SEEING SOUND, HEARING COLOUR: SYNAESTHESIA AND THE MUSICAL MIND
Dr John Woodland, broadcaster, Fine Music Radio; founder and artistic director, VOX Cape Town; Research Officer, Department of Chemistry and Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre, University of Cape Town
Friday 30 January 9.15 am COURSE FEES R115; Staff and students R58
For most of us, listening to music is an exclusively aural experience. But some might ‘see’ a particular musical key as a colour, or associate flavours with the timbres of different instruments. This mingling of the senses, or synaesthesia, would lead musicians such as Franz Liszt to baffle orchestras with requests such as, ‘Gentlemen, a little bluer, if you please – this tone requires it!’ When she was young, the composer Amy Beach would ask her mother to play ‘the purple music’ or ‘the green music’. In the last century it was deemed fashionable to have synaesthesia – although Sibelius hid his unusual talent to avoid being mocked by his colleagues.
This richly illustrated lecture will explore how synaesthesia, an unusual way of experiencing the world, influenced the music-making of these composers. It will also consider contemporary synaesthetes, such as Leonard Bernstein, Itzhak Perlman and Hélène Grimaud, as well as the way in which synaesthetic experiences impact on other disciplines, such as literature and science.
TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1575249641
John Woodland is a musician, broadcaster and scientist. He is the founder and artistic director of the choral ensemble VOX Cape Town. He can be heard on Fine Music Radio presenting the broadcasts of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s symphony concerts, for which he also shares the pre-concert talks. His scientific activities take place at UCT, where his principal interest is in developing new treatments and tools to tackle the scourge of infectious disease, with a focus on malaria.