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Monday, March 14, 2005

Taste in music

A professional musician has revealed her ability to taste sounds, according to a Swiss study published in the British journal Nature.

The unnamed musician can taste tonal intervals. A minor second is sour and a major second is bitter.

Minor thirds are salty, major thirds sweet and minor sixths creamy. And the sensations are consistent.

The musician underwent examination for the phenomenon, known as synaesthesia - or crossed senses - at the University of Zurich for more than a year.

"Whenever she hears a specific musical interval, she automatically experiences a taste on her tongue that is consistently linked to that particular interval," the scientists led by Lutz Jancke said.

But they added that the linking of sound and taste was extremely rare.

She uses her condition in her work by identifying tonal intervals from the way they taste.

Synaesthesia more commonly involves colour, and the musician is able to see notes as well as taste intervals.

The researchers tested her strange ability by putting solutions with sour, bitter, salty or sweet tastes on her tongue. She was then asked to identify the relevant tone intervals by pressing a button on a computer keyboard.

via smh

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