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I thought hearing color was a natural phenomenon until I read that it is actually considered a disease or disorder of some sort called Synesthesia (link below) I have read reviews where the author will describe a component as sounding like a particular color, usually shades of warm or cool. I often do the same but will sometimes hear other colors as well. I'm curious if others hear color or have ever thought about it?
Follow Ups:
I love the composer Michel Torke who has synesthesia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Torke
He has a wonderful album called "one". http://www.amazon.com/Torke-One-Michael/dp/B000778G34/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_2
He has written numerous pieces of music based on how he sees certain keys in specific colors.
Tangerine trees and marmalade skies! Love it!
Sue's the girl with kaleidoscope ears! (hehe)
Far more supernatural things have happened to me under the direct influence of psychedelics, especially since I've been performing music under them since 1974...
http://mindseyemusic.blogspot.com/
Hi Sue.
many years past (70’s) I went to junior college on the GI bill of rights. In Music Appreciation 101 students were permitted to attend free Sunday concerts at the L. A. Music Center. Well, classical music being my favorite I attended every Sun. As the weeks passed I began to see the various colors of Bruckner and Mahler who were very colorful indeed (reds, oranges and yellows). I thought nothing of this and assumed it was normal. I eventually asked several other students what colors they saw when listening to music. Their response led me to believe my experience was not normal. So I just kept it to myself and enjoyed it while it lasted. It faded away after several years.
About ten years ago I read a magazine article on Synesthesia which gave me a understanding of my good fortune.
pixelphoto (Marvin)
I think a lot of audiophiles are synesthetes to a degree. It is the extra we get that keeps us so involved. I've seen colors but commonly get flavor associations when listening. How many times have you read about a jazz piece being "tasty"?
Sometimes its more about feeling the music than hearing the music. When you feel the music you feel the colors as well. I have experienced flavors also, but not as often as the taste is not always good. I wrote about hearing liver at my first CES but it never made the pages of TAS. Fortunately, I've not heard anything that bad since.
No,but I can see sound waves .........
Do you also hear music when you see certain colors? I have had experiences where I smelled a certain smell and it seemed to take me to an unrealized thought that never became clear. We probably all have a short circuit or two. I have not found them to be helpful but they are interesting.
> Do you also hear music when you see certain colors? <
No
I don't actually see the colors at all when listening to music. My brain is telling me I'm hearing a certain color. This only happens during critical listening and I can usually block it out unless it's a strong color. I have to believe hearing color can be learned as a critical listening skill. I believe every audio component has it's own sonic signature and part of that sonic signature is color.
Robert Fulton sounds like a genius to me. I, on the other hand, have a few too many short circuits :-)
call me crazy!
It must have been a very exciting moment when that bullet hit your head!
... She's usually a blonde.
Smile
Sox
Are you saying your wifey (I'm sure you posted that she's blonde, some time ago) is always interrupting you, when you settle down to listen to music?
Andy
Yes, my beautiful consort is compelled, no doubt by my innate charm, to communicate with me whenever she is in my presence. She even resorts to physical interaction to garner my attention.
I have needed to install keyed deadlocks on all internal doors to help facilitate an uninterrupted listening session.
Of course, I am not altogether perturbed with the less than ideal conditions with which I find myself when listening to music.
So yes, I see colour, the colour is, blonde.
Smile
Sox
am envious of the sybaritic, northerner life-style! :-))
All the best,
Andy
I recall decades ago Bob Fulton using color to describe sound. He even passed out a short paper on it. Bob was a very interesting creative person. Audio misses him.
Bob was gold.
smells purple?
"smells purple?"
A vaginal Herpes outbreak that's being treated with Gentian Violet;-)
Cheers,
Al
Sue....very true. Many of my musician friends see color as they play their instruments. I can as well, but only if I'm alone, or deeply into the piece and not thinking about the audience.
Interesting...
I don't hear "colors" per se, but certain compositions/chord-smithing gives me an illusion of "colors".... I happen to be attracted to music that does provide such illusion......
The "colors" aren't an exact or tangible phenomenon, but the effect is there.... At least for me.
I built a color organ in high school shop class in the 1970's
Today I just fire up the visualizer if I'm in the mood
Go, guy!
:)
The composer often described chords as yellow, blue, etc.
-Bob
My avant garde music teacher was a student of Olivier Messiaen.
Our senses are linked. Sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste are all intertwined.
Just thought I'd throw that into the mix.
:)
Nt
Only when I listen to Black Sabbath, White Christmas, Blue Rondo ala Turk, Red Roses for a Blue Lady, or Yellow Rose of Texas.
but no, just hear music. :-(
Colors. Flavors.Music is like food, sculpture and painting.
Maurice Andre was white. Maynard Ferguson was orange. My last trumpet instructor, Pierre Thibaud, was also orange, with a red flare.
:)
Edits: 08/23/14
mushrooms. yes, that happens under those circumstances for me. i haven't traveled that road since the early 90s. and now, nada mas. one to two beers in a day and only because i like the taste of the beers (hefewisen, heineken, etc) to consume jarlesberg cheese and cashews.
the one incident i remember clearly with the colors was with paul horn's "inside the great pyramid" album. at the same time ii rearranged the stereo and placed a plant on the stand. it was a VERY pleasing setup both visually and sonically.
ahhh, the memories.
...regards...tr
The "Pastoral", Beethoven's 6th Symphony was used in previous times to teach the feeling produced by the color green to people who had been blind from birth.
the same thing as the Disney animators who worked on "Fantasia".
But seriously, you are likely too young for this but Robert Fulton of Fulton Musical Industries (FMI), not of steamboat fame, felt every instrument suggested a different color. J Gordon Holt, who was a big fan of FMI products at one point, had an article in Stereophile describing Fulton's descriptions of listening to recorded music. I believe Fulton related the accuracy of the color rendition as his best indicator to sonic accuracy. I could not find Fulton's color chart but the link below offers comments by Holt about him.
All that I could find as direct info was this from an Agon discussion -
brian_beck • 2 years ago
Some of you may remember Robert W. Fulton, founder of FMI. Fulton was famous for his very natural sounding speakers in the 70's and 80's. He founded the whole speaker cable and interconnect industry. He was also a gifted listener who visualized sounds as colors. He "saw" the reproduction of instruments through an audio system in terms of how colors were shifted. He wrote a short flyer or brochure describing those colors. I have that document and it will be posted in an upcoming commemorative website on Fulton.
"You can’t know what the “best” is unless you have heard everything, and keep in mind that given individual tastes, there really isn’t any such thing." HP
Not always though.
Not a disease or disorder but a condition. Oliver Sachs covers it in his book Musicophilia.
Yes, condition would have been a better description.
I'll have to add Musicophilia to my list of books to read along with a few I found via the Iso Ward this morning.
Most fascinating book as Sachs shares anectdotal experiences.Apparently those so gifted see different colors with sometimes the same note.
He has many other observations involving music, including a case where a doctor after being struck by lightning starts hearing piano music.
Like you don't have enough to read but read This is Your Brain on Music and the companion Six Songs Which Changed the World. by Dan Levitin.
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