 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2006-04-13 02:40
Some people feel a specific color when they hear a specific musical note or reading a specific number. This was once broadcasted on NPR.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4602748
Although this sense is called rare on NPR, I know a person who has.
Is there any person who has this sense on this BBS? Unfortunately, I don't.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-04-13 05:28
Synthesia is not only seeing colours (and shapes) when listeing to music. That is actually a small part of it, and every person with synthesia has it differently.
I just saw a BBC show about it and the most common was seeing colours in numbers or numbers in space - anything mostly had to do with numbers. Only one woman of all the people they showed had music synthesia and it was not as specific as a clear colour. For example she saw very different colours between high and low notes, but a semi tone difference would almost not change the colour at all.
One person had synthesia that he gets smells when hearing words. He was cooking and actually had to leave the kichen because of the smells the synthesia got him and it mixed with the cooking smells.
I have synthesia but also very different to seeing colours from notes. It is mostly taste/music and materials/shapes. That is, different tastes will be as if I'm touching some material (sometimes shaped ina certain way). Also, in music it is almost only timbre that matters and not the specific note. Some sounds can be like plastic, metal, fabric, and the matterial can be pointy, smooth, etc. and it is not like someone imagine it, it is exactly the same as if I am touching it. Kind of hard to explain really.
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2006-04-13 11:42
I believe it's 'Synesthesia'or 'Synaesthesia' (derived from the Greek 'syn'="union"). It's when one sensory input can be simultaneously experienced as another. I was going to write my thesis on it, related to music, but decided on something a whole lot easier and more tangible...
For what it's worth, I memorise music by means of colours, shapes, and textures and often use visual elements during practice.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2006-04-13 12:29
For a lot more about synaesthesia, see Richard E. Cytowic, "The Man Who Tasted Shapes." Patricia Lynne Duffy, in "Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color Their World," gives a more colloquial, personal account.
[I updated this message because I noticed that I had mistakenly attributed "The Man Who Tasted Shapes" to Oliver Sacks. Sacks does have interesting things to say about synaesthesia in some of the books he really did write, but he didn't write this one. Sorry about leaving misinformation here!]
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2006-04-14 13:52)
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Author: Alseg
Date: 2006-04-13 13:10
My younger son (high-functioning autistic) perceives colors specific to the notes and has perfect pitch.
My wife has perfect pitch but not the synesthesia.
I wonder if genetics plays a part?
(I do not have perfect pitch FWIW)
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2006-04-13 22:42
I've read somewhere that it can be passed down to women in every generation (as there is a much higher rate of synesthesia in women and gay men). I think in some cases it is linked to one's creativity; that some can 'make it up' whereas others experience it involuntarily, and in rare cases it can have a negative effect on one's everyday life.
A friend of mine has trouble dealing with friends who wear "the wrong colour" that day. She experiences personality -> colour synesthesia.
This is all based off the little amount of research I did before abandoning the topic for an academic paper. I really wish I'd looked into it more now.
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Author: bob49t
Date: 2006-04-14 17:16
I have a friend and musical colleague Joseph Long, who recently gave a paper at an International Synaesthesia conference in (I think) Spain.
He has the phenomenon of perfect pitch and the gift to instantly replicate what he has just heard.The article is here at ............................
http://www.long76.freeserve.co.uk/articles.htm
It's very well written, but having the insight into the fact that he is also registered blind (congenital cataract), I found it fascinating and much easier to follow.
It is certainly a concept that takes listening to music and conjuring scenes of a pastoral nature, feelings of bereavement or great joy etc to new levels and lets us unsynaesthetes appreciate what many of our colleagues experience.
RT
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