Orlando’s Sonata - Musical Paintings incorporate the musical scale and the color spectrum simultaneously. Abstract and representative, music and art merge in his work.

Leibovitz has created a new form of musical manuscript. The shapes and colors are his own visual-musical notation. Every musical note has three qualities: pitch, volume, and time duration. His notation embodies these elements. The notes seem to dance across the canvas, revealing the music even before it is heard.

Initially, Leibovitz explored the relationship of the musical scale and the color spectrum. He was intrigued by the experience of synthesthesia, when the hearing of a musical note induces the visualization of a color.

The early musical paintings were composed by chance. A roll of the dice or a turn of a card determined the melody. Research showed that many composers, including Mozart and John Cage experimented with chance in their compositions. Recent works have been deliberate compositions by Leibovitz.

In creating the CD of Orlando’s Sonata, Leibovitz collaborated with Paul William Simons who provided additional composition and performed the work and Miguel Grunstein, who produced the CD.

The paintings unite color and music, sound and image in each work.  They transcend their form, reaching for the ineffable union of the seen and the heard in a single experience.

Lissa Reidel