Optical Poem (1938) by Oskar Fischinger

Oskar Fischinger
Optical Poem is an early abstract animation set to Franz Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody using  paper cutouts and stop motion. While the animation might not seem ground breaking to an audience today, it was all made before the creation of computers and software. The concept and techniques used by Fischinger in his abstract musical animations would look right at home with modern digital animations of music players such as iPods, mobile phones, tablets, and visual players like Zune only they were made over sixty years prior to that technology's existence.

Introduction screen explaining to the audience what was to follow.

However even with modern technology Optical Poem's animations and shapes are far better and tightly synced to the music, notes, and emphasis of the various instruments than modern software appears to be able to simulate making Optical Poem a beautiful abstract visual illustration of music in motion. Fischinger's use of varying shades of hues and colors to denote the volume and instrument offer another layer in addition to varying themes of geometric shapes.

Optical Poem  (1938)


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