Duke Ellington - synesthesia

[cih]

Reading one or two things about synesthesia (the condition, not the band..) in connection with artistic endeavours - Kandinsky for example..

Duke Ellington is cited as a famous musician who 'used synesthesia' in his works. Does this mean he actually had a neurological condition?, or that he simply attempted some kind of musical impression of colours?

His music certainly conjures up 'images' in quite a vivid way - (eg Air Conditioned Jungle and others that I can't remember the names of - but you can almost see the skyscrapers, busy streets in some of it) - but this is a different matter I suppose.

Edited October 2, 2010 by cih

[flat5]

I don't know.

A friend of mine 'sees' numbers as colors.

He can do fast four place multiplication, division, square roots 'in his head'.

[cih]

That would be pretty useful!

It seems that it's well known that Ellington was a synesthete, but I'll post this anyway:

Duke Ellington (1899-1974), composer and pianist. Class of synesthesia: Timbre → color.

"I hear a note by one of the fellows in the band and it’s one color. I hear the same note played by someone else and it’s a different color. When I hear sustained musical tones, I see just about the same colors that you do, but I see them in textures. If Harry Carney is playing, D is dark blue burlap. If Johnny Hodges is playing, G becomes light blue satin."

– Ellington, as quoted in Don George, p. 226.

According to another pianist on a piano forum with the same thing, this Timbre → color function is perhaps not very useful:

Although, as a synesthete myself, I have to point out that not all of us associate key->colour. Some people have note-> colour (eg C# is always yellow), and then there are people like me who have timbre->colour (eg violins sound green). Mine is obviously less useful than the other two, but still an interesting experience

But more useful for a bandleader presumably

Edited October 2, 2010 by cih