# Colour Associations



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

I'm sure most of you have at least a vague awareness of synaesthesia. Some artists are known to have experienced it completely in their day to day life, but most of us make certain 'illogical' associations that are a kind of synaesthesia. For example, many people associate certain colours with the days of the week. Perhaps Monday is 'blue' for you, and Tuesday 'yellow' - or, of course, different colours depending on how and when you made the association (often people being unaware of when they made the association and how).

While I know that some people attach colours to certain pitches, I'm more interested in hearing about whether any of you have any colour associations with individual pieces of music. For example, if I were to do the Brahms symphonies, they are very much as follows in my mind:

#1: Black
#2: Muddy yellow
#3: Deep blue
#4: Strong red, but not too dark

I imagine these may have come about from when I first heard the pieces, or the covers of the CD cases when I first bought them - I have no recollection. All the same, however meaningless it is, I still find it interesting when I listen to a piece and feel a very strong colour in mind as I hear it.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

There were several threads considering synaesthesia before.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Aramis said:


> There were several threads considering synaesthesia before.


Yes, but they were either irrelevant or too long ago. I don't want to know about the connections made by people I haven't seen post in the last few months, I want to know about the idiots like you who commonly post now


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## mueske (Jan 14, 2009)

1. Gold
2. Brown (or something like autumn red if that makes sense)
3. /
4. Very dark blue

I base them more on mood and atmosphere. 

1. Gold because of that glorious climax
2. It reminds me of autumn, that feeling of knowing it's raining outside so you don't want to do anything, you just sit in you chair, and be lazy.
3. /
4. It's very moody and emotional, but not quite pitch black despair.

That being said, I never, really never see a colour when hearing a piece of music or a pitch. I only did it now because you made me think about it.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Interesting. I'm afraid I have no colour association at all when I listen to the music. My sensory reaction is entirely emotional, in particular, whether I find it uplifting.

Although if asked what colour I might associate with a particular piece, then I could retrospectively do so.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> Interesting. I'm afraid I have no colour association at all when I listen to the music. My sensory reaction is entirely emotional, in particular, whether I find it uplifting.
> 
> Although if asked what colour I might associate with a particular piece, then I could retrospectively do so.


If you retrospectively applying a colour to a piece, would it be more correct to say that you would be colouring your the emotions the piece evokes rather than the music itself?


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Polednice said:


> Yes, but they were either irrelevant or too long ago.


That strikes me as ******** brown. What makes this thread on the topic more "relevant" than the several others? And what does it matter if the others were started long ago? If you add a post into an old thread today, it comes back to the fore and you can revisit old posts as well as add to it. This makes no sense to me.

But alas, this forum has a penchant for several threads on the same topic, so, I guess we'll just live with it.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Tapkaara said:


> That strikes me as ******** brown. What makes this thread on the topic more "relevant" than the several others? And what does it matter if the others were started long ago? If you add a post into an old thread today, it comes back to the fore and you can revisit old posts as well as add to it. This makes no sense to me.
> 
> But alas, this forum has a penchant for several threads on the same topic, so, I guess we'll just live with it.


I didn't realise I was explaining things in such a complicated way, but I meant that the other threads were not entirely relevant to my particular question - I wasn't commenting on their general relevance to our livelihoods and their significance in the field of synaesthesia 

As a flip side to the point you made, what's wrong with starting a new thread instead of adding to an old one that people don't use any more? The old ones have a stagnant smell and are defunct; a new thread adds to their discussions in precisely the same way, just not necessarily in exactly the same place. Does that really matter? A thought came to mind and I wanted to ask the people I've been talking to on this forum in the past few weeks - not random invisible people from however many weeks, months or years ago. If you want to protest, why not give your answer on an older thread or just don't reply here?


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Polednice said:


> I didn't realise I was explaining things in such a complicated way, but I meant that the other threads were not entirely relevant to my particular question - I wasn't commenting on their general relevance to our livelihoods and their significance in the field of synaesthesia
> 
> As a flip side to the point you made, what's wrong with starting a new thread instead of adding to an old one that people don't use any more? The old ones have a stagnant smell and are defunct; a new thread adds to their discussions in precisely the same way, just not necessarily in exactly the same place. Does that really matter? A thought came to mind and I wanted to ask the people I've been talking to on this forum in the past few weeks - not random invisible people from however many weeks, months or years ago. If you want to protest, why not give your answer on an older thread or just don't reply here?


I feel that I have already made my point.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Polednice said:


> If you retrospectively applying a colour to a piece, would it be more correct to say that you would be colouring your the emotions the piece evokes rather than the music itself?


Interesting. You could put it that way. But people also interpret colours differently. So if I attached deep sea blue to Beethoven's fifth symphony, you might think differently to what I presumed deep sea blue represented.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Tapkaara said:


> That strikes me as ******** brown.


 What music would you associate that colour you mentioned? Anything?


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> What music would you associate that colour you mentioned? Anything?


Oh, the list could go on and on and on and on...


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## JAKE WYB (May 28, 2009)

Polednice said:


> I'm sure most of you have at least a vague awareness of synaesthesia. Some artists are known to have experienced it completely in their day to day life, but most of us make certain 'illogical' associations that are a kind of synaesthesia. For example, many people associate certain colours with the days of the week. Perhaps Monday is 'blue' for you, and Tuesday 'yellow' - or, of course, different colours depending on how and when you made the association (often people being unaware of when they made the association and how).
> 
> While I know that some people attach colours to certain pitches, I'm more interested in hearing about whether any of you have any colour associations with individual pieces of music. For example, if I were to do the Brahms symphonies, they are very much as follows in my mind:
> 
> ...


thats interesting because brahms symphonies for me go

1 - ****** grey
2 - bluey turqoisey green
3 - Orangey glowing red
4 - Icey blue

cant think why this is the case though sibelius symphonies seem to match a colour based more n the character of the ound world - eve though i think coour is attached to the number for me -

1 - murky white
2 - very dark green
3 - orahngey rusty brown
4 - greyey blue
5 - greeney goldy beige
6 - lilac 
7 - cant put finger on it at all - black with swirls of red and goldy green


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

JAKE WYB said:


> thats interesting because brahms symphonies for me go
> 
> 1 - ****** grey
> 2 - bluey turqoisey green
> ...


"Impressionistic subtle colour ..."  but without the "atmospherics"?


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

JAKE WYB said:


> thats interesting because brahms symphonies for me go
> 
> 1 - ****** grey
> 2 - bluey turqoisey green
> ...


That is interesting! When I read your post, for some reason I found it deeply disturbing to find that someone connected such wildly different colours than me for the same pieces 

I think it's true that _some_ of the pieces I attach colours too are informed purely by their emotional contents, but I think this is the minority. For example, another one I have is Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, which is undeniably pink to me, but I certainly wouldn't associate pink with the contents therein!


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Polednice said:


> That is interesting! When I read your post, for some reason I found it deeply disturbing to find that someone connected such wildly different colours than me for the same pieces


What I find deeply disturbing is your use of  smilies, because combined with your avatar it constantly makes images of Brahms showing his tongue pop into my head.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Dim7 said:


> What I find deeply disturbing is your use of  smilies, because combined with your avatar it constantly makes images of Brahms showing his tongue pop into my head.


Ha! I feel compelled to use the smilies because I feel that, without them, my dry sense of humour often makes me look like a stuck-up prat (something no doubt many people will agree with!). I now have a strange image of a cross between my avatar and the famous image of Einstein with his tongue sticking out...


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