G E N E R A L A R T I C L E
Synesthesia and the Arts
Greta Berman
N umerous difficulties arise in discussing and
understanding the phenomenon of synesthesia. To those who
possess it, it is an obvious and integral part of their sense per-
ceptiontaken for granted by them, much like the senses of
smell, hearing, sight, touch and taste are by most of us. But to
those who do not possess synesthesia, it remains complex and
is often misunderstood. Thus, for synesthetic artists or musi-
cians, there can be no question of using synesthesia as a
method, a gimmick or a technique. It is simply there, and
they must deal with it. This is a fact that the vast majority of
the population who are not synesthetic have by and large
failed to understand.
Many art historians who have written about the interrela-
tionships of music and art have appropriated the term synes-
thesia as a label for these connections. In fact, while the
term is used to refer to the most literalif not the most com-
plexinterconnection between the arts, it actually means
something quite different. By no means unique to artists or
musicians, synesthesia has been identified by psychologists as
a specific condition that occurs when an individual who re-
ceives a stimulus in one sense modality simultaneously expe-
riences a sensation in another. Many different manifestations
of synesthesia have been recorded. Some synesthetes see a
particular color upon hearing a certain musical pitch or com-
bination of musical notes; others actually experience a bitter
taste when they see, for example, a square. Still others con-
nect specific odors with sounds or colors. The synesthetic per-
son experiences consistency in these perceptions. If a musical
note or sound looks like a particular color one day, then it
will always appear as that color to that person. Synesthetic in-
dividuals have described sensations as diverse and specific as
seeing jagged red lines when hearing loud or high-pitched
sounds, tasting pointed shapes when eating chicken, and
smelling baked beans whenever a certain name is heard.
These are actual perceptions and, as such, clearly distinguish-
able from metaphorical associations or hallucinations [1].
Although any combination of senses can be involved in syn-
esthesia, and it is in no way limited to artists, I will restrict my
discussion to those results of the blurring of senses related to
sound and visual art. These can include line, texture and
shape as parallels between music and art; but the most com-
mon form of synesthesia is chromesthesia, the association be-
tween color and sound [2]. A chromesthetic musician actu-
ally perceives a specific color upon hearing a musical note or
series of notes. Although this phenomenon has been well
documented, and well-known examples exist of visual artists
and composers (Alexander Scriabin and Olivier Messiaen are
probably the best known) whose creative work has been en-
hanced by it, there is no evidence of any consistency of color/
note association from one synesthetic person to another. In
1999 ISAST
other words, two synesthetes
upon hearing the same note of
the scale might see different col-
A B S T R A C T
The term synesthesia has
often been used metaphorically
ors, but each will be quite specific rather than accurately. Ongoing
scientific research shows the con-
about which color corresponds to
dition to be real, rather than
which pitchthat is, the C-sharp imagined. The author focuses her
one synesthete sees as red may discussion on the effects of color-
just as well be blue for another. sound synesthesia, or chromes-
This lack of conformity and the thesia, and on a selection of com-
posers and visual artists. The
rarity of the condition are among composers discussed include
the factors that have prevented Alexander Scriabin, Olivier
many twentieth-century scientists Messiaen and Michael Torke. Vi-
from taking synesthesia seriously sual artists discussed include Rob-
ert Delaunay and David Hockney.
[3]. However, since the senses of
hearing and vision are so indi-
vidualized and personal in the
first place, it is not clear why we should assume there would
be unanimity among synesthetes.
Synesthesia as a condition has been thought to be ex-
tremely rare [4]. Nonetheless, every year in the course I co-
teach at Juilliard with Samuel Zyman, we come across at least
one or two students who claim to have some synesthetic char-
acteristics [5]. Sometimes these students have never heard of
the term, but when they are questioned about whether they
see colors upon hearing music, they respond, of course. For
them this is such an innate condition that they assume it to be
normal. Of course there is always some question of what
normal means when one is dealing with sensitive artists. In
class there arises the additional problem that once one iden-
tifies synesthesia as an abnormal condition, one runs into
the difficulty of discussing it further, especially with young
students who aspire towards normalcy. Synesthetes usually
experience their extraordinary capacity early in life without
understanding what it is, why they have it or why they are dif-
ferent, but they realize they are powerless to do anything
about it. Most synesthetic individuals report extreme relief
upon hearing that there are others who have the same kinds
of perceptions; although they knew their perceptions to be
real, they frequently refrained from telling anyone about
them for fear of being called mad. Indeed, many writers have
diagnosed synesthetic composers Scriabin and Messiaen.
For those musicians who experience synesthesia, it seems to
have an overwhelmingly large impact on both their thinking
and their work. They are not able to ignore it, even if others
cannot perceive things the same way they do.
Greta Berman (teacher), 45 Woodside Lane, Princeton, NJ 08540, U.S.A. E-mail:
<gwberm@aol.com>.
Manuscript solicited by Jack Ox.
LEONARDO, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 1522, 1999 15
HISTORY AND DEFINITIONS
Certainly we all possess relative synes-
thesia, which, like relative pitch (and
unlike perfect pitch), can be developed.
Relative synesthesia might be appropri-
ately termed metaphorical; it constitutes
another area of study [6]. Indeed, most
human beings experience emotional re-
actions to color and pitch. A common
example of this is a blue note, which
connotes sadness (the blues), while
bright yellow and red usually indicate
warm and happy moods, corresponding
to major scales. The language of music is
filled with visual art analogies, such as
tone color, chromaticism, texture and
even more specific terms (Impressionism
and Pointillism, for example, come di-
rectly from painting and are frequently
used in music). But these vague and gen-
eral terms differ radically from the exact
equivalent colors chromesthetes see
upon hearing a specific musical pitch or
passage. The term synesthesia has been
overused in general writing on the sub-
ject [7]. Rather than labeling as synes-
thetic any visual artist influenced by mu-
sic or composer interested in art, it
would be useful to be more accurate.
When technically discussing the phe-
nomenon of synesthesia, we should be
dealing with the senses not as metaphors,
but as separate and distinct realities.
The small number of synesthetic com-
posers and visual artists known to us
(along with their more numerous col-
leagues who have used synesthesia meta-
phorically) have for the most part incor-
porated a kind of mysticism into their
work, stemming from their philosophical
outlooks. Indeed, more often than not,
these artists can be considered visionaries
in the true sense of the word. A common
belief of theirs centers on the unity of the
arts andoften by extensionall reli-
gions, nature and the whole of humanity.
This would explain why so many are
drawn to program music and operamu-
sical structures that by definition go be-
yond the more conventional concentra-
tion on pure music. I have also found
that such composers are often associated
with modernism and innovation. A
number of artists have been particularly
drawn to mysticism (Scriabin, Kandinsky,
Rimsky-Korsakov), while a number of or-
ganists and keyboard composers
(Messiaen, Scriabin) have been attracted
to esoteric ideas. Scriabin, a Russian mys-
tic sometimes accused of being a megalo-
maniac, and Messiaen, an organist and
mystic, both wrote music for which they
16 Berman, Synesthesia and the Arts
saw and identified specific colors. Sibelius
was also said to have seen colors in musi-
cal tones [8]. Works of Csar Franck,
Claude Debussy and Arnold Schoenberg,
none of whom were technically synes-
thetic, resonate with painterly and extra-
musical ideas, and so are sometimes con-
fused with those of synesthetes. Debussy
was, after all, closely involved with art and
artists; and Schoenberg, a serious painter
for a time, made use of colored lights to
accompany the short opera Die Glckliche nating the musicians and the audience
Hand, written at the same time as
Scriabins synesthetic Prometheus . Like
Debussy, however, Schoenberg had as his
primary goal the creation of a dreamlike
atmosphere, and his oeuvre remains
closer to Symbolism and expressionism
than to synesthesia per se.
The phenomenon of synesthesia was
given its present name more than 200
years ago, although the phenomenon
was known to the Greeks in ancient
times. Pythagoras is believed to have
written on the subject. During the years
following the Renaissance, numbers of
scientists and composers attempted to
make instruments that would produce
color-music [9]. Isaac Newton in 1704
may have been the first modern scientist
to correlate music and color [10]. His
work led directly to the invention in
1725 by a Jesuit, L.-B. Castel, of the
clavecin oculaire, sometimes referred to as
a color organ [11]. Like many later
synesthetes, Castel may have correlated
the sound-color relationship to his reli-
gious/philosophical outlook, saying,
For we are born in music, and we have
only to open our ears in order to taste it
. . . and . . . one has only to open ones
eyes in order to taste a Music of colors
and to judge it [12]. The painter
Guiseppe Arcimboldo (Milanese, circa
15301593), who himself experimented
with color music [13], also may have
had an influence on Castel. It seems that
Charles Darwins grandfather, Erasmus
Darwin, attempted to make a color-harp-
sichord some years later (1790) [14];
Goethe wrote about color theor y in
1810 [15], and J.K. Huysmans, in his
phenomenally popular novel A Rebours,
fantasized about a mouth organ made
from a collection of liqueur casks (out-
lining a synesthetic correlation between
the tastes of the liqueurs and the sounds
of instruments) [16]. Indeed, it has
been said that by the end of the nine-
teenth century and the beginning of the
twentieth, the fascination with color-or-
gans had reached almost epidemic
proportions.
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
(18711915)
Against this brief background, perhaps
Scriabins inclusion in the score of his
symphonic poem, Prometheus, of an in-
strument, the luce, which had not yet
been invented, is not so out of line. The
luce, which he envisioned as a kind of
color/light organ, would have con-
verted sound into colored light, illumi-
members, who were to have dressed in
white, in corresponding colors. Scriabin,
more than any other composer except
Messiaen, exemplifies the synesthete.
Indeed, an attempt to appreciate
Scriabins compositions without taking
into consideration the synesthesia at
their source is doomed to failure. One
writer, Wilfred Mellers, in Man and His
Music (1969) made just this error when
he grudgingly conceded that some of
the titillations of the musical effects in
Scriabins work were very beautiful and
a genuine minor contribution to Euro-
pean music [17]. But, in the end, he
said, Skryabin . . . seems to us a man of
exquisite sensibility who went crazy: by
turns silly, pathetic, horrifying, a portent
of Europes sickness [18].
In another source on Scriabin, author
Donald Brook refers contemptuously to
the composers use of a keyboard of
lights, noting that
it seems . . . that the composer was pur-
suing some abstruse notion of embody-
ing an outline of colour which he
conceived as an integral part of the
thoughts he was expressing in sound.
All this is very interesting to those who
care to give serious thought to the mat-
ter, but the majority of musicians will
probably retain their original opinion
of the innovation: that it was merely a
stage trick to ginger up the dramatic
intensity of the music [19].
Apparently, for these writers, the cause
of something they did not understand
must have been, at best, madness and at
worst, charlatanism. These attitudes, ex-
pressed more than 30 years after the
composers death, typify the kind of criti-
cism during his lifetime that must have
driven Scriabin even further into Messi-
anic delusions [20]. After all, Brooks
remarks come not from an enemy, but
from an author who has called Scriabin
one of Russias great composers.
If by Europes Sickness Mellers had
in mind mysticism, decadence and
various philosophies ranging from
Nietzsches Ubermensch to Helena
Blavatskys Theosophy, then it must be
admitted that Scriabin belonged to
these circles. He read avidly and was well
acquainted with many Symbolist writers,
including Verlaine, Mallarm,
Baudelaire, Maeterlinck, Poe, Ibsen and
Strindberg, as well as with philosophers
Schopenhauer and Kant. These writers
intrigued painters as disparate as
Kandinsky and Mondrian [21]; in fact,
their ideas generally circulated through-
out Europe at the time. Scriabin also en-
countered Rudolf Steiner in 1908 in
Brussels [22] and was no doubt influ-
enced by his ideas. Perhaps instead of
dismissing Scriabin as crazy, it would be
more accurate to compare him to Will-
iam Blake (17571827), a mystic and vi-
sionary, who for lack of understanding
from his contemporaries was driven into
madness, or so it was said at the time
[23]. This is all too often the fate of an
individual who hears and sees things
that are imperceptible to others. To
those who fail to perceive, the only ac-
ceptable explanation is that the person
must be crazy; this can become a self-ful-
filling prophesy. Inside, synesthetes may
either regret or rejoice over their own
uniqueness, but they are forced to react
in some way to the derision of others.
The choice then becomes either with-
drawal or overcompensation; I believe
the latterthe path chosen by Scriabin
and others who are convinced that they
have something important to say to the
worldleads, rightly or wrongly, to their
being considered megalomaniacal [24].
Criticisms such as these were due to
their authors inability to understand
that Scriabins composing, far from oc-
curring despite the mans eccentricities,
actually depended upon his synesthetic vi-
sion. It is primarily because of his capac-
ity to use synesthesia creatively that
Scriabin made his profound contribu-
tion to modernism. Indeed, he not only
revolutionized piano music, but was also
one of the first to abandon key signa-
tures, writing compositions that can be
said to predict serial music [25].
A closer look at one of Scriabins
pieces, his Fifth Symphony, Op. 60, may
be more helpful toward the appreciation
of Scriabins contribution than any gen-
eral discussion. This work, notorious for
its attempt to combine colored light and
music, is entitled Prometheus, The Poem of
Fire. Ironically, the colored light, cer-
tainly essential to Scriabin, has never
quite worked satisfactorily in perfor-
mance as the composer wished. None-
theless, the success of the music itself
can be said to depend in part on the
color inspiration behind it. The title was
of vital importance to the composer. Pro-
gram notes authorized by Scriabin for
the 2 March 1911 performances stated:
Prometheus, Satanas, and Lucifer all
meet in ancient myth. They represent
the active energy of the universe, its
creative principle. The fire is light, life,
struggle, increase, abundance, and
thought. At first, this powerful force
manifests itself wea rily, as languid
thirsting for life. Within this lassitude
then appears the primordial polarity
between soul and matter. The creative
upsurge or gust of feeling registers a
protest against the torpor. Later it does
battle and conquers matterof which
it itself is a mere atomand returns to
the original quiet and tranquillity . . .
thus completing the cycle [26].
Prometheus, because of his act of
stealing fire from the gods for
humanitys benefit, exemplified for
Scriabin the great revolutionary and
martyr, perhaps even a parallel to Christ.
In fact, the composer felt that by writing
Prometheus (500 years before Christ)
Aeschylus had intentionally deified him.
Thus, like Christ, the character
Prometheus acted as a mediator be-
tween earth and heaven; he was similarly
punished for his deeds by being bound
for eternity. The choice of a design
made for Prometheus s title page by Bel-
gian symbolist Jean Delville suggests that
Scriabin might have been a member,
like Delville, of a subgroup within the
Theosophists, called Sons of the Flames
of Wisdom. In honoring Prometheus,
this group also worshipped human wis-
dom and spirituality, symbolized by the
stolen fire [27].
The scoring for this work was for an
unprecedentedly large orchestra, as if
the composer wanted, like Beethoven
before him, to embrace the entire
world [28]. Although not technically a
piano concerto, it has the effect of one
[29]. It was specifically for Prometheus
that Scriabin invented a new chord. He
called it a mystic chord, and composed
it of six notes, based on augmented
fourthsthe so-called Tritones, which
were thought to create troubled and un-
settling feelings in music (sometimes
known as the devils interval, they had
actually been forbidden in church mu-
sic). The mystic chord is the basis of
both the pieces technical musical nota-
tion and its essential meaning. He had
wanted at first to duplicate the music
with the color he had both heard and
seen, but instead he organized color
into complex spatial patterns that would
interact with musical pitch in a complex
counterpoint. In fact, what he actually
did was write two symphonies, one for
musical instruments and one for the
luce. He seems to have intended for the
two to interweave contrapuntally. How-
ever, at that time no instrument with a
keyboard of light existed, and even if
one had, few audiences would have
been capable of following the complex-
ity of two symphonies at once and inter-
relating them.
It is fascinating to read Scriabins de-
scription of his color-sound associations.
F minor was blue, the color of reason,
D major a sunny golden, and F major
the blood red of hell [30]. Prometheus
has been both performed and recorded,
though never quite in the way the com-
poser had intended. Most attempts have,
with the best intentions, substituted pro-
jectors and screens for the composers
luce. That is a shame, since I am certain
that with todays technology we could at
least come close to the composers vi-
sionary original concepts. One reference
to a performance by the Rochester Phil-
harmonic in New York with pianist
Gyorgy Sandor in 1967 indicates a
strobe-like device modulated light and
scattered it over the audience [31].
Paradoxically, Prometheus, despite the
large orchestra and chorus, has a sur-
prisingly small and subtle sound; it is not
only delicate, but brief, lasting little
more than 20 minutes. Originally
Scriabin had meant it to be part of a
larger and very controversial composi-
tion, a fantasy called the Mysterium
which remained unfinished, possibly
due to the impossibility of performing it
during the composers lifetime. But that
does not mean that this supreme final
ecstasy was the fantasy of a lunatic
rather than the Messiah he envisioned
himself [32]. Indeed, today, many would
prefer to call the work visionary. The
concept of ecstasy in itself is no evi-
dence of lunacy; it is well within the
power of great music to bring it forth.
While the global scale of Mysterium
which was to be performed in the open
air and encompass a sunrise, sunset,
stars and a cosmic world in the score
was ahead of its time, it nevertheless pre-
dicted many future developments. For
example, music-kinetic art fountains
decorate a number of squares and gar-
dens in the former Soviet Union. The
use of sound and light to celebrate ma-
jor monuments, known as Son et
lumire, now popular the world over,
may derive in part from Scriabins
projects of fusing light, music and the-
Berman, Synesthesia and the Arts 17
ater. Indeed, Bulat M. Galeyev of the
Prometei Group of Kazan, Russia, which
took its name from Scriabins Prometheus,
has stated that more than 1,000 publica-
tions on music-kinetic art have appeared
in Russian. Not only does Galeyev not
think Scriabins idea mad, but he has
expanded upon it, hoping that one day
there will be a joint U.S./Russian Mars
venture with the Prometeis Space Sonata
in a space ship over the skyscrapers,
over the cities, . . . an aurora borealis
controlled by a music-kinetic artist per-
forming Scriabins Prometheus [33].
Scriabin discussed Mysterium with The-
osophists he met in London during his
travels, hoping to produce it in India,
since he thought his ideas about ecstasy
corresponded to certain concepts con-
tained in Hinduism. Not only does this
no longer seem far fetched, but from
todays perspective, Scriabin is a prede-
cessor of performance art and multime-
dia pieces that combine a range of me-
dia into a single artwork [34]. Clearly the
issue is not whether Scriabin should be
defended or criticized; rather, it is im-
portant to emphasize the impossibility of
understanding his music without taking
into consideration his synesthesia.
OLIVIER MESSIAEN
(19081992)
It cannot be merely a coincidence that
the other best-known synesthetic com-
poser, Messiaen, was also a mystic. After
all, both synesthetes and mystics perceive
phenomena normal people cannot.
Messiaen, born in Avignon in 1908,
grew up during World War I with his
mother, the poet Ccile Savage, in
Grenoble. He was very much enthralled
by the nearby Dauphin Mountains. In
fact, he later wrote that an early compo-
sition was intended for performance in
vast spaces: churches, cathedrals, and
even in the open air and on high moun-
tains [35]. At the age of 10, he took har-
mony lessons with a teacher who intro-
duced him to Debussys Pellas et
Mlisande, which was to become an im-
portant influence for him. During World
War II Messiaen was taken prisoner in
Silesia. While interned in the prison
camp, he composed a quartet, Quatuour
pour la fin du temps (for violin, clarinet,
cello and piano, the instruments avail-
able to him at the time), which received
its first performance at the camp in Janu-
ary 1941. After World War II, he banded
together with three other young French
composers. Calling themselves La Jeune
18 Berman, Synesthesia and the Arts
France, they protested what they saw as
the anti-humanitarian type of music es-
poused by Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau.
Until about 1945, Messiaens music,
always unique, upset musical radicals
and conservatives alike, as well as both
the religious and the non-religious. In
fact, his piece for orchestra and chorus,
Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine
(1945), created something of a contro-
versy. The avant-garde thought the com-
poser depended too much on nine-
teenth-century harmonic influences,
while conservatives disapproved of its
dissonance and unusual instrumenta-
tion. Non-Christians felt uneasy with its
dependence upon Christian dogma, but
Catholics found it too unorthodox. In-
deed, the composition was neither a
cantata nor an oratorio, but, rather, a
symbolic representation of Catholic
spirit, intended for the concert hall
rather than the church. The year 1945
was a turning point for Messiaens repu-
tation; he became quite famous.
Troubled by the absolute serialism [36]
of Schoenberg and Berg, he developed
his own equivalent, which in turn influ-
enced Pierre Boulez, among others.
Until recently, Messiaen received
criticism, similar to that meted out to
Scriabin, for creating music that is or-
giastic and auto-erotic [37]. Messiaen
has been compared to Debussy (as was
Scriabin, to the detriment of both) and,
finally, to Scriabin himself. Referring to
Messiaens use of birdsong, Mellers has
said that the Messianic self-dedication
of this most appropriately named com-
poser . . . seems, in the strict sense, ec-
centric fromeven opposed tothe
needs of most twentieth century men
and women [38]. This criticism is out
of step with the late twentieth centurys
increasing search for meaning. How-
ever, even Mellers credited Messiaen for
his knowledge of Eastern music, ragas,
talas (series) and Balinese music, in
parallel with Webern, Stockhausen, Orff
and Boulez [39]. Indeed, Messiaen was
one of a number of twentieth-century
artists who rejected the Western world
to a degree, while seeking new meaning
in expanded consciousness.
Contemporary views of Messiaen have
been far more positive. In the New York
Times Alex Ross reviewed the Tangle-
wood Symphony Orchestras 1994 per-
formance of Des Canyons aux Etoiles. He
praised the work, saying that the piece
combined the sonority of Messiaens
youth with his later complexity and that
it left the audiences
in a state of exhilaration and [it]
touches more than once on the sublime.
. . . Following his own infallible whim-
sies, Messiaen chose to pay homage to
the canyons and birds of Utah. . . . Al-
though the state responded gratefully by
naming one of its peaks Mount
Messiaen, the work is less a portrait of a
particular landscape than of the rich-
ness of the mind contemplating it. . . .
After the great A Major revelation of
Zion Park, I walked out a few feet and
looked up at the stars; they seemed a si-
lent echo of Messiaens final shimmer-
ing chord [40].
Again, what I want to stress here is
that a consideration of synesthesia, of-
ten neglected or trivialized in analyzing
the music of both Scriabin and
Messiaen, should instead be obligatory.
The latters fascination with color be-
came apparent early in his childhood.
He recalls painting on cellophane and
placing it in a window so that the sun-
light would pass through it, creating
changing patterns on a mini-stage
[41]. In a recent book about
Messiaenfor which Messiaen pro-
vided the subtitle Music and Color
the composer was interviewed at length
by Claude Samuel. At one point
Messiaen claims not to be synesthetic.
In this context he mentions his synes-
thetic friend the painter Blanc-Gatti,
who had a disorder of the optic and
aural nerves that allowed him to see
colors and shapes when he heard mu-
sic, [42]. And yet he later adds,
Its extraordinary that, not having the
blessed malady of my painter friend, I
am all the same affected by a sort of
synesthesia, more in my mind than in
my body, that allows me, when I hear
music and also when I read it, to see
inwardly with my minds eye, colors
that move with the music; and I vividly
sense these colors and sometimes Ive
precisely indicated their correspon-
dence in my scores. Obviously one
should be able to prove their relation-
ship scientifically, but I cannot [43].
When asked if he saw these colors or
imagined them, he responded, I see
them inwardly; this is not imagination,
nor is it a physical phenomenon. Its an
inward reality [44]. The composer ex-
panded on his ideas, describing how the
wrong color lighting can clash with
music, giving as an example a ballet set
to music by Beethoven, written in the
key of G Major and lit by violet light.
The dissonance for Messiaen was so
great that he remembered becoming
nauseated [45].
Throughout his lifetime, the associa-
tion between color and sound contin-
ued to hold more importance for
Messiaen than did consonance-disso-
nance; it was the totality of the music
that was meaningful, and this came
about for him through color chords,
which he constructed by means of his
color associations, rather than by classi-
cal harmony. The colors Messiaen used
arose sometimes from the plumage of
birds (whose songs he transcribed and
used as a major part of his composi-
tions), sometimes from landscapes and
sometimes from stained glass. Catalogue
dOiseaux (19561958), his greatest pi-
ano work (according to his biographer
Robert Sherlaw Johnson) and his most
important birdsong piece, has in Part IV
a coda that evokes a multicolored sun-
set of red, orange, violet [46]. From
1960, color played an even greater role
in his compositions. Chronochromie
(1960) means color of time; Couleurs
de la cit Cleste (1963) has elements of
Christian symbolism, plainchant,
birdsong, rhythm and color-associated
sounds. Messiaen wrote a note in the
score that the form of the work de-
pends entirely on colours. The melodic
or rhythmic themes, the combinations
of sounds and of timbres, change in the
manner of colours [47]. He went so far
as to mark specific colors in the score it-
self. Without a doubt, it is the colors that
define the very form of the piece, as he
himself has said. In naming these colors,
which he associated with the Apoca-
lypse, he came very close to describing
stained glassan obvious connection.
Messiaen, Catholic from childhood
(though his parents were not believers)
has often spoken of the influence of
stained glass upon him. Nothing could
be more natural: in church one simulta-
neously hears the service, sees the
stained glassthe light and the colors,
and hears the musicall of this accom-
panied by inspiration, revelation, faith,
mysticism and even ecstasy. Messiaens
connections between music and nature
are also easy to analyze: God is the cre-
ator of all things; Noah brought the ani-
mals into the ark; St. Francis spoke to
the birds. The most skeptical agnostic or
atheist can be inspired by going to a ca-
thedral. If one thinks of the stained glass
of Chartres and of the mosaics of
Monreale, how can one not be inspired?
But Messiaen goes beyond mere inspira-
tion, actually seeing and describing spe-
cific colors that match specific tones:
One note-value will be linked to a red
sonarity flecked with blueanother . . .
to a milky white sonorous complex em-
bellished with orange and hemmed with
goldanother will use green, orange,
and violet reflectionsanother will be
frankly violet or frankly red [48].
Cytowic thus interprets Messiaens
ideas, quoting Samuel:
Messiaen does not use the modes me-
lodically, but as colors. They are not
harmonies in the classical sense of the
word, nor are they even recognized
chords. They sound like colors. They
are colors, and their power springs
primarily from the impossibility of
transpositions and also the color linked
with this impossibility. The two phe-
nomena are simultaneous [49].
Messiaen was an organist. The very
combination of his predilection for
color-sound (or his synesthesia) with his
torrent of inspiration would account for
some of the power of his compositions.
Indeed, the master used all of this to
create his music. Although a combina-
tion of sources helps to explain his mu-
sic, it is not sufficient. The synesthetic
component is essential to our under-
standing; this is where he made his sig-
nificant leap.
There are at least a few instances in
Messiaens work where he was inspired
by paintings. LAmour de Piroutcha
from Harawi (for soprano and piano)
(1945) is based on a poem that describes
a surrealist painting by Roland Penrose
[50]. Cinq rechants (1948) has as the sec-
ond line of its text a reference to a paint-
ing by Chagall: Lovers surpass them-
selves and are carried away into the
clouds [51]. Messiaens process in creat-
ing La Fauvette des jardins (1970) was de-
scribed by Johnson as resembling that of
Monets in creating Rouen Cathedral: the
music captures the play of light on the
cathedral at different times of the day:
[The musical phrases] first appear-
ance (p. 4) represents the pink reflec-
tions of the sun in the lake at dawn (cli-
max chordsC Major and B flat
Major). Late in the afternoon, the blue
of the lake is evoked by chord se-
quences coming to rest in A Major
(representing blue, as in Le Merle
bleu and Le Traquet rieuer). Above
the final A Major chord (p. 49) the yel-
low hammers song is added almost like
an upper resonance, bringing fresh
colour to the chord [52].
In Samuels 1994 study of Messiaen,
the composer is shown to demonstrate a
familiarity with painting, although
stressing that he never translates color
from painting. Not surprisingly,
Messiaens favorite painter is Robert
Delaunay, who he said established con-
nections between complementary colors
in a very subtle yet very violent manner,
especially through the principle of si-
multaneous contrast [53]. Delaunays
painting does use color as music em-
ploys notes. Though probably not fully
synesthetic, Delaunay consciously at-
tempted to approach music in his paint-
ing, succeeding so well that Messiaen
was immediately drawn to it. Indeed,
painter and composer share in common
the profound inspiration of stained
glass. In addition to Delaunay, Messiaen
expresses admiration for Grnewald,
Fra Angelico and Monet.
OTHER SYNESTHETIC
COMPOSERS
Two other well-known composers who
some have thought to be synesthetic
were Rimsky-Korsakov and Jan Sibelius
[54]. Rimsky-Korsakov was said to have
experienced colors and sounds corre-
sponding to each other (although his
correspondences did not match those of
Scriabin, with whom he associated)
[55]. Franck, Debussy, Tchaikowsky and
Liszt came close, but certainly were not
true synesthetes. Indeed, from the infor-
mation available on the subject, the is-
sue of synesthesia is not at all clear-cut.
Although it should be an empirically
provable condition, synesthesia tends to
follow certain trends. During the nine-
teenth century, when many artists, writ-
ers and composers were obsessed by
Wagner and the ideal of the
Gesamtkunstwerk (Total Work of Art),
synesthesia became popular, and many
claimed to be synesthetic (but probably
were not) [56]. But in the twentieth cen-
tury, with the growth of scientific objec-
tivity and purity in art, opposition to eso-
teric and mystical ideas grew, nearly
eclipsing any interest in synesthesia.
However, as the century draws to a close,
this may be beginning to change.
Michael Torke (b. 1961), a composer
currently living in New York, is a con-
temporary synesthetic artist. He is best
known for his composition Ecstatic Or-
ange, a large work for orchestra, written
early in his career. Since then, he has
also written pieces with the titles Green,
Purple, Ash and Bright Blue Music, all of
which were combined into music com-
missioned by Peter Martins for the New
York City Ballet. A compact disc entitled
Michael Torkes Color Music was recorded
in 1990, performed by David Zinman
and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
In speaking to Torke in 1998 [57], I
found that he at first was reluctant to
Berman, Synesthesia and the Arts 19
call himself synesthetic. But when
pressed on the point as to why he so fre-
quently used color titles in his music, he
conceded that he was probably synes-
thetic. Unlike Scriabin and Messiaen,
whose reputations suffered because of
their synesthesia, Torkes color associa-
tions have served to enhance his early
popularity. In this case, the composer
himself was afraid that he had used
them as a kind of hook (as some have
accused Scriabin and Messiaen of do-
ing); therefore he now tends to play
down this aspect. He feels that critics
have focused on this one facet of his
work without truly understanding it or
the other aspects of his music. While this
may, indeed, be true, it is equally the
case that his work, like that of other syn-
esthetic composers, cannot be fully com-
prehended without taking note of his
synesthesia.
Torke told me that just before his fifth
birthday he began taking piano lessons
and, from the beginning, had associated
pitches with colors. For example, the
key of D Major was always blue to him,
and he remembers thinking that he had
to practice that blue piece. E Major for
him was always green; G was yellow; and
G# was brilliant orange (hence Ecstatic
Orange). For Torke, as for many other
synesthetes, the association of colors to
pitches works only in one direction; he
does not hear pitches upon seeing col-
ors. He likens the colors he sees to his
vividly colored dreams; the colors fill his
entire head as if in a dream. (This is
reminiscent of Messiaens description of
colors as an inward reality [58].)
Torke attributes his drive to create tonal
music to his synesthetic connections; it
is like a search for something absolute,
almost like a yearning for God. His fre-
quent collaborations with the New York
City Ballet underline his musical/visual
connections. He has said that if he could
not be a composer he would want to be
a visual artist.
VISUAL ARTISTS
If we turn to artists who have tried to
translate music into art, we shall find
them to be more numerous than the
other way around. After all, music is
considered the most abstract of all art
forms, and many painters (especially in
the late nineteenth and twentieth centu-
ries) have aspired to the condition of
music. Composers, on the other hand,
tend to see art as representation and
therefore as so much extraneous bag-
20 Berman, Synesthesia and the Arts
gage, the exception being composers of
program music [59]. However, I have
not seen convincing evidence of many
visual artists who are truly synesthetic
not to the extent of Scriabin, Messiaen
and Torke.
Neurologist Richard Cytowic is cer-
tain that David Hockney (b. 1937), the
contemporary British-American painter,
photographer and set designer, is one
such example. Cytowic inter viewed
Hockney at length in 1981 and claims
that Hockneys synesthesia involves an
association of music, shape, color, and
space [60]. Hockney described his
working methods to Cytowic, explaining
how he used colored lights projected on
his set designs and felt he knew when
the color was right; he claimed to let the
music dictate his choice of materials, de-
signs and colors. Interestingly, he is not
musically talented and cannot even
read music. Therefore, he has to play
music over and over again in order to
get it. But get it he does, while paint-
ing to the music. This is how he made
set designs for Ravels L Enfant et les
Sortileges, Stravinskys Oedipus Rex, The
Rakes Progress, Wagners Tristan und Isolde
and many other operas. In the case of
Rossignol, Cytowic asked Hockney why
he had painted all blue, or monochro-
matic, in effect. Hockney denied that it
was monochromatic, stating that there
were many different blues in it. Cytowic
claims this is characteristic of synes-
thetes, seeing an infinite variety of a
single color, whereas the ordinary viewer
would just see blue.
Hockneys conception of space is also
related to his synesthesia (he feels that
sound and color both relate to space),
as are his photographic collages made of
numerous tiny, shifting parts. He is in-
terested in relating these to aspects of
mathematics, especially fractals. The
refinement of Hockneys synesthesia by
his intellect and artistry has led him to
see and develop these connections, ac-
cording to Cytowic [61].
Hockneys set designs for The Magic
Flute work particularly well. He saw at
least 10 other productions of the work
and did extensive research, coming to
the conclusion that he could design sets
that would really provide an equivalent
to both the music and the libretto in a
way that had not been done before. He
was extremely clear about equivalents be-
tween music and mood, utilizing color
and design. The strange and wonderful
colors of the set vary, featuring tones of
blue, orange, yellow ochre and green.
The symbolism of the opera, in which
chaos becomes harmony and darkness
turns into light, had to be conveyed in
Hockneys set design in terms of color.
Hockney stressed the earth colors of
Egypt. A variety of sourcesfrom Ma-
sonic symbolism to the mysteries of Isis
and Osiris, pseudo-Oriental tales and el-
ements from commedia dellartecome to-
gether with a flow quite evident to the
viewer. There is no vagueness; colors and
space are created with a sureness of hand
and simplicity, indicating that Hockney
heard what he was doing. The mean-
ings are successfully conveyed to the au-
dience memberswhether or not they
experience exactly the same color/mu-
sic/space associations as Hockney. The
sets are overwhelmingly convincing, and
the result somehow seems right. The
artists use of stylized, rigid, personal pic-
torial space is no doubt related to his syn-
esthetic connections.
CONCLUSIONS
There are, unquestionably, numerous
lesser-known examples of synesthetic
composers and artists, as well as infinite
numbers of composers influenced by art
and vice versa. It is my own belief that
synesthesia exists on a continuum; the
range extends from pure synesthetes to
individuals who have no cross-modal as-
sociations at all. I think that there are
many gradations between, as well as infi-
nite variations on what synesthesia
means to different individuals. I would
not be at all surprised to learn that
Kandinsky, Klee and Schoenberg had
some degree of synesthesia, though they
do not seem to be pure synesthetes.
Although many non-artistic individuals
exhibit signs of synesthesia, most re-
search indicates that it is an attribute
more commonly possessed by creative
artists. Like pitch, one has to be born
with it if it is to be perfect or abso-
lute; but just as there appear to be vary-
ing degrees of learnable relative pitch,
perhaps there are equivalent gradations
of relative synesthesia.
Research is going on in the field;
since neuroscientists are taking synes-
thesia seriously, we may soon find some
answers to these questions. It is to be
hoped that the ongoing research will
shed more light on the role of synes-
thesia in the creative work of those art-
ists fortunate enough or unfortunate
enough to be blessed with, or afflicted
by, this fascinating and amazing condi-
tion [62].
References and Notes
1. See Richard E. Cytowic, The Man Who Taste d
Shapes (New York: Putnam, 1993).
2. See, for example, Richard E. Cytowic, Synesthesia:
A Union of the Senses (New York: Springer-Verlag,
1989) p. 26. Lawrence E. Marks points out that
speech and, in particular, vowel sounds are the
most powerful color stimuli in The Unity of the
Senses: Interrelationships among the Modalities, Series
in Cognition and Perception (New York: Academic
Press, 1978) pp. 8687.
3. Lawrence E. Marks, On Colored-Hearing Synes-
thesia: Cross-Modal Translations of Sensory Dimen-
sions, Psychological Bulletin 82 (May 1975) p. 304,
reports that Synesthesia was au courant toward the
end of the nineteenth century.
4. Cytowic, in [2] p. 64, figures the ratio of
synesthetes to the general population to be
1:300,000. At the other extreme, George Domino, in
Synesthesia and Creativity in Fine Arts Students: An
Empirical Look, Creative Research Journal 2 (1989) p.
17, claims that 23% of 358 fine arts students at three
large universities were synesthetic. However, despite
the title of the paper, the experiments were not truly
empirical and depended largely on self-reports,
which are notoriously unreliable.
5. Cytowics ratio [4] is probably nowhere near accu-
rate; but even allowing for this, there appears to be
a significantly greater ratio of synesthetes among
musicians than among the general population.
Holly Biola, in an unpublished senior thesis
(Chromesthesia and Absolute Pitch, Princeton
University, April 1995), found three genuine
chromesthetes out of 185 subjects (93 music majors
and 92 non-music majors) at Juilliard and Princeton.
6. Ernst Gombrich extensively discusses synesthesia
as metaphor in Ernst Gombrich, Meditations on a
Hobby Horse and other Essays on the Theory of Art (Chi-
cago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1985) p. 22.
7. See, for example, Judith Zilczer, Color Music: 20. Scriabin, according to Harold C. Schonberg,
Synesthesia and Nineteenth Century Sources for Ab-
stract Art, Artibus et Historiae 16, No. 8, 101126
(1987). See also much of the writing on Kandinsky,
Klee, Debussy and other artists who refer to both art
and music in their work, but are not truly synesthetic.
8. Karl Ekman, in Jean SibeliusHis Life and Personal-
ity (New York: Knopf, 1938) pp. 4142, quotes Adolf
Paul, friend of the Finnish composer Sibelius: For
him [Sibelius] there existed a strange, mysterious
connection between sound and color, between the
most secret perceptions of eye and ear. Everything
he saw produced a corresponding impression on his
earevery impression of sound was transferred and
fixed as color on the retina of his eye and thence to
his memory. And this he thought natural, with as
good reason as those who did not possess this faculty
called him crazy or affectedly original. For this rea-
son he only spoke of this in the strictest confidence
and under a pledge of silence. For otherwise they
will make fun of me!
Ekman cites another acquaintance, a critic and
writer named Karl Flodin, on pp. 4344: Sibelius
was juggling with colors and sounds as if they were
bright glass balls, made colors resound and sounds
glow, so that A major became blue and C major red,
F major green and D major yellow, or something
like that, and everything in the world had its own
melodious label . . . every mood of nature its ready-
coined motif, every sensation its primeval chord, as
if you could preserve the sound-bodies in small
boxes and take them out for use when required.
Ekman also points out that Sibelius thought of
Beethovens music in terms of color. Perhaps most
extraordinary of all, though, Ekman relates (also
second-hand) that Sibelius once translated the
odor of drying hemp into musical form in a gro-
tesque capriccio (pp. 3233).
9. See Kenneth Peacock, Instruments to Perform
Color-Music: Two Centuries of Technological Ex-
perimentation, Leonardo 21, No. 4, 397406
(1988). See also Marilyn S. Kushner, Morgan Russell
(New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1990) p. 105. For
an in-depth study of color-music, see Sara Selwood,
The Development from Abstract Art to Abstract
Animated Film, M. Phil. dissertation (unpublished
manuscript), Univ. of Essex, 1981; or the revised
version, Sara Selwood, Farblichtmusik und
abstrakter Film, in Karin V. Maur, ed., Vom Klang
der Bilder, (Munich: Prestel, 1985).
10. Cytowic [2] p. ix.
11. Cytowic [2] p. ix.
12. Marks [3] p. 313.
13. Marks [3] p. 313.
14. Marks [3] p. 313.
15. Cytowic [2] p. ix. See also Marks [3].
16. J.K. Huysmans, Against Nature (A Rebours), Rob-
ert Baldick, trans. (Middlesex, U.K.: Penguin
Books, 1959) pp. 5859: Each and every liqueur, in
his opinion, corresponded in taste with the sound
of a particular instrument. Dry curacao, for in-
stance, was like the clarinet . . . kummel like the
oboe . . . creme de menthe and anisette like the
flute, at once sweet and tart, soft and shrill. . . . He
even succeeded in transferring specific pieces of
music to his palette, following the composer step by
step. . . . At other times he would compose melo-
dies of his own, executing pastorals with the sweet
blackcurrant liqueur that filled his throat with the
warbling song of a nightingale.
17. Wilfred Mellers, Man and His Music, Vol. 4 (New
York: Schocken, 1962, 1969) p. 117.
18. Mellers [17] p. 118.
19. Donald Brook, Six Great Russian Composers:
Glinka, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-
Korsakov, Scriabin (London: Rockliff Salisbury
Square, 1947) p. 88.
became compulsive, a hypochondriac, generally
disturbed and megalomaniacal, identifying with
God. He thought of himself as the true Messiah.
Needless to say, that is the way Scriabin generally
has been regarded. These disorders, however, are
difficult enough to diagnose during ones lifetime,
not to mention after ones death. See Harold C.
Schonberg, The Lives of the Great Composers (New
York: Norton, 1981) pp. 529532.
21. See Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The
Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 18901985 (New
York: Abbeville Press, 1986).
22. Dorothee Eberlein, Ciurlionis, Skrjabin un der
osteuropische Symbolismus, in Maur [9] p. 341.
23. Schonberg [20] p. 539 refers to a parallel be-
tween William Blake and Scriabin.
24. See Schonberg [20]. I question whether
Scriabin was actually delusional; I am quite certain
that Messiaen was not.
25. Faubion Bowers, Scriabin: A Biography of the
Russian Composer, 18711915, Vol. 2 (Tokyo and
Palo Alto, CA: Kodansha International, 1969) pp.
206207.
26. Bowers [25].
27. Bowers [25] p. 206.
28. The line embrace the entire world is from
Friedrich von Schillers Ode to Joy, Beethovens
Ninth Symphony.
29. By the effect of a concerto, I refer to the fact
that Scriabin had written this piece for a solo piano
against an entire orchestra, which is consistent with
the accepted definition of a concerto: a solo instru-
ment contrasted with an orchestra. However,
Scriabin called the piece a symphony.
30. Cytowic [2] p. 271.
31. Bowers [25] p. 206.
32. Mellers [17] p. 118. See also Schonberg [20].
33. Bulat M. Galeyev, The Fire of Prometheus:
Music-Kinetic Art Experiments in the USSR,
Leonardo 21, No. 4 (1988) p. 384.
34. I must agree with Kenneth Peacock, who states
in his article, Synesthetic Perception: Alexander
Scriabins Color Hearing, Music Perception 2, No. 4
(Summer 1985) p. 506, that Scriabins premature
death in 1915 prevented the fulfillment of his vi-
sion, which would have undoubtedly placed him
among the most important predecessors of todays
multimedia artists.
35. Quoted in Robert Sherlaw Johnson, Messiaen
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California
Press, 1975) p. 9. The statement cannot fail to re-
mind us of Scriabins visions for Mysterium.
36. Absolute, or strict, serialism requires that a
composer use all 12 notes of the chromatic scale.
No note is to be repeated until the other 11 have
appeared, and the order must remain unaltered
until the end of the piece. This rigidity did not ap-
peal to Messiaen, but he freely adapted some of
serialisms innovations.
37. Mellers [17] p. 220. These very same adjectives,
in fact, were used by Mellers to describe Scriabin two
pages earlier in the same book. There the author
states, Skryabin in his later work has gone much fur-
ther than Franck to create a music which is simply (if
not purely) masochism and auto-eroticism.
38. Mellers [17] p. 222.
39. Mellers [17] p. 223.
40. Alex Ross, New York Times (11 August 1994).
41. Claude Samuel, Olivier MessiaenMusic and
ColorConversations with Claude Samuel, E. Thomas
Glasow, trans. (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1994)
p. 41.
42. Samuel [41] p. 37.
43. Samuel [41] p. 40.
44. Samuel [41] p. 40.
45. Samuel [41] p. 42.
46. Johnson [35] p. 129, quoting Messiaen.
47. Johnson [35] p. 166, quoting Messiaen.
48. Cytowic [2] p. 267, citing Claude Samuel, Con-
versations with Olivier Messiaen, F. Aphrahamian,
trans. (London: Steiner and Bell, 1976) p. 91.
49. See Cytowic [48].
50. See Johnson [35] p. 81.
51. Johnson [35] p. 95, quoting Messiaens notes.
52. Johnson [35] p. 176.
53. Samuel [41] p. 43, quoting Messiaen.
54. See Ekman [8].
55. Cytowic [2] p. 271. However, Rimsky-
Korsakovs autobiography, My Musical Life (New
York: Knopf, 1923), does not include a single men-
tion of synesthesia.
56. Marks [3].
57. Information about Michael Torke comes from
my interview with the composer on 31 January 1998
in New York City.
58. Samuel [41] p. 40.
59. Program music refers to instrumental music
that tells a story or alludes to nature, etc.
Beethovens Pastoral Symphony and Berliozs
Berman, Synesthesia and the Arts 21
Symphonie Fantastique are examples of program mu-
sic. See, for example, Philip Alperson, ed., What Is
Music? (University Park, PA.: Pennsylvania State
Univ. Press, 1987) p. 3: [The] list of platitudes
about music is a long one. . . . Unlike paintings,
which we usually identify and talk about with refer-
ence to particular physical objects, musical works
seem more elusive: Is the musical work a perfor-
mance? If so, which performance? Is it a score? But
which score? And arent scores silent? Perhaps the
work is an idea in the composers mind? But isnt
22 Berman, Synesthesia and the Arts
music a performing art? Indeed, we may ask, is
music an art? What exactly does it have in common
with other arts such as architecture, painting, sculp-
ture or literature?
60. Cytowic [2] p. 276.
61. Cytowic [2] p. 283.
62. See, for example, John Harrison and Simon
Baron-Cohen, Synaesthesia: An Account of Col-
ored Hearing, Leonardo 27, No. 4, 343346 (1994);
J. Glickstein, O. Salinger and A. Roychman, An
Exploratory Study of Syncretic Experience:
Eidetics, Synaesthesia, and Absorption, Perception
21 (1992) pp. 637642; C. Rader and A. Tellegen,
An Investigation of Synesthesia, Journal of Person-
ality and Social Personality 52 (1987) pp. 981987.
See also the American Synesthesia Societys Web
site: <http://nevis.stir.ac.uk/~Idg/ISA/>.
Manuscript received 26 May 1997.