The Sound Synesthesia machine

Synesthesia is when stimulation to one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in another sensory or cognitive pathway. Wikipedia describes it in more detail:

Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiæ or synæsthesiæ), from the ancient Greek σύν (syn), "together," and αἴσθησις (aisthēsis), "sensation," is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.  People who report such experiences are known as synesthetes. Recently, difficulties have been recognized in finding an adequate definition of synesthesia, as many different phenomena have been covered by this term and in many cases the term synesthesia ("union of senses") seems to be a misnomer. A more accurate term for the phenomenon may be ideasthesia.  

In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities.  In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may have a (three-dimensional) view of a year as a map (clockwise or counterclockwise).  Yet another recently identified type, visual motion → sound synesthesia, involves hearing sounds in response to visual motion and flicker.  Over 60 types of synesthesia have been reported, but only a fraction have been evaluated by scientific research.  Even within one type, synesthetic perceptions vary in intensity and people vary in awareness of their synesthetic perceptions.  

Sounds intriguing, and maybe a little bizarre at the same time.  The idea that one sensory stimulation can result in two senses being stimulated simultaneously may sound a little odd to those of us who are not synthesists.  Someone associating certain numbers with colors doesn't really sound too odd to me, but sound synesthesia where where a person hears sounds in response to visual motion or flickers sounds a little more extreme.

So even if we don't experience synesthesia and don't really know how it feels...what if there was a machine that could kind of give us an idea of what it is like?  The video below is not about synesthesia nor does it ever even mention it.  The machine isn't even the called the Sound Synesthesia machine, I just decided to call it that in the title of this post.  However, when I watched the video I had one of those "Oh I see what you did there" moments and then thought of the connection to synesthesia.  The machine takes an object and spins it around while a laser scans it and makes a sound based on the shape and texture of the scanned surface.

I think if someone spent enough time with a machine like this, they could learn to associate certain sounds with certain shapes and textures.  So in a way, they may be able to train themselves to "see" objects just by hearing an audible frequency associated with that shape.  This would not be exactly the same thing that synthesists experience since they naturally associate one sensory stimulus with another sensory stimulus, but it may be the closest thing to synesthesia that a non-synthesist could experience to get some perspective on what it might be like.

And with that said, I'm glad to be done typing this post...because synesthesia is a very annoying word to have to spell out over and over!

Putting science to a beat

Have you ever thought that science could be more entertaining if you could just get Morgan Freeman and some celebrity scientists together with a beat and Autotune?

Well, someone has now done that.

Music of the Christmas Season

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is the music.  The cold air and decorations do their part, but the music is what really puts me in the mood.  In fact, the music itself can conjure up thoughts of winter weather and halls decked with boughs of holly even if you're in area where you don't see a lot of winter weather.

My favorite Christmas songs consist mostly of the religious themed ones.  I'm not much into the whole Santa Claus and reindeer thing, although I do like some of the secular songs.

Here are some of my favorites.  They are in no particular order, but I am saving my favorite for last.

Christmas Eve Sarajevo (Medley of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and Carol of the Bells)
Artist: Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Ok, so this is actually a medley of the older Christmas carols God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and Carol of the Bells (both of which are favorites of mine), but the Trans-Siberian Orchestra named their medley of them and there is a story behind the name.  Here is part of the Wikipedia entry on it:

We heard about this cello player born in Sarajevo many years ago (Vedran Smailović) who left when he was fairly young to go on to become a well-respected musician, playing with various symphonies throughout Europe. Many decades later, he returned to Sarajevo as an elderly man—at the height of the Bosnian War, only to find his city in complete ruins.

I think what most broke this man's heart was that the destruction was not done by some outside invader or natural disaster—it was done by his own people. At that time, Serbs were shelling Sarajevo every night. Rather than head for the bomb shelters like his family and neighbors, this man went to the town square, climbed onto a pile of rubble that had once been the fountain, took out his cello, and played Mozart and Beethoven as the city was bombed.

He came every night and began playing Christmas carols from that same spot. It was just such a powerful image—a white-haired man silhouetted against the cannon fire, playing timeless melodies to both sides of the conflict amid the rubble and devastation of the city he loves. Some time later, a reporter traced him down to ask why he did this insanely stupid thing. The old man said that it was his way of proving that despite all evidence to the contrary, the spirit of humanity was still alive in that place.

The song basically wrapped itself around him. We used some of the oldest Christmas melodies we could find, like "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Carol of the Bells" (which is from Ukraine, near that region). The orchestra represents one side, the rock band the other, and single cello represents that single individual, that spark of hope.

Here is the music video:





Christmas Canon
Artist: Trans-Siberian Orchestra

This is actually Pachelbel's Canon with Christmas lyrics.  The orchestra not only does a great job, but the lyrics and children's choir complement it well.





O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Artist: Various

This one has a very old sound to it, and it probably dates back to the middle ages.  It's translated from a Catholic Latin text called "Veni, veni, Emmanuel."  The lyrics are based on text from the from seventh chapter of the book of Isaiah.  It kind of reminds me of an old Gregorian chant type of sound.  Not only do I like the lyrical message, I like the historical sound of the song. Here's Enya's version of it:






O Come All Ye Faithful
Artist: Various

This song is another one that is centuries old, and is attributed to John Francis Wade.  It was originally titled "Adeste Fideles" in Latin and was translated into English by Frederick Oakeley.





Joy to the World
Artist: Various (Written by Isaac Watts)

Technically, this isn't even a song about the birth of Christ.  The song is about the second coming of Christ, but for some reason, people started singing it as a Christmas song.  Nonetheless, it is an awesome song and I think is best sung by a large choir.





Silent Night, Holy Night
Artist: Various (Written by Josef Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber)

This is another good one that has been sung by many people.




Most people classify Christmas songs as religious or secular.  Well, I complicate things a little more by adding a third category that includes songs that aren't overly religious or overly secular.  I just think of them as songs about people celebrating Christmas, as opposed to songs specifically about the Christmas story or about Santa Claus and shopping.



A Holly Jolly Christmas
Artist: Burl Ives, Quinto Sisters

It would be hard to imagine December coming and going without hearing Burl Ives crooning his famous rendition of "A Holly Jolly Christmas".  I classify this as a song about people celebrating Christmas.   Ironically, this song was written by a Jewish songwriter named Johnny Marks.






All I Want for Christmas is You
Artist: Vince Vance and the Valiants

I classify this song as secular.  Although I'm not a particularly big fan of a lot of the secular Christmas songs, this one is an exception.  I just love the singer's voice and the song's beat.  I remember playing this song at a place I worked a few years back, and a Jehovah's Witness (who don't celebrate Christmas) even admitted to liking it and started dancing to it!  It's very upbeat and helps get you in the mood.



As I said earlier, I would save my favorite for last.  So here it is.


O Holy Night
Artist: Various

My favorite Christmas song is O Holy Night.  I've heard many beautiful versions of this song and it's hard to narrow it to a specific artist's version, but if I had to pick one, I think I would go with Jim Nabor's version of the song.  Yes, the same Jim Nabors that played Gomer Pyle.  Don't let the goofy Gomer act fool you, Nabors actually has an awesome operatic singing voice.  In fact, I'd say he has one of the best singing voices that I've heard.


This was certainly not an exhaustive list of my favorites.  I have many other favorites, including It's Beginning to Look a Like a Lot Christmas, Silver Bells, Sleigh Ride, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, The Little Drummer Boy and many more.

I think Christmas music is what gets me more in the mood for the season than anything else!

Time Traveling with Music

Certain types of music have a way of putting us in a certain type of mood.  And it's not limited to just feelings of happiness, sadness, or anger.  Certain types of music can put us at ease, other types of can get us in the mood to party.  Some songs can bring up images of road trips or particular places in our mind.  Sometimes individuals may even associate a specific song with a specific place, person, event, or feeling.

As a history buff, I like it when music can also take us back in time.  Big band music doesn't just bring up images of New York and Chicago, but images of New York and Chicago from 1920s-40s.  Bluegrass music brings up images of the Appalachian mountains during the 1940s.  Music played on a nay and oud often bring up images of medieval Persia or ancient Egypt.  Bagpipes bring up images of medieval Scotland.

Many instruments are capable of playing different styles of music though.  It just depends on how the artist tunes and plays them.  What inspired me to write this post today is a song I heard a few days ago called "The Ancient Forest of Elves."  The artist, Luca Turilli, has essentially merge old English/Celtic sounds with modern rock and, in my opinion, did a good job of doing it.  The song brings up images of Arthurian England with a hint of Lord of the Rings legendarium.  Not only do I like the period of history, I think I find it even more appealing because of the time of the year.  Here in the American South, its very hot and humid here all summer, so it gets annoying to be outside for long periods of time over the summer (unless you're at the beach!).  So when autumn arrives and it starts to cool down, it's nice to be able to go outside and actually enjoy being outside.  It's the best time of the year to go on a hike in the woods.  I think that's why this song has been stuck in my head the past few days.

Do you suddenly feel like hiking through Sherwood Forest to find a sword to pull out of a stone now?