Music and Visual Color: A Proposed Correlation

Wells, Alan

doi:10.2307/1577978

Cited by 27 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…However, while oft-cited, it should be stressed that Palmer et al's [52] study is by no means unique in demonstrating a connection between music and visual stimuli. In fact, over the years, many other studies have also documented an emotional mediation of music-colour correspondences (e.g., see [61][62][63][64][65][66][67]).…”

Section: Correspondences Involving Complex Auditorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple and complex crossmodal correspondences involving audition

Spence

2020

Acoust. Sci. & Tech.

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The last few years have seen an explosion of interest from researchers in the crossmodal correspondences, defined as the surprising connections that the majority of people share between seemingly-unrelated stimuli presented in different sensory modalities. Intriguingly, many of the crossmodal correspondences that have been documented/studied to date have involved audition as one of the corresponding modalities. In fact, auditory pitch may well be the single most commonly studied dimension in correspondences research thus far. That said, relatively separate literatures have focused on the crossmodal correspondences involving simple versus more complex auditory stimuli. In this review, I summarize the evidence in this area and consider the relative explanatory power of the various different accounts (statistical, structural, semantic, and emotional) that have been put forward to explain the correspondences. The suggestion is made that the relative contributions of the different accounts likely differs in the case of correspondences involving simple versus more complex stimuli (i.e., pure tones vs. short musical excerpts). Furthermore, the consequences of presenting corresponding versus non-corresponding stimuli likely also differ in the two cases. In particular, while crossmodal correspondences may facilitate binding (i.e., multisensory integration) in the case of simple stimuli, the combination of more complex stimuli (such as, for example, musical excerpts and paintings) may instead be processed more fluently when the component stimuli correspond. Finally, attention is drawn to the fact that the existence of a crossmodal correspondence does not in-and-ofitself necessarily imply that a crossmodal influence of one modality on the perception of stimuli in the other will also be observed.

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Section: Correspondences Involving Complex Auditorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Simple and complex crossmodal correspondences involving audition

Spence

2020

Acoust. Sci. & Tech.

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“…Different independent sources on the other hand produce mathematically unrelated frequencies, which cause us to assure ourselves what is happening around us. We perceive them as unpleasant and dissonant, because they "wake us up" (Wells, 1980).…”

Section: Mathematical Model Of Musical Harmonymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The same is true for the ratios of tone frequencies. For example the tritone can be interpreted and used in a harmonic way -as the ratio of 7:5 (as used by Debussy and Ravel) or as a dissonant interval 45:32 which appears in medieval music and is referred to as "Diabolus in musica" (Wells, 1980, Tramo, Cariani & Delgutte, 2001). We visualise the pure tritone as grey, because the two tones that form it are located on the opposite sides of the key spanning circle of thirds (Wells, 1980, Collopy, 2009).…”

Section: Project "Colour Visualization Of Music"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Educational Possibilities of the Project Colour Visualization of Music

2011

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We propose a system of colour visualization of music based on a system of colour signs, which are connected to musical tones. Tones, which are in harmonic relationships, are represented by related colours. First, we outline the foundations on which the system of colour signs is based -the mathematical model of harmony. We discuss several possibilities of visual representation of expressive elements of music -melody, composition, rhythm and harmony. These relationships enabled us to develop a computer program that employs these elements for visualization. The program mimics human perception in which the parts are determined by the perception of the whole. Furthermore, the program enables the development of tools that can enhance music understanding during listening or performing. Music performance can acquire a new quality with the use of interactive coloured musical instruments, which by using colours show the performer different possibilities for forming musical harmonies and thereby change the composing of music into a game and attractive colour-aural journey. Here we stumble upon a challenge for educational science and methodology: how to use such upcoming multimedia tools. These tools would bring the processes of learning and playing a game closer together since playing games is a child's most natural form of functioning. Furthermore, in the area of artistic creation we can once again establish a balance between our logical and intuitive nature.

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“…This visualization is additionally expanded with colours based on pitch classes using the circle of fifths. Mapping of pitch classes into hue by aligning related keys or tones into closely related colours was proposed already by Scriabin (for a historical review of mappings of pitch to colour refer to Wells [14]). Mardirossian and Chew [7] use colours based on circle of fifths for visualization in Lerdahl's 2-dimensional tonal pitch space.…”

Section: Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualization of concurrent tones in music with colours

Ciuha

Klemenc

Solina

2010

Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Multimedia

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Visualizing music in a meaningful and intuitive way is a challenge. Our aim is to visualize music by interconnecting similar aspects in music and in visual perception. We focus on visualizing harmonic relationships between tones and colours. Related existing visualizations map tones or keys into a discrete set of colours. As concurrent (simultaneous) tones are not perceived as entirely separate, but also as a whole, we present a novel method for visualizing a group of concurrent tones (limited to the pitches of the 12tone chromatic scale) with one colour for the whole group. The basis for calculation of colour is the assignment of key spanning circle of thirds to the colour wheel. The resulting colour is not limited to discrete set of colours: similar tones, chords and keys have similar colour hue; dissonance and consonance are represented by low and high colour saturation respectively. The proposed method is demonstrated as part of our prototype music visualization system using extended 3-dimensional piano roll notation.

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Music and Visual Color: A Proposed Correlation

Cited by 27 publications

References 4 publications

Simple and complex crossmodal correspondences involving audition

Simple and complex crossmodal correspondences involving audition

Educational Possibilities of the Project Colour Visualization of Music

Visualization of concurrent tones in music with colours

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