by
alandp
on Fri 22 Dec 2006 10:50 PM CST
The previous two posts might make people think I'm in one of those moods tonight, but I'm not really. Sometimes things just set me off. Friday night is when I stay up later than usual, have a pipe or two and try to write something halfway interesting or entertaining. I've been trying to think of something in this vein that's also Christmas-y, but I guess I just don't have any good Christmas stories. So I'll write about something else.
I was well into my adulthood before I realized that not everyone sees music. It was several more years after that before I learned that there's actually a word for it: synesthesia. A simple definition from Wikipedia is that it's a "neurological condition in which two or more bodily senses are coupled." In my case, it happens with
music.
Many moons ago, when I was in college, I went to a "seminar" on electronic music. It really turned out to be a (fantastic, I'll readily admit) demonstration of the then state-of-the-art Yamaha synthesizer. I think it was the DX-7. During the demo, the guy running things said something like, "Let's just add a nice red organ patch in here." Without even thinking about it, I said, "That's not red, that's green." Everyone thought it was some kind of odd musician joke.
I read about one case in which the person saw not only colors, but geometric shapes. It was so bad, he couldn't listen to music while driving because the visions became externalized hallucinations that interfered with his driving. My case isn't nearly so bad. To use the word "see" may be too simple. It's more of a perception. In my case, I see flowing bands, and sometimes spots or flashes, of textured colors. Right at this minute, my computer is playing a piece called "Urchin" by a group called Texas Yellow, and behind my eyes I can see a swelling flow of dark greens, yellows, some dark almost-blacks, silvery percussion hits, and tinkly specks of bright tan guitar welling up and subsiding like smooth waves lapping at a seashore. At least, that's the best that I can describe it. Most of the time, I can't put it into words very well.
Certain music, like traditional jazz, has relatively sparse instrumentation, maybe only 3 or 4 or 5 instruments. The colors are fairly simple and not disruptive. But with certain songs, I find that I have to suppress my perception or I can kind of sink into it. For example, I can't listen to Pink Floyd while driving. All their layers of guitar and synth create a tapesty that's too beguiling to ignore. That's just one example.
I think this may be one reason why I enjoy listening to electronic music so much. The dense layers and multitudes of different, unnatural sounds they can create look completely different from acoustic instruments. If I close my eyes, it can almost take me over.
I recently burned a CD to use as a stocking stuffer. I listened to it on the drive home today to make sure it played okay. I don't normally listen to Reba McEntire, but this was for a good cause. Usually, vocals don't have very vivid colors, and her voice is about normal. However, the backing vocals that were providing her harmony got me. After a couple of minutes, I realized I had let it go too long and I was toodling down the highway at 50 mph in 70 mph zone.
Enya is another artist who creates such dense, textured layers of colors that I have a hard time suppressing it, so I don't listen to her when I'm driving, either.
My favorite jazz musician is Jimmy Smith. He defined, and was probably the best (so far) jazz organist. I like to listen to his CDs when driving home, but I almost have to ignore it, and I keep the volume fairly low. Like I said before, organ is not red, but green--to me, anyway. Every "synesthete" sees their own colors. The lower notes are dark green almost turning into black, the higher notes are bright yellowish green, and the whole spectrum is shot through with strips of gold. The rotating speaker used with the Hammond organ creates ripples that change the flow and texture of the colors. Instruments which can play several notes simultaneously, like organ, piano, synth, or guitar or pretty much any stringed instrument, have a much more dramatic effect on me than monophonic instruments like winds--sax or trumpet, etc.
This post has been an unusual ramble, even for me, because it's hard to put into words. So just consider it a "something weird about me" post, and let it go at that.
