LucyScaleDevelopments present:

extract from Pitch, Pi, and Other Musical Paradoxes..........

by Charles E. H. Lucy copyright 1986-2000

chapter nine PITCH, COLOUR, SCRIABIN, AND OTHERS

Another mythological relationship which, like the music of the spheres has persisted, is the concept that pitch and colour are in some mysterious way related. Theories have been postulated by the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1872 -1915), the Rosicrucian Order and many others.

Some of the synaesthetic correlations between colour and particular keys, chords, and pieces of music may be caused by the association of auras, or subjective ideas, but the intent here is to explore the possibilities of a connection through mathematics and physics, and to extend our knowledge about sound.

Note: Colours displayed from this website may vary with equipment used.

Scriabin's theory was that each note in the octave could be associated with a specific colour, and in Prometheus, the Poem of Fire, he wrote the colours and music to match. His arrangement was:

C Db D Eb E F F# G Ab A Bb B
Red Violet Yellow Steel Pale

Blue

 Dark

Red

 Bright

Blue

 Orange Purple Green Steel Pale

Blue

Berlioz, Debussy and Wagner were also interested in music and colour and Rimsky-Korsakov considered C as white.

The Rosicrucian Order based their theories on Just intonation and suggest that note names, frequencies, and colours should be:

Note C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B
Colour Yellow-

Green

 Green Green-

Blue

 Blue Blue-

Violet

 Violet Violet-

Red

 Deep

Red

 Red Red-

Orange

 Orange Yellow
Hertz 256 288 320 341 192 213 240

Charles Fourier in Theorie de l'Unite Universelle 1846 states the connection between colours, note names and metals to be:

C D E F G A B
Iron Silver Tin Platinum Lead Gold Copper
Violet Indigo Azure Green Yellow Orange Red

Colour may be defined mathematically by the electromagnetic wavelength to which it corresponds. Pitch may be described by frequency, to which the wavelength is inversely proportional. But there is no general agreement on which colour matches which note, pitch or range.

The spectrum from a rainbow is described as: Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet Frequencies in the visible spectrum are between 1014 & 1015 Hertz. Wavelengths of visible light are between .1 & .8 of a micron, Guy Murchie in Music Of The Spheres states that invisible ultra-violet has a wavelength of 3,700 angstroms: that invisible infra-red 7,400 angstroms; and that this doubling suggests an octave. According to Van Nostrano's Encyclopedia, results on tests with a spectrometer gave the following results for human perception of colour:

Colour Violet Blue Green Yellow Orange Red
Angstroms 3900 to

4500

 4500 to

4920

 4920 to

5770

 5770 to

5970

 5970 to

6220

 6220 to

7700

Audible frequencies are from 20 Hz. to 25,000 Hz. The basis of the logic for pitch/colour connection is as follows: Assume the speed of light in a vacuum is a constant i.e. 299,792,458 metres per second. The wave length of a particular colour may be expressed in metres (nanometres or Angstroms). We assume that 299,792,458 metres is equivalent to a number of wavelengths, which may be determined by dividing 299,792,458 by the distance in metres of one wavelength. i.e. frequency = (metres travelled by light per second) _ (wavelength of specific colour)

Eg: for 5800 Angstroms (yellow) Frequency = 299,792,458 / 0.000,000,58 = 516,883,530,000,000 Hz.

As octaves are a result of doubling or halving frequency this high frequency may be reduced to a precise audible value by cumulative halving.

The following table shows the results of this logic:

Note Hertz

LucyTuned

 Equivalent

Wavelength

Angstroms/10

Nanometres

 Approximate

Colour
A 440 619.69 Orange-Yellow
A# 457.75 595.66 Yellow-Orange
Bb 472.27 577.34 Yellow
B 491.32 554.95 Yellow-Green
Cb 506.91 537.89 Green-Yellow
B# 511.13 533.44 Green
C 527.35 517.03 Green
C# 548.62 496.99 Green-Blue
Db 566.03 481.70 Blue-Green
D 588.86 463.03 Blue
D# 612.61 445.08 Blue-Violet
Eb 632.05 431.39 Violet-Blue
E 657.54 414.67 Violet
Fb 678.41 401.91 Ultra Violet
E# 684.06 398.59 Invisible Violet
F 705.77 772.66 Invisible Red
F# 734.23 742.71 Infra Red
Gb 757.53 719.86 Red
G 788.08 691.96 Red-Orange
G# 819.87 665.13 Orange-Red
Ab 845.89 644.67 Orange

Diagram of clockface with approximate colours

Diagram of global connections between frequencies, wavelengths and colours

Diagram of harmonic colours

Colour to hexidecimal value - Javascript colour chooser

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