| Throughout history, the potential correspondence | | | | way a possible analogy between color and sound |
| between color and sound has received repeated | | | | harmonies. Although Plato himself eschewed any |
| attention from prominent philosophers, artists, musicians | | | | attempt to correlate colors and sound, Aristotle wrote |
| and scientists. Similarities between color and sound | | | | briefly of the potential success of this endeavor in his |
| were clearly noted by the ancient Greeks. Some | | | | treatise entitled On Sense and Sensible Objects. |
| Greek theorists considered 'color' to be synonymous | | | | Aristotle agreed with the early Greek theorists that |
| with 'timbre' as a quality of sound itself. In the fourth | | | | purple could be identified with the musical fifth, red with |
| century BC, Plato's friend Archytas of Tarentum called | | | | the fourth and white with the octave, but he seems to |
| a new kind of musical scale 'chromatic'. Since the days | | | | hesitate to construct a complete color scale in direct |
| of the Greeks, the two arts-color and music-have | | | | consonance with the musical scale. Pythagoras also |
| shared a notably common nomenclature: tone, pitch, | | | | contemplated a parallel between the musical scale and |
| intensity, volume, form, etc. | | | | the spectral colors. |
| The analogous aspect of color and music that seems | | | | The word "synesthesia" is derived from the Greek |
| to have been the most convincing to the Greeks was | | | | words 'syn,' which means 'together,' and 'aisthesis,' |
| the almost mathematical similarity in their regularly | | | | which means 'perception.' Synesthesia refers to |
| stepped scales. In other words, both color and sound | | | | individuals who experience involuntary cross-sensory |
| could be arranged in a series of stages with equal | | | | associations. The most common form of synesthesia |
| differences between each measured step. The ratios | | | | is "colored hearing," or seeing colors when a sound is |
| among gradations of colors in a color scale would be | | | | heard. Interestingly, Pythagoras considered synesthesia |
| similar to musical ratios and proportions. | | | | to be the greatest philosophical gift and spiritual |
| In his book De Sensu, Aristotle discussed in a general | | | | achievement. |