What's the Colour of Music? Messiaen and Colour

Many composers over the years have claimed to experience synaesthesia, a condition where one sense is activated by experiencing another, and for music, this normally means that when someone hears sounds, they see colours. Scriabin, Liszt and Ligeti are some well-known examples of synesthetes, but among these composers, there is only one who truly dedicated his life to exploring the colours of music the 20th century French composer, Oliver Messiaen. In this essay, I explore Messiaens music and sound-world through the lens of colour and shape, using an ambitious and wide-reaching project by Hkon Austb as the basis for my discussion.

VISUALIZING VISIONS: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MESSIAENS COLOURS, Hkon Austb, Ricardo del Pozo: https://www.musicandpractice.org/volume-2/visualizing-visions-the-significance-of-messiaens-colours/

Watch my Kandinsky video here: https://youtu.be/2xDnxkzQtdI

Thank you to Juan Brizuela for providing the Spanish subtitles.

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FURTHER WATCHING
Messiaen on Debussy and Colour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTtz76AFfw4
Messiaen - a life in colour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX5pA3TVFsU&t=304s

FURTHER RESEARCH
Color Harmonies and Color Spaces Used by Olivier Messiaen in Couleurs de la cit cleste [Paul E Dworak]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tqxhvz7le0c1wwu/54258777-Mess-Colour.pdf?dl=0
Messiaen's Synesthesia: The Correspondence between Colour and Sound Structure in His Music [Bernard]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d4ourucz9b3evr7/388256426-Correspondence-Between-Color-and-Sound-Structure-in-His-Music-Author.pdf?dl=0
Messiaen's Chord Tables: Ordering the Disordered [Cheong Wai-Ling]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pfc9oiu24im557l/messiaens_chord_tables_ordering_the_disordered.pdf?dl=0
Messiaen's Technique and Visions [Ng Mei Chu]: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u41v53oxlzocgby/48533907.pdf?dl=0

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