by SOLANGE GLASSER
Background
Idiopathic synaesthesia is a neurological condition that gained research prominence in the late 1980s, and has since been the object of numerous studies undertaken from various scientific standpoints. Apart from general studies of synaesthesia, creativity, and artistic ability, there have been no studies to date that have specifically examined the influence of synaesthesia on musical abilities. Furthermore, while the relationship between certain types of sound-related synaesthesia and absolute pitch (AP) has been frequently noted, the exact nature of this relationship remains highly speculative (Gregersen et al., 2013; Hänggi, Beeli, Oechslin, & Jäncke, 2008; Loui, Zamm, & Schlaug, 2012; Mottron et al., 2013; Ward, Huckstep, & Tsakanikos, 2006).
This study was designed to explore the impact of synaesthesia on a range of musical abilities. It involved a population of advanced level tertiary musicians at the University of Melbourne, and examined the role of synaesthesia in the individual subject’s motivation to undertake musical studies, and the degree to which this condition may facilitate or impair musical abilities. The first priority of this study was to seek out self-diagnosed cases of synaesthesia within the music student and academic staff population. The private perceptual experiences of these self-diagnosed cases were then subjected to verification and quantification through the use of test batteries.
Aims
Within the environment of a large tertiary music institution, this study explored how synaesthesia impacts on students’ and academic staff members’ musical abilities, and on participants’ decisions to undertake higher education training in music. This study also examined the complex relationship that exists between synaesthesia and AP in participants with both conditions, and the modalities of their potential interaction. The major objective of the study was to test the theoretical model that synaesthesia impacts specific musical abilities and is a potential motivational factor in a musician’s decision to undertake specialist training in music.
Method
The participants recruited for this study comprise a self-identified sample across currently-enrolled music students and staff of the University. To date, seventeen synesthete participants have been recruited: ten female (59%) and seven male (41%). Three forms of data collection, which were completed over three separate sessions, were used for this study:
- An online questionnaire aimed at collecting background information about each participant, such as their musical history, family history, and medical history in relation to this condition and related conditions.
- Semi-structured interviews aimed at identifying personal and environmental catalysts which shape their synaesthesia, and which covered questions relating to the participant’s childhood and family, health and wellbeing, drug consumption and medication, and creativity and musicianship.
- Synaesthesia battery tests from an online platform to measure and categorise participants’ specific types of synaesthesia.
This paper will focus exclusively on data obtained from three of these participants during the second of these sessions: the interview. Qualitative research methods are becoming common in many different fields of modern research (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009); the qualitative interview seeks to reveal the lived world of the interviewee and how he or she thinks, learns, knows, and acts, prior to scientific explanations.
Semi-structured life world interviews were conducted during this study, with the interview process framed by following the ‘Seven Stages of an Interview Inquiry’ (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). The linear progression of these stages enabled a methodologically rigorous unfolding of the interview process, which was enhanced by the global view of the process, wherein the validity and reliability of each step was questioned. During the interviews, interviewees were encouraged to narrate their experiences, and this narrative approach was continued through the analysis stage, and into the final report.
After conducting a preliminary analysis of the available data, an ongoing analysis over the next twelve months will seek to determine the scope and magnitude of these initial results. This preliminary analysis suggests the following conclusions, which will be discussed more thoroughly within the final PhD dissertation document.
Results
Results are considered according to three categories: 1) motivation, 2) composition and interpretation, and 3) musical preferences. The influence of synaesthesia on these three categories will be discussed below, with examples drawn from the interviews conducted with participants.
1. Motivation
While the best known and most widely studied form of synaesthesia is grapheme-colour synaesthesia, less research has explored the neuroanatomical basis of other forms, including music-colour synaesthesia (but see Zamm, Schlaug, Eagleman, & Loui, 2013). Recently, data collected by neuro-imaging techniques employed during the synesthetic experience clearly validate idiopathic synaesthesia as a real phenomenon, and differentiate it from imaginative mental imagery. This validation has led interdisciplinary research to debate not only whether idiopathic synaesthesia can actively contribute to an artist’s ability, but also whether synaesthesia can be understood as a motivational force for the synesthetic artist.
With this in mind, the interview sought to verify if the expression or indeed knowledge of a participant’s synaesthesia was in any way a motivational force in the participant’s decision to undertake musical studies, both at the initial stages of formal musical instruction (most commonly during early childhood), and at a tertiary level. While participants listed parental decision-making or an older sibling’s current musical tuition as the main catalysts for the commencement of their musical instruction, there was evidence that, even at a young age, many synesthetes felt an affinity with music, which in itself encouraged them to persist in their musical training. As noted by one interviewee, Charlotte, ‘I think it did encourage me to…yeah, motivate me to start being a part of music.’ This effect was, however, far more remarkable when participants were asked about the impact of synaesthesia on their decision to undertake specialised musical instruction at a tertiary level. Again Charlotte discussed how, because of her synaesthesia, she ‘definitely felt an affinity with music and studying it and persisting, because I knew that there was – I felt like I had some sort of connection…I definitely feel like there was something underlying, that kind of kept me going through.’ This sentiment was paralleled by many of the synesthete participants, with several even remarking that they did not believe that they would have pursued their musical activities at a tertiary level if they had not been synesthetes. Xavier, for example, had completed an Engineering degree before making the decision to undertake a degree in Music Performance. When asked if his synaesthesia had played a part in this decision, he replied: ‘It definitely played a big part. I felt like not everyone has this, so I’m very lucky to have this extra sense that will allow me to enjoy music even more, which always has been a big factor in my enjoyment of it. So definitely, yeah. I felt like, since not everyone has it, that it might be a bit of a sign to do something along those lines and to use it for something’.
As a follow-up question, Xavier was asked: ‘Imagine if you can, that you didn’t have synaesthesia. Do you still think you would have wanted to pursue music at a tertiary level?’, to which he replied: ‘I would lose a lot from not having those colours. I probably would not have pursued music, because that has been a big part of me developing as a musician, having that and keeping things exciting, always with colours flying around and keeping me engaged.’
While several participants noted a clear motivational effect relating to their synaesthesia, the amplitude of this effect will have to be further investigated, particularly in terms of early childhood influences.
2. Composition and interpretation
In addition to the prevalence of synaesthesia within the general population, the reported high incidence of synaesthesia among artistic professionals and people with creative hobbies is an additional demographical aspect that was recently confirmed in a large-scale study by Rich, Bradshaw, and Mattingley (2005), while other studies have also shown similar results (Cytowic, 1989; Domino, 1989; Niccolai, Jennes, Stoerig, & Van Leeuwen, 2012; Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001; Rothen & Meier, 2010). These studies have led to suggestions as to the possible links between synaesthesia, metaphor, and creativity (Domino, 1989; Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001; Sitton & Pierce, 2004). From the perspective of a music researcher, it became imperative to ask in what way these possible links could be translated into compositional and interpretative decision-making for the synesthete musician.
While participants were unanimous in their assertion that they did make compositional choices based on their synaesthesia, the importance of these colour percepts varied between participants. For Charlotte, for example, it was ‘the colours’ that were more important than the actual musical effect, whereas for Isabella her compositional choices were more often informed by the desired tonalities, which would subsequently be coloured, affecting the mood of the piece. As the following example portrays, however, there were occasions where the colour of the subsequent tonality took precedence over more musical considerations such as the vocal ranges of the singers involved:
‘I remember choosing E major because the performer I was writing for I just felt that, you know, they were sort of that right colour, and I chose that key. And I was sticking to that key, even when it wasn’t necessarily as good for the singers that I was writing it for. But I was just like, no – it has to be in this key, because I want it to be this colour!’ (Isabella)
The effect of synaesthesia on a participant’s creativity was not always seen as entirely positive, however. Take, for example, the following response from Charlotte:
‘I won’t make things that necessarily fit what has been asked of us to do, you know? So I’ll have this thing and I’ll like the sound of the chords and I’ll like the colour of the chords as well, but it might not be in the task; it might not be in the key they wanted, and when it’s in…if I’m trying to write something in a specific key and I don’t like that colour it’s normally a much worse piece! So it’s good and it’s bad, I suppose.’
Interpretative decision-making was similarly influenced by the participants’ synesthetic percepts. Again, Charlotte explains:
‘I feel like when I can see things I’m much more expressive…If there is a certain section in the music and I feel like it’s not necessarily, well, if it’s not a colour, if it’s not showing up to me in the way that I would expect, then I know basically that I have to go back and look at it differently and that’s how I would judge it.’
In the following discussion with Isabella, one can clearly discern the strong impact a tonality’s associated colour can have on the interpretation of a piece:
Isabella: I was playing this Rachmaninov Etude and it was in E-flat, and I associate that key with the more light Mozart stuff, but this piece was really pounding – you’ve got to be attacking the note. Completely different touch, but I was playing more like a lighter touch, and just trying to make everything smoother than it had to be attacked…
Interviewer: But was that because of the colour you associate with E flat?
Isabella: Maybe. Yeah, maybe!
Interviewer: Which is what?
Isabella: It’s like a light blue. It’s more like a softer thing, and maybe that piece being in that key was a bit, um…you know, like it should be in a harsher colour. But I was never really conscious of it…But yeah, I think it does affect it: like if that piece had been in D – which is red, so it’s more angry – I would have probably been more inclined to bash it out. That’s so weird! I didn’t even really think of it.
Compositional and interpretational choices were often clearly influenced by the unique synesthetic percepts of individual synesthetes. It is interesting to note that while this influence was often a conscious one, exploited by the synesthete as a way of structuring their compositions or the interpretation of their repertoire, it was also at times an unconscious influence, of which the synesthete remained unaware.
3. Musical preferences
The link between synaesthesia and musical preferences, including choice of repertoire, may seem obvious. Take, for example, the following discussion with Isabella:
Interviewer: Does it ever affect your choice of music that you listen to?
Isabella: If I know the key, yes! Like, Don Giovanni Overture I know is in D minor, and that song is really deep red, so if I don’t feel like listening to deep dark red then I won’t, or if I do… you know.
A synesthete may be aware of the musical merits of a composition, yet cannot overcome the synesthetic ‘dissonance’ that arises from the compositional aspects of the piece, as the following example from Charlotte reveals:
‘I don’t like Wagner and people have shown me parts of some Wagner compositions that in theory are quite nice and I can’t, I just can’t like it. I see the same colour every single time and it’s that murky, browny green colour. And it’s just something about how he composes or something about…I just…yeah! I can’t do it!…A lot of the time with Wagnerian opera, it’s so full on, that’s where I describe it’s like noise in my head. I see horrible colour, and it’s noisy and I can’t hear anything. It’s just too much.’
There were likewise choices pertaining to repertoire that were obviously made directly because of the synesthetic percepts, or lack thereof, that these pieces displayed, such as the following discussion with Charlotte indicates:
Charlotte: In terms of what I play I definitely have preferences. I don’t actually like typical, classical Mozart type stuff to play myself.
Interviewer: Why is that?
Charlotte: I don’t see much. I mean I feel like I don’t see much from it. Or it’s very flat is how I would describe it. There’s not a lot that I get from it.
Synesthetic percepts clearly play a role in individual synesthetes’ musical preferences, including repertoire choices. The multi-variant nature of this influence will be further investigated within the ongoing study, through a close examination of the felt experiences of participants.
Conclusions
Preliminary results indicate that the awareness of their condition can have a profound motivational effect on synesthetes, and furthermore that synesthete musicians employ their unique synesthetic experiences in compositional and interpretative decision-making. There is evidence also that synaesthesia can directly influence musical preferences and repertoire choices. Furthermore, while still a work-in-progress, preliminary analysis of the available data demonstrates the positive influence of synaesthesia on musical memorisation. Moreover, while the relationship between sound-colour synaesthesia and AP has been observed within this study, this relationship is not symbiotic; synesthetic percepts have, however, been noted to be used as a mnemonic aid, resulting in quasi-AP.
These preliminary results extend findings in other areas of synaesthesia research by demonstrating a positive link between synaesthesia and creative inspiration (Rich, Bradshaw, & Mattingley, 2005). The findings have implications for broader understandings of the nature and scope of musical abilities, with reference to a specific attribute such as synaesthesia that is theorised to impact upon cognitive and affective processing of music more generally. In this way, the study has the potential to expand conceptions of musical abilities in ways that encompass other forms of processing, such as the aural-visual processing found in certain forms of synaesthesia. This work is significant for updating and redefining notions of musical potential and ability, with subsequent implications on how musicianship skills are acquired by students who possess synaesthesia.
Notes
Address for correspondence: Solange Glasser, The University of Melbourne, Conservatorium Building, (Gate 12) Royal Parade, Parkville, 3010 Melbourne, Australia.
Email: sglasser@student.unimelb.edu.au
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