Integrating Music-Color Cross-Modal Correspondences in World Music Pedagogy: An Embedded Case Study for Chinese Traditional Music Appreciation

This embedded case study examined the effectiveness of music-color cross-modal correspondences integrated into World Music Pedagogy (WMP). The 4-week program involved three music teachers and 148 students aged 13 to 15 from three middle schools in Southwest China. Video recordings of lessons, teacher journals, and evaluation reports from an educational specialist constituted the data sources. A deductive thematic approach was used to analyze the data and identify subunits, guided by the I-SKE framework. The results showed that (a) music-color associations helped students understand Chinese music theory and analyze musical structures and orchestration; (b) color served as a tool for expressing students’ musical experiences and cultural associations; and (c) students showed consistent affective responses within each lesson, supporting emotional engagement throughout the music-color listening activities. This study contributes a cognitive science perspective to WMP through music-color cross-modal correspondences. It also offers a sample teaching program that can be adapted for other world music.