What's the Colour of Music? Messiaen and Colour

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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 Messiaen’s music and sound-world through the lens of colour and shape, using an ambitious and wide-reaching project by Håkon Austbø as the basis for my discussion.
VISUALIZING VISIONS: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MESSIAEN’S COLOURS, Håkon Austbø, Ricardo del Pozo: www.musicandpr...
Watch my Kandinsky video here: • What's the Sound of Co...
Thank you to Juan Brizuela for providing the Spanish subtitles.
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FURTHER WATCHING
Messiaen on Debussy and Colour: • Messiaen on Debussy an...
Messiaen - a life in colour: • Messiaen - a life in c...
FURTHER RESEARCH
Color Harmonies and Color Spaces Used by Olivier Messiaen in Couleurs de la cité céleste [Paul E Dworak]: www.dropbox.co...
Messiaen's Synesthesia: The Correspondence between Colour and Sound Structure in His Music [Bernard]: www.dropbox.co...
Messiaen's Chord Tables: Ordering the Disordered [Cheong Wai-Ling]: www.dropbox.co...
Messiaen's Technique and Visions [Ng Mei Chu]: www.dropbox.co...
Thank you to my all my amazing supporters on Patreon, but in particular to my Perfect Fifth supporters: David Ball, Pavel Makeenko, Max Braun, Hamish Madden, Andrew Wong, David Wiley

[@ListeningIn]

What colours/shapes do you see when you hear music?

[@adrianmurillo5894]

I always see colors and create different concepts for music in my head. Some of my favorite images from music come from Sibelius and Ravel. I'd love to see your opinion on either of them.

[@carlyhaeger3415]

I see colors + people. no shapes- and the colors are in a comprehensive rainbow of sorts, starting with C as red, F as light green, etc. it's a little bizarre- the pitch i remember the most is B flat, which is always purple.

[@optillian4182]

The colors I hear in music tend to be more uniform than what Messian describes.

[@unprofessional-laser]

I may have a little bit of aphantasia, which is the inability to visualize things in your mind. So, no, I don't see anything while listening to music, but I do love how it makes me feel!

[@ClassicalPower]

I recognized that I can "navigate" through a piece I remember only because I summon in my mind some sort of "abstract painting" which I've associated to each particular moment of the piece, otherwise I couldn't, Idk if it's similar to these experiences.

[@animatechap1275]

Wow, the chords w/ inversions transposed with the bass note thing is such a cool idea

[@ListeningIn]

I know. It’s my favourite chord type of his.

[@ArtHistorywithAlder]

So cool

[@BestOperaMoments]

Messiaen... I have always had a deep respect for him. Undoubtedly one of the most impressive geniuses in music.

[@segmentsAndCurves]

I like the synaesthesia composer. Scriabin, Messiaen,... their composition are so... colourful.

[@doctorpatient519]

yes, Sir! "Vers La Flamme" is an absolute spectral extravaganza

[@fluffycloud88]

I’ve always found synaesthesia so fascinating. What a great way to discover Messiaen through this subject. Thank you for the fantastic work!

[@seongchaelee694]

This is by far one of the most fascinating intellectual videos I’ve watched this month

[@belgianvanbeethoven]

These videos are such quality content, they truly deserve more views.

[@JulesSchattenberg]

You chose the best recordings that I know of Messiaen's organ music by Olivier Latry in the Notre Dame. All of your video's that I have seen are simply phenomenal, I haven't found any videos in this genre with this superb quality, thank you for making these!

[@wormswithteeth]

An astonishing composer. His colour palette is out of this world.

[@oscarjohnzen9808]

You are back! Always glad to see your Chanel in my notifications!

[@MrGlyra]

Man, I love finding out more about synaesthesia like this. I've got the variant where you connect numbers and letters with colour, but only found out 2 years ago that that's not a normal thing in art class. Then a month ago some of my friends found out and think it's really interesting. So finding out more information and seeing videos like this where people try to express it really brings me joy :)

[@donaldcramer2484]

For me, seeing the color “translation” along with the music produced a unique, multi-sense effect. Amazing. My favorite Messiaen piece is the “Quartet for the End of Time”, not only for the music itself (which I had the pleasure of performing the clarinet part when I was in music school) but for the incredible background story. A wonderfully presented video.

[@deanjones5229]

This is such a great video on the topic, very well made. It's nice to see the comments of other people with synaesthesia and how varied it is in how people perceive it. I also see shapes and colours and find it helps me to write musical structures. I usually see these shapes and textures across landscapes, sometimes suspended and wrapped in different shades of colour. It also happens right to left as if passing my vision while the song progresses.

[@SuperIgill]

You have to see and hear Messiaens opera "Saint Francois d'Assis", it's his opus summum and just incredible. I've been lucky to sing the opera with my choir pre covid and it's absolutely haunting what he can do with such harmonies. At some point during hearing or singing this kind of music something changes. You start to understand it, because it's so brutally different to "our" understanding of music nowadays even in contemporary classical music it's insane.

[@amelia1507]

Thank you for such an interesting, well-researched video, I really appreciate the time you've put into this. I really enjoyed it.

[@adrianmurillo5894]

I cant wait to see your channel blow up and get the proper recognition you deserve. Your work is amazing, thanks for bringing so much into my life.

[@StsFiveOneLima]

The most fascinating thing about this is that, despite the fact that almost all music causes me some physical response, I have never 'seen' colors when listening to any arrangement.

[@clemcc9339]

This channel is absolutely brilliant both terms of content and visual. Some are very advanced and made me push to dig more on some topics. Thank you!

[@ortezac.5339]

Hello! I've recently discovered this channel and since I am writing a slice-of-life and coming-of-age story on classical music, composition and chromesthesia, I am so happy to have found this video and that this could serve as research reference! (Because for this one, I need tons and tons of it.) On a personal note, I myself can't say I have any synesthesia of sorts and nor am I a music student, but I've been studying up and asking my more musically-educated friends, and I DO see colors and concepts for certain keys. For example, Amaj is a gradiented teal, Dmaj is sky blue with tinges of pale yellow, Cmaj is red and Gmaj is a vibrant mix of yellows, golds and oranges. The black keys are muted, nigh-greyish shades, and the minor keys have bolder and darker gradients (e.g. G minor becomes a deep purple.) If I have to use a piece as an example, Le Tombeau de Couperin's "Menuet" movement is made of soft golds, light yellows and little tinges of green---think a scene next to a window on a quiet, sunny but lonely 4 PM---while "Forlane" shifts from soft twilight blues to splotches of yellows and golds, and back again. This has been such an interesting video, and I would like to see more from you! ^_^ (And also, may I know the musical pieces used in the background? If it's alright XD)

[@noahdammdirigent]

This is some incredible sound editing in this video. Everything just fits together so nicely.

[@ListeningIn]

Glad you think so!

[@richerDiLefto]

I have both the music kind of synesthesia and the kind that makes words and numbers colored as I read them. I always thought everyone’s brain worked this way.

[@ArtHistorywithAlder]

Crazy. I would love to be able to experience that

[@ClassicalPower]

@LeftRight It's great to see colored numbers, counting is always very colorful ahah, for example for me 1 is black, 2 is green, 3 is yellow, 4 is light-blue, 5 is red, 6 is light-green, etc Idk if it's the same for others...

[@breakfastplan4518]

DOnt believe the hype... Its a curse. If you really have as I do, you literally see colors non-stop. And it gets even crazier when you are in a big city. City ambiance is difficult. I have to wear headphones and listen to music just to detract from the visuals I get in crowed areas when I'm in the city. And when I go to bed, if my ears are ringing, I can see those colors- even with my eyes closed. Synesthesia is NOT as cool as people think. people also think its as simple as a chord producing a color, but thats not the case.. A piano playing a Ebmin chord and a Guitar playing the exact same chord each produce a different color.

[@Flyzoola]

Everyone's brain can work like this (with enough psychedelics)

[@JamesArmstrongMusic]

Thanks for sharing this great discussion. It explains a lot of what I'm seeing in the Catalogue d'oiseaux scores. This challenging music is helping me immeasurably.

[@garrettrook3196]

Hey man! I absolutely love your videos. I used to study music in university, and have played the piano my whole life. Your videos bring me right back to those days. I think a video on Bo Burnham’s INSIDE might be kind of cool. I’ve always loved Bo Burnham as a stand up comedian, but INSIDE really solidified him as a great musician as well. I hope you’re doing well! Keep up the amazing work!

[@findtheothers]

incredible! messiaen strikes ones soul. The visions he describe are very much like what people see with eyes closed during psychedelic experiences, an induced form of synesthesia.

[@carolinemiller496]

CHILLS!!! I'm a musician and also have synesthesia and i find this so cool !! learning about how messiaen perceived his separate modes and chords in color is so inspiring/interesting to me. When you were explaining the chord/color relationship @ around 6:50, I played the chords back and closed my eyes to determine what I perceived the chords to look like and compare that interpretation to messiaen!!

[@chloemcginley8275]

This video is so beautifully edited. Love your channel!

[@ListeningIn]

Thank you so much!!

[@earthlightsmusic2743]

I met a synesthete once a couple years ago, who told me her response was to see "colorful moving shapes of different kinds of textures I feel against skin and inside my mouth, speckled with iridescent shimmery flecks and ribbons" -- back then a total GoT and Djawadi fanatic.

[@ArtHistorywithAlder]

Synaeshtesia and Messiaen always fascinate me. Creating music based on color....wild!

[@jossspear]

Fantastic work again! Please could you do a video on Scriabin? I think it could be interesting to compare the style and colours within his earlier work to the manic and dazzling sound of his later work. I know you’d do a fantastic job of it!

[@ronaldo.araujo]

As a fan of Messiaen I have to thank you for putting this together. I've recently read his trabscribed interviews in the book "Music and Color" and it was really cool to watch this, more for the concepts than for the rendering, because using these cheap textures to try to describe the visions may be an understatement. I just would like to bring attention to the fact that Messiaen always emphasized the harmonic use of his modes, not melodic. Their colors derive from making chords from them. I say this because the modes of Messiaen are always presented in music theory media melodically, when it's not their use by the composer.

[@zachheilman784]

7:40 I gotta say I enjoy “Apparition de l’église éternelle” so much on its own, but I am also a huge fan of the arrangement by the US Navy Band, which can be found here on KZbin. I get the feeling that the precision of military bands is well suited to emulating the sound of an organ.

[@ideasareLIMITLESS]

OHHHH THANKYOU for mentioning Charle Blanc- Gatti! Ive never heard of him...just googled him and am absolutely awe inspired by his work! WOW Thank you sooo much!

[@wh9462]

Fantastic as always. I only wish an informative video with such depth could last 2 hours or more. Thank you.

[@sk8erboi201020102010]

Brilliant video great presentation ! Would love to see more like this.

[@Scriabin_fan]

Music must be so beautiful to experience with synesthesia. I honestly wish I had it.

[@Ben-ej1wl]

You might still have some form of it! Even the spacial sensation of "high" and "low" pitches is a form of synesthesia. My own experience is more related to the timbre than the pitches but far less specific than Messiaen's. Musical textures (instrument choice and combination) are close to visual textures for me. Clarinets are slippery bubbles, double basses are ridged lines, and french horns glow like embers.

[@elijahstewart3231]

man you are on literally every video i watch and we share a name woah

[@Scriabin_fan]

@@elijahstewart3231 Must be a glitch in the matrix

[@banan9782]

I have the same kind of synesthesia that Messiaen has, but not so specific. For me it's ussually very unconsious; I don't think about it or even realize that the stuff I'm listening to has a color, it doesn't help me to listen or compose music. I don't think music is prettier with synesthesia. It doesn't.... augment the experience of music. Music is already beautiful.

[@entity9588]

Take some acid and close your eyes.

[@AnyOldMusic]

Fascinating video, thanks for making and sharing it!

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

This is so fascinating! I too experience a similar form of synesthesia, except it is almost entirely based around harmonic context as opposed to harmony itself. Although, not always. It seems for that is it more vague and mild than his, but it's definitely influenced my writing. Thanks for bringing this to my attention it's so interesting!

[@ListeningIn]

Thank you so much Louie! It is so interesting, and fascianting that you also experience it in a mild form. I sort of do, but nothing anywhere near what Messiaen describes.

[@LouieTaylorMusic]

@@ListeningIn yes, I'm not quite that extent I can relate, but it's almost slightly blurred as opposed to his incredibly clear descriptions

[@coachsteve.]

This was incredibly interesting. I really like the idea behind the transposing chords. side note: I'm a big fan of Håkon Austbø's Grieg recordings.

[@StoryDrivenFilmmaking]

Beautifully made as always.

[@AKSHAT_SINGH_GOUR]

The inverse transpositions between 6.10-6.26 are used as it is by hans zimmer during opening sequence of Blade Runner 2049.

[@FerIsella]

Great video. Thanks. (That C on the mode should be a B#).

[@emblaz3]

I have colours appear in my mind's eye when I play different chords eg Eminor is dark green, F is orange, G is red, A yellow It's something that happens to me when I play and write music frequently The more frequent and intense my listening/playing the more vivid the colours

[@emblaz3]

I would like to know why it happens but part of me thinks the more you listen and absorb music the more it becomes emotionally resonant in your mind

[@druganovam]

One of the most interesting video about synesthesia in music! Thank you very much for this analysis!🙏🏻

[@ListeningIn]

My pleasure!

[@pbaban]

Thank you for sharing this amazing video.

[@DavidMack-xz2gv]

Thank you so much for making this!

[@cgal8906]

You have incredible content as always!

[@parsa.mostaghim]

When I listen to music, I see colors, but instead of shapes, I feel the texture of them (a heavy bow near a cello bridge usually feels like a rusty orange iron oxide), and the most interesting part is that When I see the same colors the texture in different pieces of music such as the opening of the Verklärte Nacht from Schoenberg and the opening 6 in Mahler are both dark blue and purple fog on a pitch black and white background.

[@conguero7]

This video is flipping amazing.

[@sydneyhocker3310]

I’ve been binge watching your videos and was wondering if you’d consider doing one about the music in Prince of Egypt? I think that score is incredible and think you could do wonders analyzing it!

[@ListeningIn]

Thank you!! I hadn’t actually thought about the Prince of Egypt, so thank you for the suggestion!

[@thinkertobi]

Thank you...I need more if these please

[@amelia1507]

Do you know where I could find an English translation of the 7th volume of the treatise of rhythm, colour, and birdsong? I have found one of volume 1 translated by Melody Baggech, but am unable to find one of volume 7.

[@QuidProQuoGroup]

Hi, Great video, thank you for sharing! I would like to see a video on different types of O. M. chords (tuning chords, contracted resonance chord, chords of the chromatic total).

[@HelmiJonasson]

i have this type of synesthesia along with the kind where you see letters and numbers as colors and it's been interesting to first discover that everyone doesn't experience it the way I too, not even other synesthetes. There was that list of colors Messiaen associated with chords and I was like "wrong, nope, awful, how can that be?". I write mostly musical theatre and often write for specific characters based on colors, really everything I do with music is so strongly intertwined with the colors I don't know what I would do if I didn't experience them.

[@paulshi2821]

beautiful video

[@ofirshorshy8281]

amazing work thank you

[@charliefancyboy4196]

NEW LISTENING IN VIDEO DROPPED. LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@Arc-nh1ef]

Beautiful video. Thanks.

[@tartarfishgforse6046]

I’m am 49 now . When I was a kid I could see some of these but I started thinking I was crazy. In time I tune it out. . Now I had a stroke 5ish years ago. I can see this ,I can’t read music can’t pinpoint a note to color .a sound can be a peanut shell dark brown. A sneezed is hard to explain (driving a car in the rain window cracked while a car passes) blues ,off whites glass . Crystals. All from a sneeze. . I can’t drive in the rain it’s a nightmare every rain drop hit on windshield is fireworks show EVERY drop. Is different colors

[@lucagomez5359]

Awesome video!

[@Louis-in3qu]

this is crazy. Thank you !

[@ClassicalPower]

I think I may feel something similar but all these kind of experiences are so evenescent that they get destroyed immediately as soon as the real eye start seeing something (like those visuals which are supposed to reproduce his thought), only the eye of the mind must be active.

[@paulgarthwaite9734]

Brilliant video!!!

[@bjrnthorness1151]

have you ever thought about putting all of the pieces of music you use in the video on like a Spotify playlist or list them in the description? because i’d really love to check them out but i have no idea what they’re called.

[@criszigil]

wonderful !!!

[@ST7GOLDTRIDENT]

Fascinating! Thanks.

[@barrylucas8679]

I'm glad don't see music in this way. I wouldn't be able to listen and walk at the same time. I think the people who did the fantasia interpretation of beethoven's fifth understood.

[@Hailey_Paige_1937]

What are the Messiaen pieces you use in the background of your video? This is absolutely wonderful! As a fellow Synesthete, it’s awesome to see and hear Messiaen’s colors and compare them to my own. ☺️

[@josephgiuseppedegregorio4553]

MASTERPIECE

[@PopExtra]

That's great, i love this story video! : D

[@ListeningIn]

Thank you!

[@florisheijdra6086]

Very good video

[@johnstag1391]

Bravo!

[@liezelgeyser3160]

I have synesthesia, I like musicology and colour theory. I have Playlists of songs that follow certain colour pallets and I even have a Playlist full of RGB songs and also a Playlist full of CMY songs

[@lindsaycole4077]

Superb

[@michaelnancyamsden7410]

Very fine.

[@boltcardz4291]

I have always felt like this when listening to music. Like some form of divine picture being painted in my mind. Does this mean I should pursue music? And if so, where do I start?

[@georgehiggins1320]

If you want to pursue music, I would advise investing in an instrument that looks or sounds interesting to you. Then listen to a BUNCH of music and see what stuff you like and try to copy it. If you know another good musician who can mentor you, that's generally really helpful, but always trust your ears more than "rules" in music. There are no rules.

[@KS-rg4wj]

C = light blue C#/Db = red D = butter yellow D#/ Eb = dark blue E = Orange F = olive green F#/Gb = chocolate brown G = White G#/Ab = Black A = light brown A#/Bb = Dark green B = gray

[@handavid6421]

today, listening to a passage in Brahms 2 piano concert - I thought, hey, that's Greenish grey! The word Grün ( green for German ) came up my mind. and this video was recommended. so that is kind of crazy to me. here are some guesses I made ( 7:00 ) B- purple cave C- dessert not too off I guess.

[@handavid6421]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5q3q393eJuUe68 the passage.

[@PlanetaryCitizen]

Would all synaesthetes see the same colour correspondences or would it be different for each of them?

[@alisonarmstrong8421]

Scriabin and Kandinsky were also fellow synaesthetes...

[@adamaenosh6728]

Is there a theory for what chords produce what colours exactly? Also, would it not depend hugely on the timbre of the instruments?

[@adamaenosh6728]

@LeftRight Very interesting. Do you pretty much have to read his treatises to find out what that theory is, or is there a summary somewhere, if you know?

[@adamaenosh6728]

@LeftRight Thanks so much! That's really helpful

[@pianxtremeyt]

I "suffer" if you can call it that, from a different form of synesthesia called Auditory Tactile Synesthesia. This is definitely why I feel like I am always haunted by Messiaen in Spirit. After all, he is my favorite composer, we are/were both Followers of Christ, and our Music is very similar... Basically, I hear and feel pitches and dynamics in objects or sounds around me. Like I can hear a full chord coming from my fan in my room

[@jax4652]

I'm curious, but it also seems really distracting and alarming to see music as such. Then again, sound, colour, texture, those things overlap for me as a feeling. So a taste I might only be able to describe as a high pitched white silver and copper notes. Often "uncomfortable" is a similar high pitched white silver.

[@laurachisick5139]

For me: C=Dark Blue C#=Pink D=Bright Green E#=Magenta Purple E=Yellow F=Robin’s Egg Blue F#=Pink G=Evergreen G#=Reddish Pink A=Hot Red Bb=Black + Yellow B=Gold Yellow + some blue if dim

[@itamarbar9580]

Maybe it's because I don't have synesthesia, and lost my connection to the visual arts and theory of colours, but this doesn't help me understand Massiaen's music in the slightest. To every chord of his that you've shown, I ask "Why? Why ruin a good 7th? Or 9th?" I cannot understand or listen to his music for long. Thank you for trying to help me understand, but this is way beyond me.

[@corydkiser]

Wow!

[@JSMatteson]

Fascinating! #synchromism

[@Did.You.Forget]

The most British title ever

[@ListeningIn]

Oh... the spelling!

[@dr.sabrinali5571]

Good morning Can I used same screenshot from your video?

[@Richard_Nickerson]

My brain primarily conjures up images of the instruments and what the sheet music looks like 🤷‍♂️ I'm always trying to mentally transcribe what I hear.

[@juicebox86]

@Adam Neely :-)

[@grammi777]

What’s the music playing in the background?

[@thierrylabergelefebvre4450]

What’s the music at 1:48? It’s so hauntingly beautiful

[@bashirabdel-fattah9499]

It's from Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony

[@AnatoArchives]

Turangalîla-Symphonie: IV. Chant d'amour II

[@kientran4818]

What do you think about Man of Steel’s and The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s soundtracks? Both by Hans Zimmer.

[@earthlightsmusic2743]

Hans Zimmer's assistant Ramin Djawadi is another know synesthete.

[@kazvanrooij]

Hey!! Quick question, are the same guy from the channel 'Inside the score'. Because I swear your voices are exactly the same 😅

[@ListeningIn]

Not me! He's called Oscar. I know him, and we're both British, but we're not the same person!

[@kazvanrooij]

Oke by listening one after the other Ive come to the conclusing that you are different guys. But damn what a coincidence that 2 guys both analysing music like this sound so similair. Maybe youre even from the same town who knows

[@kazvanrooij]

@@ListeningIn yes haha exactly. Cool!

[@ListeningIn]

Well we both have a general 'RP' accent. As it happens, we did go to the same college, but we didn't overlap.

[@kazvanrooij]

@@ListeningIn haha wow thats pretty neat. Anyway, love this video and all your videos. Dont stop creating 🤗

[@fasfinive]

Messiaen's and Scriabin's synesthesia is fascinating. Thank you for this video, it gives new depths to my appreciation of his music. This is also a nice video on the topic of Messiaen's colors. Interview with Håkon Austbø, a celebrated interpreter of Messiaen who knew him personally : kzbin.info/www/bejne/boTJmnR8fcZ8f6M

[@NeilRaouf]

Thos who fancy OM should definitely check out the mindblowing, jawdropping work of Allan Holdsworth.

[@p.trrr1]

Does he has perfect pitch because he recognize the certain pitch based on color he sees?

[@carlyhaeger3415]

if the synthesia is constant and prediactable enough for someone to make a color to pitch directory of sorts, I'd say that yes, he should be able to. I have both a form of synthesia and perfect pitch, and when I hear a note, I can automatically associate it with a color and thus associate it with a note too.

[@grumpymeercat]

What's the name of the intro piece of music?

[@matthewbenedict5923]

nice

[@Jumpin4Greens]

Funny how we could probably build a program to just live translate and visualize this.