Spence Charles, Di Stefano Nicola
Crossmodal Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Rome, Italy.
Iperception. 2022 Feb 10;13(1):20416695211073817. doi: 10.1177/20416695211073817. eCollection 2022 Jan-Feb.
The notion of harmony was first developed in the context of metaphysics before being applied to the domain of music. However, in recent centuries, the term has often been used to describe especially pleasing combinations of colors by those working in the visual arts too. Similarly, the harmonization of flavors is nowadays often invoked as one of the guiding principles underpinning the deliberate pairing of food and drink. However, beyond the various uses of the term to describe and construct pleasurable unisensory perceptual experiences, it has also been suggested that music and painting may be combined harmoniously (e.g., see the literature on "color music"). Furthermore, those working in the area of "sonic seasoning" sometimes describe certain sonic compositions as harmonizing crossmodally with specific flavor sensations. In this review, we take a critical look at the putative meaning(s) of the term "harmony" when used in a crossmodal, or multisensory, context. Furthermore, we address the question of whether the term's use outside of a strictly unimodal auditory context should be considered literally or merely metaphorically (i.e., as a shorthand to describe those combinations of sensory stimuli that, for whatever reason, appear to go well together, and hence which can be processed especially fluently).
和谐的概念最初是在形而上学的背景下发展起来的，之后才被应用于音乐领域。然而，在最近几个世纪里，这个词也经常被视觉艺术工作者用来描述特别令人愉悦的色彩组合。同样，如今风味的协调常常被视为指导食物与饮品精心搭配的原则之一。然而，除了该词用于描述和构建愉悦的单感官感知体验的各种用法之外，也有人提出音乐和绘画可以和谐地结合在一起（例如，参见关于“色彩音乐”的文献）。此外，从事“声音调味”领域工作的人有时会将某些声音作品描述为与特定的风味感受跨模态地协调一致。在这篇综述中，我们批判性地审视了“和谐”一词在跨模态或多感官背景下的假定含义。此外，我们还探讨了这个词在严格的单模态听觉背景之外的使用，究竟应该从字面意义上去理解，还是仅仅作为一种比喻（即作为一种速记方式，用于描述那些由于某种原因似乎搭配得很好、因而能够被特别流畅地处理的感官刺激组合）。
