“Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings.” — Kandinsky
How do we ‘see’ music, or ‘hear’ images? From Newton’s colour scales assigning tones to the rainbow, artists and composers have long explored the deep connections between sound and vision.
Kandinsky’s Compositions and Improvisations; Klee’s polyphonic paintings, and Scriabin’s synaesthetic craft all reveal the scintillating interplay of visual and sonic art. This lecture traced their co-evolution and shared language, from spectral composers to technological translations of light into rhythm and melody, uncovering the hidden spectrum where music and colour intertwine.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/transcript/R_2026_01_12_1618_Mermikides_T_V3.pdf
Extra reading
Austbø, Ø. (2015). Messiaen’s Musical Language. Cambridge University Press.
Boltz, M., Ebendorf, B., & Field, B. (2009). Audiovisual interactions: The influence of visual rhythm on auditory rhythm perception. Perception, 38(1), 45–62. https://doi.org/10.1068/p5897
Brandt, T., Dieterich, M., & Huppert, D. (2024). Human senses and sensors from Aristotle to the present. Frontiers in Neurology, 15, 1404720. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2024.1404720
Brougher, K., Strick, J., Wiseman, A., & Zilczer, J. (2005). Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music since 1900. Thames & Hudson.
Castel, L.-B. (1734–1735). Clavessin pour les yeux. Mercure de France.
Cytowic, R. E., & Eagleman, D. M. (2009). Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia. MIT Press.
Deroy, O., & Spence, C. (2016). Crossmodal correspondences: Four challenges. Multisensory Research, 29(1–3), 29–48.
Eldem, U. (2024) Hearing Glass: Synaesthetic Correspondences in Music-Based Audiovisual Art. PhD Dissertation. University of Antwerp: Belgium. https://repository.uantwerpen.be/link/irua/208948
Eitan, Z., & Granot, R. Y. (2006). How music moves: Musical parameters and listeners’ images of motion. Music Perception, 23(3), 221–247.
Eitan, Z., & Timmers, R. (2010). Beethoven’s last piano sonata and those who follow crocodiles: Cross-domain mappings of auditory pitch. Cognition, 114(3), 405–422.
Field, G. (1817). Chromatics: An Essay on the Analogy and Harmony of Colours. London.
Feynman, R. P. (as quoted). In Ward, J. (2019).
Goethe, J. W. von (1810). Theory of Colours.
Itoh, K., Sakata, H., & Kashino, M. (2017). Musical pitch classes have rainbow hues in pitch-colour synaesthesia. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 17781. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-18150-y
Jameson, R. (1844). Colour Circle and Musical Analogy. Edinburgh.
Kandinsky, W. (1911/1977). Concerning the Spiritual in Art (M. T. H. Sadler, Trans.). Dover Publications.
Klee, P. (1921–1931/1953). Pedagogical Sketchbook. Faber & Faber.
Köhler, W. (1929). Gestalt Psychology. Liveright.
Larson, G. (1987). The Far Side. Andrews McMeel.
Marks, L. E. (1974). On associations of light and sound. American Journal of Psychology, 87(1–2), 173–188.
Marks, L. E. (2011). Synesthesia, then and now. Intellectica, 55, 47–80.
Maurer, D., Pathman, T., & Mondloch, C. J. (2006). The shape of boubas. Developmental Science, 9(3), 316–322.
Messiaen, O. (1994). Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel. Amadeus Press.
Moore, S. (2008) What is it like to have Synaesthesia? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0LLKCQ4dgQ
Newton, I. (1704). Opticks. London.
Palmer, S. E., Schloss, K. B., Xu, Z., & Prado-León, L. R. (2013). Music–color associations are mediated by emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(22), 8836–8841.
Plato. Republic, Book VII (514a–520a).
Pratt, C. C. (1930). The spatial character of high and low tones. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 13(3), 278–285.
Ramachandran, V. S., & Hubbard, E. M. (2001). Synaesthesia: A window into perception, thought and language. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8(12), 3–34.
Rimington, A. W. (1895). Colour-Music: The Art of Mobile Colour. Hutchinson.
Rusconi, E., et al. (2006). Spatial representation of pitch height. Cognition, 99(2), 113–129.
Sabaneyev, L. (1925). Reminiscences of Scriabin. London.
Sapir, E. (1929). A study in phonetic symbolism. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12, 225–239.
Scriabin, A. (1910). Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, Op. 60.
Spence, C. (2020). Crossmodal correspondences: A tutorial review. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82, 19–49.
Uznadze, D. (1924). Symbolic meanings of sounds. Psychological Research.
Voltaire. (1738). Éléments de la philosophie de Newton.
Ward, J. (2019). The Frog Who Croaked Blue: Synesthesia and the Mixing of the Senses. Routledge.
Zilczer, J. (1987). Color music: Synaesthesia and nineteenth-century sources for abstract art. Art Bulletin, 69(3), 451–471.
This event was on Wed, 14 Jan 2026
Professor Milton Mermikides
Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout his teaching, research and creative career.
He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (BSc), Berklee College of Music (BMus) and the University of Surrey (PhD). He has lectured, exhibited and given keynote presentations at organisations like the Royal Academy of Music, TEDx, Royal Musical Association, British Library, Smithsonian Institute and The Science Museum and his work has been featured extensively in the press. His music, research and graphic art are published and featured by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony and more, and he has won awards, scholarships and commendations for writing, teaching, research and his charity work.
Milton is Professor of Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music, Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre, an Ableton Certified Trainer, and lives in London with his wife, the guitarist Bridget Mermikides and their daughter Chloe. He is also a Vice-Chair of Governors at Addison Primary School, a state school which foregrounds music education, offering free instrumental lessons for all on Pupil Premium.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Mermikides
https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/milton-mermikides
https://www.rcm.ac.uk/strings/professors/details/?id=02027
Prof Milton Mermikides
helen the hare 