"Of sounds and colours" (SON Magazine, 1977)
Fourteenth interview of the series Alain Gerber × Alfred Tomatis in SON Magazine in 1977 (exact issue not identified in the digitisation). Tomatis explores the correspondences between sounds and colours starting from the Indian yogas (mantra and yantra) and the seven chakras. On a point-by-point diagram, he makes the auditory frequencies correspond to the chromatic ranges: 500 Hz = red (Vam), 1,000 Hz = orange (Ram), 2,000 Hz = yellow (Yam), 3,000 Hz = green (Ham), 6,000 Hz = blue (Xham). He recounts the experimental cabin built with the painter Bellegarde, his own “powers” of reading the chakras (“I guessed the approach of a person in the crowd of an airport by perceiving the radiance of their personal chakra”), and corrects in passing Rimbaud — who got the colours wrong in the “Sonnet of the Vowels” (A is red, not black).
“SON” Magazine — no. (?) — 1977
Of sounds and colours
Alfred A. TOMATIS
Interview gathered by Alain Gerber
Mantra yoga and yantra yoga
Alain Gerber: The distribution of sound frequencies, Professor Tomatis, is not without recalling that of the colours of the prism. Is this a simple coincidence, or does there exist a deeper relation between sounds and colours?
Alfred Tomatis: One may already observe that, in certain civilisations, the beings in quest of an energising ethic have called upon both colours and sounds to accede to the conditions of asceticism. It is thus that in India, two ascetic techniques may be distinguished: mantra yoga and yantra yoga. The first uses sounds. The second introduces drawing and colours.
A. G.: How so?
A. T.: First, a few simple geometric forms are offered (square, circle, triangle, etc.), and the non-initiated is taught to perceive all the symbolism underlying these forms. Past this stage, one begins to inject the colours into the system.
A. G.: But if one distinguishes mantra yoga and yantra yoga, is it not precisely that one separates sound from colour?
A. T.: You are right to raise this objection. But I was just about to tell you that there exists a third technique that realises, in a way, a synthesis of the two preceding ones. Sounds and colours are situated at certain levels of the body where they overlap, a sound calling forth a colour and vice versa. These bodily levels are “chakras”, that is to say doors of entry of the energy distributed by the universe into the human person.
A chakra is in sum an area of focalisation of the forces of the universe. Now asceticism must allow the yogi to visualise the chakras of other beings. They then appear to him as coloured wheels that turn. It is a little as if we were able to see the halo on the head of a saint. What it is important for us to note is that the image of the chakra can be solicited by the emission of a particular sound that has theoretically the power to “ignite” the chakra in question, that is to say to make the wheel turn (I say theoretically because the materialisation of the chakra is obtained only by a relatively restricted number of yogis). The chakras are seven in number — like the notes of the scale, you will note in passing…
The scientific proof: the zone of greatest sensitivity
A. G.: You give there what I would call a proof by metaphysics, if not by esotericism. Is this sufficient to make this superposition of colours and sounds admitted?
A. T.: You will remember that the human ear has a range of perception extending from 16 to 16,000 periods or thereabouts, that is to say about ten or eleven octaves. On the plane of vision, on the other hand, we have only one octave. But if one represents each system by a curve, one observes that there are between the two tracings almost point-by-point correspondences.
It would take too long to do the detailed demonstration. Let it suffice for me to point out that to the zone of exceptional acoustic affinity situated between 1,000 and 2,000 periods (the very one that determines so many qualities of timbre, of accuracy, etc.) corresponds in vision a zone of greater sensitivity. It is, in the present case, sensitivity to yellow. This means that this colour is the one we see at the maximum. Indeed, we all without effort distinguish a good forty yellows, while many persons perceive only two or three different greens.
Now green corresponds to an acoustic zone (that of 3,000-6,000 periods) which is also a zone of auditory obscurity, in which it is difficult to orient oneself — except for very practised ears such as those of musicians. The “hole” is situated mostly around 3,000 periods. It is interesting to observe that the non-musician’s ear jumps directly from 2,000 to 4,000, just as our perception passes very quickly over the greens to go from the multiplicity of yellows to the great diversity of blues. The only ones to escape this last rule are certain painters whose paintings are, precisely, symphonies of greens (such as Aujam, painter of forests, who was a friend and could effortlessly enumerate fifty different greens!).
In brief, to the staging of frequencies on one of the curves there corresponds term for term the staging of colours on the other.
The table of correspondences chakra / frequency / colour
| Syllable | Frequency | Colour |
|---|---|---|
| LAM | 16 Hz | Sienna earth |
| VAM | 500 Hz | Reds |
| RAM | 1,000 Hz | Oranges |
| YAM | 2,000 Hz | Yellows |
| HAM (Aum) | 3,000 Hz | Green |
| XHAM | 6,000 Hz | Blues |
| unpronounceable | 16,000 Hz | Indigos |
The experimental cabin with the painter Bellegarde
I would like to tell you about a passionate experiment that we made, my team and I, with the painter Bellegarde. I did not know this artist when I came upon a painting of his that presented, in space, this distribution of colours, from the sienna earths to the indigos. Another canvas, equally abstract, obeyed an identical principle, but the composition was even more elaborate. I bought the two works, and back home, I noticed on turning them over that the painter had named them respectively “Equilibrium of the universe” and “Equilibrium of man”.
He had therefore more or less consciously tried to realise a projection of man in the painting, through the distribution of colours. This was not without recalling the philosophy of the chakras. I invited Bellegarde to come to my laboratory, and we constructed an experimental cabin thus conceived: sienna earths on the floor, indigos on the ceiling and, on the walls, from left to right, the whole succession of reds, oranges, yellows, greens and blues. If I make you enter this cabin, you will immediately observe that a kind of equilibrium is achieved in you. The whole image of man appears through this distribution of hues…
We had fabricated this cabin in such a way as to be able to displace at will the coloured panels. It was thus that we were able to observe, in ourselves and in others, to what point the occupant found himself aggressed in the very depths of his being when the order of the colours was inverted. Reflecting on this phenomenon, Bellegarde had the idea of developing curative cabins, but he could not go further in this attempt because it was impossible for him to take account of certain complex, shifting psychic phenomena that were extremely difficult to handle. I cannot dwell on this today, but this experiment was in itself very significant.
Rimbaud got the colour wrong
A. G.: Let us return to the superposition of sounds and colours. Did Rimbaud not have the intuition of it in writing the famous “Sonnet of the Vowels” ("A black, E white, I red…" etc.)?
A. T.: I believe so. The trouble is that for reasons of a musical order (assonance, etc.), he was each time wrong about the colour! A, for example, is not black but red, since it lies around 500 periods. The Indian, in placing in correspondence a sound and a colour (the former being charged with arousing the latter at the level of the chakra), set up a much more reliable system.
Each of these evocative sounds consists in a syllable in “am” rendered more or less sonorous by one (or several) initial consonant(s): Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham (the famous “Aum”), Xham — the series being completed by an unpronounceable syllable which, like grace among the Christians, is or is not given to the individual in quest of the realisation of the Buddhic state. One will observe, by consulting the upper part of the diagram, that the distribution of the syllables is perfectly justified from the scientific point of view.
The bodily levels of the chakras
A. G.: You spoke earlier of bodily levels…
A. T.: Indeed, the centre of each chakra is situated in a precise manner on the body: the pubis for the chakra called by Lam, the sub-umbilical region for that called by Vam, etc.
A. G.: Is there, for this too, a scientific justification?
A. T.: One thing is certain: civilisations such as the African, where, statistically, individuals see above all red and sienna nuances and hear above all the low frequencies, are, as if by chance, those in which human representations through statuary most favour the lower part of the body. Look at African sculpture: the legs are very often enormous, while most heads are tiny!
In parenthesis, you will note that, in a general way, in all civilisations, the head is the part of our body that we have the most difficulty in investing. Thus, you will have no difficulty in feeling where your feet end and where your shoes begin, while it will be almost impossible for you to determine (without having recourse to the mirror or to touch) where your hair begins and where your skull ends!
Evoking a colour by emitting a sound
A. G.: I would like to ask you a question. You yourself, have you ever succeeded in evoking a colour by emitting, in the manner of the yogis, the corresponding sound?
A. T.: Absolutely! It is true that I have studied and practised yoga thoroughly for several years. But even if this is not your case, I think that you will be able to carry out this experiment yourself without too much trouble, provided you withdraw to a silent place and concentrate on what you are doing.
The gift of reading the chakras
A. G.: The visualisation of the chakras, on the other hand, requires a whole initiation?
A. T.: That is correct, but it is not an insurmountable obstacle, especially since one can be helped by a gift for reading the chakras, an innate talent which one need only develop. I personally have the good fortune to possess this gift, which allows me to verify through my own experiences the correctness of the Indian conception. In other words, I see people’s chakras; I see the chakra which, in them, is “ignited” in preference to the others: the dimension of their being through which they radiate.
“Quite recently, I amused myself by guessing the approach of a person whom I was awaiting in the crowd of an airport, before my eyes could even distinguish her, simply by perceiving the radiance of her personal chakra, which I knew.”
Children’s drawings as a psycho-acoustic test
A. G.: Would you be in a position to diagnose, possibly, “with the naked eye” at what stage of his acoustic evolution a given person finds himself?
A. T.: Certainly. And so true is this that here, at the Language Centre, we use as a psycho-acoustic test the study of children’s drawings according to their dominant colour.
Place of this interview in the series
This interview is the fourteenth of a series of fifteen. For the complete contents, see the mother-article of the series.
Source: Alain Gerber, “Of sounds and colours — Alfred A. Tomatis”, SON Magazine, no. unidentified, Paris, 1977. Digitisation: Christophe Besson, June 2010.