Leonardo

AbstractSource: Leonardo, Vol. 34, No. 4 (2001), pp. 355-356Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577165 .

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ON K SARAGEV'S "COLOR HEARING" I.L. Vanechkina, Institute "Prometei," KGTU (Kazan State Technical Univer-

sity)-Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan, K. Marx Str., 10, Kazan 420111, Russia. E-mail: c/o <galeyev@prometei.kcn.ru>.

Received 19July 2000. Accepted for publica- tion by Roger F Malina.

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 de- voted to the exploration of the nature and

history of this phenomenon, as well as the discussion of intersense relationships, art- works 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 de- viations from the norm (this being pos- sible, as we know, with any human facil-

ity). 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 in-

tently 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 "synes-

thete," musician and bell-ringer K.K.

Saragev (1900-1942) was also con- nected with music. His life was de-

scribed 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 coopera- tion with our subject's brother, N.K.

Saragev [4]. It was M. Gorki who con- vinced Tzvetayeva to write the story around 1927. The manuscript disap- peared while Tzvetayeva was impris- oned but was reconstructed by her half a century later.

Saragev's synesthesia was accompa- nied by perfect pitch. His memory was

apparently phenomenal, too [5]. Ac-

cording to him, he could hear 112 flats and sharps of each tone, and 1701 tone

gradations in an octave, by his calcula- tions. Be that as it may, Tzvetayeva docu- mented 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 per- ceived "tone in capitals," which he de- scribed as "not merely specific sound, but a kind of living fiery kernel of sound" (a so-called "tonal harmoniza- tion"). "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 de- tailed 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: art- ist A.P. Vasilyev was "orange Re-sharp major."

Composer V. Deshevov drew up a table of Saragev's "colour-tonality" cor-

respondences in about 1921. Tzvetayeva cites in her book the version of it shown in Table 1. We shall not waste time ana-

lyzing the table. Judged overall, how- ever, it contains many personal, para- doxical 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!). Al-

though the principle of enumeration of tonalities in the table is incomprehen- sible, it can be seen that their colora- tions are repeated in tenths. The first 10 contain tonalities whose names do not include accidentals. All the rest are

probably determined by Saragev's atti- tudes toward symbolism and numerol-

ogy as well as his psychological impulses (he assigned Mi to all pretty girls!). I will leave it to those who are interested to analyze this particular case of "color

hearing." It seems that all individuals with such perfect, sophisticated, hyper- trophied pitch experience a unique form of "color hearing," the additional reason for this being the synesthete's experience of consistent and perma- nent associations between the various senses, whereas such associations may be merely occasional or fleeting for other individuals.

More interesting is that for Saragev "each tone has its form, color and num- ber. The tone's form is transparent, as

glass. It radiates rays of corresponding color-similar to a rainbow. And it bathes in its own rays." All in all, Saragev's abilities of absolute pitch, color-tonality association and extraordi-

nary memory were combined with an ex-

clusively visual orientation, which al- lowed him to create striking images of musical compositions. Here is how he re- called the process of creating his first

symphony:

I fell into a state of composing. There was darkness around and in front of me-the light of strong brilliance. Far away there was a huge square of red-or- ange color, and it was encircled with two broad ribbons: the first of red and the second of black color; the latter was broader than the first, and some light space remained between it and darkness.... In this picture I saw the whole symphony, standing before me. At the same time I heard it...

What is striking in the above frag- ment is not only the phenomenon of simultaneous perception of develop- ing sound but also the stability of syn-

LEONARDO, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 355-356, 2001 355 ? 2001 ISAST

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Saragev's Color-Tonality Associations

Tones Corresponding Numbers to Numbers and Colors

Major Black Dark blue Pinkish violet Silver-white Bright blue Dark claret Bright violet Dark red/orange Bright yellow Bright green Grey Light blue Pale green Bright red Pale blue Dark crimson Light violet Orange Pale yellow Dark brown Dark olive

Minor Black tinted grey Blue; dark grey Pinkish violet tinted grey Silver-white tinted grey Bright blue tinted grey Dark claret tinted grey Bright violet tinted grey Dark red/orange tinted grey Bright yellow tinted grey Bright green tinted grey Grey Light blue tinted grey Pale green tinted grey Bright red tinted grey Pale blue tinted grey Dark crimson tinted grey Light violet tinted grey Orange tinted grey Pale yellow tinted grey Dark brown tinted grey Dark olive tinted grey

esthetic correspondences ("color-to- nality" in this case). The psychologist A. Bernshtein once recorded the cor-

respondences of Saragev and repeated the experiment many years later. The results were precisely the same (as Tzvetayeva recalled them).

Tzvetayeva only depicted this won- derful phenomenon and let other spe- cialists interpret it, though she did not avoid reflections of her own. It is a pity that Saragev had not become the object

of intensive and purposeful investiga- tion by psychologists and neurophysi- ologists. One point is obvious-such

unique manifestations of "color hear-

ing" are of interest for psychology, not for art theory and practice (light-music in particular), as facts of private biogra- phy, not of culture. This point is similar to the fact that absolute pitch is not the

necessary and sole determinant of musi- cal talent (otherwise the work of the tuner would be the summit of music).

References and Notes 1. See the paper by B.M. Galeyev, "The Problem of Synaesthesia in the Arts," Languages of Design 1, No. 2, 201-203 (1993); and B.M. Galeyev, "What Is Sy- naesthesia: Myths and Reality," Leonardo Electronic Almanac 7, No. 6; see also the Prometei Institute web site <http://prometheus.kai.ru>. 2. A. Luria, The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory (New York: Basic Books, 1976).

3. A.I. Tzvetayeva, "The Story of the Moscow Bell- Ringer," Moskva magazine, No. 7 (1977) (in Russian).

4. A.I. Tzvetayeva, Master of Magic Chime (Moscow: Muzyka, 1986 and 1988) (in Russian).

5. He could also speak words backwards.

356 Vanechkina, On K. Saragev's "Color Hearing"

Table 1.

Tone Male/

Female Colors

M M F M F M M F F F M M F M F M M M F F M

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Optimism Major

Do Sol Mi Sol Mi Re Si Re Fa La

Do# Sol# La# Si Mi# Do Si# Re# Fa# La Fa

Pessimism Minor

La Mi Do Mi Do Si Sol Si Re Fa# La# Mi Fa x Sol

Do x La Sol x Si# Re# Fa

Re

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