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Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 6; November 03
Matching colors
Chaz Pugliese, Paris, France
Level : lower- Intermediate and upwards
- Show your students art work that is particularly colorful. (V. Kandinsky's paintings are particularly suitable).
- Have them list all the colors they see in the pictures.
- In pairs, ask them to discuss what they think the artist was trying to convey with the colors.
- Write the students' contributions on the board. Now ask them to focus on one picture and imagine how a composer would express the same feelings with music (invite them to reflect on the tempo, the instruments used, the historical context, the genre, the mood, etc).
- Now hand out the following sheet:
Red it's the color of life Yellow it's the color of wisdom and knowledge Orange it's the color of vitality, joy, movement Green this color helps us find balance and harmony Violet this is the color of power Purple This is the color of creativity (source: 'The art of color' by Johannes Itten)
- Play a piece of instrumental music and ask your students what colors they see or smell or taste in it, and have them share impressions in pairs, or groups.
Rationale
Synesthetics (or cross-sensory stimulation) is an interesting way to experience color. Synesthetics is the ability to hear, smell, taste colors, or to smell, feel, taste and hear a color. For example many composers could also hear colors: Franz Liszt would say 'more pink here' or 'this is too black'.
O. Messiaen talked about 'the gentle cascade of blue-orange chords'.
V. Kandinsky associated sound with color and he painted abstracts so that he could paint music. F. Scott Fizgerald wrote: 'the orchestra was playing yellow cocktail music'.