Music – Image – Synaesthesia? The Early Works of Zofia Lissa (and the Artistic Visualisation of Music)

Abstract

This article concerns an overlooked aspect of the output of a famous Polish musicologist, Zofia Lissa (1908–1980). In one of her early texts she describes perception of a piece of music, which she presents as common to all listeners. The description proves highly synaesthetic (auditory – visual synaesthesia employing shapes but not colours) although Lissa herself denied it. The article discusses the musicologist’s claims in the light of the findings of contemporary synaesthesia studies. It also checks to what extent Lissa’s perceptual experiences and other theoretical statements (concerning i.e. the connections between music and film) may be relevant in the analyses of various artworks exploring the field of the auditory – visual synaesthesia. The article discusses the case of the avant-garde film The Eye and the Ear by Franciszka and Stefan Themerson, which features visual “equivalents” (in motion) of the auditory experience. It also analyses the colourful illustrations of the sounds produced by musical instruments (the case of the book Wszystko gra [Well played] by Anna Czerwińska-Rydel and Marta Ignerska).