The Colors of Music - Introduction
Everyone knows that there is emotion in music. In some music the emotional energy is pure and identifiable. That
is the kind of music we will be talking about here. But it can occur in any genre, whether classical, popular, jazz
or anything else.
The Colors of Music theory is more than simply an assignment of colors to different kinds of music. It claims that music, in
a way not fully understood, can carry emotional energy. As light frequencies can be seen with the eyes, the
emotional ‘light’ can be felt with the heart. These energies are not visible, but they can be characterized by a
spectrum, in the same way visible light is. The different energies can therefore be identified with the seven
rainbow colors.
The emotional light that pure music can carry spans the most important or significant feelings in the experience of
being human. The seven energies are the highlights of life. They are emotions, but it may be more correct to call
them states of being.
Whenever an author presents information that can’t yet be proven in the scientific sense, it is critical that the
author’s process of arriving at that information be given. This aspect is missing from many, many books that
purport to provide spiritual truths, and then we have no way of knowing if the information is truth or was made up
arbitrarily.
My process of arriving at the seven categories started with my experiences listening to music. One experience in
particular. At a performance of Bach’s St. John Passion in 1991 there were parts of it that seemed to have an
energy that I couldn’t place or connect to. It was a new experience; it had never happened before, and I was
astounded by it. That led me to study the Bach Passions more closely, and that led to the theory of the color
associations. Bach’s musical works encompass all the energies, and they are especially pure and recognizable in
his music.
Part of my process was a self-published book by Mary Bassano, In the Flow (no ISBN). That book relates the rainbow
colors to music energies, and comes close to doing so correctly. My theory refines and expands on her work. I have
relied on my intuition, with verification and correction through the pendulum from my guides in spirit who I have
very high confidence in at this point. My intuition had it mostly right, but not entirely.
Even though we are dealing with intuition, the principles of truth-seeking in science still apply. The best
theories are what scientists call elegant: simple, yet powerful. The highest truths are always large in scope,
with minimal detail, and admit of more than one interpretation. (The Shroedinger equation comes to mind.)
And they do not conflict with other known truth. The number seven is not just the number of rainbow colors, it is
also the number of notes in common musical scales, and the number of chakras in the human body. Seven is the basis
of the ‘music of the spheres’ theme, which has been a prevalent idea since ancient times (see Jamie James, The
Music of the Spheres).
The greatest composers all knew that the best music is divinely inspired, and they said so in their writings. They
knew the composing process to be one in which they were channels for an energy coming from spirit. They knew the
energies in music were of spiritual origin, and were not surprised that music could be powerful. In this light,
it is not difficult to believe that there are seven fundamental energies spanning all of creation and all of
existence, and that they are conveyed through powerful music.
In the last twenty years there have been many books and workshops that relate color to the seven chakras. But there
is not universal agreement on the significances of the individual chakras, which means that while we know the
chakras exist, we don’t have the full truth yet on their functions. It would be a mistake, therefore, to use
chakra teachings to describe the seven fundamental energies. The seven energies in the color of music theory are
all emotional states of being. As an example of the problem with the chakra teachings, consider that many of them
relate the color blue and the fifth chakra to speaking and communication, which is a mechanical function, not an
emotion. In the color of music work, one of the things blue represents is appreciation of and devotion to truth.
Communication is just a part of that mode of being.
And finally, the Color Rays of the Theosophists are unrelated to this work.
Principles of the color theory
1.
Emotional intensity is variable: the amount of power in music depends on how deeply the composer was plugged
into the divine source. It is not so much which notes and harmonies are used, but how they are used. Sometimes the most
profound music is created using the simplest of harmonies.
2.
Ability to access: different people have different readinesses to access the energies. Many people can easily
relate to the first part of the energy color spectrum, from red through yellow or green. Somewhat fewer will
resonate with blue, fewer still with indigo, and only a very few with violet. If a person hears music that is
beyond his/her level of accessibility, that music will sound like noise or at least bad composing and it will not
be enjoyable. (But the converse is not true; if you hear what sounds like bad composing, it may be just that.)
Even someone who is able to tune into the “higher” energies will still find that she can appreciate the full power
of those works only after hearing them several times. On each listening, a little more of the subtlety and
sublimeness becomes apparent and the emotional reaction is stronger.
3.
Progression of the colors: each of the colors relates to certain attributes in the human experience, and to the
feelings that are bound up in them. On a deeper level the colors also associate with steps or phases of the
evolutionary journey from separateness to oneness. At each stage an entity evolves itself to the next level out
of the previous one.
4.
Relative importance of the colors: The colors form a progression, but still it is not true that any of the
colors, or energies, are “better” or more important than any others. All of the energies are equally important.
They each relate to a unique aspect of life or of being, and a wholesome approach to life balances them. But there
will be times in everyone’s day-to-day life when he/she is in a space that music of a particular color will
enhance. And someone’s personal evolution might be aided by focusing on the color that is just beyond the highest
level of their current existence (but without abandoning the others).
5.
Relative intensities of the colors: Red contains the most "kinetic" energy, and violet has the most 'potential'
or subjective energy. Green music is lowest in intensity.
6.
The relevance of the key: in the history of music the idea of relating particular colors to specific notes
goes back at least to Greek times. Traditionally the note C is associated with the color red, D
with orange, E with yellow, F with green, G with blue, A with indigo, and B with violet.
And it is a known fact that sensitive listeners hear certain qualities in the
different keys: C and D, and the sharp keys in general, are bright-sounding keys; G has a majestic sound, F and
the flat keys have a more solid and grounded feel.
Does this mean that C is a red key, or G is a blue key? Not in the sense that the key determines the color, for
it is the emotional quality of the music, primarily, that determines the color. But it does mean that C, for
example, is more suitable to red energy music than say E flat or B flat. And in fact martial music often is written in
C. The most powerful music is music that is written in the key that corresponds to its color energy. As another
example, consider Bach's B minor Mass (which actually has more D major sections than B minor). Several sections
of it have obvious orange energy, and being in the key of D, that energy is all the more enhanced. In the case of
minor mode, the natural color is the color for the relative major key; thus the “natural” minor key for indigo
would be F# minor (the relative minor to A major).
Bibliography
(c) 2008 Music Awareness
