The History Of
Musical Colors
WE'RE THE DEFINITIVE AUTHORITY ON THE USE OF COLOR-CODED MUSIC THROUGHOUT HUMAN HISTORY
A HISTORICAL TIMELINE
In the ancient past…
4000-1000 B.C. - Sumer, Egypt & East India
These ancient B.C. civilizations of the world are crowned with all the known “firsts” in human development and understanding of the natural and man made worlds. They were all aware of the idea of color in the world around them, especially in the common and precious materials they worked with. However, this was a time prior to the full development of the use of color as a means to categorization in language and theory, yet it remains the seeding ground for our current concepts of color and how it is used daily in all ways to enhance all aspects of life.
700 B.C. - Persia
In ancient Persia B.C., an old scheme provided the following system of correspondences between musical notes and colors:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Rose |
| A | Green |
| G | Bright Blue |
| F | Black |
| E | Yellow |
| D | Violet |
| C | Blue-Black |
550 B.C. - The Greeks
Around the year 550 B.C., Pythagoras presented mathematical equations for musical scales, showing that musical notes could be seen as relationships between numbers. A musical scale, for example, would be divided into eight notes, or an "Octave" scale, which would repeat its sequence as notes proceeded up and down the scale. To use the simplest example, this could be the C Major scale, which consist of the seven so-called “natural” notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B & C. This laid out a mathematical groundwork for the synthesizing of the two similarly proportional languages of music and color.
370 B.C. - Plato
Around 370 B.C., Plato wrote Timaeus, in which he described the “Soul of the World” as having these same musical ratios. A cosmology soon evolved in which the known planets' radii were given a ratio sequence of 1:2:3:4:8:9. This sequence came close to the Greek diatonic musical scale's ratios and so the known planets were linked to music. Plato pondered the idea of eight concentric circles, each with its own color and tone. The eighth note was a repetition of the first note and all the notes sounding together produced what he called the "Music of the Spheres".
350 B.C. - Aristotle
Around 350 B.C., Aristotle wrote to support that the harmony of colors were like the harmony of sounds. As Aristotle's works began to be translated and incorporated into the European sciences, this led to the eventual relating of specific sound and light frequencies. He suggested one of the first music/color formulas. He had no concept of the natural color spectrum so he arbitrarily chose Black (which is actually not a color but theoretically the absence of color) and White (which is actually not a color either but theoretically the presence of all colors) at the ends and several known colors in the middle. Aristotle also assigned colors to musical tones according to how these tones and colors mixed together:
| Interval | Color |
|---|---|
| Double-Octave | Black |
| Twelfth | Violet |
| Eleventh | Blue |
| Octave | Green |
| Fifth | Red |
| Fourth | Yellow |
| Base | White |
350+ B.C. - Archytas
Shortly after Aristotle’s treatise, Archytas of Tarentus introduced the idea of the "Chromatic" scale to Greece, adding five half tones to the existing seven “natural” tones. This idea was eventually seen as a compliment to the two main types of seven natural tone scales at that time, these being primarily the major and minor modes of natural note scales, which later lead to the Church Modes. The five new half tones, termed chromatic notes (which was a term used to describe both music and color), were seen as having a mixture or combination of the music and color elements of both natural notes directly above and below each half note. This later became known as “enharmonic spelling”. During the time between 350 B.C. and 1000 A.D., the pre-age scientific knowledge, handed down by these great philosophers, had survived mainly due to knowledge recorded and handed down by Socrates, his scribes, his successors and other like-minded individuals. A brief overview of this knowledge, as it has evolved through the science of numerology, and music theory in general, is as follows: If we hypothetically take three numbers, which we can call 1, 2, and 3, and we observe that the absolute number of different combinations of these three numbers is seven combinations, the following numerical chart becomes true:
| Combination | Pattern |
|---|---|
| Combination 1 | 1, 2 & 3 or 2, 3 & 1 or 3, 1 & 2 etc. |
| Combination 2 | 1 |
| Combination 3 | 1 & 2 or 2 & 1 |
| Combination 4 | 2 |
| Combination 5 | 2 & 3 or 3 & 2 |
| Combination 6 | 3 |
| Combination 7 | 3 & 1 or 1 & 3 |
One way the connection between color and the above chart can be seen, is in the fact that there are three primary colors in the color spectrum, plus four more secondary colors that are created from the combinations of the three primary colors. These seven natural colors are either one of the primary colors, or a resultant mixture of two or three of the primary colors. Notice that the three primary colors cannot be recreated by mixing any other colors, so they are quite unique. The three primary colors are Red, Yellow and Blue while the secondary colors are Brown, Orange, Green and Violet; these being the four colors that are created by mixing, in equal portions, the three primary colors according to the chart provided bellow:
| Color | Number | Primary Colors |
|---|---|---|
| Brown | 1, 2 & 3 | Red, Yellow & Blue |
| Red | 1 | Red |
| Orange | 1 & 2 | Red & Yellow |
| Yellow | 2 | Yellow |
| Green | 2 & 3 | Yellow & Blue |
| Blue | 3 | Blue |
| Violet | 3 & 1 | Blue & Red |
We can see that theoretically, color can be based on the relationships between the numbers three and seven. Likewise, there are also three primary tones in music and four secondary tones, all known as the seven “natural” notes in music. The four secondary notes are the harmonic resolution of the synthesis, or simultaneous occurrence, of the combination of two or three of the primary notes.
| Note Resolution | Number | Primary Synthesis |
|---|---|---|
| B | 1, 2 & 3 | C, E & G resonate to B |
| C (resolves itself) | 1 | C |
| D | 1 & 2 | C & E resonate to D |
| E (resolves itself) | 2 | E |
| F | 2 & 3 | E & G resonate to F |
| G (resolves itself) | 3 | G |
| A | 3 & 1 | G & C resonate to A |
The three notes that correspond to the primary colors can be seen as C, E and G (a Major triad), which is the most important chord in music and the groundwork for the major scale occurring within the natural phenomena known as the “Harmonic Series”. It is important to realize that these correspondences, between the colors of the spectrum and the notes of the musical scale (being based on the same principals of nature), have been adapted in some form or another by most cultures worldwide and can be seen as being coded with any type of color configuration. The scientific knowledge of this time was given to understanding the nature of the five remaining half tones, which lay between C & D, D & E, F & G, G & A and A & B, as wavelength nodes, or half way marks, in a twelve-tone system of equal proportions. Relating the natural notes to the known colors was of coarse, a natural thing to do; and as stated earlier, the five half notes were understood to contain elements of both natural notes directly above and below each half note. This later became known as “enharmonic spelling”, such as the half note between notes C and D having the two names of C sharp or D flat and in this case, also a double color relationship which we, here at Musical Colors, have termed “enharmonic coloring” (EC).
1075 A.D. - Rudolph
Sometime around 1075 A.D., Rudolph of Saint Trond introduced a colored note system, which represented the Greek modes of plainsong:
| Mode | Color |
|---|---|
| Dorian | Red |
| Phrygian | Green |
| Lydian | Yellow |
| Mixolydian | Violet |
1480 - da Vinci
Around 1480 Leonardo da Vinci was insisting on several rational, geometric and proportion arguments for the connection between color and music. Furthermore, he became convinced of the natural correlations between music and color enough to become the first to draw diagrams of instruments called “Color Organs”. This idea was practically realized over 250 years later by Castel in 1730 with his Ocular Harpsichord, which was built and showcased, and later proposed as an instrument of the future, the Clavecin Oculaire or “light organ”.
1492 - Gaffurio
Around 1492, Franchino Gaffurio reintroduced colorized modal music in Europe, with the following color relationships to plainsong:
| Mode | Color |
|---|---|
| Dorian | Crystalline |
| Phrygian | Orange |
| Lydian | Red |
| Mixolydian | Undefined Mixed Color |
1558 - Zarlino
Around the year 1558, when Le istitutioni harmoniche was published by the composer and music theorist Gioseffo Zarlino, he was correlating the two musical intervals of the unison and the octave with the theoretical colors White and Black, and he further spoke on the affinities and uses of the colors Red, Green, and Blue.
1570 - Cardanus
In 1570, Girolamo Cardanus developed a system of corresponding tone intervals with, among many other things, colors:
| Interval | Color |
|---|---|
| Octave | White |
| Major Sixth | Green |
| Minor Sixth | Violet |
| Fifth | Yellow |
| Fourth | Blue |
| Major Third | Black |
| Minor Third | Red |
1590 - Arcimboldo
Around 1590, the Venetian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, was deeply interested in music as well and he created his own system of musical notation, where colored fabrics were mounted on a board, and certain swaths correlated to musical notes, relying more on shading rather than hue of color. He tested this device on musicians by standing in front and pointing to certain combinations of colors, allowing the musicians to play a melody. Interestingly, his system was one where the lowest notes were shown by white and lighter colors, while higher notes were progressively darker, which is opposite to our tendency to think of lower musical tones as dark and heavy, and higher musical tones as bright and light.
1646 - Kirchner
Around the year 1646, Athanasius Kirchner developed a system of correspondences between musical intervals and colors as follows:
| Interval | Color |
|---|---|
| Octave | Green |
| Seventh | Blue-Violet |
| Major Sixth | Fire Red |
| Minor Sixth | Red-Violet |
| Augmented Fifth | Dark Brown |
| Fifth | Gold |
| Diminished Fifth | Blue |
| Fourth | Brown-Yellow |
| Major Third | Bright Red |
| Minor Third | Gold |
| Major Second | Black |
| Minor Second | White |
1650 - Cureau
Marin Cureau de la Chambre, in 1650, proposed a simple scheme of colored musical intervals based on Aristotle’s version:
| Interval | Color |
|---|---|
| Double-Octave | Black |
| Twelfth | Violet |
| Eleventh | Blue |
| Octave | Green |
| Fifth | Red |
| Fourth | Yellow |
| Base | White |
1704 - Newton
In 1704 Sir Isaac Newton’s treatise Optics was first published, which partially dealt with the correlation between colors of the spectrum and notes of the musical scale. Newton mathematically, but quite arbitrarily, divided the visible light spectrum into seven colors (six known colors and one new color, which he named “Indigo”): Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. Newton saw that the mathematical relationships of these six known colors, including his new color, were similar to those of the natural intervals in music. He consequently assigned the acronym ROY GBIV to these seven colors, and later he split the rainbow seven ways intentionally to mirror the seven intervals of a musical scale.
| Intervals | Color |
|---|---|
| M7th to Octave | Violet |
| M6th to M7th | Indigo |
| P5th to M6th | Blue |
| P4th to P5th | Green |
| M3rd to P4th | Yellow |
| M2nd to M3rd | Orange |
| Tonic to M2nd | Red |
1723 - Diez
In 1723, David Gottlob Diez produced a system of corresponding musical notes to colors, along with other things such as planets; just as the Greeks had done 2000 years prior:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| G# | Water-Blue & White |
| G | Blue |
| F | Various Colors |
| E | Green |
| D | Yellow |
| C | Red |
| B | Gray |
| A | Black |
1730 - Castel
In 1730, the French Jesuit monk, mathematician, physicist and writer fascinated by aesthetic studies, Louis Bertrand Castel, was a firm believer of there being a direct relationship between the seven “supposed” colors of the spectrum and the seven natural notes in music. He crafted a groundbreaking musical instrument in 1730, merging sound with prisms to produce colored light. Using a square frame atop a standard harpsichord, he mounted sixty small windows containing differently colored glass panes. Each pane had a curtain attached, operated by pullies and illuminated by candles. Striking a key lifted the associated curtain, revealing the corresponding color. Castel's invention, dubbed the Ocular Harpsichord, captivated Enlightenment society, drawing crowds to his Paris studio for demonstrations. Though he envisioned mass production, technological limitations hindered his dream until the advent of electricity. In 1763, he published his general theory of color-music in Esprits Saillies et Singularites du Pere. Castel was the first person to propose the construction of a “Light Organ” (Clavecin Oculaire), a new musical instrument, which would simultaneously produce both the sound and his associated color for each musical note. Though he envisioned mass production, technological limitations hindered his dream until the advent of electricity:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Dark Violet |
| A# | Agate |
| A | Violet |
| G# | Crimson |
| G | Red |
| F# | Orange |
| F | Golden Yellow |
| E | Yellow |
| D# | Olive Green |
| D | Green |
| C# | Pale Green |
| C | Blue |
1739 - Mizler
In 1739, Lorenz Christoph Mizler developed his scheme for colored musical notes, in response to Newton’s theoretical work:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Violet |
| A | Indigo |
| G | Blue |
| F | Green |
| E | Yellow |
| D | Orange |
| C | Red |
1743 - Krüger
Johann Gottlob Krüger, in 1743, slightly altered Newton's musical tone to color correlation scheme, producing the following variation:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Violet |
| A | Purple |
| G | Sky Blue |
| F | Green |
| E | Sulfur Yellow |
| D | Golden Yellow |
| C | Red |
1760 - Euler
Around 1760, the mathematician Leonhard Euler developed a system of correspondences between musical notes and colors:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Violet |
| A | Blue |
| G | Green |
| F | Yellow |
| E | Orange |
| D | Red |
| C | Purple |
1789 - Lefébure
In the year 1789, Louis François Henri Lefébure modified Castel's scheme of colored musical notes, changing it to the following:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Violet |
| A | Orange |
| G | Yellow |
| F | Indigo |
| E | Red |
| D | Green |
| C | Blue |
1800’s - Beethoven, Schubert & Liszt
At the turn of the 18th century and during the first half of the 19th, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Franz Liszt all believed at some point in a direct correlation between notes of the musical scale or musical keys and the natural colors of the spectrum. Beethoven is known to have referred to the key of B minor as the Black key. Schubert is reported to have compared the E minor key to “a maiden robed in White and with a Rose-Red bow on her breast”. Liszt described his dramatic intentions for his music with decorative phrases: “More Pink here,” “This is too Black,” “I want it all Azure.”
1817 - Field
In 1817, George Field published an essay entitled Chromatics, or, an essay on the analogy and harmony of colours, where he presented his own musical note to color associations:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Dark Green |
| A | Green |
| G | Yellow |
| F | Orange |
| E | Red |
| D | Violet |
| C | Blue |
1844 - D.D. Jameson
In 1844, Mr. Jameson published a pamphlet entitled Colour-Music. In it he describes a system of musical notation for a new art form using an apparatus that he based on Erasmus Darwin’s suggestion 55 years earlier of producing visual music by projecting light from Argand oil lamps through colored glass. Jameson’s instrument passed light through colored liquids and reflected the colored light onto walls using metal plates:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Violet |
| A# | Dark Violet |
| A | Purple |
| G# | Dark Purple |
| G | Indigo |
| F# | Blue |
| F | Green |
| E | Yellow |
| D# | Light Orange |
| D | Orange |
| C# | Dark Orange |
| C | Red |
1846 - Fourier
In 1846, Charles Fourier wrote in his Theorie de l'Unite Universelle, that the connection between colors and musical notes was based on the following:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Red |
| A | Orange |
| G | Yellow |
| F | Green |
| E | Azure |
| D | Indigo |
| C | Violet |
1862 - Sudre
In 1862, François Sudre’s death occurred, however he left behind him the invention of “Solresol”, a universal language based upon the seven musical pitches (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si - with "middle C" set as "do”). Sudre suggested the system for encoding Solresol could use lanterns using the following color sequence:
| Solresol | Note | Color |
|---|---|---|
| si | B | Violet |
| la | A | Indigo |
| sol | G | Blue |
| fa | F | Green |
| mi | E | Yellow |
| re | D | Orange |
| do | C | Red |
1867 - Helmholtz
In 1867, Herman von Helmholtz transposed musical frequencies in order to mathematically find direct scientific relationships between musical notes and visual colors using the “Law of Octaves”. For example, one can take the concert pitch A at 440 Hz. and get another audible A at 880 Hz. exactly one octave above. If one were to mathematically double that octave thirty-nine more times, the frequency of the original pitch A would be 483,785,116,221,440 Hz., a visual light frequency he thought is seen in the natural color spectrum as Red. Notice the enharmonic coloring (EC) of the half notes A#, C# and D# in the following rough estimates:
| Sound | Light | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency | Note | Color | Frequency |
| 784 Hertz | G | Ultraviolet | 784×1012 tHz. |
| 740 Hertz | F# | Violet | 740×1012 tHz. |
| 698 Hertz | F | Blue-Violet | 698×1012 tHz. |
| 659 Hertz | E | Blue | 659×1012 tHz. |
| 622 Hertz (EC) | D# | Green-Blue | 622×1012 tHz. |
| 587 Hertz | D | Green | 587×1012 tHz. |
| 554 Hertz (EC) | C# | Yellow-Green | 554×1012 tHz. |
| 523 Hertz | C | Yellow | 523×1012 tHz. |
| 493 Hertz | B | Orange | 493×1012 tHz. |
| 466 Hertz (EC) | A# | Red-Orange | 466×1012 tHz. |
| 440 Hertz | A | Red | 440×1012 tHz. |
| 415 Hertz | G# | Dark-Red | 415×1012 tHz. |
| 392 Hertz | G | Infrared | 392×1012 tHz. |
1881 - Seemann
In 1881, the German painter, T. Seemann, devised a concept of pictorial coloring based on colored musical notes. Notice the enharmonic coloring (EC) of the sharp notes C#, F# and G#:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Black |
| A# | Rose |
| A | Violet |
| G# | Blue-Violet (EC) |
| G | Blue |
| F# | Green-Blue (EC) |
| F | Green |
| E | Yellow |
| D# | Gold |
| D | Orange |
| C# | Red-Orange (EC) |
| C | Red |
1890 - Rimington
Around 1890, Alexander Wallace Rimington began building his color-organ in England with the following note to color correspondences:
| Note | Color | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| B | Violet | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A# | Blue | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | Purple | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| G# | Light Green | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| G | Green | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| F# | Dark Green | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| F | Olive Green | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E | Yellow | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D# | Light Orange | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D | Dark Orange | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| C# | Rose | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| C | Dark Red |
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Violet-Red |
| A# | Violet |
| A | Blue-Violet |
| G# | Blue |
| G | Green-Blue |
| F# | Green |
| F | Yellow-Green |
| E | Yellow |
| D# | Orange-Yellow (EC) |
| D | Orange |
| C# | Red-Orange (EC) |
| C | Red |
1895 - Kandinsky
Around 1895, the famous artist Wassily Kandinsky, considered how the characteristic timbre of musical instruments might relate to colors: Yellow was like “an ever louder trumpet blast or a fanfare elevated to a high pitch”, Orange was like “a church bell of medium pitch ringing the angelus, or like a rich contralto voice, or a viola playing largo”, Red was like “fanfares with contributions from the tuba - a persistent, intrusive, powerful tone”, Vermilion was “sounds like the tuba and parallels...with powerful drumbeats”, Purple was like “high, clear, singing tones of the violin...successive tones of little bells (including horse bells)...called 'raspberry-colored sounds' in Russian”, Violet was like a “cor anglais or shawm, and in its depths the deep tones of the woodwind instruments (for example, bassoon)”, Blue was like “a flute” clear and cool, Dark Blue was like “the cello, and going deeper, the wonderful sonority of the contrabass; in its deep solemn form, the sound of blue is comparable to the bass organ” and Green was like “quiet, drawn-out, meditative tones of the violin”.
1900 - Blavatsky
Around the year 1900, Helena P. Blavatsky, founder of The Theosophical Society, published two works called Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. Her own musical tone to color correspondence was as follows:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| Si | Violet |
| La | Indigo |
| Sol | Black |
| Fa | Green |
| Mi | Yellow |
| Re | Orange |
| Do | Red |
1905 - Berlioz, Debussy & Wagner
Around the year 1905, the three famous composers, Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy and Richard Wagner, who were all contemporaries of each other, were also interested in the connection between music and color. They were all members of the Rosicrucian Order, which based its musical theories of “just intonation” on the following sound frequencies and colors as they correlated to musical notes. Notice the enharmonic coloring (EC) of the half note F#:
| Sound Frequency | Note | Color |
|---|---|---|
| 341Hz | F# | Violet-Red (EC) |
| 341Hz | F | Violet |
| 320Hz | E | Blue-Violet |
| D# | Blue | |
| 288Hz | D | Green-Blue |
| C# | Green | |
| 256Hz | C | Yellow-Green |
| 240Hz | B | Yellow |
| A# | Orange | |
| 213Hz | A | Red-Orange |
| G# | Red | |
| 192Hz | G | Dark Red |
1908 - Rimsky-Korsakov
Based on an article in 1908 with the Russian press, the famous composer Rimsky-Korsakov had syneasthetically colored the “Circle of Fifths” musical keys in the following way, though he is also known to have related the musical note F# itself to the color of a Strawberry:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| C# | Dusky (the same as Db) |
| F# | Greyish-Green (the same as Gb) |
| B | Dark Blue (the same as Cb) |
| E | Sapphire Blue |
| A | Pink |
| D | Yellow |
| G | Brownish-Gold |
| C | White (Sunlight) |
| F | Green |
| Bb | Darkish |
| Eb | Greyish-Blue |
| Ab | Greyish-Violet |
| Db | Dusky (the same as C#) |
| Gb | Greyish-Green (the same as F#) |
| Cb | Dark Blue (the same as B) |
1910 - Beach
Around 1910, the American pianist and composer, Amy Beach, had a synesthetic color coding system for the following musical keys: C-White, F Sharp-Black, E-Yellow, G-Red, A-Green, A Flat-Blue, D Flat-Violet and E Flat-Pink.
1911 - Scriabin
The Russian composer, Alexander Scriabin, was highly influenced by the French and Russian salon fashions and he seems to have been strongly influenced by the theosophical ideas of Madame Blavatsky. The synesthetic motifs found in Scriabin's compositions like Prometheus, composed in 1911, are developed off of color-coding ideas from Newton. These ideas follow a basic mathematical musical algorithm called the “Circle of Fifths”, which corresponded to his concept of the following colors, as he modulated from one musical key to another:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| C# | Violet (same as Db) |
| F# | Bright Blue (same as Gb) |
| B | Blue (same as Cb) |
| E | Sky Blue |
| A | Green |
| D | Yellow |
| G | Orange |
| C | Red |
| F | Dark Red |
| Bb | Rose |
| Eb | Steel |
| Ab | Purple |
| Db | Violet (same as C#) |
| Gb | Bright Blue (same as F#) |
| Cb | Blue (same as B) |
1919 - Wilfred
In 1919, Thomas Wilfred's groundbreaking color music instrument, dubbed the Clavilux, derived its name from the Latin terms meaning "light played by key." After fourteen years of meticulous experimentation, he crafted this intricate device, featuring a keyboard, powerful light projectors, condensing lenses, filters, and an array of discs. Controlled by registers and dials arranged in tiers, the Clavilux required a minimum of four projection units. Wilfred's invention also boasted rollers carrying papers with his vertical notation system, akin to a player-piano. He further innovated with the Chronograph, integrating a metronome and mechanisms for artistic variations in colored lights, laying the foundation for future developments in the field of color music instruments. While he originally coined the term "Clavilux" to encompass any device capable of performing Lumia, it did not gain widespread usage among other artists working with light, remaining closely associated with Wilfred and his terminology. W. Christian Sidenius, a devoted admirer and later a close friend of Wilfred's, is the only other artist known to have constructed a Clavilux. Sidenius built a theater behind his residence to accommodate his Clavilux and host Lumia performances during the summer season. Additionally, Wilfred crafted sixteen smaller home Clavilux models, referred to as "Clavilux Juniors," with seven known to exist today, mostly held in private collections. Two full-sized Claviluxii models, Model E (1924) and Model G (1936), were salvaged in 2003. A 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, Clavilux.org, has been established to restore the Model E to operational status, with plans to hold public recitals once the machines are operational. Wilfred used a palate of arbitrary colors per composition, rather than assigning specific colors to specific musical notes.
1919 - De Maistre
Also in 1919, Roy De Maistre, a young Australian musician turned painter, showed how specific musical notes corresponded to different hues to form a colored musical note code. Notice the enharmonic coloring (EC) of all the five sharps notes (i.e. A#, C#, D#, F# and G#):
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| G# | Violet-Red (EC) |
| G | Violet |
| F# | Indigo-Violet (EC) |
| F | Indigo |
| E | Blue |
| D# | Green-Blue (EC) |
| D | Green |
| C# | Yellow-Green (EC) |
| C | Yellow |
| B | Orange |
| A# | Red-Orange (EC) |
| A | Red |
1922 - Theremin
In the year 1922, Leon Theremin invented the "Illumovox" to accompany his "Etherphone" (the instrument now known as a Theremin). When connected to the Etherphone, the Illumovox projected an evolution of hues of the natural color spectrum in direct correspondence to the pitch changes on the Theremin instrument. These correspondences were straightforward, with the lowest pitches as almost Infrared to Red and then with successively higher pitches moving through the colors Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet up to the highest pitches bordering on Ultraviolet.
1926 - Greenewalt
In 1926, Mary Hallock Greenewalt's color music instrument, known as the Sarabet color organ, garnered acclaim for its ability to produce a “light scale” corresponding to a colorful musical scale that related directly to artistic variations from interaction with her rival, Thomas Wilfred, earning her a gold medal at the Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia. In addition to her innovative instrument, Greenewalt patented two electrical mechanisms, the rheostat and the liquid-mercury switch, enabling smooth modulation of light on the Sarabet. Despite her pioneering contributions, Greenewalt faced challenges when she attempted to sue for patent infringement, as a judge dismissed her case, citing disbelief that such complex electric mechanisms could have been invented by a woman.
1926 - Klein
In the early 20th century, the British non-figurationist painter, Adrian B. Klein, realized the possibilities of light and became a leading specialist in music kinetic art. Also, in 1926 he published his Colour Music: The Art of Light, where he presented his note to color correlations:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Dark Violet |
| A# | Violet |
| A | Light Violet |
| G# | Blue |
| G | Light Blue |
| F# | Dark Green |
| F | Green |
| E | Yellow |
| D# | Orange |
| D | Dark Orange |
| C# | Red |
| C | Dark Red |
1940 - Appeli
Around 1940, Appeli had related musical notes to colors:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Purple |
| A# | Violet |
| A | Blue |
| G | Green-Blue |
| F | Green |
| E | Yellow |
| D | Orange |
| C | Red |
1942 - Heaney
In 1942 an organist, musician and voice teacher named Gertrude M. Heaney created an educational apparatus for teaching music through the use of color and consequently was granted a U.S. patent for her invention. It consisted of a practice piano pad that was colored with crayons, including complimentary and other colors overlapped (i.e. Green-Red & Brown-Blue), and also an instruction manual. As with Bishop’s and Maistre’s system, notice the enharmonic coloring (EC) of the half notes C#, D#, F# and G#:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Yellow |
| A# | Pink |
| A | Orange |
| G# | Red-Orange (EC) |
| G | Red |
| F# | Green-Red (EC) |
| F | Green |
| E | Purple |
| D# | Blue-Purple (EC) |
| D | Blue |
| C# | Brown-Blue (EC) |
| C | Brown |
1944 - Jones
In 1944, Tom Douglas Jones, a graphic designer, professor, and skilled engineer, invented the Colortron, initially conceived as a teaching device to illustrate the additive color circle to his students at the University of Kansas. However, it evolved into a versatile tool for experimenting with various light and color phenomena. Jones utilized switches and dimmers instead of a traditional keyboard, allowing him to record and recreate compositions effortlessly. He also explored illuminating silhouettes and experimenting with colored lights through mobile metal stencil plates, creating captivating kaleidoscopic effects. The Celeston, a visual music instrument constructed by Jones, showcased his dedication to merging color and music, synchronizing light intensity with musical dynamics to create mesmerizing visual and auditory experiences.
1944 - I. J. Belmont
Also, in 1944, the famous synesthetic painter Ira Jean Belmont, created works of art using what he called “Color-Music Expressionism”. His color to musical note correlations for painting was as follows:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Dark Violet |
| A# | Violet |
| A | Purple |
| G# | Dark Blue |
| G | Blue |
| F# | Green |
| F | Light Green |
| E | Yellow |
| D# | Dark Yellow |
| D | Orange |
| C# | Dark Orange |
| C | Red |
1970 - Vyshnegradsky
The composer Ivan Vyshnegradsky is most famous for his groundbreaking work with alternate tuning systems and compositions using quartertones during the early 20th century. Around 1970, he disclosed his own correlation of musical notes to colors shortly before his death nine years later. Notice the enharmonic coloring (EC) of the half note C#:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Red |
| A# | Light Violet |
| A | Violet |
| G# | Blue |
| G | Light Blue |
| F# | Dark Green |
| F | Green |
| E | Yellow |
| D# | Gold |
| D | Orange |
| C# | Red-Orange (EC) |
| C | Red |
1991 - Wiley
In 1991, Michael John Wiley publicly displayed his classical guitar which had been modified with colored construction paper cut outs which were taped on to the fret board of the instrument to clearly show all available notes. He used the colors Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet as well as the theoretical color White. His color assignment was closely resembling that of Euler’s, though like De Maistre and Heaney, he extended the idea of “enharmonic spelling” to the five sharps and flats, using color; what Wiley termed “enharmonic coloring”. Notice the enharmonic coloring (EC) of the five half notes C#/Db, D#/Eb, F#/Gb, G#/Ab and A#/Bb. This color coding scheme was later revisited, revised and finalized in 2018 after much research.
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Violet |
| A#/Bb | Blue & Violet (EC) |
| A | Blue |
| G#/Ab | Green & Blue (EC) |
| G | Green |
| F#/Gb | Yellow & Green (EC) |
| F | Yellow |
| E | Orange |
| D#/Eb | Red & Orange (EC) |
| D | Red |
| C#/Db | White & Red (EC) |
| C | White |
1995 - De Clario
In 1995, and Australian named Dominic De Clario gave a scientific and spiritual presentation on the aspects of light and sound where he assigned colors to the white keys of a piano. All of the colors in his presentation were coordinated to the particular keys of the music, as well as the particular notes being played. Similar to Wiley initial correlations, De Clario wanted to have White light as part of the color selection and he arbitrarily chose to add it on the note B, as he saw it as the sum of all of the visible colors preceding it:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | White |
| A | Violet |
| G | Blue |
| F | Green |
| E | Yellow |
| D | Orange |
| C | Red |
2004 - Zieverink
In 2004, the artist and painter, Steve Zieverink, suggested that for each of the 12 musical notes found in Western Music, there is a corresponding color:
| Note | Color |
|---|---|
| B | Yellow |
| A# | Light Yellow |
| A | Orange |
| G# | Red |
| G | Dark Red |
| F# | Dark Violet |
| F | Violet |
| E | Purple |
| D# | Indigo |
| D | Blue |
| C# | Green |
| C | Light Green |
2018 - Wiley (Revised)
After doing much research into the correlations between music and color, in 2018 Michael John Wiley permanently revised his color to note correlation for Musical Colors® A Visual Music Color System. This new dispensation excluded his previous use of the color White and brought in the seventh color of the spectrum Indigo, where the musical note G is represented by the color Red and so on through the seven color spectrum, by a direct and scientific correlation which is grounded in the following mathematical equation expressed as:
VF = ( ( ( 432 ^ 2 ) • 1609.344 ) / ( AF • ( 2 ) ^ 40 ) • 10 ^ 10 ) / 10
where frequencies (in hertz) of audible tones (AF) between 360 Hertz and 720 Hertz respectively, can be converted to frequencies (in nano-meters) of visual colors (VF). Wiley kept the enharmonic coloring (EC) of the five sharps and flats C#/Db, D#/Eb, F#/Gb, G#/Ab and A#/Bb, as this was a crucial characteristic for anyone to be able to practically identify sharps and flats from naturals on musical instruments:
| Note Frequency (Hertz) | Color Frequency (nano-meters) |
|---|---|
| F#/Gb | Violet & Red (EC) |
| F 682 to 699Hz. | Violet 391 to 400nm. |
| E 648 to 660Hz. | Indigo 414 to 421nm. |
| D#/Eb | Blue & Indigo (EC) |
| D 576 to 588Hz. | Blue 465 to 474nm. |
| C#/Db | Green & Blue (EC) |
| C 512 to 524Hz. | Green 522 to 533nm. |
| B 486 to 495Hz. | Yellow 552 to 562nm. |
| A#/Bb | Orange & Yellow (EC) |
| A 432 to 440Hz. | Orange 621 to 632nm. |
| G#/Ab | Red & Orange (EC) |
| G 378 to 392Hz. | Red 697 to 722nm. |
Into the future…
Summation
Click To Read
The idea of using color to represent the seven natural notes, in tandem with the idea of combining these same colors to represent the five sharps and flats between them, is practically as old as the science of music itself. Whether these color combinations are represented as actual mixtures of the two natural note colors on either side (i.e. resulting in one mixed color), or whether these sharp and flats notes are represented individually by the two natural note colors separately (i.e. not mixed together but never the less shown in tandem with one another side by side), does not really matter. For the two colors are still present in referencing the sharps and flats and therefore the theory behind such an idea remains consistent.
One specific and fairly recent example that validates these principals quite poignantly is the U.S. Patent No. 2,284,868, which clearly states that “…seven elements representing the natural notes of an octave in the musical scale are preferably colored…” while the “…five elements representing the half notes of the octave are preferably colored as a mixture of the colors applied to the natural note – representing elements at opposite sides thereof…”, and this clearly shows the enharmonic theories of music and color at work. This patent was granted on June 2nd, 1942 to Gertrude M. Heaney, an organist, musician and voice teacher. It provides that this knowledge is now legally in the public domain.
For centuries, from the era of Aristotle and Pythagoras to the present day, philosophers, artists, musicians, and scientists have engaged in a longstanding debate regarding the potential analogy between color and music. This ongoing discourse is reflected in the aesthetic theories and creative endeavors of prominent modern artists and musicians. While scientific evidence validating a direct correlation between color and music remains subjective and elusive, the substantial philosophical and historical evidence suggests that an intuitive and aesthetic connection between the two does indeed exist, just as a direct proportional and mathematical connection may indeed exist as well. Musical Colors remains at the forefront of this effort.
