On K. Saragev's "Color Hearing"

This text is part of the Leonardo special project on Synesthesia and Intersenses, guest edited by Jack Ox and Jacques Mandelbrojt. Synesthesia is the phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sense modality gives rise to a sensation in another sense modality; for example, some synesthetes see colors when they hear music. This special project is devoted to the exploration of the nature and history of this phenomenon, as well as the discussion of intersense relationships, artworks and experiences.

Our Kazan scientific institute has long defended the idea of synesthesia as intersensorial association, as a systemic manifestation of non-verbal thinking (as in the work of B. Galeyev) [1]. It is in this context that we have emphasized the interrelationship of art and synesthesia. But at the same time we do not exclude the possibility of unique synesthetical deviations from the norm (this being possible, as we know, with any human facility). In the case of synesthesia, one such unique person was "Sh," investigated and described in The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory by neurophysiologist A.R. Luria [2].

S. Eisenstein, who researched intently the phenomenon of synesthesia in art, revealed the clinical pseudonym "Sh" to be that of S. Sherishevsky. It is a pity, but neither Luria nor Eisenstein mentioned "Sh's" synesthetic reactions to music or his attitude toward music in general.

The life of another unique "synesthete," musician and bell-ringer K.K. Saragev (1900-1942) was also connected with music. His life was described in an article "The Story of the Moscow Bell-Ringer" by A.I. Tzvetayeva [3] and, with changes and additions, in the book Master of Magic Chime by A.I. Tzvetayeva in cooperation with our subject's brother, N.K. Saragev [4]. It was M. Gorki who convinced Tzvetayeva to write the story around 1927. The manuscript disappeared while Tzvetayeva was imprisoned but was reconstructed by her half a century later.

Saragev's synesthesia was accompanied by perfect pitch. His memory was apparently phenomenal, too [5]. According to him, he could hear 112 flats and sharps of each tone, and 1701 tone gradations in an octave, by his calculations. Be that as it may, Tzvetayeva documented that Saragev heard all overtones of musical tones. Besides this, Saragev himself wrote that for him "each thing, each living being of Earth and Universe sounds and features its own specific tone" [in terms of tonality--I.V.]; one should bear in mind that he also perceived "tone in capitals," which he described as "not merely specific sound, but a kind of living fiery kernel of sound" (a so-called "tonal harmonization"). "Each gem," he went on, "has, for example, its individual tonality and has the very colour which corresponds to the given pitch." He provided a detailed table of "soundings" of crystals, glass and various metals (gold was for example Fa-Re; cast iron was Sol flat-Mi flat, etc.). Saragev perceived the sound of Anastasya Tzvetayeva's voice as "Mi 16 sharps major" and her prominent sister as "Mi 17 flats minor." He also "saw" and discerned colors in all these people: artist A.P. Vasilyev was "orange Re-sharp major."

Composer V. Deshevov drew up a table of Saragev's "colour-tonality" correspondences in about 1921. Tzvetayeva cites in her book the version of it shown in Table 1. We shall not waste time analyzing the table. Judged overall, however, it contains many personal, paradoxical features (Do-major is black! And sharp tonalities are paler than flat ones!). One thing is obvious--his minor is always greyer than the parallel major (this relates even to "black" Do-major and already "grey" Do-sharp-major!). Although the principle of enumeration of tonalities in the table is incomprehensible, it can be seen that their colorations are repeated in tenths. The first 10 contain tonalities whose names do not include accidentals. All the rest are...