Believe it or not, there are many similarities between perfume and music. Are we not talking about notes, compositions, chords and harmony in one case as in the other? For the Fête de la Musique, I wanted to highlight this intuitive olfactory and musical harmony that respond to each other and this sensory relationship between perfume and music (and even Art), yet people don't really think about it. ! No doubt, music and perfume connect us to the world and allow us to apprehend it in a sensitive way.
CELEBRATING THE SENSES
Perfume, like music, translates and provokes emotions. I am passionate about the "celebration of the senses" and I strongly believe in the magic and mystery of perfume as well as the beauty of music and art!
There are also similarities in the creative process: musicians and perfumers do not necessarily need to hear or smell the notes when they compose. We talk about notes, harmony, composition, an olfactory symphony, mixtures, chords, and even “dissonance” both in music and in perfume. Likewise, the construction of perfume and music are parallel...both have a beginning, a middle and an end. Classical music has an opening, a main theme and a finale and the perfume is built with top notes, has a central or main theme and ends with base notes! (Art too has a foreground, middle and background). Like music, the perfume unfolds in time and like the musician, the perfumer looks for “chords” and composes on his “perfume organ” from “notes”.
Scent and music stimulate the senses and trigger memories and emotions. However, our sense of smell is our strongest sense after sight!
PERFUME IS MUSIC THAT WE LISTEN WITH THE NOSE
I also believe that “major” musical notes and chords “color our senses”. Think of the scent and musical notes that come to mind when we discover bright pinks, sparkling yellows, vibrant reds, soft blues and bold greens, and luscious purples? For me, it's the fragrance notes composed of beautiful florals, bright citrus, spicy, gourmand fruity and herbal accords that reflect the "major" touches and evoke "happy, bright and positive" notes. While 'minor' accords are 'sad' and more subdued and we think of deep earth tone colours and woody, musky, amber, patchouli and mossy fragrance accords."
LIVE THE EXPERIENCE
Do you know the Perfume Orchestra?. With each piece played, the public is invited to smell a perfume, on the corresponding olfactory key. Hearing and smell are stimulated to convey emotion when we often tend to neglect them and over-invest sight. At the sensory level, hearing and smell respond to each other in symbiosis, multiply our emotions and free our thoughts. Think what John Lennon's "Imagine" would smell like? or Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"? For me, I see notes spanning four major fragrance families… FRESH, FLORAL, WOODY and ORIENTAL… And each is a symphonic and olfactory masterpiece in its own right! Even other musical genres such as hip hop, folk, latin, pop and rock offer great opportunities for perfumers to create innovative perfume 'melodies'.
One of the most striking similarities between music and perfume is their ability to create atmosphere. Both have the ability to create a mood, a lingering impression felt by all the senses: hearing, sight, smell, touch and taste.
So, if you have music in mind, come and compose your olfactory score with the Eco.French.Lab team.
Anne-Marie Spencer
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