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Colour and music

Tom Service investigates the link between music and colour. He asks if music can ever be colourful and if so, whether is it the same colour for all of us.

Tom Service listens to the world in glorious technicolor as he investigates the link between music and colour.

We put music and colour together all the time. A piece of music can be 'dark' or 'bright' or we could be singing the 'Blues' - but what does that mean? Professor Jamie Ward - an expert in synaesthesia - is on hand to help. While Tom delves into a world of musical colour from Messiaen and Copland, Scriabin and Ravel to David Bowie and 叠别测辞苍肠茅 to discover whether music can ever be colourful.

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29 minutes

Last on

Fri 17 Apr 2020 16:30
麻豆约拍 Radio 3

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  • Tom Service examines the phenomenon of synaesthesia.

Clips

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Music Played

  • Claude Debussy

    F锚tes (Nocturnes)

    Orchestra: The Cleveland Orchestra. Conductor: Pierre Boulez.
    • Debussy: Nocturnes/La Mer/Jeux: Boulez.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 2.

  • Miles Davis

    Generique

    Performer: Miles Davis Quartet.
    • The Essential Miles Davis.
    • Columbia.
    • 9.

  • Bee Gees

    Stayin' Alive

    • Saturday Night Fever [Original Soundtrack].
    • Polydor.

  • Michael Torke

    Green

    Performer: Baltimore SO. Performer: David Zinman.
    • Torke: Colour Music.
    • Argo.

  • Olivier Messiaen

    Trois Petites Liturgies de la presence divine

    Performer: Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France. Performer: Myung-Whun Chung.
    • Trois Petites Liturgies.
    • DG.

  • Ye

    麻豆约拍coming (feat. Chris Martin)

    • Graduation.
    • Mercury.

  • Hector Berlioz

    Symphonie Fantastique

    Performer: Swedish RSO. Performer: Daniel Harding.
    • Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique / Daniel Harding.
    • HMC.

  • Claude Debussy

    Preludes - book 2, no.5; Bruyeres

    Performer: Marc-Andr茅 Hamelin.
    • HYPERION.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Mass in B minor BWV.232: Pt.4; Sanctus....Pleni sunt coeli [chorus]

    Choir: Monteverdi Choir. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • J.S. Bach - Mass in B minor (II).
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 10.

  • 叠箩枚谤办

    Venus As A Boy

    • Venus as a Boy.
    • Elektra.

  • Steve Reich

    Violin Phase

    Performer: Ensemble Modern.
    • RCA.

  • Elton John

    I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues

    • Greatest Hits 1970-2002.
    • Mercury.

  • Camille Saint鈥怱a毛ns

    Aquarium (Carnival of the Animals)

    Orchestra: Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse. Conductor: Michel Plasson.
    • EMI.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    The Lark Ascending

    Performer: Tasmin Little. Orchestra: 麻豆约拍 Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis.
    • WARNER.

  • Igor Stravinsky

    The Firebird (General Thanksgiving)

    Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • Simon Rattle on EMI Classics.
    • EMI Classics.
    • 8.

  • Fr茅d茅ric Chopin

    Prelude in B major, Op 28 No 11

    Performer: Martha Argerich.
    • Chopin: 26 Preludes Scherzo NR. 2 - Martha Argerich.
    • Deutsche Grammaphon.
    • 11.

  • Alexander Scriabin

    Prometheus - The Poem Of Fire, Op.60

    Performer: Martha Argerich. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • SONY: 88985320352.
    • Sony.
    • 2.

  • 叠别测辞苍肠茅

    Crazy in Love (feat. JAY-Z)

    • Dangerously In Love.
    • Columbia.

  • Olivier Messiaen

    Couleurs de la cite Celeste

    Performer: Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France. Performer: Myung-Whun Chung.
    • MESSIAEN Trois Petites Liturgies.
    • DG.

  • Arthur Bliss

    Colour Symphony

    Performer: 麻豆约拍 National Orchestra of Wales. Performer: Richard Hickox.
    • Bliss: A Colour Symphony/ Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.
    • Chandos.

  • Ken Nordine

    Lavender

    • Colors: A Sensuous Listening Experience.
    • Asphodel.

  • Prince & The Revolution

    Purple Rain

    • Prince And The Revolution - Purple Rain.
    • Warner.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Flute Concerto - K313

    Performer: Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Performer: Alison Mitchell.
    • Mozart: Wind Concertos.
    • Linn.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Requiem aeternam (Requiem compl S眉ssmayr)

    Singer: Barbara Bonney. Choir: Monteverdi Choir. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists.
    • Mozart: Requiem K626/Kyrie K341: Monteverdi Choir/John Eliot Gardiner.
    • Philips.
    • 1.

  • Giacomo Puccini

    Tosca - Act 2; Vissi d'arte [Tosca]

    Singer: Kiri Te Kanawa. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Lorin Maazel.
    • Great performances: Kiri Te Kanawa.
    • Sony Classical.
    • 1.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Brandenburg Concerto no.5 in D major BWV.1050 (3rd mvt)

    Orchestra: Concerto Italiano. Conductor: Rinaldo Alessandrini.
    • J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos: Concerto Italiano.
    • Naive.
    • 6.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    Concerto in F minor for bass tuba - 2nd movement; Romanza (Andante sostenuto)

    Performer: Patrick Harrild. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Bryden Thomson.
    • Vaughan Williams: The 9 Symphonies: LSO, Bryden Thomson.
    • Chandos.

  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Concerto for vln & orch (RV.269) (Op.8`1) "La Primavera" - 1st mvt

    Performer: Nigel Kennedy. Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker.
    • Vivaldi: Nigel Kennedy, Berliner Philharmoniker.
    • EMI.
    • 4.

  • Maurice Ravel

    Ma mere l'oye - suite vers. for piano duet, Le Jardin feerique

    Ensemble: Katia & Marielle Lab猫que.
    • Maurice Ravel Katia Et Marielle Labeque.
    • KML.

  • Maurice Ravel

    Ma m猫re l'oye (Le jardin f茅erique)

    Orchestra: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Yannick N茅zet鈥怱茅guin.
    • Yannick Nezet-Seguin Ravel Rotterdam Phiharmonic Orchestra.
    • EMI.
    • 17.

  • Franz Schubert

    Erlk枚nig D.328

    Singer: Matthias Goerne. Performer: Andreas Haeifliger.
    • Schubert Lieder Volume 7: Erlk枚nig.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
    • 9.

  • Hope Lies Within

    Erlkonig

    • Hope Lies Within.
    • Hope Lies Within.

  • Aaron Copland

    Variations on a Shaker hymn (Appalachian Spring)

    Orchestra: Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Antal Dor谩ti.
    • Copland: Appalachian Spring, Stravinsky: Apollon Musagete: Dorati.
    • Decca.
    • 6-8.

  • Marcel Tournier

    Vers la source dans le bois

    Performer: Elinor Bennett.
    • Images and Impressions: Music for Flute & Harp.
    • Nimbus.
    • 17.

  • Olivier Messiaen

    Joie du sang des 茅toiles (Turangal卯la-Symphonie)

    Performer: Steven Osborne. Performer: Cynthia Millar. Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Juanjo Mena.
    • Messiaen: Turangalila Symphonie: Osborne/Millar/Bergen Philharmonic Orch/Mena.
    • Hyperion.
    • 5.

  • David Bowie

    Sound And Vision

    • Low.
    • Parlophone.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 16 Oct 2016 17:00
    麻豆约拍 Radio 3
  • Sun 15 Apr 2018 17:00
    麻豆约拍 Radio 3
  • Sun 12 Apr 2020 17:00
    麻豆约拍 Radio 3
  • Fri 17 Apr 2020 16:30
    麻豆约拍 Radio 3

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