Musical colors

Day1:

It was midnight. There was pitch black darkness in my room. I was not getting my sleep. After spending a couple of minutes closing my eyes, turning around in the bed and other futile efforts to fall asleep, I took my walkman. When I pressed the play button....an electronic flute gives out a fresh tender lead music, as fresh as a dew drop on a newly formed light green grass. A male mellifluous voice takes over the music and adds meaning to the tune.The song begins..."Pachai Niramae...".

Truly an amazing song. Can colors be conveyed through music? Yes is the answer. Not only the colors, but shades too! The song begins from the fresh green grass, travelling all the way through the chlorophyll green leaves and the dull green nerves and musically explaining all the shades of red, yellow, blue, black and white. Just by music and words. After green, the tender music becomes hard and begins to portray the shades of red. Now slowly there is a bright transition to yellow family, as bright as the solar rays and hot as a flame. Suddenly it slows down and becomes as deep as a silent sea and a silent sky to show us the blue varieties. Gradually a chorus note takes you to the haunted dark night and opens up all the shades from dark rain clouds through the wings of crow and the color of sparrow. Again the flute plays supported by some female chorus. This time it is fresh and clear, as clear as a white labiatae flower. Yes! We have been shown the whites finally. Slowly the song ends after the flute sound fades..... And I don't know when I slept.

Day 2:

Next day. Around noon. Was so hungry and tired to concentrate in my work. Almost felt like blacking out. Now I play a song in my computer. The moment I pressed the play button, I hear a group of female voices humming fast at the instant, reaching a cresendo and slowing down gradually and interrupted by a coarse male voice melodiously humming the tune.....the words say "Thendral Vandhu theendum...."

Another song that shows you the colors. Just by music. Just ONLY by music. There are no words that explain the hues. Hence the subtlety. But as strong as the previous song. You can't find colors and shades explicitly as Pachai Niramae.., but you do have colors in this tune. The sounds you hear will be the colors you would see if they change form. While the previous songs is an attempt to see different colors and shades through music, this is an effort to explain colors to a visually impaired person through other senses. You hear, you see. You feel, you see. You taste, you see. You smell, you see. This is the end result.

The haunting voices in the first interlude and the violin chords in the second interlude shows you the two extremes of the spectrum. The sense of sorrow and eagerness in the femal voice and the feel of diffidence in the male voice throughout the song explains the lady's grief for not able to see the colors and the quest to understand them as well as the lack of ability of her man to show her what it is. The words show you the other four senses, but the music takes you to the fifth sense - vision.

Just close your eyes and don't visualize anything when you hear these songs. I bet you'll have the feeling of passing through a prism. You will enter as a plain white light and get yourself refracted and exit as the seven colors of the spectrum. Believe me.

There is a short story by writer Sujatha in which he tries to explain the colors to a visually impaired person through the seven swarams. I say these two songs stand a good testimony. What say?