Music and color: about the phenomenon of color hearing

Even in ancient India, peculiar ideas about the close relationship between music and color developed. In particular, the Hindus believed that every person has his own melody and color. The brilliant Aristotle argued in his treatise “On the Soul” that the relationship of colors is similar to musical harmonies.

The Pythagoreans preferred white as the dominant color in the Universe, and the colors of the spectrum in their view corresponded to seven musical tones. Colors and sounds in the cosmogony of the Greeks are active creative forces.

In the 18th century, the monk-scientist L. Castel conceived the idea of ​​constructing a “color harpsichord.” Pressing a key would present the listener with a bright spot of color in a special window above the instrument in the form of a colored moving ribbon, flags, shining with various colors of precious stones, illuminated by torches or candles to enhance the effect.

Composers Rameau, Telemann and Grétry paid attention to Castel’s ideas. At the same time, he was sharply criticized by encyclopedists who considered the analogy “seven sounds of the scale – seven colors of the spectrum” to be untenable.

The phenomenon of “colored” hearing

The phenomenon of color vision of music was discovered by some outstanding musical figures. To the brilliant Russian composer N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, famous Soviet musicians B.V. Asafiev, S.S. Skrebkov, A.A. Quesnel and others saw all keys of major and minor as painted in certain colors. Austrian composer of the 20th century. A. Schoenberg compared colors with the musical timbres of the instruments of a symphony orchestra. Each of these outstanding masters saw their own colors in the sounds of music.

• For example, for Rimsky-Korsakov it had a golden hue and evoked a feeling of joy and light; for Asafiev it was painted the color of emerald green lawn after spring rain.
• it seemed dark and warm to Rimsky-Korsakov, lemon yellow to Quesnel, a red glow to Asafiev, and to Skrebkov it evoked associations with the color green.

But there were also surprising coincidences.

• The tonality was described as blue, the color of the night sky.
• Rimsky-Korsakov evoked associations with a yellowish, regal color, for Asafiev it was sun rays, intense hot light, and for Skrebkov and Quesnel it was yellow.

It is worth noting that all of the named musicians had absolute pitch.

“Color painting” with sounds

Works by N.A. Musicologists often call Rimsky-Korsakov “sound painting.” This definition is associated with the marvelous imagery of the composer’s music. Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas and symphonic compositions are rich in musical landscapes. The choice of tonal plan for nature paintings is by no means accidental.

Seen in blue tones, E major and E flat major, in the operas “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “Sadko”, “The Golden Cockerel”, were used to create pictures of the sea and the starry night sky. Sunrise in the same operas is written in A major – the key of spring, pink.

In the opera “The Snow Maiden” the ice girl first appears on stage in “blue” E major, and her mother Vesna-Krasna – in “spring, pink” A major. The manifestation of lyrical feelings is conveyed by the composer in the “warm” D-flat major – this is also the tonality of the scene of the melting of the Snow Maiden, who has received the great gift of love.

The French impressionist composer C. Debussy did not leave precise statements about his vision of music in color. But his piano preludes – “Terrace Visited by Moonlight”, in which the sound flares shimmer, “Girl with Flaxen Hair”, written in subtle watercolor tones, suggest that the composer had clear intentions to combine sound, light and color.

C. Debussy “Girl with Flaxen Hair”

Debussy’s symphonic work “Nocturnes” allows you to clearly feel this unique “light-color-sound”. The first part, “Clouds,” depicts silver-gray clouds slowly moving and fading in the distance. The second nocturne of the “Celebration” depicts bursts of light in the atmosphere, its fantastic dance. In the third nocturne, magical siren maidens sway on the waves of the sea, sparkling in the night air, and sing their bewitching song.

K. Debussy “Nocturnes”

Speaking about music and color, it is impossible not to touch on the work of the brilliant A.N. Scriabin. For example, he clearly felt the rich red color of F major, the golden color of D major, and the blue solemn color of F sharp major. Scriabin did not associate all tonalities with any color. The composer created an artificial sound-color system (and further on the circle of fifths and the color spectrum). The composer’s ideas about the combination of music, light and color were most vividly embodied in the symphonic poem “Prometheus”.

Scientists, musicians and artists still argue today about the possibility of combining color and music. There are studies that the periods of oscillations of sound and light waves do not coincide and “color sound” is only a phenomenon of perception. But musicians have definitions: . And if sound and color are combined in the creative consciousness of the composer, then the grandiose “Prometheus” by A. Scriabin and the majestic sounding landscapes of I. Levitan and N. Roerich are born. In Polenova…