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 This story makes me think there should be a new documentary similar to Evelyn Glennie's recent film Touch the Sound, only this film would be called "Taste the Sound."
Swiss psychologists who were studying the fascinating (dis)ability called synaesthesia found a woman who can "taste" music. Synesthetes, as they are called, get their senses mixed up. There are quite a number of documented synesthetes who see colours for different music intervals, but this 27-year-old professional musician can taste music!
Imagine how this might influence a jazz musician's improvisation. It's interesting to note that the flavours she associates with each interval make sense even to us who do not have her ability. The more dissonant the interval, the more bitter or sour the flavour is.
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Taste the Intervals
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- Minor second: Sour
- Major second: Bitter
- Minor third: Salty
- Major third: Sweet
- Fourth: Mown grass
- Tritone: (Disgust)
- Fifth: Pure water
- Minor sixth: Cream
- Major 6: Low-fat cream
- Minor seventh: Bitter
- Major seventh: Sour
- Octave: No taste
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She associates no particular flavour with the tritone, just a sense of "disgust." In medeival Europe, composers were forbidden by the church to use tritone intervals because they were considered "diabolus in musica," the devil in music. Of course, in jazz we use tritone substition all the time, especially over dominant chords. I imagine that this woman has a strong distaste for jazz.
Most scientists agree that we are all synesthetes when we are born, but we lose the ability over the years because we don't use it.
George Gershwin was also a synesthete. He saw mucisal notes in colour. It's no surprise then that one of his most popular compositions is Rhapsody in Blue. Same for Franz Liszt, who according to legend, requested of his musicians, "Gentleman, a little bluer if you please."
Other people with synesthesia can taste shapes. Or more commonly, certain letters make them see certain colours, sometimes to the point that they cannot read.
"I can imagine that someone who has no synaesthetic perception does not have such an intense sensation as I do when listening to music," she was quoted as saying by
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"Music is richer. It is difficult to say whether I would have become a musician if I was not synaesthetic."
For more information about this study, see the this article:
Synaesthete makes sweet music
You might also be interested in this book:
Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens
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