History


		*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:


	Taste

	sour

	bitter

	sweet

	sharp

	salty


	Color

	green and blue

	red

	yellow

	white

	black


	Tone

	jué

	zhi^v

	go^-ng

	sha^-ng

	yú


	Number

	3

	5

	3

	2


	Planet

	Jupiter

	Mars

	Saturn

	Venus

	Mercury

(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:


	B

	A

	G

	F

	E

	D

	C


	rose

	green

	bright blue

	black

	yellow

	violet

	blue-black

(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".




	Pythagoras




		Plato

Around 370 B.C. or so, Plato wrote Timaeus, in which the soul of the world is described as having these same musical ratios. A cosmology was emerging in which the planets' radii (the planets' order actually varied, depending upon the author) were set with a ratio sequence of 1:2:3:4:8:9. Later, ratios would emerge with the following ratio sequence: Moon = 1; Venus = 2; Earth = 3; Mars = 4; Jupiter = 14; Saturn = 25. This sequence approximated the Greek diatonic musical scale's ratios, thus the planets were tied to music, and a concept of "the music of the spheres" was initiated.

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


	*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):**


	Flavor

	sweet

	fat

	tangy

	sour

	sharp

	salty

	bitter


	Color

	white

	yellow

	purple-red

	violet

	green

	blue

	black




	Archytas


	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).


	Around 1492, Franchino Gaffurio was re-introducing colorized Greek modal music to Europe, with the following system: Dorian = "crystaline" color; Phrygian = orange; Lydian = red; and Mixolydian = an "undefined mixed color" (which is, admittedly, somewhat vague).

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.

In 1550, Girolamo Cardanus (also known as Cardano) developed a system of corresponding colors with flavors and the planets:


	white

	yellow

	red (puniceus)

	purple (purpureus)

	green

	blue

	black


	sweet

	harsh/pungent (austerus)

	tart

	sour

	sharp (acutus)

	salty

	bitter


	Venus

	Jupiter

	Moon

	Mercury

	Sun

	Mars

	Saturn


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


	Venus

	Sun

	Mercury

	Jupiter

	Mars

	Saturn

	Moon


	sweet

	pungent (acris)

	sour

	fatty (pinguis)

	salty

	astringent

	tasteless


	octave

	major sixth

	minor sixth

	fifth

	fourth

	major third