Orphism, arguably a subsidiary of Cubism consisting of artists that would have been unfortunately forgotten otherwise, attempted to combine music and art into a singular experience. Prescribed by Guillame Apollinaire in 1913, Orphism's name stemmed from Orpheus, a legendary musician in the  Metamorphoses most known for attempting to retrieve his wife, Eurydice,  from the Underworld… and failing. A non-representational style of art, Orphism concentrated on color contrast and space. Many of the artists Apollinaire dubbed Orphists could better be catagorized as Cubists. In fact, Robert Delaunay, the most famous Orphist, would shy away from being labeled as such unless the connection to music was involved. Delaunay was heavily influenced by Michel-Eugene Chevreul's theory of simultaneous color contrasts. The theory tests the idea that, instead of seeing one color at a time, one is able to process multiple colors at one time. In correlation, Wassily Kandinsky, an expressionist, claimed to have synaesthesia: being able to see a color when listening to music. Apollinaire's direct definition of Orphism stated that it was, "an explanation of color and geometry that owed nothing to the actual forms of art."

Albert Gleizes, better known as a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism, painted Symphony in Violet in 1931, years after the Orphist movement had come and gone. Yet Gleizes' title links the core Orphist themes of music and color. His abstract shapes, primarily circular, are distinctly influenced by Delaunay. To really get the full effect, I'm listening to "Preludes, Les Filles Aux Cheveux" by Debussy. While I think that this painting is less of a Debussy and more of a Stravinsky, the only way to fully experience this painting is with music. This, I believe, is was that Orphists were trying to achieve: an experience. Often times paintings only use sight, you look at a painting, but do not touch, hear, smell, or taste it (disclaimer: please do not lick any paintings). Orphism demands that you use more. You have to hear the color and see the music, and owe nothing to the reality of art.