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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 eight composers who really did hear music in colour.<\/strong><\/b> <\/p> A colourful composer in every sense, the great French composer<\/a><\/strong> Olivier Messiaen once tried to describe his sensory skill, stating ‘I see colours when I hear sounds, but I don\u2019t see colours with my eyes. I see colours intellectually, in my head.’<\/p> Messiaen’s particular strain of synaesthesia can more acccurately be labelled chromesthesia – meaning that he would see specific colours when he heard particular musical chords or scales. No surprise, then, that Messiaen<\/a><\/strong>‘s own music is full of vivid colours. For example, in his masterpiece Turangal\u00eela-Symphonie<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Messiaen described certain harmonies as evoking specific colour tones such as ‘greenish gold’ or ‘blue-orange’.<\/p> For an example of Messiaen in synaesthetic mode, try 1963’s Couleurs de la Cit\u00e9 C\u00e9leste<\/em> for piano and small orchestra, in which Messiaen expresses in music a vision of ‘the light of the city (…) like crystalline jasper’.<\/p>Eight composers with synaesthesia<\/h2>
1. Olivier Messiaen<\/strong><\/h3>