There are many types of synesthesia relating to music. The links lead to the pages on this site about each specific type (or subtype).
Other combinations of the inducer and concurrent pairings in this list are also possible of course - combinations such as musical modes-taste, for example - but they haven't been included as they are rare or have never been reported.
Synesthesias with a musical inducer and a VISUAL concurrent:
Tone-colour (musical note-colour)
Timbre-colour (musical instruments)
Timbre-shape (timbre-colour and timbre-shape often occur together)
Song-colour and musical genre-colour
Voice-colour/shape (for singing voices)
Parts of song structure (chorus, bridge, verse)-colour
Spatial sequence with musical concepts as a trigger (songs, genres or parts of songs, for example, have a consistent spatial position in your mind)
Images seen in creative/musical trance (a phenomenon that could perhaps be considered a type of musical synesthesia)
Synesthesias with a musical inducer and NON-VISUAL concurrents:
Sound-texture (in response to music)
Personification of musical sequences (tones, chords, keys, timbre, melody)
Auditory-olfactory (timbre-smell, tone-smell or musical note-smell, chord-smell, key signature-smell, song-smell, musical genre-smell)
Voice-smell (for voices heard singing; mentioned on the page on auditory-olfactory synesthesia)
Auditory-gustatory (includes timbre-taste, tone or musical note-taste, chord-taste, key signature-taste, song-taste, musical genre-taste)
Voice-taste (for voices heard singing)
Auditory-motor
(when sounds trigger involuntary movements; related to auditory-tactile synesthesia)
Synesthesias with DIFFERENT INDUCERS and AUDITORY CONCURRENTS (musical notes, tones or frequencies)
Taste-musical notes (gustatory-auditory synesthesia)
Smell-musical notes (olfactory-auditory synesthesia)
Pain-musical notes (pain-sound synesthesia)
Other phenomena and types of synesthesia related to music in some way:
Dance steps-colour (see either kinetics-colour or coloured sequence synesthesia)
Music triggering figurative images, landscapes or “music videos” (not considered a type of synesthesia although it can accompany it)
This page last updated: 22 June 2024
You should put musical-space
ReplyDeleteHi! That isn’t considered a type of synesthesia in its own right, even though spatial perceptions do accompany the concurrents of the music-to-visual types of synesthesias: as well as colour and/or shape, the photisms have position and often movement and direction (except for the type where music just produces the general impression of a colour in your mind).
DeleteIn theory somebody could have a type of synesthesia where different types of music have different directions but no other visual photisms at all, but I don’t think I’ve read of anybody who’s reported this.
If musical concepts such as particular songs, genres or parts of songs have a consistent spatial position in your mind, that would fit into the “Spatial sequences of concepts” category, even though it isn’t exclusively musical, so I’ve included that.
Thank you!
To Pau: I completely disagree., unless I am not properly understanding what you have said. There is "tonal spatial" synaesthesia, highly and involuntarily visual, with color or black/whie/gray lines that move and have texture, spread out onto a live movie screen, moving from right to left. It is among the very rarest of all synaesthesia. I have had lifelong experience of this, having it only further developed into massive details as I get older. I am almost 55, with 8 children. I am a composer. My mother has 2 other types, which my children possess (and I do as well). It runs in families through the mothers generally.
DeleteYes, it’s perfectly valid to have a major spatial component in your perceptions, and yours is a class example of it.
DeleteIt’s just that as far as I know it’s never been “officially” considered a type.
I will be adding something to the Tree on auditory-spatial manifestations, and it will be soon. Unfortunately as I have to research it a bit, write it, decide where to put it, make all the links etc. it’s taking a while as I'm short of time. But it will appear one day soon.
Thanks for telling us about your case!
I was wondering if this was just a “me” thing, but is there some kind of synesthesia that is music/season? I don’t mean it in a traditional way (for example “Winter Wonderland” makes it feel like an appropriate winter song because it’s usually only played during that season).
ReplyDeleteI have some bands/artists/songs that I can’t listen to during certain times of the year because they don’t feel right because the current season. Like I can’t listen to most Tori Amos and Radiohead songs during the summer because they feel more like a fall. Deftones are summer, and Vivaldi’s “Summer” is actually late fall/early winter to me.
I tried to explain this to people, and nobody seems to get what I’m talking about. I was just curious, I just recently found out that not everyone apparently *feels* music like I do (hello audio-tactile synesthesia).
Hi! Having the seasons as a synesthesia concurrent hasn’t ever been considered synesthesia as far as I know. The seasons would be considered a kind of time unit, and time units are common as a synesthesia inducer but this kind of construction wouldn’t be considered a concurrent.
DeleteProbably what you would have to think about is what aspect of the seasons you are perceiving when you link them to the songs. If it’s colour (you might have a particular colour for each season), possibly temperature, or some kind of spatial representation you have for the four seasons and the songs would also be in that place in your mind together with the season and couldn’t be anywhere else, then perhaps this could be a type of synesthesia.
Maybe you could take a look at these pages and see if anything resonates with you:
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/time-units-colour.html
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/03/music-and-temperature.html
Less likely:
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/calendar-synesthesia.html
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/03/spatial-sequences-of-concepts-other.html