Rieg is an Electronic Musician, Composer, Player and Live Performer, Producer and Record Artist

Musical Colors

I am wondering how many of you are "seeing" or feeling musical colors when you listen to music? To me, I often feels Jazz as violet, massive choirs as brown, New Age as Yellow/orange with elements of green. But it's not carved in stone as it all depends on the musical mood and how harmonic the music is. I would like to hear from those of you feeling musical colors too. Feel free to comment on this below.

My own music are no exception to this. Sometimes when I compose and makes a musical mistake, I also feels the colors are not right. If I makes something I feel is right and harmonic, the colors are beautiful too. I like this musical colors "thing".

Sometimes I deliberately uses noisy or disharmonic elements in the music and then changes it to something better and more harmonic. At the same time the musical colors changes from something messy to something better too. So I uses this intentionally as a kind of deliberate "effect" because I believe that these disharmonic parts which then changes to more harmonic parts can make the harmonic parts sound even more harmonic or beautiful than without these disharmonics parts. The disharmonic parts, I think when used correctly can emphasize the musical change to something better. After the ugly comes the beauty. Well, that's what I try to achieve at least.

Seeing or feeling colors together with music is something I have done for a long time myself. It is kind of funny how one can relate colors to music, perhaps it is because all our senses are somewhat related(?) The composer Messiaen said he perceived colors when he heard certain musical chords, particularly those built from his modes (a phenomenon known as synaesthesia); combinations of these colors, he said, were important in his compositional process (as it is for me when I compose my music).

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Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)

Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, widely regarded as a major composer of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex (he was interested in rhythms from ancient Greek and from Hindu sources); harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations. Many of his compositions depict what he termed "the marvellous aspects of the faith", and drew on his deeply held Roman Catholicism.

The second part of this video shows Messiaen (a bit eccentric lol) and his fascination for birdsongs; he believed birds to be the greatest musicians and considered himself as much an ornithologist as a composer. He notated bird songs worldwide and incorporated birdsong transcriptions into most of his music. His innovative use of color, his conception of the relationship between time and music, his use of birdsong and his desire to express religious ideas are among features that make Messiaen's music distinctive. The female pianist are also very impressive. Check out the last part she does.

-Rieg-

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