Does anyone see music in colors?

[janny108]

Hi Corno !

I think (I remember) that Daquin gave the name of a colour to some key signature. I am wrong ?

I don't know if different people see different colors to different key sigs or not. I know what I can visualize, I felt that when I was a child. My family is no way musical, but music has always been special to me. I don't play anything, but I can feel it. I sing in my church, both choral and solo.

Jan

[janny108]

Nope - Not for me.

Now - I'm wondering. If you learned to read music using colours from an early age, and the colour was always related to a particular sound, then from a very early age your Brain would have been tought that the colour say orange has a particular distinctive sound. Over time, neural pathways would have been created for each of those colours and their respective sounds.

So could it actually be the reverse situation where rather than hearing in colour, colours have an associated sound and by extension when you hear the sound you associate back to the root colour?

I taught myself to read music. Color is something that came into it too, and the color/key is always the same. Even sharps and flats. I don't want to say what I've experienced, because it may be different for others.
Jan

[Corno Dolce]

Someone asked me what I saw when I listened to a piece of music - here's the answer: Subtle pastel hues of multi-colour when the piece is pianissimo - strong and vibrant multi-colour hues when the piece is fortissimo.

[Contratrombone64]

Sir Arthur Bliss wrote a wonderful piece in celebration of colour: The Colour Symphony.

[intet_at_tabe]

Sir Arthur Bliss wrote a wonderful piece in celebration of colour: The Colour Symphony.

The german el. bassist and cello player Eberhard Weber, composed a song called "Yellow Fields" and an album titled "The Colours of Chloe´".

Best regards,
intet-at-tabe

[ses]

I don't see colours when listening to music, but when I try describe what I hear I often falls into explaining colours.
I think when we are not capable to explain, we try other ways. People who describe red wine, tells about blackberrys, peaches and so on.

[NEB]

I've been trying to get my head around this since first readng this thread, and for the life of me I can't.

I might be moved to use descriptives like Bright sound or Dark sound or something like that when talking about a passage or a piece, But to say something is Yellow? or Green?

Does not compute.......

[Krummhorn]

Krummhorn, Im not sure, but I think yours is an association, rather than a synethetic occurence! But I cant know for sure.

You are probably right, Muza ... I'm alot like Corno Dolce, being an organist there are just too many notes being played to assign a color to every single key - the thought of it just boggles my mind, what little there is left of it . Guess that's why I just go with color "association" instead.

[Muza]

LOL, hey I cannot be 100% right, Krummhorn. The reason I said that is because I was reading an article about it - the distinction between actually seeing (hearing, tasting, smelling) and an association of a sound, taste, touch with something. Its really quite interesting. I think they give an example of that in that link that I posted (not the wikipedia link, but a second one) if you want to know for sure

[chromaticism]

I'm watching a documentary about the Phila orchestra. What is it called when you can sort of see colors in each note? I've had this since I was a kid. When I was a kid and told my mom that one day, she must have thought it was weird....I learned how to read music that way. I found out by watching this DVD that it has a name, I forget what it is. LOL

Jan

You're really lucky. Some people resort to hallucinogenic drugs to experience that. It must be easier for you to understand music with such an ability. Might as well nurture it further. Mozart and some other composers had synesthesia too.

[janny108]

Wow really?
Jan

[Soubasse]

This condition has always held some fascination for me ever since I knew of Messiaen's constant correlation of notes/chords with colours. I also recently saw a doco on TV which I wish I'd been able to record as it was about Synesthesia in it's many forms.

From what I can gather though, the condition varies dramatically from person to person in that there is no constant - scientifically speaking anyway. I mean theoretically, it's possible to draw a correlation chart between the frequency of coloured light and the frequency of musical pitch, but if you're measuring in Hertz, the visible light range is inaudible, so not even physics can tell us, for example, that a G# is blue (or something like that). There's certainly no scientific constant to tell us the relationship between a letter and a colour, which is another form of synesthesia.

Messiaen's synesthesia was quite individual, because he would often see combinations of colours, and in differing patterns too. For example, one of his favourite chords from his second mode of limited transposition (aka the octotonic scale) he would describe as being basically purple, but with occasional waves of orange, and with gold flecks (or spots)!

On the other hand, Scriabin's synesthesia (or 'alleged' synesthesia as some people claim) was completely different - he saw plain shades of colours, which led him to the composition of a number of works directly related to colour. It also led to his development of the 'colour organ' (an instrument which in turn, apparently inspired the large screen that was hooked up to the ARP 2500 for the musical conversation in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind)

I think also that Liszt and Rimsky-Korsakov were supposed to have had it in varying degrees, along with Duke Ellington, and I think I'm recalling guitarist Allan Holdsworth in relation to it as well but I could be getting way off the mark and confused already. It's a fascinating topic and one which makes it clear that the brain still has countless untapped wonders.

[chromaticism]

Wow really?
Jan

Yes. The psychedelia phenomenon during of the 60s is a bit related to that; a fleeting experience of synesthesia is one of the main attractions of magic mushrooms, LSD, and weed.

I remember some anecdotal information that John Cage was fond of magic mushrooms though I don't know if it's for the experience of synesthesia (I can't verify the source of this information though).

I believe people with synesthesia (such as yourself) have an easier time learning music owing to the advantage of having more sensory stimulation. It's easier for the brain to process information when it comes from varying sensory modalities such as sound and light.

[Contratrombone64]

anecdotal or apocryphal??

I'd be very certain of my facts when commenting like that about someone famous in a public space like this ... without references or proof.

As to Mozart having synethesia, your source is ... ?

[chromaticism]

It's apocryphal not anecdotal, my mistake. Sorry about that. I don't claim any of those statements to be fact. Just read it somewhere or I might have misread it, most likely misread it; I'll have to be careful next time, sorry. One thing I know is John Cage was also a mycologist, so it would not be suprising if he had tried psilocybes. Again, I lay no claim to this as being fact and admit this is speculative.

Mozart as a synesthete is described in some neuroscience articles (such as this: http://www.neuroscience.pomona.edu/Evan/Overview.htm), and the simple English version of Wikipedia. Some even quote Mozart (again this is not mine) to perceive the key of A (major I think) as brilliant myriad of colors; I think I saw that on TV elsewhere, could be on National Geographic, not really sure.

The matter of fact is I'm not trying to debate whether these composers have had synesthesia or wished to experience synesthesia nor am I stating fact that they did or did not. All I'm trying to say is synesthetes are among the most lucky individuals as they have extraordinary sensory perception making it easy for them to translate information around them like music into action e.g. composition, etc. The intriguing nature of synesthesia pushes some people into doing something to experience it themselves hence some forms of recreational drug use.

I never really thought I'd have to quote sources when commenting on this. I guess that sums it up. Anyway, thanks for the reminder.