A Synesthetic Metaphorical Analysis Of Musical Rhythmic Features

Synesthetic metaphor is a universal linguistic phenomenon. It is both a rhetorical device and a cognitive representation. It is characterized by mappings across the five senses of human beings. Music contains a wealth of emotional experience and visual spectacles. Different musical rhythmic features (pitch, intensity and duration in the present study) tend to evoke corresponding sensations from the five human sense organs. As a matter of fact, the interaction between auditory sensations and non-auditory experience brings about synesthetic metaphor. The present study, framed in the theory of synesthetic metaphor, makes a study of the three musical rhythmic features by analyzing some classical music piece samples. Empirical and theoretical methods are applied to the data analysis with a view to expounding the fact that synesthetic metaphor and cognitive embodiment can effectively explain the process of music understanding. This research proves that individual experience provides a ground for music understanding and imagination. It is expected that the present study will open up a new avenue to aesthetic study of music and enlarge the explanatory gamut of synesthetic metaphor and embodiment.