A Brief History of Synesthesia in the Arts

In ancient China, one of the various schemes relating such matters as seasons of the year, body parts, facial features, and planets, contained the following:

(based upon Jewanski 1999: 70, which is based upon Wang 1984/1985)

An ancient Persian scheme provides the following correspondences between musical tones and colors:

(based upon Jewanski 1999: 70, which is based upon Wellek 1927 )

Around the year 550 B.C., the Pythagorans offered mathematical equations for the musical scales, showing that musical notes could be seen as relationships between numbers. A musical scale, for example, could be divided into eight notes, an "octave" scale, which repeats its sequence as the musical notes proceeded higher or lower. To use a basic example, this could be the C-Major scale on the piano, consisting of just the white keys: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. This is also the basic "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do".

Around 350 B.C., Aristotle wrote to maintain that the harmony of colors were like the harmony of sounds. This set the stage for a later equating of specific light and sound frequencies, as Aristotle's works were translated and incorporated into European sciences.

Aristotle, in his On Sense and the Sensible (350 B.C.), also established a correspondence between flavors and colors, as follows (see also Riccò 1999: 29; Jewanski 1999: 84):

At about this same time, Archytas of Tarentus (c. 428 - 350 B.C.) introduced the "chromatic" scale to Greece. This was seen as a compliment to the two main scales: the diatonic (a whole-note or full-tone scale); and the enharmonic (quarter-tones).

In the latter half of the eleventh century, Rudolph of St Trond "sought to introduce a notational system which represented the modes (tropoi) of plainsong - which he mistakenly identified with the ancient Greek modes - by colours; thus the Dorian was to be written in red, the Phrygian in green, the Lydian in yellow and the Mixolydian in purple. This system, which was designed simply for clarity, found little echo even in the manuscripts of Rudolph's own work" (Gage 1993: 228).

In 1517, a lute manuscript was produced which had note-duration notated via color: an 8th note = red; a 16th note = blue; a 32nd = yellow/green.

By 1570, Cardanus had altered his system slightly, and now added correspondences to tone intervals:

Kircher also developed a set of correspondences between voice types and colors (based upon Jewanski 1999: 215-216):

Marin Cureau de la Chambre, in 1650, proposed a scheme of colored musical intervals based on Aristotle (see Jewanski 1999: 222-226):

red = tonic
orange = minor third
yellow = fourth
green = fifth
blue = major sixth
indigo = seventh
violet = eighth (octave)

In 1723, David Gottlob Diez produced a system corresponding colors, planets, and musical tones (see Jewanski 1999: 144-146):

In 1739, Lorenz Christoph Mizler (1711-1778) developed his sceme for colored musical notes, in response to Newton:

Note that this is seven colors, arranged as per the supposed "spectrum" (see Jewanski 1999: 466-468).

The French Jesuit monk Louis Bertrand Castel, the well-known mathematician and physicist, was a firm advocate of there being direct solid relationships between the seven colors and the seven units of the scale, as per Newton's Optics. Around 1742, Castel proposed the construction of a clavecin oculaire, a light-organ, as a new musical instrument which would simultaneously produce both sound and the "correct" associated color for each note.

Relationships between sounds and colors according to L.B. Castel:

(see Jewanski 1999)

Johann Gottlob Krüger, in 1743, variated Newton's scheme, producing the following variation:

Polycarp Poncelet, in 1755, combined musical tones with basic taste sensations, in the following scheme:

Note the difference here between Euler's C = purple starting point and previous C = red starting points of Krüger, Mizler, and Newton. It should be noted, however, that Euler basically rejected the idea of a natural realationship between light and sound, and dismissed Castel's idea of a clavecin oculaire.

Also in 1789, Louis-François-Henri Lefébure modified Castel's scheme of colored musical notes, changing it to the following:

(see Jewanski 1999: 401-403)

In 1862, François Sudre died, leaving behind him the invention of Solresol, a "Universal Language" based upon seven musical pitches (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si -- with "middle C" set as "do). Sudre suggested that one system for encoding Solresol could employ fires or lanterns using the following sequence:

Note that this is basically identical with Mizler's (1739) system, itself based upon Newton's supposed seven colors of the spectrum.

In 1893, Bainbridge Bishop published regarding his scheme of correspondences for colored notes, which he deemed as being correct according to nature as displayed by rainbows (see Bishop 1893):

By this time, Bishop had already constructed at least three color organs, capable of playing both sound and corresponding light together or separately. Perhaps surprisingly, the three color organs were each destroyed in separate fires. The first color organ was exhibited in New York; it was this same organ which was later owned and displayed by P.T. Barnum at Barnum's house in Bridgeport (and subsequently ruined when the house burned down). The second was destroyed in a hotel fire at Lake George; the third, at during a fire at Bishop's own house.

Last up-dated: 29.November.2007