Today I have started researching the individual objects on Varo’s stave, and begun developing my interpretations. Some are going to be different from my earlier performance, now that I’ve done some more reading.
One that I skipped past in my early performance (“A pink flower, possibly a carnation”) I have decided probably IS a carnation, given that it is apparently used in Mexican ceremonies and is the national flower of Spain. I’ve been wondering how to translate plants into sound, and have come across some hilarious websites about plants ‘screaming’, and some more promising research by Bonn University about the release of ethylene when plant tissue is damaged. We’ll see where that goes. In the meantime, I have decided to play with the translation option, and have turned a diagram of the molecular formula of cyanidin (a compound which makes carnations red) into a musical phrase (see image).
