THE SOUNDSCORE TO heartBEAT: A NARRATIVE-FORM MUSIC ...

CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Introduction
heartBEAT is an attempt to relate aural and visual sensation as a single, unified
aesthetic experience. This desire has produced, throughout history, numerous attempts at
combining these two modes of perception. Such efforts have been both theoretical and
practical in nature, originating from the interrelated fields of philosophy, science, art,
drama and music.
Synaesthgsia
The tendency to associate between aural and visual sensation is a common one,
observable in such familiar areas as language. Descriptive phrases such as "loud reds"
and "muted browns" are useful and accepted metaphors. In music, string sounds can be
"bright" and a voice "dark." The association can be more complex, however, not limited
merely to the senses of sight and hearing. The Cherokee Indians had color associations
with the sense of direction. South was seen to be "white," North "blue," East "red,' and
West "black."^ Though in no way conclusive, these examples do suggest a complex and
highly subjective relationship between the senses.
This relationship is known as synaesthesia. Traditionally, the term describes a
particular psychophysical experience, in which the stimulation of a single sense arouses
images from the other senses. To such an individual, the sound of a bassoon may have a
characteristic color and taste, as well as sound. One of the most common manifestations
of the synaesihetic experience is "colored hearing." Widely noted by researchers in the
early part of this century, synaesthetic individuals were reported as having strong color
sensations from a variety of auditory stimuU.^ One blind subject, for example,
professed a sudden understanding of the color "purple," as "the sound of a trumpet.'