„Вечната музика на дъгата”: феноменът синестезия и неговото проявление при Оливие Месиан
“The eternal music of the rainbow”: The Phenomenon of Synesthesia and its manifestation with Olivier Messiaen

Summary/Abstract: This study focuses on the synesthetic gift of O. Messiaen. According to the accepted contemporary hypothesis about the so-called “rudiments of neuronal pruning”, we are all born synesthetic, however, we lose this ability at the age of around 6 months. Messiaen finds the abstract painting of Robert Delaunay to be a plastic equivalent of his “colorful visions”. The composer uses the harmony of his 7 modes of limited transposition as a conductor for inducing colors in his works. To Messiaen the theologian, “The colorful music” is the highest form of sacred music because similarly to the medieval stained-glass window it turns into a metaphor of Divine light.

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