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
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Score Magazine
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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.