From the 1930’s-1950’s the American Mary Ellen Bute made a sequence of visual music animations she called ‘Seeing Sound’ films. Most likely inspired by meetings with Oscar Fischinger, Thomas Wilfred (inventor of a colour organ known as the Clavilux) and even Leo Theremin. She used special formulae derived from music notation to meter the rhythmic motions of motifs to sound in her films. Not content with standard cel animation she also made use of cellophane, ping-pong balls, eggbeaters, bracelets and sparklers to create effects of refraction, reflection & shadow play. Tarantella, 1940, regarded by many as Mary Ellen’s best film, has syncopated jaggy lines that dance to a modern composition – pure lyrical abstraction. Later in the 50’s she would employ the use of an oscilloscope to ‘record sounds’ and then overlay this with a collage of her own animation. Two films incorporate this oscilloscopic technique, Abstronics, 1952 & Mood Contrasts, 1954.