Hues, Tints, Tones, and Shades: Timbre as Colour in the Music of Rebecca Saunders

Rebecca Saunders’ refreshing approach to composition brings a diversity of sounds that tantalise the sonic palette of the contemporary ear. While pushing the parameters of musical composition, Saunders’ priortisation of ‘colour’ and ‘timbre’ over ‘melody’ and ‘pitch’ has raised significant questions on how the asethetic experience of her music can be interpreted by performers, fellow composers, music analysts, and musicologists alike. Currently, a consistent language that addresses the aesthetic experience of both ‘colour’ and ‘timbre’ are absent from musical discussion. However, both aspects have been acknowledged to require a more nuanced understanding in order to appreciate, fully, the richness of sound that Saunders’ music exemplifies. The aesthetic domain of our musical experience of ‘colour’, specifically, is implicitly related to visual art, a prospective affiliation that will receive detailed consideration in the article that follows.