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The Priest of Beauty:Synesthetic influence in the Arts

In 1734 the French mathematician and Jesuit priest, Louis Bertrand Castel, built the worldsfirst light organ. Following the theory of colour and pitch set down in Optiks (1704) by his

fellow mathematician, the world famous Sir Isaac Newton, Castel linked the colourspectrum to the western musical scale and built an instrument that produced acorresponding colour for every pitch. His invention dazzled the Enlightenment Society whoflocked to Paris to see the sixty coloured-glass panes of the light organ appear one by onein accordance with the notes that were played. Although Castels hopes that a light organwould become a popular form of mass entertainment never came to fruition, interest in themixing of music and colour continued to flourish, leading to many further attempts toproduce light organs by the assignation of the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale tospecific colours, as well as the appearance of several treatises on the subject such as D.DJamesons pamphlet, Colour-Music (1844) and Sound and Colour (1869) by J D Macdonald.With the aid of electricity, by 1895 the British artist Alexander Wallace Rimington was ableto build a more effective light organ which could activate projected, moving, coloured lightbeams through filters and lenses. Far from the light organ becoming a passing fad, by the

beginning of the Twentieth Century the interaction of colour and music had become anintegral point of interest within artistic circles.

Experimentation into colour and music thrived with the work of Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) acting as two of its chief advocates. Both menwere fundamental to the development of colour and music in the early 1900s, but mostimportantly to the present discussion, claimed to experience colours when they heardmusic, possessing the condition now known as Synesthesia. Synesthesia literally meanstogether sensations from the Latin syn (together) and the Greek esthesia (sensations) andmedically defined describes a condition in which normally separate senses are notseparate.1 Although many people, both past and present, such as Scriabin and Kandinskyare known to possess the condition, so little is still known about the human brain thatconclusive proof has been hard to find regarding the causes and affects of synesthetic

ability. The lack of definites and factual evidence within the field of synesthesia proves adifficult issue when attempting to find a decisive definition or quantify its importance androle within an artistic sphere. Although there are many forms of synesthesia involving themixing of all the senses, for a discussion centred around the arts, a specific focus on theelement of colour-hearing, the most common form of the condition, is needed. Not all ofthe investigators in this field had personal colour-hearing experience, with correlationsbetween colour and sound being approached by non-synesthetes equally effectively, withthe paintings of Paul Klee (1879-1940) and A Colour Symphony (1922) by Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) standing out as shining examples. Many of the pioneers in the field of synestheticdiscovery did, however, experience some form of colour-hearing, not least those wholooked to create synthesis in art.

This synthesis was attempted through the passion, intensity and introspective attitudes ofthe Romantic period, not least in the work of Richard Wagner (1813-1883) but the rise ofTheosophy in the late 1800s led artists to examine and explore the world in a new way,with colour-hearing providing a brand new means of exploration, aiding the artist in hisdesire to reach inwards and explore deep spiritual themes in his work. For both thescientist and the artist, synesthesia is integral to the creative arts in its apparent linkage tohuman emotion and spirit, but from a historical perspective it seems that from the turn ofthe Twentieth Century, art, spiritualism and synthesis have been inseparably bound.

Although in artistic realms the concept of synthesis has been grappled with for well over acentury, the scientific world has been slower to grasp its importance. Synesthesia has theability to provide neurological researchers with an entirely new avenue of discovery into

1 Yuri Bronstein MD,Definition of Synesthesia

(http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=8445)


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the conscious and the unconscious mind, but until the recent work of individuals such asRichard Cytowic, an American neurologist and psychologist, and Simon Baron-Cohen,professor of developmental psychopathology in the departments of psychiatry andexperimental psychology at Cambridge, it has been denied a place in mainstream science.Gradually it has become more prominent, being closely examined, with theories beingpresented regarding its cause, evolutionary roots and most interestingly, its surprising

prevalence within the population.

In The New Scriabin, Faubion Bowers wrote The schizophrenic, the mystic and the artistmeet at some dangerous connecting point, and psychosis and transcendence are sometimesdifficult to sort and separate2. The following discussion of synesthesias place in the artswill strive to tackle the problem of sorting and separating with regards to artistic languageand to explore the possibility of wide spread synesthesia in the populous. Synesthesia is themeeting point between sound, colour and spirituality and the key to expressing theinexpressible.

2

Fabion Bowers. The New Scriabin, Enigmas and Answers, (New York, 1973) p.104


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There has never been a time when the arts have approachedeach other more nearly than they do today, in the later phase

of spiritual development3

Kandinsky was a firm believer in the parallel existence of visual art and music, and devotedhis working life to trying to bring the two closer and achieve new artistic and emotionaldepth. Superficially his approach was relatively obvious with the use of many musical ideasand terms being applied to his art works. He often talked of harmony and counterpoint inhis work and was indeed known best for his compositions, where he drew togethermusical and visual elements as colourful expressions, undoubtedly supported by hissynesthetic abilities.4 It would be near impossible to ignore the music in Composition VI,painted in 1913 and now hanging in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg:

Fig. 1 Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VI (1913)

The shapes immediately suggest musical themes, echoing the strings of a violin and the bellof a trumpet and the overall composition of the painting forms the basic shape of anorchestra or group of players with a roughly circular outline being formed. The feeling ofmovement and activity is greatly increased by the undulating shapes and forms whichappear to be falling towards the dark area central to the composition. The swathes ofcolour also used by Kandinsky add a great deal to the overall musical effect. To some

extent the use of colour could be perceived as subtle, often with many similar shadesforming an overall effect such as the blue green shades of the bottom right hand corner orthe painting. The majority of the painting is light in tone, with even the extreme of whitebeing used in several places, only to be punctuated by forms in dark brown and black. Thepredominance of the red and blue throughout the canvas lends added strength and form tothe painting, emphasising the contrasts of sound and tone.

The parallels between music and visual art seen here provided the basis for most ofKandinsky's later work which involved many Improvisations and Compositions, but theinspiration of one of his close friends and artistic allies also proved a strong influence in thedevelopment of his synthesis within the arts. Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), a fellow artistgreatly admired by Kandinsky, drew many parallels between visual art and music and in the

3 Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, p.194

Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, p.27


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process made one of the greatest developments in western Twentieth Century music. Thedevelopment of abstraction was a concept which began with the work of the Frenchimpressionists such as Paul Czanne (1839-1906) and Claude Monet (1840-1926) andKandinsky worked on the dematerialisation of objects which he saw in their work, anddeveloped abstraction in his own direction. But it was Schoenberg who became the leadingfigure in using abstraction in the form of atonalism to, in Kandinskys words realise that

the greatest freedom of all, the freedom of an unfettered art, can never be absolute.5

Ofall the synesthetic artists working around the turn of the Twentieth Century, Kandinsky andSchoenberg appear to have shared a true affinity regarding artistic ideals, as this letterwritten by Kandinsky dated 18th January 1911 shows.

Dear Professor, Please excuse me for simply writing to you without having thepleasure of knowing you personally. I have just heard your concert here and it hasgiven me real pleasure. You do not know me, of course-that is, my works- since Ido not exhibit much in general, and have exhibited in Vienna only briefly onceand that was years ago. However, what we are striving for and our whole mannerof thought and feeling have so much in common that I feel completely justified inexpressing my empathy. In your works you have realised what I, albeit inuncertain form, have so greatly longed for in music.6

The concept of the discarding of chromaticism and the abandonment of tonal and harmonicconventions which penetrated Schoenbergs works became equally important to theCompositions of Kandinsky. An emphasis on contrast deeply penetrated the work of bothartists as Kandinsky wrote, Harmony today rests chiefly on the principle of contrast whichhas for all time been one of the most important principles in art 7. The abandonment ofstrict tonality and the emancipation of dissonance, which Schoenberg explained in the finalchapter of his treatise Harmonielehre [Theory of Harmony] worked for both composers, inconjunction with the rise of the importance of colour in their work. Once again thesynesthetic experiences of both artists had the central effect on their work whicheventually led to the development, by both composers of a more complete work of art, orstage composition, involving music, dance, and colour movement. Kandinskys play DerGelbe Klang [The Yellow Sound], written in 1909, involved a compound mixture of colour,

light, dance and sound whilst Schoenbergs opera Die Gluckliche Hand [The Lucky Hand](1924), involved symbolic lighting and stage effects.

The concept of a total work of art encompassing music, art, drama and movement alsobecame a central part of Alexander Scriabins composition. His greatest statement in thisdirection came in 1903 when he expressed a desire to create Mysterium, a grandsynesthetic composition involving music, drama, dance and poetry. Although this was neverfully achieved, the connection to Wagners Gestamkunstwerk [total work of art] is clearlyvisible and it is quite possible that Scriabin saw his work as the next logical step inachieving the end result. The work of Wagner can go some way to explaining the directionof not only Scriabins ideology, but that of the arts in general at the beginning of theTwentieth Century. The development of the Gestamkustwerk and the influence of thephilosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) including artistic views such as that musiccould still exist even if there was no world at all, encouraged artists to re-examine thehuman condition and set down new guidelines for the future development of the arts. 8 Thegeneration of Der Bleu Reiter and the Second Viennese School found artistic lines had beenblurred with all art forms channelling towards one great epicentre of artistic achievementinvolving expressionism and spirituality. Colour hearing however, has not been the onlyincentive and aid to realising a total work of art, or even the synthesis between twoindividual art forms with other artists adopting different methods. Wagner, according to hiswritings, shows no sign of having typically synesthetic qualities, yet devoted his life to


Arnold Schoenberg, Correspondences Arnold Schoenberg-Wassily Kandinsky

(http://www.schoenberg.at/4_exhibits/asc/kandinsky/letters_e.htm#)7 Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, p. 438

Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, [1818] trans. E Payne, (London, 1969)


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achieving a synthesis in the arts. Obviously, colour-hearing is only one route to achievingan end goal, but it does play an integral role as any investigation will show. Many of theartists who did involve the cross pollination of colour and sound in their work, such asKandinsky, Scriabin and Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), also experienced colour-hearingcross-modal sensation.

The Mysterium of the acutely synesthetic Scriabin does throw up specific elements of theintegration of spirituality with colour and sound which cannot be found in WagnersGestamkunstwerk. The introduction of profound spiritualism to a synthesthetic compositionappears to highlight the ability of colour-hearing rather than just the theory and challengeof conjoining the arts, as in general terms, only synesthetes have the ability to feelspiritual connections between colour and sound. In any case, the belief that the grandsynesthetic Mysterium could bring about the dawn of a new age places Scriabins aims on avery different plane to those of Richard Wagner.

Needless to say, Mysterium never materialised and Scriabin came little closer to achieving atotal work of art than Kandinsky or Schoenberg. The only difference being that hiscomposition was a composition in the more traditional sense. His Poem of Ecstasy, op.54(1908) and later his fifth symphony, Prometheus, The Poem of Fire, op.60 (1910) became

the pinnacle of his synesthetic achievement. What most obviously makes Prometheus standabove all Scriabins other works as the most forward in the search for totality is the noveluse of the Clavier a Luce (light organ) which was to bathe the hall in coloured light ofthe corresponding keys.9

This mixing of sound and colour was to some extent, the musical alternative to Kandinskyspictorial compositions. For Scriabin, the task of adding the Clavier a Luce to his work wasthe obvious step towards his ultimate goal of total synthesis in the arts and his synestheticcapabilities allowed him to join the two art forms with little difficulty. The Clavier a Lucepart is continuous throughout the work and is written as two pitches on a single stave. Thelower part of the organ was intended to bathe the hall in light whilst the upper part wasmore active, constantly changing colour with each new chord or key.

Because in any real sense multiple art forms have never been fused effectively enough toproduce the outcome that both Kandinsky and Scriabin sought, it is hard to pass judgementin the effectiveness of the conjoining of the senses.10 It would be unwise to proclaim thatsynesthetic composers are any more successful in trying to achieve a more vibrant ordeeply moving experience through the fusion of the arts, but there is biological knowledgewhich can begin to explain why an artist might expect to find answers through thesemethods.Neurological research has been used to prove synesthesia as an actual physiologicalcondition rather than an anomaly as has been previously thought (Baron Cohen 2002). Therehas also been further study into the neurological causes of synesthesia (Grossenbacher1992) and this is where the supporting scientific theory for creation of total art works canbe found. The concept of crossed-wires often used to explain synesthetic experience hasalso been investigated with proposals being put forward to give more exact explanations. 11

Peter Grossenbacher, a psychologist at Naropa University proposes that the brain of asynesthete feeds backwards allowing connections carrying information from high-levelmulti-sensory areas to single sense areas to travel without being properly inhibited.12

9 Fabion Bowers, Preface to the score of Scriabin, Prometheus, The Poem of Fire, op. 60 (London,

1980)10

Due to the complexity and unconsciousness of a synesthetic experience it is, in any real sense, much

more difficult to recreate it for a wider audience. Although many attempts have been made to produce

Prometheus involving light to the extent Scriabin imagined it, even with modern technology it is a near

impossible task.11

Siri Carpenter, Every Day Fantasia: The World of Synesthesia,Monitor on Psychology, Vol.32(March 2001), 312

Siri Carpenter, Every Day Fantasia


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Daphne Maurer, a psychologist from McMaster University, Ontario supports this theoryspeculating that rather than synesthetes having extra neural connections in their brains,humans are all born with them, but lose the ability to use them as they grow.13 Assumingthat this hypothesis is correct, and that humans are actually born with the necessary neuralconnections in place, it is no wonder that a composer could make sure of the cross wiring inrealising a total work of art. With neurological evidence providing the explanatory theory

and synesthetic composers proving the existence and use of colour-sound cross-wiring clearconnections begin to be made between synesthetic ability and artistic output. Althoughpeople such as Kandinsky or Scriabin may not have recognised their synesthesia as atangible quality they had no problem in putting it to use in their work.

13

Siri Carpenter, Every Day Fantasia


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That is beautiful which is produced by the inner need, whichsprings from the soul14

As Leo Tolstoy wrote, Music is the shorthand of emotion and the two are vital parts ofartistic expression.15 Often the outlet to express the deepest of human emotions lies in the

realms of religion or spirituality, and numerous art works have been devoted to this theme.Many artists have looked to their synesthetic ability to aid them in attempting to achievenew levels of transcendence or spiritualism through their chosen medium, and Scriabin,Messiaen and Kandinskys attempts will be examined in turn. Firstly, the correlationbetween human emotion and synesthesia will be assessed using the scientific research ofLarry Marks and Richard Cytowic (2002). From research carried out they concluded thatsynesthesia occurs in the Limbic System, a more emotional and possibly primitive part ofthe brain than the neo-cortex, where higher thinking occurs (see Fig 2).16

Fig. 2 The Limbic System

This allows for the possibility that our response to an art form, say a piece of music, couldbe appreciated on two separate levels, firstly in the neo-cortex where it is formallyappreciated involving conscious evaluating and assessing, and secondly in a more primitiveform where we appreciate the emotional content and the underlying effect it has on us,including any connections we may make between what we see, hear and feel. Kandinskyproduces an effective analogy in Concerning the Spiritual in Art to explain this point, in aconversation with an interesting person, we endeavour to get at his fundamental ideas andfeelings. We do not bother about the words he uses, nor the spelling of those works, northe breath necessary for speaking [.] we realise those things though interesting andimportant are not the main things of the moment, but that the meaning and idea is whatconcerns us. We should have the same feeling when confronted with a work of art. 17 Itbecomes clear that what synesthesia helps to describe is not any tangible qualities in art,but rather the abstract idea which is being represented. In cases of synesthesia wherecolours and linked to numbers it has been seen that the colour relates to the abstract ideaof the number rather than the numerical concept, for example, a synesthete could make nocolour connection between an Arabic and the equivalent Roman numeral, just between the

colour and the concept of a number. The concept of an abstract idea is integral to theunderstanding of the importance of colour-hearing to art. As much music expresses abstractideas such as spirituality or mysticism, a strong connection can be seen between the waythe brain tackles abstract thought in conjunction with multi-sensory perception. Artists bydefinition have a natural talent for expressing abstract concepts in tangible forms and oftenhave quite clear ideas of exactly how they will express it.

Alexander Scriabin, an artist and synesthete, held the clearest idea for how music, colour,and emotion should be conveyed. He wrote and composed extensively, striving to


Leo Tolstoy, letter to his wife, January 190516

Richard Cytowic, Synesthesia: Phenomology and Neuropsycology A Review of Current Knowledge(http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v2/psyche-2-10-cytowic.html)17



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incorporate music and visual art to achieve great works of transcendent quality. Followingno strict religious code, Scriabin preferred the more ambiguous term Mysticism on which tofocus his emotional attentions. To some extent this followed in the footsteps of Wagner,who had become intensely involved with the human psyche and more precisely thephilosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). This philosophicalbackground, and especially Nietzsches concept of the Superman, supported a theory which

championed the human condition rather than relying on any strict religious codes. Scriabinmade the human condition a central point of his work, and championing his idea ofmysticism often went as far as to uphold unsubstantiated beliefs which almostunquestionably verged on the insane. In Scriabin, Hugh Macdonald, states a strong case forthe intense conviction of these theories running far deeper than artistic ideals, becoming toScriabin, a doctrine for life, I am God! I am nothing, a game, I am freedom, I am life, I ama frontier, a peak.18 According to his view, Scriabin thought of this music asdemonstrations and manifestations and believed that what he was creating was no longermusic but something else.19 He ranted about placing himself sur le plan de lunite andsaw himself as the supreme high priest at the altar of this universal temple. 20 His beliefthat a new stage of existence could be brought about through art became central to hiswritings and brought art and life closer than they had ever been.

To understand the importance Scriabin placed on the arts, it is first necessary to grasp hisbasic view of spirituality, humanity and the foundation of existence. All things began withSpirit, but had now evolved to a state of Matter.21 In Scriabins theosophically-basedopinion, the future involved returning to the original state of Spirit. Aided, possibly by hissynesthetic cross wiring, Scriabins view of the arts closely mirrored his Spirit-Matter-Spiritpattern of existence. Originally, he believed that the arts existed in undivided unity, butwith the emergence of Matter it had been necessary for divisions to emerge, betweencomposer and performer for example. His aim was to return to Spirit through the, onceagain united, arts.22

In the role Bowers assigned him as high priest, Scriabin developed the concept of Mystery,which would come as Spirit triumphed and could only be followed by the end of the existingworld.23 As he saw the arts as a catalyst, he set about composing a great work, Mysterium,

to bring on the triumph of Spirit. Predictably this work never materialised, but hisprogrammatic work, Prometheus, became the culmination of this effort and a prominentshowcase for the coexistence of colour hearing and spiritualism.

In this, the most densely theosophical piece of music ever written Scriabin expressedmany human characteristics such as Will, Contemplation and Joy through one of the mostambitious and fantastical stories which ends with the disintegration into the cosmic dust ofNirvana as Bowers dramatically states.24 All of this was achieved by the involvement ofindividual keys with specific colours. Scriabins colour-hearing is particularly prominent as atechnique used to aid his expression and explanations of spirit or Mystery and Prometheusprovides one of the soundest examples of a work which truly integrates colour with sound.

The harmonic root of Prometheus is based around Scriabins mystic chord (C, F#, Bb, E, A,D) which first appeared in his fifth sonata for Piano (1907). The overall harmonic shape ofPrometheus mirrors the pattern of Scriabins spiritual ideas moving from F# to C and backto F# where F# represents Spirit and C, Matter. In colour terms this meant a shift from blueto red and returning to blue which appears in the lower part of the Clavier a Luce. Thislower part, which only shifts ten times throughout the piece, follows the expected changefrom Spirit to Matter according to Scriabins system. F#-Ab-Bb-C-Db-D-E-Db-F# in the bass

18From Hugh Macdonald, Scriabin, (Oxford University Press, 1978) p. 9

19 Bowers, Preface to Prometheus20 Hugh Macdonald, Scriabin, p.1021

Hugh Macdonald, Scriabin, p.1222

Hugh Macdonald, Scriabin, p.12523 Bowers, The New Scriabin, p.12524

Bowers, Preface to Prometheus


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follows the states from Creativity (F#) through Movement of Spirit (Ab), Lust (Bb), HumanWill (C), and Joy (D) back to Creativity.

However ritualistically Scriabin uses Prometheus to hammer home the concept of thesynthesis of the arts, he strived to reach new spiritual heights aided only by artistic means,something that had never been attempted, and possibly achieved, so successfully. There is

no doubt that his contemporary Kandinsky would have approved of his spiritual approach totackling spirituality writing that Every man who steeps himself in the spiritual possibilitiesof his art is a valuable helper in the building of the spiritual pyramid which will somedayreach to heaven.25

The collision of ideas between Scriabin and Kandinsky continues with Kandinskys statementI value only those artists who really are artists, that is, who consciously or unconsciously,in an entirely original form, embody the expression of their inner life; who work only forthis end and cannot work otherwise, the sentiment of which could easily be applied toScriabins artistic theories.26 Scriabin never collaborated with (or even met) Kandinsky, butthey spent their lives devoted to tackling similar problems from different ends of theartistic spectrum with colour hearing as their inspiration. In an attempt to find answers tothe problems of art and spirituality Kandinsky wrote Uber das Geistege in der Kunst

[Concerning the Spiritual in Art] (1911). In this work, the importance of colour as theconnection between music and spirituality is explicit, Split into two sections, the firstpromotes the concept of a spiritual revolution in painting leading to the abstract expressionof the inner self, whilst the second discusses the psychology of colours and theresponsibility of the artist. In the introduction to Michael Sadlers translation, he states,Kandinsky is painting music. That is to say, he has broken down the barrier between musicand painting, and has isolated the pure emotion.27 Kandinskys colour-hearing must havehad a part to play in his breaking down of the barriers, as it gave him a new dimensionwithin which to work. Because he was able to connect sound and colour in his own mind hewas more capable of transferring his experiences into text, as he did with Concerning theSpiritual in Art, and more excitingly onto canvas, which is where his most true synthesisoccurs.

As successful as Kandinskys canvass were in creating a synthesis between art and music,he continued to revere music as the best teacher [because it had] devoted itself not to thereproduction of natural phenomena, but rather to the expression of the artists soul, inmusical sound. If, in Kandinskys eyes music was truly the most successful art form fordisplaying true synthesis, he must have found problems in working in his own chosen visualmedium. Because of the naturally intangible and ethereal qualities of music it does lenditself to expressing the inexpressible in a greater sense than visual art, dance or literature,Visual art does, however, have its benefits in that expressing colour as music, as Scriabinand later Messiaen knew only too well. Kandinsky dedicated much of his life to exploringthe colour-sound-spirit relationship, writing in Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911) thatColour is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano, with its manystrings. The artist is the hand that purposefully sets the soul vibrating by means of this orthat key. In his attempt to conjoin sound and colour in visual statements he carefullydetailed all colour-sound correlations he experienced. He explains his personal colourhearing as two pairs of antithesis.

Firstly Kandinsky deals with the relationship between the spiritual (blue) and the bodily(yellow). yellow is the typically earthy colour [] it can never have profound meaning [.]profound meaning is found in blue [] a colour that creates the feeling of rest []. Heeven makes his evaluation as detailed and specific as to match colours to specificinstruments, a light blue is like a flute, a yellow like the shrill notes of a trumpet. Thesecond antithesis is based on the light-dark relationship, explaining movement withindifferent colours with yellow moving towards the audience and blue moving away. This

25

Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, p. 2026 Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, p. 727

Michael Sadler, Preface to Concerning the Spiritual in Art


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second antithesis agrees with the first in that yellow, as an earthy colour, is movingtowards the human where as blue, a deeply spiritual colour, moves away from the audiencetoward the spiritual. Kandinsky even went so far as to precisely describe the associations hewas able to make between colours and instrument. For him light blue was like a flute,darker blue a cello and darkest blue of all-an organ as well as violet echoing the deepnotes of the woodwind and orange the notes of an old violin.28 This level of colour-sound

association is quite extreme in its exactness of instrumental timbres and shades but othercomposers, such as Messiaen, also achieve quite stringent links between sound and colour.

Instead of associating pitches to colours as many others had done before him, Messiaendeveloped a system of modes of limited transposition which he connected to individual orgroups of colours. These were artificial modes, which formed transpositionally-equivalentgroups and were based on the chromatic system. Messiaen used these as the basis for muchof his harmonic and melodic writing, especially in conjunction with colour. Peter Hill hastabulated these modes with their related colours in The Messiaen Companion whichprovides a clear correlation of Messiaens sound-colour experiences. Although this providesa basic explanation, discrepancies can be found within these associations and some of thechords he used were non-modal, thus having little in common with any specific colourcorrelations. Strangely enough, Couleurs de la cite celeste (1963), one of the most

colourful compositions Messiaen ever wrote, is one of the compositions which does notconcur entirely to his systematic use of mode to colour correspondence. Never the less, itwas his most successful attempt at colour-sound synthesis and he commented on it saying Idont think Ive ever gone so far with the colour-sound relationship.29 The first sentence ofthe preface for this work confirms the importance of colours, La form de cette oeuvredepend entierement des couleurs [The form of this work depends entirely on colour]. 30

Throughout the score colour instructions are written to explain chords or melodies such astopaze jaune, chrysoprase vert clair et cristal and emeraude verte, amethyste violetteand frequent appearances of blue and red in the form of Ab major and Eb major alsosupport the musical themes throughout the work.31 In conjunction with the colour elementof this work its significance lies in the fact it was the first religious work Messiaen producedsince Livre dorgue (1960). It was loosely based on the version of the New Jerusalemrevealed to the writers of Revelations and Messiaen added five quotes from revelations in

the preface of the score as a guide to the works meaning as well as the colours used suchas expressing the holy citys light like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone,clear as crystal (Rev 21:1).

The use of biblical quote and religious subjects in Messiaens compositions provide a strictexample of an artist who kept spirituality, and in his case Catholicism, central to hismusical work. The three causes Messiaen always championed in his music were theCatholic faith, love and nature all of which were highly affected by sound-colourcorrelation which he considered the most important characteristic of my musicallanguage,36 This statement alone reinforces the idea that for someone with colour-hearinglike Messiaen, it is impossible to separate it from any creative expression, including theintegral theme of religion and spirituality. Messiaen was enchanted by colour in the stainedglass of the great medieval cathedrals, My first visit to Notre Dame, the Sainte Chapelleand later the cathedrals of Chartres and Bourges certainly exerted an influence on mycareer which became a contributory factor to his composition of deeply religious works. 37Those deeply religious works were the chosen form of Messiaens outlet of his emotionaland unconscious side, and he provides a clear example of a synesthete composer whochampioned the role of the unconscious in art. Why do you compose? he was asked,

28Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, p.38

29 Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Colour, p.13930 Olivier Messiaen, Preface to the score of Couleurs de la cite celeste, (Paris, 1963)31

The importance of red and blue is sustained by the original striking cover to the score, also printed in

blue and red.36 Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color, p.2037

Samuel, Olivier Messiaen : Music and Color, p.37


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replying [] it seems to me, really, that a composer writes music because he has to [].38This could be applied to many a composers approach, but the added ability of synestheticappreciation appears to reinforce the natural sway in the direction of an artistic calling ornecessity. It seems in the case of Scriabin, Kandinsky and Messiaen that as artists whoexperienced colour-hearing, they could not help but use their cross-modal abilities toexpress their individual insights into emotion and spirituality in their art works. How the

audience of their work is able to appreciate their insight and expression is another side tothe argument for synesthesias place in the arts.

38 Claude Samuel, Olivier Messiaen : Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel, Trans. E

Thomas (Paris, 1986) p.19


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When I hear music I see colours [] Im convinced that onecan convey this to the listening public39

A linguistic experiment devised by the psychologist Wolfgang Khler (1887-1967) to assessconnections between language and visual imagery provides interesting support for more

wide spread synesthesia. The Booba-Kiki Experiment asks participants to match two shapes(see Fig. 8) to two Martian words, Booba and Kiki. Results show that over 90% ofparticipants instantly matched the round, curvy shape with the word Booba as a spiky shapewith the word Kiki (Vilayanur Ramachandra, 2003)

Fig.8 Booba-Kiki Experiment

There is nothing to suggest any logical connections between these words and images, yethumans appear to be able to recognise the abstract concept of jaggedness in both thesound and the visual image. This is only possible because cross-modal wiring in our brainallows us to achieve synesthetic abstraction and connect visual stimuli with sound(Vilayanur Ramachandran, 2003). It is near impossible to find precise figures on thenumber of people experiencing true synesthesia, but it has generally been believed thatanything between one in 25,000 (Cytowic, 1989) to one in every 2000 people aresynesthetes (Baron-Cohen, 1996). The Booba-Kiki experiment begins to provide proof thatin fact, the majority of people have, to some extent, innate synesthetic abilities. Takingthis a step further, onto what could be termed relatively thin ice, it is possible that manymore artists (and therefore compositions) may be, albeit subconsciously, affected by thenotion of colour-hearing and cross-modal connection.

Olivier Messiaen hoped that his audience would, to some extent at least, become awareand appreciate the colours he included in his work. He claimed, rather optimistically inconversation with Claude Samuel, that most people have a kind of sixth sense and feel thesound-colour relationship, except that they are not conscious of it nor is it comprehensibleto them.40 As a synesthete himself, Olivier Messiaen could not help but connect colours towhat he heard, but he also wanted his listeners to appreciate the colours in his musicthrough their innate sixth-sense ability. To attempt to unravel the complexities of colour-hearing and sixth-sense ability it is necessary to examine individual colour-hearing

experiences, but this proves difficult because of the individuality of the condition. Strictlyspeaking, no two synesthetes will make the same sound-colour connections.

Scriabins system of pitch to colour relation provides a much clearer explanation of hissynesthetic understanding which is more comprehensibly understood by the layman asopposed to Messiaens complex, and not altogether fool-proof, system of relating colours tomodes of limited transpositions. For example, for Messiaen, lightness and darkness wereaffected by the falling and rising of pitch.44

39

Conversation with Olivier Messiaen, 16th

December 1983, Contributions to the Spiritual World of

Olivier Messiaen, trans. Barbara Dagg and Nancy Poland p.11240 Samuel, Olivier Messiaen : Music and Color, p. 12944

Peter Hill, The Messiaen Companion, p. 209


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Despite the more irresolute colour-sound correlation, in some of his scores Olivier Messiaenprovided quite stringent instructions as to the colours that his music should induce, such asin his Des canyons aux toiles (1974) and the previously discussed, Couleurs de la citcleste. These instructions, however, were not so much a representation of how Messiaenenvisaged the audience should perceive his work, but rather an interpretive guide for theconductor. Messiaen was always careful about how distinct the association was between

colour and sound could be and was adamant that although he truly experienced colour, heperceived it inwardly rather than visually. The inward perception of colours is animportant idea to consider in relation to the possibility of universal sixth sense ability as itshows that colour-hearing is not as blatant in its execution as first appears as it seems thatfor many synesthetes that colour-sound correlation is not as0 obvious as simply seeing acolour, but rather that it manifests itself as a feeling. In Richard Cytowics research (1993)he listed five diagnostic features to define synesthesia. He states that true synesthesia willbe involuntary but elicited, projected, durable, discrete and generic, memorable,emotional and poetic. He explains the emotive quality found to be part of a truesynesthetic experience as a conviction that what synesthetes perceive is real and valid.45Using Cytowics five diagnostic features it becomes quite possible to assess true synestheticexperiences, but what it fails to help with is the more challenging questions arising whendiscussing non-synesthetic or quasi-synesthetic responses to sound-colour correlation.

In attempting to investigate non-synesthetic or sixth-sense ability responses, thecoordination and agreement between colour-sound correlations in true synesthetes can beused to provide a basis to quantify and evaluate any sixth-sense experiences. As previouslystated, no two synesthetes share exactly the same responses, but there are surprisinglymarked similarities in colour-sound association. In Scriabins Prometheus the relationshipbetween the concept of Spirit being blue and Joy being yellow finds agreement withKandinskys own view that blue is a spiritual colour moving away form the audience andyellow being an exocentric colour moving towards the audience. Further parallels can bedrawn between their theories and use of instrumentation. An example of this is found withthe Prometheus theme of human will, which appears on the trumpet in bar 21. Kandinskywould have considered this theme yellow due to its earthly qualities and would havenaturally turned to the trumpet as the instrument of choice, as in his opinion its tone was

yellow.46 Moving away from the parallels drawn between these two synesthete artists, thetable below provides broader support for establishing synesthetic universals using colour-sound associations of many well-known synesthetes.

Callopys graph shows only a few examples of selected synesthetes, but even using theexperiences of these few individuals, certain similarities become starkly apparent.

45

Ricahrd Cytowic, Synesthesia; Phenomenology And Neuropsychology, A Review of CurrentKnowledge46



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Ascending chromatically from C, a general shift from reds through orange, yellow, green,blue and finally purples becomes obvious. The predominance of E as yellow and A as shadesof purple also help support a more conclusive basis of association. Evidently no results hereare entirely consistent and to draw a final conclusion would be rash, but it does begin toimpose a rather more succinct concept of universal associations. The possibility arises thatbecause of the correlation in results there could be universal associations which only true

synesthetes have the capabilities to pick up on, but exist in all people. Wassily Kandinskyobviously believed in a certain level of universal association, writing in Concerning theSpiritual in Art, the sound of colours is so definite that it would be hard to find anyonewho would try to express bright yellow as the bass notes or dark lake in the treble. 47 It isgenerally found that few people would connect the sound of a flute with dark red or thetones of a double bass with yellow or pale blue. This evident association made betweendark and light colours with low and high pitched sound provides a clear example of thesynesthetic capabilities innate to all of us, but it is still a far cry from distinguishingindividual correlations between pitch and colour as would be found with the experiences ofCytowics true synesthete. This distinction between true synesthesia and any type of sixth-sense ability is important to appreciate. In a series of experiment carried out in 2003,Baron-Cohen proved the existence of synesthesia by showing the increased activity in thevisual area of a synesthetes brain in response to sound as opposed to that of a non-

synesthete. This research proves the existence of the extraordinary ability of a synesthetewhich is not found in the normal brain, but there is still scope for approaching thepossibility of a universal sixth-sense from a biological stance, as was shown with KohlersBooba-Kiki experiment.

Evolutionary argument also provides a strong case as to why a sixth sense may be present inthe human brain. Vilayaunur Ramachandran, director of the Centre for Brain and cognitionat the University of California, San Diego proposes that visual image and movement werethe first cross-sensory elements to develop, benefiting our ape ancestors who relied ontheir skills at tree climbing for survival (2003). Having the capability to associate what theysaw to what they felt meant that they were far less likely to injure themselves. This visual-movement connection led to the creation of sound (and later language) developing becauseof the innate cross activation between hand and mouth. Explained in slightly more detail,

this meant that because the areas of the brain controlling hand and mouth activity are nextto each other, any gesticulation of the hands would be accompanied by mouth movement,eventually leading to noise production. The angular gyrus, the part of the brain wheremulti-sensory cross connection occurs, become progressively larger from lower mammals tohumans. Ramachandran believes that the enlarged human angular gyrus is due to the factthat once the ability to use cross-modal abstraction was in place, further forms ofabstraction continued to develop, helping to explain why humans are more apt atunderstanding and using metaphors and other types of abstraction, such as connectingcolour and sound.48

This stands as a convincing biological argument for the apparent widespread sixth-senseability found in humans and it is supported by the surprising amount of cross-modallanguage that has infiltrated our everyday existence. The common complaint of feelingblue or describing a lemon as tasting sharp testify to the humans inherent dexterity atmixing senses. The fact that synesthesia can be induced by the use of certainhallucinogenic drugs such as LSD cements the theory that a sixth-sense or type ofsynesthetic perception is possible in anyone given the right conditions. This analogy fromRichard Cytowic provides a useful example to explain exactly how valid the concept of auniversal sixth sense ability is and how it relates to the working of the brain.

The consensual image we see on the screen when watching television isthe terminal stage of the broadcast. Someone able to intercept thetransmission anywhere between the studio camera and the TV screen

47

Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, p.2548 Vilayanur S. Ramachandran,Hearing Colours, Tasting Shapes,

(http://psy.ucsd.edu/chip/pdf/SciAm_2003.pdf)


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would be like a synesthete, sampling the transmission before it reachedthe screen, fully elaborated. Presumably, their experience would bedifferent from those of us viewing the screen. We can similarly proposeand test the concept of synesthesia as the premature display of a normalcognitive process. This implies that we are all synesthetic, and that onlya handful of people are consciously aware of the holistic nature of

perception.

This is the view of universal sixth-sense theory which is the most realistic and most usefulto a debate in the artistic circles in which this discussion started. It explains the necessityto reassess art and its audiences responses from a synesthetic perspective, allowing for thepossibility that artists have unknowingly created works which engage sensual cross-modality.

Universal sixth-sense theory involves accepting that colour exists in all music and music inall colour. True synesthetes are extraordinary not for the fact they are experiencing a kindof sensual peculiarity, but that they have the ability to perceive something which wouldnormally go unnoticed. The commonality found with all the artists discussed here is theirattempts to convey to an unawakened audience the true cross-sensual qualities the arts are

able to express. None of these attempts however, have been altogether successful inawakening the ability of cross-modality in the human brain, although some have providedsolid examples of the possibilities and explained to the non-synesthetes what cross-modalexperience is truly like. Whilst Kandinsky s paintings come close to presenting a truephysical expression of colour-hearing, with musical composition it has been proven to bemuch harder. Because of the intangible and emotive qualities which music possesses overthe other arts, clear expressions of colour or form can easily become lost in a whirlwind ofvague meaning and expression. Even taking a relatively staid example of the contrapuntalweaving of colours compared to the ease by which musical sounds can be found in the workof Kandinsky. As for Alexander Scriabins over-zealous attempts to use colour and sound tobring about the dawn of a new era of man, there is no surprise in the fact that he wasendeavouring to achieve the impossible.

It is in fact, by using Scriabins own words against him that a more viable approach can befound to the involvement of cross-modality and emotion within the arts. His words I bringnot truth but freedom provide a fine example of how any sixth-sense ability should beapproached. Scriabin, along with his fellow artists was unable to bring actual spiritual truthto his audience, but by attempting to incorporate all his senses in a single composition hewas able to provide the most free interpretation and expression of the soul thus giving hisaudience the maximum number of angles from which to explore his work and learn fromthe concepts behind it. This is the way in which people should explore their own cross-sensory perceptiveness, stretching the boundaries of what the human brain is able tocomprehend.

There are definite links between cross-modality and emotion, especially in the case ofcolour and hearing, where artists have undeniably lead the way in investigating theemotional aspects of synesthetic perception and scientific theory that synesthesia occurs inthe Limbic system, an area related to emotional response, goes some way to help explainwhy the two are so interconnected. However, it largely remains an artistic question as tohow colour-hearing can be used to benefit a creative and emotional understanding of art.,The role of the artist has changed very little since the late Nineteenth Century and issummed up very neatly in this quote from Arnold Schoenberg,

Art belongs to the unconscious! One must express oneself! Express oneself directly!Not ones taste, nor ones upbringing or ones intelligence, knowledge or skill. Notall these acquired characteristics, but that which is unborn, instinctive.49

49 In Arnold Schoenberg, Wasily Kandinsky:Ltters, pictures and documents, edited by Jelena Hahl-Koch, trans. John Crawford (London, 1984), p.23


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Expressing the unconscious and emotional elements in art lends itself to the artistsinclusion of colour-hearing but the successful perception of such statements lies whollywith the audience. With the acceptance of a cross-modal sixth-sense ability in everyone,art can be viewed form new perspectives which could lead to a fresh understanding of theunconscious and emotional aspects in art.

Lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, andstop thinking! Justask yourself whether the work has enabled you to walk about into ahitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?50

50 Wassily Kandinsky, Uber Das Geistige. In Der Kunst, Inbesondere IN Der Malerei, (Munich, 1910)from Cytowic, Synesthesia: phenomology and neuropsycology

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