Henri de Parville

“ A Breton melody gave the sensation of yellow when it was played on a saxophone, red on a clarinet, and blue on the piano, showing that in this case the phenomenon was chiefly influenced by the timbre. The intensity of the color corresponds with the energy of the sound. Loud noises bring out brilliant colors. Very sharp tones determine a grayish sensation, that passes to a bright silver-white when they become intense. The human voice gives multifarious impressions. ”

“ If the string of a guitar is twanged, that is what is colored; if the piano is touched, the color appears over the keys. The seat of color, he says, "appears to me to be principally where the sound is made above the person who is singing. The impression is the same if I do not see any one. There is no sensation in the eye, for I think of the same color with my eyes shut. It is the same when the sound comes from the street through walls and partitions. When I hear a choir of several voices, a host of colors seem to shine like little points over the choristers ”

“ Shocks of a certain class impressed upon the nervous system seem to have the faculty of producing phenomena of light. This remark has been suggested by the facts we are about to relate, which lead us to suppose that sonorous vibrations are susceptible in certain cases of provoking luminous sensations. There are, in fact, persons who are endowed with such sensibility that they can not hear a sound without at the same time perceiving colors. Each sound to them has its peculiar color ”