{"id":40737,"date":"2024-03-11T14:48:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T13:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/86ee2d9a-579d-4bf8-aad3-b6ca7fb80384"},"modified":"2024-03-11T15:39:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T14:39:59","slug":"five-composers-with-synaesthesia","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/five-composers-with-synaesthesia\/","title":{"rendered":"Five composers with synaesthesia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Michael Beek\n <\/p>

Published: Monday, 11 March 2024 at 13:48 PM<\/p>

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Synaesthesia – a neurological condition in which one sense triggers another to stimulate an additional sensory response – has often been associated with certain composers and pieces. Many of us may seem to ‘hear’ a certain colour while listening to a particular work. Here are five composers who really did hear music in colour.<\/strong><\/b><\/p>

This is why music is good for your mental health, according to scientists<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
Composers with synaesthesia<\/h2>
1. Alexander Scriabin<\/strong><\/b><\/h3>
The composer was very much influenced by his colour sense, going on to write Prometheus: The Poem of Fire<\/em><\/strong>, which featured the clavier \u00e0 lumi\u00e8res (or luce), a keyboard \u2018instrument\u2019 which emitted light instead of sound.<\/p>
<\/div><\/figure><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-2-jean-sibelius\">2. Jean Sibelius<\/h3><p>The Finnish composer was apparently very much a multi-synaesthete, in that he claimed to also hear sounds in his mind when he saw colours, objects or via scents. Perhaps he truly heard the sound of silence\u2026<\/p><ul><li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/sibelius-a-life-in-10-masterpieces\/\">Sibelius: a life in ten masterpieces<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-3-olivier-messiaen\">3. Olivier Messiaen<\/h3><p>A colourful composer in every sense, Messiaen once tried to describe his sensory skill, stating \u201cI see colours when I hear sounds, but I don\u2019t see colours with my eyes. I see colours intellectually, in my head.\u201d<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/five-essential-works-messiaen\/\"><strong>Five essential works by Messiaen<\/strong><\/a><\/li><\/ul><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-4-gyorgy-ligeti\">4. Gy\u00f6rgy Ligeti<\/h3><p>The Hungarian composer was quite open about his synaesthesia, stating \u201cMajor chords are red or pink, minor chords are somewhere between green and brown.\u201d He claimed to also have had the ability to see numbers as colours.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ligeti: Lontano (Claudio Abbado - Wiener Philharmoniker)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bnZqZmcyvvI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><ul><li><strong><a class=\"standard-card-new__article-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/guide-ligetis-style\/\">A guide to Ligeti’s style<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-5-franz-liszt\">5. Franz Liszt<\/h3><p>It\u2019s said the composer would speak to musicians in terms of the colours they needed to achieve in their performances, and is quoted as giving directions such as \u201cA little bluer, if you please! This tone type requires it!\u201d<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/five-essential-works-liszt\/\">Five essential works by Liszt<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Michael Beek Published: Monday, 11 March 2024 at 13:48 PM Synaesthesia – a neurological condition in which one sense triggers another to stimulate an additional sensory response – has often been associated with certain composers and pieces. Many of us may seem to ‘hear’ a certain colour while listening to a particular work. Here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":40738,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/03\/five-composers-with-synaesthesia.png",1118,746,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/03\/five-composers-with-synaesthesia-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/03\/five-composers-with-synaesthesia-300x200.png",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/03\/five-composers-with-synaesthesia-768x512.png",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/03\/five-composers-with-synaesthesia-1024x683.png",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/03\/five-composers-with-synaesthesia.png",1118,746,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/03\/five-composers-with-synaesthesia.png",1118,746,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Michael Beek Published: Monday, 11 March 2024 at 13:48 PM Synaesthesia – a neurological condition in which one sense triggers another to stimulate an additional sensory response – has often been associated with certain composers and pieces. Many of us may seem to ‘hear’ a certain colour while listening to a particular work. Here…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/40737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Composers with synaesthesia<\/h2>