For this essay, I will focus on Rouse's Prosporo's Chambers. This musical work deals very explicitly with the symbolism of the colored parts of Poe's Masque of the Red Death. I want to explain exactly how Rouse was able to convey colors through music. Without going into any science of art and colors, we as humans associate emotions with colors. Colors can be happy, sad, cold, warm and everything in between. Thanks to this, colors can be determined. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Starting with blue, a very vague color, we need to determine what shade of blue. The texture is relatively fine, with only bass. Then, a few strings pass quietly under the bass soloist. This is not a happy room. The main idea is very low and minor in tonality. Take those feelings and imagine a single color that conveys those feelings. I see a dark navy blue. It's not black because the high strings add some light to the color, but it's still very, very dark. Moving forward, white, the lightest color provided, has many woodwinds in their upper registers jostling with each other. Although the tonality is still minor, the busy instrumentation and overall register make me imagine a movie scene in which someone runs through a field of flowers, then turns toward a killer lurking in the shadows. This is, by far, the lightest segment and white is the lightest color. Jumping to the other end of the spectrum, black, it looks like the aforementioned killer found his victim, scared her, and started stabbing her. I can't imagine any other color than the one death wears: black. The thick, well-diffused chord is relatively dissonant, causing the listener's blood pressure and pulse to rise, as if in danger. This is a very good representation of the dark room. To back up, for my own enjoyment, I'd like to talk about the Purple Room. The solo bass returns: which gives a very full circle feeling and places this piece at that end of the color spectrum. Once the bass stops, the brass instruments blow air through their horns without creating their true sound. This sound sends shivers down my spine. It seems very lonely. If used in the horror movie analogy, the main character would enter the creepy basement all alone, where the killer is hiding. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized paper now from our expert writers. Get a custom essay paper These colors are important because Poe writes everything for a specific purpose. Very solid colored pieces would be a strange detail to add for no particular reason. After some cursory research, theories were formed and I would like to share a few of them. Many say that the coins symbolize the seven deadly sins, all of which Prospero can be assumed to have committed. Many of my colleagues say that in high school they were taught that it symbolized the rising and setting of the sun, with the blue sky being morning and the black representing the darkness of night. My favorite interpretation is that the coins symbolize the stages of life, beginning at birth and ending with death. This seems particularly appropriate because the room depicting death has a red window, perhaps heralding Prospero's demise by the hand of the Red Death. And the ebony clock in the dark room, which freezes everyone and everything to the sound of its sound,..