To understand the themes and factors that shape this research and project, it is essential to provide some background information. In particular, the concept of cross-modal correspondences – the way different sensory modalities (such as sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell) influence and interact with one another – will be central to this study. These correspondences form the basis for understanding how we perceive, interpret, and respond to stimuli in our environment.
On a daily basis, we are constantly surrounded by a multitude of sensory signals coming from different sources. To accurately perceive our environment, our brain must determine which sensory inputs belong to the same object or event and integrate them accordingly while keeping unrelated stimuli separate. This tendency to associate sensory impressions from different modalities is known as cross-modal correspondence. It’s a fundamental part of how we perceive and interpret the world around us. For instance, the colour of an object might influence the way we perceive its taste or sound, creating a complex and multi-layered sensory experience. This interplay of the senses is a fundamental aspect of human cognition and perception, one that researchers have explored across various disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, and design.1
2.1 Historical perspectives on colour and music
The understanding of these cross-modal correspondences offered me, and us, valuable insights into how we can optimize the performance and synergy between music and visual arts. By exploring literature and other artistic studies, it has been interesting to discover musicians and artists who have already dealt with this subject and correspondence.
The notion that colour and music share an intriguing correlation has captivated artists and thinkers for centuries. During the Renaissance, figures like Leonardo da Vinci designed intricate visual performances for court festivities, blending artistic expression with musical elements. Similarly, Arcimboldo created entertainment for the Holy Roman Emperors in Prague and explored the concept of colour music. Later, Erasmus Darwin, believing in a fundamental, natural relationship between colours and musical tones, proposed a form of luminous music, where coloured lights would be synchronized with the sounds of a harpsichord.2
In the scientific realm, Sir Isaac Newton famously drew a parallel between the seven notes of the diatonic scale and the seven primary colours of the spectrum, suggesting a structural connection between music and light.3 The German writer and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe also speculated on the relationship between colour and sound,4 acknowledging that while they cannot be directly compared, both emerge from a deeper, unifying principle. As he described in 1810 in his work Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours):
DEU: „Dass ein gewisses Verhältnis der Farbe zum Ton stattfinde, hat man von jeher gefühlt, wie die öftern Vergleichungen, [...] Vergleichen lassen sich Farbe und Ton untereinander auf keine Weise, aber beide lassen sich auf eine höhere Formel beziehen, aus einer höhern Formel beide, jedoch jedes für sich, ableiten. Wie zwei Flüsse, die auf einem Berge entspringen, aber unter ganz verschiedenen Bedingungen in zwei ganz entgegengesetzte Weltgegenden laufen, [...]“ 5
ENG: “That a certain relation exists between the two has always been felt; this is proved by the frequent comparisons we meet with, [...] Colour and sound do not admit to being directly compared together in any way, but both are referable to a higher formula, both are derivable, although each for itself, from this higher law. They are like two rivers which have their source in one and the same mountain, but subsequently pursue their way under totally different conditions [...].” 6
Furthermore, Goethe proposed a tendency to associate darker shades with musical keys containing flats, while brighter colours were linked to keys with sharps.7
Further advancements in the connection between colour and music emerged in the late 19th century with the work of Alexander Wallace Rimington, a British inventor and professor of fine arts based in London. Rimington developed one of the earliest colour organs, which he patented in 1893 and first presented to the public in a performance at St. James Hall, London, in June 1895. Believing in a fundamental equivalence between light and sound, Rimington thought to translate musical structures into visual form. In his compositions he aimed to apply three musical principles: time, rhythm, and the dynamic interplay of colours, whether gradual or rapid, to create a harmonious fusion of sound and light.8
Rimington argued that his colour organ successfully translated music into visual form, pointing to the observation that great musical compositions, when played on the instrument, seemed to produce aesthetically pleasing visual effects. He acknowledged the expressive potential of colour in relation to artistic emotion but remained uncertain about whether it functioned in the same way as music.9 As he stated:
“That colour, like sound, is capable of expressing artistic emotion there can, I think, be no question, but whether it expresses it in the same way as music is doubtful. It is, however, a somewhat strong argument in favour of the existence of the physiological and psychical analogy, that when we avail ourselves of the works of great musical composers for the interpretation of the new art, the results are vastly superior in variety, delicacy, and beauty of colour to those hitherto obtainable by other methods." 10
Among all the disciplines, the connection between colour and music was, of course, also explored by musicians, particularly by the Russian composers Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Scriabin. Both were synaesthetes, experiencing a complex blending of sensory perceptions, which influenced their distinct interpretations of colour-tone correspondences. Around the same time, each developed their own unique system of mapping musical notes or keys to specific colours.11
While both composers contributed to this area of exploration, most Russian musicians and theorists tended to align with Rimsky-Korsakov’s system rather than Scriabin’s. Scriabin constructed his system largely through theoretical reasoning, even though his synaesthesia was well-documented. His approach led to a different perspective on the relationship between sound and colour, distinguishing his ideas from those of his contemporaries.12
The colour-tone mappings suggested by Russian composers Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Scriabin are shown here. As illustrated in the table, Rimsky-Korsakov’s system refers to musical keys (major), while Scriabin’s pertains to individual tones.13
|
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov |
Alexander Scriabin |
|
C major: white G major: brownish-gold, light D major: daylight, yellowish, royal A major: clear, pink E major: blue, sapphire, bright B major: gloomy, dark blue with steel shine F sharp major: greyish-green D flat major: darkish, warm A flat major: greyish-violet E flat major: dark, gloomy, grey-bluish B flat major: darkish F major: green, clear (colour of greenery) |
C: red D: yellow A: green E: whitish-blue B: similar to E F sharp: blue, bright D flat: violet A flat: purplish-violet E flat: steel colour with metallic sheen B fat: similar to E flat F: red, dark |
The early 20th century saw further exploration of this concept by painter and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky. In his 1912 work Concerning the Spiritual in Art, he examined the interplay between music and visual art, arguing that each possesses unique expressive potential.14 The quintessence of his thesis can be summarised by the following quote:
„And the natural result of this striving is that the various arts are drawing together.
They are finding in Music the best teacher.” 15
Kandinsky describes that music can have a result that goes beyond the possibilities of artworks, but that it should also be considered that paintings can achieve more than music in certain other aspects. Music, for example, has a temporal component and does not necessarily need a specific form to be effective. On the other hand, art can directly represent what is expressed in a single moment and is involved with the reproduction of natural forms and phenomena.16
2.2 Cross-modal correspondences in multisensory perception and music
Modern research in cross-modal perception continues to build on these historical foundations, focusing on how different sensory modalities naturally interact in both cognitive and artistic realms.
As already mentioned before, in our environment, objects and events typically provide sensory input across multiple modalities simultaneously. The brain’s perceptual system works to resolve and maximize the information it receives by combining input from these different senses. It does this by figuring out which signals come from the same object or event, based on whether the sensory signals match or not.17
The most extreme examples of cross-modal correspondences are found in synesthetes, where this integration of senses is much more pronounced. For instance, a person with synesthesia might experience a specific letter as not only a visual symbol but also as a burst of colour, or a shape might trigger a taste or smell.18
However, many people naturally associate certain features or attributes from one sensory modality with those of another. These tendencies within the general population reveal that cross-modal connections are not limited to those with synesthesia, but are instead part of a broader human experience.19
2.2.1 Sound and vision: brightness, pitch, and colour associations
A striking example of this can be found in how people describe musical sounds using terms from other sensory domains. Sounds are often referred to as bright (a visual quality), sweet (a taste-related descriptor), or rough (a tactile sensation). These associations appear not only in artistic and literary expressions but also in everyday language, suggesting that cross-modal correspondences play a role in both perception and communication.20
One of the most widely recognized connections between vision and sound is the use of brightness to describe both timbre and colour. Numerous studies have shown that musical timbres perceived as bright are often linked to lighter colours, whereas darker timbres tend to be associated with darker shades. Similarly, pitch height has been found to correspond with visual lightness: higher pitches are often perceived as being lighter in colour, while lower pitches are linked to darker tones. This suggests a consistent pattern in which sounds that are both bright in timbre and high in pitch are naturally associated with lighter colours, whereas darker-sounding and lower-pitched tones tend to be matched with darker colours.21
Another example of cross-modal mapping involves the concepts of warmth and coolness. While these terms primarily describe temperature, they are also commonly used to characterize both colours and sounds. Warm colours, such as red, orange, and yellow, evoke associations with fire and heat, whereas cool colours like blue and green are linked to ice and cold. This shared vocabulary hints at a possible connection between warm and cool sounds and their corresponding colours, though this specific relationship has not yet been extensively studied.22
2.2.2 Shape and spatial position in sensory connections
There are many other fascinating cross-modal correspondences beyond the link between brightness, pitch, and colour. One well-documented example is the connection between pitch and visual vertical position. Studies have shown that participants are faster at classifying visual stimuli as "high" or "low" when the accompanying sound is congruent with its position, such as a high-pitched tone paired with a high visual placement, or a low-pitched tone with a lower position. This suggests that verbal labels like "high" and "low," which are commonly used across languages to describe pitch, may influence how we naturally associate sounds with spatial positioning.23
Pitch is also linked to visual shape. Research indicates that people tend to associate high-pitched sounds with angular shapes, while lower-pitched sounds are more often matched with rounded forms.24
We could summarize the findings of these different studies by stating that participants instinctively prefer to pair high-pitched sounds with small, spiky shapes, bright colours, and objects positioned higher in visual space. Moreover, it is shown that these effects are observed even in young children, suggesting that such cross-modal correspondences are deeply rooted in human perception.25
One particularly interesting study explored how auditory roughness, often perceived as noise, affects cross-modal mappings between sound and visual shape. Researchers incorporated rough, noisy sounds into musical drones as part of a multimedia performance with live musicians. The audience listened to the sounds and gradually shaped a visual graphic shown during the performance. The findings from this real-world setting were later replicated in a controlled laboratory environment, confirming a consistent link: rougher sounds were strongly associated with spikier shapes. These results provide valuable insight into how auditory textures influence visual representation.26
2.3 Conclusion and artistic implications
The theoretical background outlined in this chapter is essential for our project and its exploration of the relationship between music and visual arts. By examining historical perspectives and modern research on cross-modal correspondences, we have built a basis that informs and supports our creative process.
Because neither Colombi nor I are synesthetes, our artistic choices in combining music and visual arts are based on aesthetic and conceptual decisions. However, as we have seen throughout this chapter, many cross-modal correspondences seem to be based on common human tendencies in perception. This suggests that our intuitive associations between sound and colour may align with natural patterns found in how people generally perceive these correlations.
Furthermore, our collaboration is shaped by a two-way exchange between our respective disciplines. Damiano brings a strong visual arts influence, while my approach is grounded in music. This intersection allows for a dynamic exploration of how these two art forms can interact, complement, and enhance each other. By drawing from both historical insights and contemporary research, we can make informed artistic choices that resonate with both our creative vision and the perceptual experiences of our audience.