THE COLORS OF MUSIC

 

 

Next, we have Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus.

 

 

What colors would you place on these songs? Both are done by prominent classical musicians, but they have drastically different moods and tempos.

According to the Emotional Mediation Hypothesis (EMH), Tchaikovsky's work is most likely to be paired with the color red, whereas Mozart's piece with blue. The EMH suggests music is associated with colors based off a shared emotional connection. The theory is practically ingrained into children's brains while growing up. Yellow smiley face stickers encourage children to believe they just completed a task well in school, whereas red stop signs are taught to be a hard "no", do not continue. From a young age, the human mind is trained in this way, which then associates those colors with certain emotions; yellow now means happy, red stands for conflict and adrenaline.  

According to a study produced by four psychology researchers, loud, fast music tends to be associated with darker, more saturated colors, such as red. On the other hand, softer, higher pitched music is read on the less saturated color spectrum, like pinks or yellows. Slower, more harmonious music is often paired with the color blue, for its calming effects on the mind.

With this newly learned information, try taking the theories to everyday life. Many advertising agencies use this color information to give products and services a better chance with consumers. And on the musical end, music videos often utilize color and emotional ties to music to capture audience attention. 

While this may explain a good amount for those of us living in the Western world, these theories have not been as widely tested in the Eastern world, so it is unknown if cultural difference make a difference in color to music association.