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Was Scriabin a Synesthete?
- Leonardo
- The MIT Press
- Volume 34, Number 4, August 2001
- pp. 357-361
- Article
- Additional Information
This survey and summary of documentary material on Scriabin's "color hearing" is being presented for consideration by researchers studying his ideas of light-music synthesis. On the basis of their analysis, the authors conclude that the nature of Scriabin's "color-tonal" analogies was associative, i.e. psychological; accordingly, the existing belief that Scriabin was a distinctive, unique "synesthete" who really saw the sounds of music--that is, literally had an ability for "co-sensations"--is placed in doubt.