Music Notes and Color
Sir Isaac Newton believed that the seven colors in the rainbow;
1 - red
2 - orange
3 - yellow
4 - green
5 - blue
6 - indigo
7 - violet
Represented the seven musical notes on a scale.
1 - red-D
2 - orange-E
3 - yellow-F
4 - green-G
5 - blue -A
6 - indigo-B
7 - violet-C
Newton’s idea that color corresponded to musical notes, was an idea not far removed from the ancients.
The Greeks had seven musical modes.
1 - Ionian
2 - Dorian
3 - Phrygian
4 - Lydian
5 - Mixolydian
6 - Arolian
7 - Locrian
They assigned a planet, to each of the musical modes. They also assigned, a single note in the musical scale to each planet. The specific planet assigned to each mode or each note varies, according to whose research you are studying.
However, regardless of whose research you study, the general idea remains the same,the various planets and levels of the heavens were thought to correspond with musical notes and various colors.
Each planet and level of the heavens was thought to have a musical note, a musical mode, and a color associated with it. Each level of the heavens had a vibration it operated in. The seven colors of the rainbow stacked one right on top of the other being symbolic of seven ascending levels of vibration in the heavens stacked one on top of the other. As you ascend up you ascend through ever finer levels of vibration.
One researcher describes the musical scale in terms of the colors of the rainbow as follows;
1 - Do-red
2 - Re-orange
3 - Mi-yellow
4 - Fa-green
5 - Sol-blue
6 - La-indigo
7 - Ti-violet
That would bring us back to “Do”. Which in the world of color, would be a new Octave of red at a higher level and vibration in the spectrum of light. In the world of music, this would be a higher Octave, a faster vibration of the very same note you started out with.
Some of these ideas are similar to the ideas of Pythagoras which he presented in his idea of tetractys.
The tetractys is symbolized by 10 dots, arranged in a pyramid form. The bottom row has 4 dots. The next row up three dots. The next highest 2 dots, and then one dot up at the very top like the capstone of a pyramid.
The top three dots represented the threefold manifestation of the one creator to Pythagoras. The bottom two rows of seven dots represented the seven colors and seven notes of music. All of which make up the known material universe.
Issac Newton, took a three cornered prism, which would represent the top three dots, and passed light through it, and it brought forth 7 colors, which to him may have been symbolic of the seven colors of light and the seven vibrations of sound of which the whole universe is composed of.