzed in terms of bandwidth to compare with a music scale that had different notes of numbers in double frequencies (oneoctave) from the lower note to the upper note (one-octave). Then, the ranges of colors were compared with the existing music scale. The formula of equal temperament, which multiplies a lower note by 1.0594635, makes a half-step upper note (semitone) and was used for all 12 notes in an octave. We found that with 12-tone equal temperament, each tone has a corresponding color and a scale resembling the pattern of white light is a composite of a 6-note scale that was named ‘the rainbow scale’. Violet (C+) is not included in the numbers of the rainbow scale. The tones and light frequency pairs are C = 760 nm, E = 603 nm, F = 569.36 nm, G = 507.24 nm, A = 451.90 nm, A# = 426.53 nm, and higher C = 380 nm.