Kreisler, a most strange “cracked musicus par excellence”, is described as a “little man in a coat the color of C sharp minor with an E major colored collar”. How does that sound for a sartorial description?!
Apparently it is not so much a case of synesthesia, as it is a simple matter of late XVIIIth - early XIXth century fashion – not in clothes, but in music, consisting of attributing certain features to each scale. C sharp minor would be considered melancholical, even a little sad (think Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”), while E major would be seen as shiny, if not somewhat “brassy”. The whole thing is a rather transparent metaphor for the musical world of his times. Was this some gray overcoat with a scarlet velvet collar, perhaps?
Robert Schumann (among others) was inspired by Hoffman’s tale and put it to music. Intriguingly, movement no. 7 of his “Kreisleriana”, with the indication “Sehr rasch” (“very swiftly” – but may be translated as “very smart”, too) contains precisely this key relationship. Is this a musical depiction of the most mysterious coat in all literature? If it is, we are lucky to have three outstanding and different “house styles” to choose from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5imLo-e ... re=related