Abstract
This chapter outlines the unique aesthetics of German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) by paying attention to his remarks on the “color harpsichord”. “Color harpsichord” is a curious instrument invented by French Jesuit Louis-Bertrand Castel (1688–1757), inspired by the correlation theory between spectral hues and musical scale which English natural scientist Isaac Newton (1642–1726) proposed in Opticks (1704). So Castel attempted to visualize this correspondence between spectrum and musical scale by conceiving an instrument that, on striking a key, shows a color corresponding to the musical note. This color harpsichord was discussed heatedly by many great philosophers of the time (Rousseau, Diderot, Goethe etc.). Herder is among them the one who was most interested in (mentioned most times) the color harpsichord, though anytime negatively. He took the failure of the color harpsichord because of lack of doubt or reflection on sight and hearing being modally different and forces an unnatural mode of perception in reverse of the process of human development, from a “sensorium commune” to a being with five differentiated senses. This argument can be summarized, as Herder himself wrote, into the motto “sentio, ergo sum”, as opposed to the Cartesian “cogito, ergo sum”.
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- 1.
In Sugiyama (2009), I have already argued for Herder as the pioneer of a philosophical concept of synesthesia, but without referring to the color organ.
- 2.
- 3.
Yet, Castel adopted here not the theory of Newton, but that of Descartes, who in Dioptrics (Dioptrique, 1637) mentioned blue, yellow, and red as basic (Descartes 1996, VI 92) and correlated them to the root, the third, and the fifth of triad. In order to make more suitable for the organ, he further correlated not seven colors to the diatonic, but twelve to the chromatic scale (Castel 1740, 173).
- 4.
Rousseau said, “I have seen the famous clavichord on which music is supposedly made with colors” (Rousseau 1959–1996, V 419 = 61f.), but without detailed information regarding when, where, and how it was exhibited.
- 5.
For the first performance (21.12.1755), “I gave an invitation to fifty persons of the house and from abroad, and lighted a hundred wax candles. There was nothing but acclamation and clapping of hands in consequence for the space of half an hour that I played” (Anonymous 1757, 12). For the second performance, “Every one wanted to see, and see again this novelty. […] The Harpsichord played, and two hundred persons owned that they had never seen any thing more beautiful, or more brilliant, and all concluded that the Harpsichord was executable, possible, true, and even made” (13).
- 6.
For the difference between them, see Jewanski (1999, 479).
- 7.
- 8.
Although “force (Kraft)” is a problematic concept, Herder explained it just before the quotation above: “Painting operates in space and by means of an artful representation of space. Music and all energetic arts operate not just in but also through time, through an artful succession of tones. Would it not be possible to reduce the essence of poetry as well to such a primary concept, since it achieves its effect on the soul through arbitrary signs, through meaning of word? We shall call the means of this effect force” (194). For this concept in the context of aesthetics (focusing on Herder), see Menke (2012).
- 9.
Herder said that this book was “largely written in the years 1768–70” (244). Fourth Grove of Critical Forests, which was written during this time and published posthumously, contains therefore the corresponding contents and is, in a sense, a study work for Sculpture. For this argument see also II 307.
- 10.
See also II 325
- 11.
See also II 295f.. For the problem in general, see e.g. Morgan (1977).
- 12.
For this point, see Sugiyama (2009).
- 13.
Mendelssohn, whose close dialogue with Lessing produced Laocoon, said, for example: “It is indisputable that we are able to discriminate far more colors than sounds in the same time. For experience teaches that each individual color still sustains itself within the eye for a while if, at the same time, we have closed our eyes. Hence, in a melody of colors the impression which the foregoing colors have left behind them must be mixed with the present ones and produce an effect completely different from the one demanded. The nerves of the sense of hearing appear to retain the impression for a shorter time if the sound does not cause a very large vibration in the air. Indeed, although it may be hoped that, by habitualizing the nerves of the eye, one could even bring things to this point (since in the case of hearing itself it is very much a matter of habit), at least at the outset one would still have to let the colors follow upon one another more slowly and after lengthier intervals than do sounds, and only after long practice be mindful of a unification of the melody of the colors with the melody of sounds. / Father Castel first came up with the idea of putting a melody of colors into practice, and Krüger improved this invention considerably. But neither must have thought of this difficulty” (Mendelssohn 1929ff., I 117). It seems noteworthy here that Mendelssohn referred to “(a matter of) habit (Gewohnheit)” and “practice (Übung)”. Therefore, he might have thought it possible in future—though impossible in his time—to accept (the mode of perception based on) the color organ without awkwardness, given long practice or habitualization of the nerves, whereas Herder thought it embryologically impossible.
- 14.
See e.g. Cytowic (1993, 73).
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Sugiyama, T. (2019). Herder on “Sentio, Ergo Sum”: Seen from His Remarks on the Color Harpsichord. In: Computational Aesthetics. SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56844-5_3
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