ABSTRACT
The proliferation of cross-modal correspondences (CMC) research of basic auditory dimensions notwithstanding, substantial lacunas concerning music-specific cross-modal correspondences are awaiting investigation. This chapter suggests how CMC research—though performed mainly in non-musical contexts, using simple auditory stimuli—may inform musical thought and practice, and how studies of CMC utilizing music-specific features and contexts may in turn enhance CMC research, associating it with complex, culturally significant contexts. Studying musically-specific CMC may be particularly intriguing since CMC may implicitly and subconsciously affect perception and behaviour. One reason CMC may be particularly intriguing to music research is their role in both high-level and low-level mental processes. The implicit and automatic qualities of CMC highlight a lacuna in our understanding of their musical roles. The chapter discusses the mappings, psychological functions and sources constituting CMC. The gap between rarified cultural products and the elementary perceptual functions of CMC, as studied by experimental psychologists, may seem insurmountable. "Structural" CMC stem from inborn neural connections.
