Music of Light and Colour - Milton Mermikides

Jan 20, 2026

Milton Mermikides, a Professor of Music and renowned composer, delves into the fascinating interplay between sound and vision. He discusses how artists like Kandinsky and Scriabin explored music's visual dimensions. Topics include synesthesia, where sounds invoke colors, and historical attempts to link music and light. Mermikides showcases the physical connections through demonstrations and examines famous composers who experienced chromesthesia, revealing how their unique perceptions influenced their work. It's a captivating journey into the senses intertwined!

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INSIGHT

Visual Language In Music

Musical descriptions borrow visual metaphors universally: high/low, bright/dark.
Cross-cultural terms differ but show consistent cross-modal mapping between pitch and spatial or material adjectives.

INSIGHT

Brightness As Musical Dimension

Timbre, pitch and loudness carry perceived size, brightness and opacity in visual terms.
Mermikides maps harmonic 'brightness' to emotional color and demonstrates tonal shifts across a brightness dial.

INSIGHT

Cross-Modal Vs True Synesthesia

Cross-modal correspondence differs from synesthesia because it's descriptive rather than involuntary.
Mermikides defines synesthesia's diagnostic criteria and contrasts it with common metaphoric mappings.

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Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/3B58-fA2b-4

"Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings." — Kandinsky

How do we ‘see’ music, or ‘hear’ images? From Newton’s colour scales assigning tones to the rainbow, artists and composers have long explored the deep connections between sound and vision.

Kandinsky’s Compositions and Improvisations; Klee’s polyphonic paintings, and Scriabin’s synaesthetic craft all reveal the scintillating interplay of visual and sonic art. This lecture traces their co-evolution and shared language, from spectral composers to technological translations of light into rhythm and melody, uncovering the hidden spectrum where music and colour intertwine.

This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on the 14th of January 2026 at LSO St Luke’s, London

Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout his teaching, research and creative career.
He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (BSc), Berklee College of Music (BMus) and the University of Surrey (PhD). He has lectured, exhibited and given keynote presentations at organisations like the Royal Academy of Music, TEDx, Royal Musical Association, British Library, Smithsonian Institute and The Science Museum and his work has been featured extensively in the press. His music, research and graphic art are published and featured by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony and more, and he has won awards, scholarships and commendations for writing, teaching, research and his charity work.
Milton is Professor of Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music, Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre, an Ableton Certified Trainer, and lives in London with his wife, the guitarist Bridget Mermikides and their daughter Chloe. He is also a Vice-Chair of Governors at Addison Primary School, a state school which foregrounds music education, offering free instrumental lessons for all on Pupil Premium.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-light-colour

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