This project explores how a synesthetic experience related to music perception and color association varies across cultures, and whether music with more energetic expressions elicits richer color responses. A total of 206 participants took part in a survey using a customized web page. The participants got to listen to excerpts of Brazilian music in the genre Choro and got to choose one or more color that matched the music the most. The music excerpts were chosen based on the their portrayal of the emotions joy, tender and sorrow. The results showed differences in color preferences for each emotional expression studied across different groups. Furthermore, a correlation between the subjective intensity of the excerpt (considering that, in terms of intensity, Joy > Tender > Sorrow) and the variety of colors chosen by the participants was observed. In general the results supports previous research in this field with happiness or joy is often correlated to the color yellow and sorrow to the color blue. The excerpts that portrayed tenderness had most participants choosing the color yellow but also green for non-Brazilians. Due to the limits of the study, the results are not conclusive. More research is needed to get a better understanding of the impact of utilizing color combination rather than single colors to match music or emotional expressions.
Part of ISBN 9789152773727
QC 20231123