In the Sachs article, The Power of Music, he described the aliens in Arthur Clarke’s novel that appreciated the greatness of a composer’s music, but could not truly experience and appreciate human music because “nothing goes on within them.” Similarly, I too felt like an alien during our class discussion about synesthesia experiences of joining music and color sensations. As enthralled and amazed as I am by this ability, I can only appreciate it in a limited way since I will probably never truly be able to imagine it as my reality. However, having gone to a school of the arts for many years, I have had the privilege of meeting people who identified as being able to see music, hear colors, and taste smells. These students were able to uniquely produce their art, whether it was drawing, playing the violin, or singing, and one of my favorite cases of this was an amazing violinist who saw colors when she played the violin. Knowing these individuals gave me a special appreciation for how the arts can be communicated differently by people with unusual perception combinations.
Although I cannot see colors when I hear music, after attending class on Tuesday I felt the desire to try to relate more to this condition and incorporate it into my own artistic activities such as singing and acting. As a first step to accomplish this, I went on a walk around the wintery Wellesley campus and took special note of how the colors made me feel. As a born-and-raised Florida girl, the colors of New England hold a beautiful wonderment to me. The white snow seemed bright, yet refreshing and clear. I pocketed the feeling of observing white for future use when singing crunchy, precise notes. The gray sky invoked solemn, strong, quiet thoughts. The remaining, rust colored leaves, popping out against the snowy background on the wintery trees, made me feel warm and excited. With these and other observations of the feelings the colors on my walk evoked, I returned to my room to practice a singing piece I am working on. Somehow, I felt I could concentrate on using the color-feelings better with my eyes closed, so I took some deep breaths, shut my eyes, and began to practice, pulling out imaginings of white for bright and cheery sections and envisioning in my mind the gray skies for more serious parts.
It was not easy to think in terms of color while singing, but I do believe it helped me vocalize in a new way. With practice, I think it will add to my enjoyment and performance of music. I feel that even for non-synesthesia experiencing humans, there is much to be gained from thinking about their experiences and perceptions and incorporating sensations in our own lives in new ways.