James Tobin <[log in to unmask]>:

>I am surprised that no one seems to have commented in this in terms of
>synesthesia, which reportedly affects between 1 in 500 and 1 in 25,000,
>as a neurological phenomenon, according to Jorg Jewanski in the New Grove
>II, who adds that "true synaesthesia meets at least four of the following
>five criteria: it must be involuntary but elicited, projected, durable
>and discrete, memorable, emotional ...  Broader uses of the term may
>include more "voluntary" associations.

This is interesting.  I heard that synesthesia is usually related to
"basic" elements; for example:  a color may be related to certain notes,
keys, chords, melodies, words, sensations etc., rather than to larger units
like entire works or long fragments of them.  My original question was
about colors associated with entire musical works.  In this case, are our
particular associations due to synesthesia or due to some *personal* events
by which a color (or a word or a texture etc.) has been bond to that entire
work in our minds? (this may be precisely a broader use of the term
synesthesia).  The most elemental example:  I spent hours listening to my
first recording of Schubert's 8th and looking to the LP or CD cover, which
was blue and yellow.  Those colors became linked to the work, so I can
hardly think of that work or listen to other versions without thinking in
"yellow-blue".  However, other works are associated in my mind with colors,
and I don't know why.  Has anyone experienced something similar?.

Pablo Massa
[log in to unmask]