The Score Magazine December 2018 issue! | Page 30

MEGHAN KHARSYNRAP TO SEE A SOUND TO TASTE A COLOUR I wrote a song and it was all Yellow B illy Joel has been quoted saying “When I think of different types of melodies which are slower or softer, I think in terms of blues or greens.” he continued “When I have a particularly vivid colour, it’s usually a strong melodic, strong rhythmic pattern that emerges at the same time. When I think of (those) certain songs, I think of vivid reds, oranges, or golds.” That being said the association of music with art is not novel. Paintings and music from a particular period would resemble each other and resemble the culture of that period. But the biological connection with music and art wasn’t studied until the 90’s. That’s when researchers learned, that like Billy Joel, we were all able to at some point experience a range of senses when one of our senses had been triggered. For example, like seeing red in our minds eye or tasting salt when we listen to a C sharp. This ability that we are born with but dissapears for most of us as we grow into adulthood is called synesthesia. Synesthesia is the condition where when one of our 5 senses is stimulated it involuntarily triggers another experience in our other senses. To break it down, for some synesthetes reading a certain word in a book could also make them taste that word or see colours that the word is associated to. We’re all able to make associations with colours but synesthetes can’t stop this experience. They don’t have any control on how they feel. There are several types of Synesthesia but for me the most interesting type is called Chromesthesia or sound-to-colour synesthesia. It means the individual with chromesthesia would hear sounds and involuntarily experience a colour. If an artist had to jot down all the colours he could see while listening to a piece the chances are he’ll jot down the same colours in the same sequence or movement 28 The Score Magazine highonscore.com even if he was listening to the piece years later. Synesthesia wasn’t taken seriously until the 1990’s, there wasn’t a credible way to prove it existed and only when MRI machines made its way into medicine were we able to track how our brains react to stimulants. That’s also how researchers came to the conclusion that as children we were also synesthetes and that as we grow the development of that quality seized. Several famous artists and musicians are also synesthetes like Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel and others. Classical Pianist Franz Liszt(1811-1886) guided the orchestra when he was Kappelmeister in Weimar with comments like “O please, gentlemen, a little bluer, if you please! This tone type requires it!” or, “That is a deep violet, please, depend on it! Not so rose!” Initially the musicians even thought he was joking. Similarly, Fall Out Boy’s Stump said in a blog post that “most letters and numbers feel like a colour.” on talking to several musicians he has found that the experience is fairly common. ‘Channel Orange’ by Frank Ocean is said to be named on the grounds of his Synesthesia. But not all kinds of Synesthesia benefits an individual. Misophonia is a condition when sounds trigger negative feelings and emotion such as dislike, distrust and anger. Misophonia literally translates to “hatred of sound”. For people with synesthesia the experience isn’t an out of world one, it is there day to day lives. But musicians who are also synesthetes are afraid that their success might be undermined. They believe their audience might think that their talent had less to do with hard work than it does with their synesthesia. There are always two sides to the coin.