Yesterday I found these amazing pictures online of a Hindu festival.
Pretty cool huh?
You can see the rest of the pictures here, and read up on the festival here.
Anyway, I’m posting them here because the bright colors make me think of music. Some musicians experience a neurological phenomenon called sound -> color synesthesia (info here) which causes them to see colors when they hear certain sounds (a loud note could cause them to see everything in red, or yellow, etc.). My vision doesn’t change when I hear music, but I do see colors in my head, and involuntarily assign composers to the color their music conjures up in my brain.
Beethoven – navy blue
Mozart – pale pink
Dvořák- forest green
Bach – mahogany
Tchaikovsky- carnelian or Venetian red
Shostakovich – gray
Prokofiev – yellow
Stravinsky – white
Mendelssohn – metallic blue
(I do the same thing with perfume, assigning colors, and I match it to what I’m wearing. So if I’m wearing purple clothes, I wear perfume that smells purple.)
Anyway, I guess it’s kind of a stretch to post pictures of a Hindu festival on a blog authored by a St. Louis rock band. But for some people, colors are an integral element of any musical experience. These pictures make me hear music in my head, and they are too pretty to not share. Also it looks like a good party, no?
