#musicperception

The eye cannot tell the difference, if we substitute orange for red and yellow; but if we hear the notes C and E sounded at the same time, we cannot put D instead of them, without entirely changing the impression upon the ear… The practiced musician is able to catch the separate notes of the various instruments among the complicated harmonies of an entire orchestra, but the optician cannot directly ascertain the composition of light by means of the eye; he must make use of the prism to decompose the light for him.