MUSICAL SYNESTHESIA
TIME FOR...
Medios de comunicación social. Geralt. Pixabay. CC0
What are synesthetes?
People who have synesthesia. Those people who associate sounds, musical notes, instrumental timbres with sensations coming from different senses such as sight, hearing... This way when they hear a sound they associate it with a concrete colour because it evoques them a sensation.
For example, colour green can be associated with FA because it evoques nature. In music this means calm, delicate melodies, slow rhythm, etc. In art this means landscapes related to forests, flowers, etc. Other people associate music instruments and music styles with concrete colours, as Melissa McCracken does.
This American artist, born in Kansas in 1990, paints while listening to different music styles like funk, glam, rock... You can see her collection on her webpage melissamccracken.com (accessed on 24/06/2022).
Do you remember this man?
1.
Appart from musician, composer and painter, he invented DODECAPHONISM.
What do you think it is?
It is a series of twelve sounds from the cromatic scale. With this technique he abandones the tonal system, creating a new term ATONALITY.
Here, you can see an example of this theory. Listen again to this Schönberg concert and observe Kandinsky's painting inspired by this song.
Di Wu plays Schoenberg Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11. Di Wu. Youtube (Accessed on 24/06/2022).
Look at the painting carefully. What emotions does it suggest to you? Can you recognise the Dodecaphonic Scale in it?
Wassily Kandinsky - Impression III (Concert)- Google Art Project. DcoetzeeBot. Wikimedia. CC0
Can you recognise the Dodecaphonic Scale in it? Yes, you can observe it in the colours change of intensity, for example Yellow-orange-red: Do-Do#-Re.
1.Arnold Schoenberg la 1948. Florence Homolka. Wikimedia. CC BY