The first attempts to connect and contrast sound and color date back to ancient civilizations

The Alexandrian scholar Ptolemy, in the second century AD, concluded that color is not exclusive to painting but is also essential in sculpture, architecture, and music.

Souad Khalil | Libya

Music is an art form that plays a vital role in developing aesthetic sensitivity in individuals. There is no doubt that every citizen who appreciates this fine art hopes to experience music on a sound scientific basis. Scientific research also shows that humans do not live by food and drink alone—they need calm, tranquility, comfort, and harmony.

Music plays an important role in soothing the soul and influencing emotional states. It can provoke anger, inspire enthusiasm and courage on the battlefield, or induce serenity and inner peace. History provides many examples. For instance, the German musician Richard Strauss managed to pacify angry crowds who, in the 19th century, had targeted the Emperor’s Palace in Vienna. He played calming musical pieces until the people gathered around him, leading them away from the palace.

Thus, music has a powerful impact on human psychology. This is a simplified definition that we are generally familiar with. But there are deeper layers to this art—not only in performance but also in immersing oneself in the meaning of music and its phrases. In this context, there exists a relationship between sound and color in music.

This relationship is based on emotional associations and the psychological and physiological phenomenon known as synesthesia—a synchronized association between sound and color or a coordination between two different types of sensory perception, such as sight, hearing, and even smell. Like other forms of art, nature also integrates visual and auditory movement, color, sound, and other phenomena. It is a sensual experience seen through a more accurate, healthier, and more beautiful lens—one felt even by the blind, as Beethoven experienced. As Carlyle once said: “If you contemplate something deeply and examine it closely, you will truly enjoy the music, because melody lies at the heart of the nature of things.”

Music is movement in time. It transforms a static image in space into a musical vision, a dynamic and aesthetic experience full of motion. This growing awareness has driven interest in pairing expressive imagery with sound. The artistic fusion of what is seen, heard, and conceptualized makes reality feel more whole, and enhances human perception, bringing it closer to primal nature and truth.

The first attempts to connect and contrast sound and color date back to ancient civilizations. The Alexandrian scholar Ptolemy, in the second century AD, concluded that color is not exclusive to painting but is also essential in sculpture, architecture, and music. A painter wisely chooses and blends colors for realistic expression. Similarly, music uses orchestral color—expressive contrasts and transitions between maqams and harmonic combinations of opposing sounds. Whether physical or sensual, color and sound align through harmony, contrast, and dissonance.

Opposites always complete meaning. There is no night without day, no white without black, no calm without noise. Without contrast, the original cannot exist. Every theory requires its opposite. Each musical instrument has its unique color and emotional tone, linked to its nature and expression. Modern science has helped clarify many mysteries, especially regarding the scientific relationship between sound and color.

Music consists of sounds, each defined by a specific frequency (vibrations per second). Similarly, color is determined by specific vibrations, though these are far more rapid and beyond auditory perception. Sound vibrations resonate in air, while light vibrations—responsible for color—resonate in the ether. The human ear can detect sounds between 16 and 20,000 vibrations per second, while visible colors range between 451 trillion and 870 trillion vibrations per second. For instance, to produce a musical note like A (La) at 440 Hz, we emit that exact number of vibrations. Music is thus a sequence of frequencies. Similarly, specific vibration ranges produce different colors.

As a result, scientists such as Isaac Newton discovered that the mathematical ratios separating the seven spectrum colors correspond to the seven musical notes (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do)—aligned with the Dorian scale. This led to numerous scientific efforts to link color and sound, associating what the eye sees with what the ear hears through synchronized performances. Though these efforts have faced challenges, research continues.

Exploring musical scales and maqams, great composers have emotionally associated them with colors—often influenced by their personal experiences in life and art. Hence, their associations vary. For example:

Rimsky-Korsakov saw the note “Do” as white, while Scriabin viewed it as red.

“Re” appeared sunny yellow to Korsakov, but “bright yellow” to Scriabin.

Beethoven believed that the minor note “C” evoked the color black.

Playing all seven notes of a scale simultaneously results in dissonance. Harmony arises from a careful selection of three or four notes. Likewise, combining all seven spectrum colors results in white light—often overwhelming to the eye. Studies show that people who cannot distinguish musical tones are often color-blind, lacking the ability to differentiate hues—highlighting a biological link between auditory and visual perception.

Since the 17th century, musicologists have experimented with visual and musical performances. Instruments like the organ and harpsichord were designed to emit both music and color. These efforts continued until Wallace Remington (1854–1918) invented the color-light organ, which did not produce sound but displayed colored lights synchronized with live music performances—often of Chopin or Wagner—performed by pianists or orchestras.

The Clavilux, invented by Thomas Wilfred in 1922, was a machine that didn’t produce sound but displayed compositions using only light and color. It became a form of visual music—art suggesting sound through color, thus affirming the theory that musical sound and color are closely linked and complete the human sensory experience.

In 1924, Frederick Bentham invented the color light console, a machine similar to Remington’s organ, designed to play “color music.” Due to the difference in the speed of sound and light, the display of color slightly lagged behind the music, producing a deliberate synchronization between color and auditory experience. A sequence of sounds was accompanied by a shifting color palette, strengthening the connection between sight and sound.

It’s worth noting that Walt Disney incorporated these sound-color relationships in his iconic 1937 film “Fantasia”, using music and visual art in harmony.

In 1917, the composer and philosopher Cyril Scott declared: “Every musical work that leads to intellectual and chromatic splendor is shaped into an aesthetic mold floating in space. Its aesthetic value is determined by this spiritually tangible model of beauty.” This kind of beauty shapes human psychology and influences glandular secretions and latent energies.

In conclusion, there is indeed a relationship between sound and color in music. When we observe a natural landscape accompanied by the rustling of leaves, birdsong, and the murmur of flowing water, we touch upon a universal truth that philosophy and art have long pursued—what Wagner sought in his concept of musical drama, where poetry, music, movement, and architecture converge. When these elements are united, their impact becomes deeper, more integrated, and closer to truth itself.