Synesthesia - Scriabin & others

This is defined as a condition in which the stimulation of one sensory modality automatically evokes a perception in an unstimulated modality. (Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia, O.U.P)

The Russian Composer, Alexander Scriabin, was alleged to be subject to "chromesthesia" a specialised form of synesthesia, dealing with colour - sound associations. He composed music, assigning different colours of the spectrum to different notes of the musical scale. The recorded versions of his Piano Sonatas & Symphonies are available.

His fellow Russian, Modest Mussorgsky, envisaged musical notes of the Piano when he saw the pictures painted by his friend, V. Hartmann in an exhibition. But the most often heard version is the orchestral one of these pieces by the Frenchman Maurice Ravel, called "Pictures from an Exhibition."

The eminent neuroscientist Dr. V. S. Ramachandran (with David Brang) has also co-authored a contribution "Molecules to Metaphor - Outlooks on Synasthesia Research" in the above handbook.