Overview

This book traces the evolving relationship between the abstract moving image and music, from the eighteenth century to the present, across media including film, concert projections, and kaleidoscopes. Although the term visual music has become widespread among artists, curators, and scholars over the past three decades, its meaning remains unsettled. Is it a translation of musical form into visual representation, or a musical response to images? This book offers a critical redefinition of the term, grounding visual music in the category of the abstract moving image. Close readings of seminal films by Mary Ellen Bute, Jordan Belson, Oskar Fischinger, Walter Ruttmann, and James Whitney are complemented by analyses of contemporary work by Joanna Priestley, Takashi Ohashi, and Clayton McCracken. These films are examined through multiple critical lenses, including middlebrow modernism, mysticism, transmediality, and the relation of abstract art to music. By bringing theoretical precision and historical depth to the subject, the book offers fresh perspectives on visual music and provides a valuable foundation for students and scholars in musicology, film studies, and art history, as well as those working in the growing field of audiovisual studies. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the fertile terrain where music and the visual arts converge.

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Reviews

This absorbing text proposes a novel categorization of visual music forms leading to deeper analysis and understanding of this captivating artform. It situates the reader at the birth of the genre, offering novel insights into its historical reception and subsequent developments. * Dave Payling, Associate Professor of Electronic and Visual Music, Staffordshire University, UK * A foundational study of the film artists who probed the pure primary materials of the universe: sound and light. Henry Balme has contributed an essential work on an under-known chapter of modernism. * Raymond Foye, Director, The Estate of Jordan Belson, USA * Balme's work fills a gap in the research discourse. It not only integrates rarely considered sources but also opens up new perspectives on the reception and socio-cultural conditions of visual music. Production and reception are considered together, revealing the historical development of visual music in all its facets. * Gabriele Groll, Junior Professor of Musicology, Rostock University of Music and Drama, Germany *

Author Information

Henry Balme holds teaching positions at Universität der Künste and Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. His research has been supported by the American Musicological Society and a John F. Enders Fellowship.

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