“There is a relationship between the gamut of sounds and the spectrum of colors. Long study has brought me to the conclusion that white must correspond to do, blue to re, pink to mi, black to fa, green to sol. When the relationships between colors and sounds have been found, music may be translated into landscapes and portraits by replacing the colors, and by marking the halftones with sharps and flats.”

—Ernest Cabaner, barman, bohemian musician, and Arthur Rimbaud’s piano teacher, mid-nineteenth century Paris; Pierre Petitfuls, Rimbaud, translated by Alan Sheridan, 1987.