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Modal interplay
Exploring the physical, physiological, neurological and psychological links between sight and hearing – the two main modalities of human perception.

Chromatone is a term composed of two parts. "Chroma" is an Ancient Greek word χρῶμα (khrôma) and stands for "color". "Tone" comes from Latin word tonus ("sound") derived from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “strain, tension, pitch”). Together they form Chromatone – the colorful notation system. It's based on combining the two circular models – the octave equivalence in music and the color circle of visual arts. This gives not only the colors for each of 12 chromatic notes of modern music, but can be extended to derive a certain color for any acoustic frequency.

Circle of colors and notes

A is the lowest frequency note and red is the lowest frequency color. It’s the starting point. Then we divide the Light spectrum into 12 parts and get scientifically correspondent colors for every note in an octave. Now we can see the circle of musical intervals with our eyes and use it to remember all the musical semitones. It may be like an artificial Synesthesia to be developed to improve music learning and performing skills. Learn more about history of Visual Music with Michael Filimowicz.

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