A Brief History of Synaesthesia and Music

A Brief History of Synaesthesia and Music

by Sean A. Day February 21, 2001 

 

 

Hooked on Mandelbrot - for Funda


 

Synaesthesia is the general name for a related set of various cognitive states having in common that stimuli to one sense, such as smell, are involuntarily simultaneously perceived as if by one or more other senses, such as sight or / and hearing (see Cytowic 1989; Baron-Cohen & Harrison 1993). For example, the sounds of musical instruments might make you see certain colors, each color specific and consistent with the particular instrument playing; a piano, for example, might produces a sky-blue cloud, and a tenor saxophone produce an image of electric purple neon lights. One highly documented case of synaesthesia involved Michael O. Watson, who felt at or within his right hand different flavors -- the flavor of spearmint, for example, felt like cool smooth glass columns (see Cytowic 1989, 1993). 

 

Synaesthesia is additive; that is, it adds to the initial (primary) sensory perception, rather than replacing one perceptual mode for another. For example, with synaesthetically colored musical instruments, you both hear and "see" the sounds; the visual images do not replace the audial sensations. Both sensory perceptions may thus become affected and altered in the ways they function and integrate with other senses. Synaesthesia is generally "one-way"; that is, for example, for a given synaesthete, tastes may produce synaesthetic sounds, but sounds will not produce synaesthetic. However, there have been a few rare cases of «bi-directional» synaesthesia, in which, for example, music induces (synaesthetic) colors and seeing colors induces (synaesthetic) sounds -- the correspondences, however, are not the same in both directions! 

 

Synaesthesia may be divided into two general, somewhat overlapping types. The first, "synaesthesia proper", is as described above, in which stimuli to a sensory input will also trigger sensations in one or more other sensory modes. With the second form of synaesthesia, certain sets of things which our individual cultures teach us to put together and categorize in some specific way -- like letters, numbers, or people's names -- also get some kind of sensory addition, such as a smell, color or flavor. The most common forms of cognitive synaesthesia involve such things as colored written letter characters (graphemes), numbers, time units, and musical notes or keys. For example, the synaesthete might see, about a foot or two before her (the majority of synaesthetes – about 70% -- are female), different colors for different spoken vowel and consonant sounds, or perceive numbers and letters, whether conceptualized or before her in print, as colored. 

 

 Let us now explore a little bit of the history of synesthesia in music: 

 

It might seem an odd thing to start such a history with a look at ancient mathematicians and astronomers, but some of them offered important initial cornerstones to later theories on synaesthesia. Around the year 550 B.C., to begin with, the Pythagoreans offered mathematical equations for the musical scales, showing that musical notes could be seen as relationships between numbers. A musical scale, for example, could be divided into eight notes, an "octave" scale, which repeats its sequence as the musical notes proceeded higher or lower. To use a basic example, this could be the C-Major scale on the piano, consisting of just the white keys: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. This is also the basic "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do". 

 

Almost 200 years later, around 370 B.C. or so, Plato wroteTimaeus, in which the soul of the world is described as having these same musical ratios. A cosmology was emerging in which the planets' radii (the planets' order actually varied, depending upon the author) were set with a ratio sequence of 1:2:3:4:8:9. Later, ratios would emerge with the following ratio sequence: Moon = 1; Venus = 2; Earth = 3; Mars = 4; Jupiter = 14; Saturn = 25. This sequence approximated the Greek diatonic musical scale's ratios, thus the planets were tied to music, and a concept of "the music of the spheres" was initiated. 

 

Shortly after Plato, around 350 B.C., Aristotle wrote to maintain that the harmony of colors were like the harmony of sounds. This set the stage for a later equating of specific light and sound frequencies, as Aristotle's works were translated and incorporated into European sciences. At about this same time, Archytas of Tarentus (c. 428 – 350 B.C.) introduced the «chromatic» (12-tone) scale to Greece. This was seen as a compliment to the two main scales: the diatonic (a whole-note or full-tone scale); and the enharmonic (quarter-tones). Around 1492, Franchino Gaffurio was re-introducing colorized Greek modal music to Europe, with the following system: Dorian = «crystalline» color; Phrygian = orange; Lydian = red; and Mixolydian = an «undefined mixed color» (which is, admittedly, somewhat vague). By the late 1580's, the painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo was formally equating «dark» with high pitches and white with low pitches (see Dann 1998) – which is the reverse of the more «normal» trend of low being dark and high being white. Athanasius Kircher, around 1646, developed a system of correspondences between musical intervals and colors, based basically upon complex traditional symbolisms, as follows: 

 

 

 

octave	green
seventh	blue-violet
major sixth	fire red
minor sixth	red-violet
augmented fifth	dark brown
fifth	gold
diminished fifth	blue
fourth	brown-yellow
major third	bright red
minor third	gold
major wholetone	black
major wholetone	black
minor second	white
minor wholetone	grey

 

Likewise, Marin Cureau de la Chambre, in 1650, proposed a scheme of colored musical intervals, based on Aristotle: 

 

 

 

double-octave	black
twelfth	purple
eleventh	blue
octave	green
fifth	red
fourth	yellow
base	white

 

In 1704, Sir Isaac Newton's treatise Optics (Newton 1952 (1704)) was first published, which dealt, among other things, with the parallel between colors of the spectrum and notes of the musical scale. 

 

In a sense, this was a revival of Aristotle's theories of the resemblances between light and sound; but Newton's efforts were far more elaborate and mathematical. Newton mathematically but quite arbitrarily divided the visible light spectrum into seven colors. He then noted that the mathematical relationships of these seven colors was similar to those of the musical scale, with the following concordances: 

 

 

 

red	= tonic
orange	= minor third
yellow	= fourth
green	= fifth
blue	= major sixth
indigo	= seventh
violet	= eighth (octave)

 

Although Newton himself basically only held these concordances as an analogy, and later discarded notions that there was any true connection between colors and the musical scale, by around 1742, the French Jesuit monk Louis Bertrand Castel, the well-known mathematician and physicist, was a firm advocate of there being direct solid relationships between the seven colors and the seven units of the scale, as per Newton's Optics. Castel proposed the construction of a clavecin oculaire, a light-keyboard, as a new musical instrument which would simultaneously produce both sound and the "correct" associated color for each note (see Galeyev 1988; Dann 1998; Riccò 1999). This theme was returned to in 1790, whenErasmus Darwin (Charles Darwin's grandfather) wrote about the parallel between colors and musical notes. 

 

Relations Between sounds and colors according to L. B. Castel: 

 

 

 

B	= (dark) violet
Bb	= agate
A	= violet
Ab	= crimson
G	= red
F#	= orange
F	= golden yellow
E	= yellow
Eb	= olive green
D	= green
C#	= pale green
C	= blue

 

 

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is said to have had synaesthetically colored musical keys: 

 

 

 

B major	gloomy, dark blue with steel shine
Bb major	darkish
A major	clear, pink
Ab major	greysh-vioket
G major	brownish-gold, light
F# major	green, clear (color of greenery)
F major	green, clear (color of greenery)
E major	blue, sapphire, bright
Eb major	dark, gloomy, grey-bluish
D major	daylight, yellowish, royal
Db major	darkish, warm
C major	white

 

This is according to an article in the Russian press (Yastrebtsev 1908), cited by Galeyev & Vanechkina (2000). 

 

In 1875, Bainbridge Bishop began building a color-organ in America. In 1893, Alexander Wallace Rimington began building his color-organ, in England. Rimington's first concerts were in 1895, and saw high popularity both in Europe and the U.S. 

 

 

 

Alexander Scriabin probably was not a synesthete, but, rather, was highly influenced by the French and Russian salon fashions. Most noticeably, Scriabin seems to have been strongly influenced by the writings and talks of the Russian mystic, Helena P. Blavatsky, founder of The Theosophical Society and author of such works as Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine(see Dann 1998). The synesthetic motifs found in Scriabin's compositions – most noticeably in Prometheus, composed in 1911 – are developed off of ideas from Newton, and follow a basic mathematical musical algorithm, called a circle of fifths (see ???; ???; and, of course, ???). The score of ??? contains a line designated «Luce»; this was for a light organ, playing two lines: one to correspond to Scriabin's concepts of the «correct» colors for each musical key, as he modulated from key to key; the other, to counter the first lines colors. Scriabin and others were unable to realize a light-music performance of Prometheus until its premier performance in New York, in 1915, where, rather than using a color organ, colored light was projected onto a screen set above the orchestra performers' heads, using a system designed by Preston S. Millar, W.F. Little, and William McKay (see ???). 

 

Scriabin's system of colored musical keys: 

 

 

 

C#	Purple
F#	Bright Blue/Violet
B	Blue
E	Sky Blue
A	Green
D	Yellow
G	Orange
C	Red
F	Deep Red
Bb	Rose/Steel
Eb	Flesh
Ab	Violet
Db	Purple (same as C#)
Gb	Bright Blue/Violet (same as F#)

 

 

 

Amy Beach (1867-1944), American pianist and composer, who flourished c. 1900 - 1920's, was unquestionably a true synesthete. It turns out that Beach had both perfect pitch and a set of colors for musical keys. 

 

"Other interesting stories about Amy's musical personality and her astounding abilities as a prodigy are recounted in almost all previous biographical writings. One such story is Amy's association of certain colors with certain keys. For instance, Amy might ask her mother to play the 'purple music' or the 'green music.' The most popular story, however, seems to be the one about Amy's going on a trip to California and notating on staff paper the exact pitches of bird calls she heard" (Brown 1994: 16). 

 

"Amy's mother encouraged her to relate melodies to the colors blue, pink, or purple, but before long Amy had a wider range of colors, which she associated with certain major keys. Thus C was white, F-sharp black, E yellow, G red, A green, A-flat blue, D-flat violet or purple, and E-flat pink. Until the end of her life she associated these colors with those keys" (Jenkins 1994: 5-6). 

 

In 1911, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti penned his Manifesto of Futurism. In my opinion, if there was ever a group of non-synesthete artists who pushed the boundaries of synesthetic arts, it was Marinetti and his Futurist colleagues such as Luigi Colombo Fillìa, Enrico Prampolini, and Giacomo Balla. They were known chiefly for staging grand banquets (seeMarinetti 1989 (1932)). Marinetti's intent was to have all the senses (he counted five) employed in interactive synesthetic ecstasy. 

 

 

The Futurists composed a manifesto regarding painting: 

 

«We Futurists therefore claim that in bringing the elements of sound, noise and smell to painting we are opening fresh paths. We have already taught artists to love our essentially dynamic modern life with its sounds, noises and smells, thereby destroying the stupid passion for values which are solemn, academic, serene, hieratic and mummified: everything purely intellectual, in fact. Imagination without strings, words-in-freedom, the systematic use of onomatopoeia, antigraceful music without rhythmic quadrature, and the art of noises—these were created by the same Futurist sensibility that has given birth to the painting of sounds, noises and smells. 

 

«It is indisputably true that (1) silence is static and sounds, noises and smells are dynamic; (2) sounds, noises and smells are nothing but different forms and intensities of vibration; and (3) any succession of sounds, noises and smells impresses on the mind an arabesque of form and color. We must measure this intensity and perceive these arabesques. 

 

«The painting of sounds, noises and smells rejects: 

1. All muted colors, even those obtained directly and without using tricks like patinas and glazes.
2. The banality of those velvets, silks and flesh tints which are too human, too refined, too soft, and flowers which are too pale and drooping.
3. Greys, browns and all muddy colors.
4. The use of pure horizontal and vertical lines, and all other dead lines.
5. The right angle, which we consider passionless.
6. The cube, the pyramid and all other static shapes.
7. The unities of time and place.

«The painting of sounds, noises and smells calls for: 

1. Reds, rrrrreds, the rrrrrreddest rrrrrrreds that shouuuuuuut.
2. Greens, that can never be greener, greeeeeeeeeeeens that screeeeeeam, yellows, as violent as can be: polenta yellows, saffron yellows, brass yellows.
3. All the colors of speed, of joy, of carousings and fantastic carnivals, of fireworks, cafe-chantants and music-halls; all colors seen in movement, colors experienced in time and not in space.
4. The dynamic arabesque, which is the sole reality created by the artist in the depths of his feeling.
5. The clash of all the acute angles, which we have already called the angles of will.
6. Oblique lines which fall on the observer like so many bolts from the blue, along with lines of depth.
7. The sphere, the ellipse that spins, the upside-down cone, the spiral and all the dynamic forms which the infinite powers of an artist's genius are able to uncover.
8. Perspective obtained not as the objectivity of distances but as a subjective interpenetration of hard and soft, sharp and dull forms.
9. As a universal subject and as the sole reason for a painting's existence: the significance of its dynamic construction (polyphonic architectural whole). Architecture is usually thought of as something static; this is wrong. What we have in mind is an architecture similar to the dynamic musical architecture achieved by the Futurist musician Pratella. Architecture is found in the movement of colors, of smoke from a chimney, and in metallic structures, when they are experienced in a violent, chaotic state of mind.
10. The inverted cone (the natural shape of an explosion), the slanting cylinder and cone.
11. The collision of two cones at their apexes (the natural shape of a water spout) with flexible or curving lines (a clown jumping, dancers).
12. The zig-zag and the wavy line.
13. Ellipsoidal curves considered as straight lines in movement.
14. Lines and volumes seen as plastic transcendentalism, that is, according to their characteristic degree of curvature or obliqueness, determined by the painter's state of mind.
15. Echoes of lines and volumes in movement.
16. Plastic complementarism (for both forms and colors), based on the law of equivalent contrasts and on the opposite poles of the spectrum. This complementarism derives from an imbalance of forms (which are hence forced to move) The consequent elimination of the complements of volumes. We must reject these because like a pair of crutches they allow only a single movement, forward and backward, and not the total movement that we call spherical expansion in space.
17. The continuity and simultaneity of the plastic transcendency of the animal mineral, vegetable and mechanical kingdoms.
18. Abstract plastic wholes, corresponding not to our sight but to the sensations which derive from sounds, noises, smells and all the unknown forces that surround us» (Carrà: 1913).

 

Kandinsky, working in the 1920's, was also not a synesthete, despite his fame for his synesthetic artwork. Many of his paintings and stage pieces were based upon a set and established system of correspondences between colors and the timbres of specific musical instruments. Kandinsky himself, however, stated that his correspondences between colors and musical timbres has no «scientific» basis, but was founded upon a combination of his own personal feelings, current prevailing cultural biases, and mysticism (see Kandinsky 1994; see also Dann 1998; Riccò 1999: 138-142). 

 

Schematization of the correspondences between colors and musical timbres according to Kandinsky: 

 

 

 

Colors	Musical timbres
Yellow	Trumpet; Sound of the fanfare
Azure	Flute
Blue	Deep sounds from the organ
Dark blue	Cello
Very dark blue	Bass
Green	Middle tones of the violin
White	Temporary pause
Black	Conclusive pause
Gray	Lack of sound
Bright red	Fanfare; Tuba/Horn
Crimson red	Drum-roll; Tuba/Horn
Cool red	Medium and deep tones of the cello
Bright cool red	Other tones of the violin
Orange	Middle bells of the church; Strong contralto voice; Viola
Violet	English horn; Bagpipe
Deep purple	Deep tones of the woodwinds; Bassoon

Sir Arthur Bliss, who wrote his Colour Symphony in 1922, was not a synesthete. He was simply yet another influenced by the ideas of «color music», although, for him, it did not come with the trappings of mystic religions, but, rather, with British traditions. The symphony features four movements: Purple; Red; Blue; and Green. Bliss based this work upon the symbolism generally associated with the colors in traditional English heraldry, along the following lines: «Purple – Amethysts, Pageantry, Royalty – and Death; Red – Rubies, Wine, Furnaces, Magic, …; Blue – Sapphires, Deep Water, Skies, Loyalty, Melancholy; Green – Emeralds, Hope, Youth, Joy, Spring, and Victory» (Dannatt 1991). 

 

Around 1925, Alexander László, Hungarian musician and composer (born in 1895) composed a small set of Lichtmusik (light-music) pieces, including Eleven preludes (opus 10). Eleven preludes had the following scheme: 1. ultramarine; 2. yellow; 3. violet; 4. leaf-green; 5. grey; 6. red; 7. ice-blue; 8. white; 9. sea-green; 10. cress; 11. black. It is quite questionable as to whether László was a synaesthete; my current guess is that he probably was not. 

 

Also in the 1920's, Danish-born Thomas Wilfred came to the United States, became involved with the Theosophist movement, and designed and built a «color organ» which he named the Clavilux. He named the art-form produced «Lumia». He toured the U.S. and Europe, giving concerts. Likewise, Mary Hallock Greenewalt developed a color-organ which she named the Sarabet, on which she also gave concerts (see Moritz 2000).

 

Composer Olivier Messiaen, who flourished in the 1940's, on the other hand, was more likely a synesthete; the question is raised quite well in his own writings and in interviews (see Samuel 1994). Many of his compositions, such as Couleurs de la cité céleste, L'ascension, and Des canyons aux étoiles, are directly based upon his, in a sense, trying to "produce pictures» via sound, writing specific notes to produce specific color sequences and blends. 

 

In 1940, Walt Disney studios presentedFantasia. One of the main themes of this animation film was to put pictures to pieces of orchestral music – in a sense, an early version ofMTV. The results, however, did not produce much in the way of synesthetically motivated art – with the noticeable exceptions of the opening piece, the abstract colors accompanying J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d-minor. More direct to synesthesia, but constantly overlooked in the movie Fantasia, is the short divertissement section featuring an animated oscilloscope-like «sound track» which presented shapes and colors for various instruments. These colors and shapes bear some similarities to the types of actual perceptions colored-music synesthetes experience. 

 

In the late 1940's, Oskar Fischinger developed a color-organ which he named the Lumigraph, on which he gave a few performances (see Moritz 2000). 

 

In 1989, Miles Davis presented his album, Aura, which is a suite of 10 modern jazz pieces each set upon a color. Aura was composed by Palle Mikkelborg, who was not a synesthete. The composer was aware of the concept of synesthesia, but only slightly. The correspondences made between the musical styles and particular colors is basically based upon western-European – and more so, on North American – culture. Furthermore, the associations are fairly «loose»; the colors are arranged in a certain sequence, and the musical pieces of the suite flow in a certain arrangement, but there is not strong attempt to have the two sequences correspond. 

 

In 1990, Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina composed Alleluja, which includes an optional part for color keyboard. 

 

Composer Michael Torke, on the other hand, is definitely a synesthete, reporting that one of his types is colored time units (days of the week, years, and such). Torke composed Color Music in 1991. He is currently on contract with Walt Disney studios to write music for films. 

 

French drummer Manu Katché is a synesthete who synesthetically sees things to music and sound stimulation. He has performed with such musicians as Peter Gabriel, Joe Satriani, Tori Amos. As I currently write, he is on tour with Sting. 

 

Currently world-famous oboist Jennifer Paull wrote to me: "I am a musician and publisher. I have been motivated my entire life by a rainbow of colours which do not belong to the limited, conventional rainbow -- but are totally real for me. I cannot put them into words. There are rainbows of textures, rainbows of moods and feelings too. The first moment I heard the timbre of the oboe d'amore, I knew that I had to play it and I have spent my life doing so. . . . I found out that I saw things differently when I was 11. My best friend was totally bored by my saying letters and numbers represented colours. She noted everything I said and tried to trip me up. Of course, she couldn't. «[Regarding the sound of the oboe d'amore], I cannot put into words. I can feel it, see it, but I can't put it into words. This sound -- this colour -- took me over. I had no choice.» 

 

This is only a most basic of overviews of synesthetic themes in the various arts – barely scratching the surface. Suffice to say that, currently, such concepts abound, and there is no dearth of artists employing such ideas in their work, particularly nowadays. Present day true synesthete artists, however, are quite a bit rarer, and are hard to point out, particularly since the diagnosis is still not common, resulting indirectly in most synesthetes not talking about their special perceptions. 

 

Bibliography:

Baron-Cohen, Simon, and John E. Harrison, editors. 1997. Synaesthesia: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers. 

 

Brown, Jeanell Wise. 1994. Amy Beach and Her Chamber Music: Biography, Documents, Style. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. 

 

Carrà, Carlo. 1913. «The Painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells». Cytowic, Richard E. 1993. The Man Who Tasted Shapes. New York: Putnam. 

 

Cytowic, Richard E. 1993. The Man Who Tasted Shapes. New York: Putnam.

 

Cytowic, Richard E. 1989. Synaesthesia: a Union of the Senses. New York: Springer-Verlag. 

 

Dann, Kevin T. 1998. Bright Colors Falsely Seen: Synaesthesia and the Search for Transcendental Knowledge. New Haven and London: Yale UP. 

 

Dannatt, George. 1991. Album notes to Bliss: A Colour Symphony; Metamorphic Variations. BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra; Barry Wordswort, conductor. London: Nimbus Records. 

 

Galeyev, Bulat M. 1988. "The Fire of Prometheus: Music-Kinetic Art Experiments in the USSR." Leonardo; volume 21: 383-396. 

 

Galeyev, Bulat. 1987. Man -- Art -- Technology: The Problem of Synesthesia in Art. Kazan, Russia: Kazan University Press. (In Russian.) 

 

Galeyev, Bulat M., and Irina L. Vanechkina. 2000. «Was Scriabin a Synaesthete?» 

 

Jewanski, Jörg. 1999. Ist C = Rot?: Eine Kultur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte zum Problem der wechselseitigen Bezeihung zwischen Ton und Farbe. Von Aristoteles bis Goethe. Berliner Musik Studien, Band 17. Sinzig: Studio. 

 

Jenkins, Walter S. 1994. The Remarkable Mrs. Beach, American Composer. Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press. 

 

Kandinsky, Wassily. 1994. Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art. Kenneth Clement Lindsay and Peter Vergo, editors. New York: Da Capo. 

 

Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso. 1989 (1932). The Futurist Cookbook. Translated from the Italian by Suzanne Brill. Edited with an introduction by Leslie Chamberlain. San Francisco: Bedford Arts. 

 

Moritz, William. 1997. "The Dream of Color Music, and Machines that Made it Possible." Animation World Magazine; issue 2.1; April. Reproduced here.

 

Newton, Sir Isaac. 1952 (1704). "Optics." In Robert Maynard Hutchins, Ed.; Great Books of the Western World; volume 34; London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Pp. 373-544. 

 

 

Riccò, Dina. 1999. Sinestesie per il design. Le interazioni sensoriali nell'epoca dei multimedia. Milano: Etas, Milano. 

 

Samuel, Claude. 1994 (1986). Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color. Conversations with Claude Samuel. Translated by E. Thomas Glasow. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. 

 

Scriabin, Alexander. 1995 (1911). "Poem of Ecstacy" and "Prometheus: Poem of Fire". New York: Dover. 

 

Yastrebtsev, V. (1908). "On N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov's color sound- contemplation." Russkaya muzykalnaya gazeta, N 39-40: p.842-845.

 

Sean A. Day is a fairly unknown composer, who has written few works in his spare, hobby time. Sean synesthetically "sees" colors corresponding to musical timbres; each instrument has its specific color.

 

http://www.thereminvox.com/story/28/

 

 

 

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