Synesthesia and Music

Savannah

Bach, "Cello Suite No. 1," by Melissa McCracken

About four percent of the population has synesthesia, a rare neurological condition that affects the senses. There are many different types of synesthesia, with the one we will be focusing on particularly being chromesthesia. This is also known as sound-to-color synesthesia. As the name suggests, this means that people affected by chromesthesia involuntarily see colors when they hear music.

Pink Floyd, "Time," by Melissa McCracken

One artist, Melissa McCracken, has this type of synesthesia and paints what she hears. In an article for Vice, McCracken explains, "Synesthesia doesn't interfere with my sight in any way and it's not hallucinogenic. It just floats there in a similar way to how you would imagine something or visualize a memory. I don't need to close my eyes but it helps me visualize it better
if I do."

McCracken paints songs she hears, but she will never paint one if she doesn't like it. For example, she says that country songs are "boring, muted browns." Meanwhile, funk is much more lively and colorful.

Evidently there are plenty of other artists who have synesthesia as well. Famous musician Billy Joel has not only chromesthesia, but grapheme-color synesthesia as well, meaning he associates or sees certain letters or numbers in a specific color. Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy has these same types of synesthesia as well. Even famous composer Franz Liszt and renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh had chromesthesia.

This is an incredible condition that doesn't affect most of the population. Fortunately, these synesthetes with chromesthesia share their art with us and give us a glimpse into what they see.

Through writing this article I realized that there are different ways of perceiving music. Sure, I will never have synesthesia, but it makes me think that I can dig deeper into the music that I learn and perform. I know now that there is even more layers to compositions than I originally thought and I am inspired to discover deeper and deeper meanings to songs.