The notion of harmony was first developed in the context of metaphysics before being applied to the domain of music. However, in recent centuries, the term has often been used to describe especially pleasing combinations of colors by those working in the visual arts too. Similarly, the harmonization of flavors is nowadays often invoked as one of the guiding principles underpinning the deliberate pairing of food and drink. However, beyond the various uses of the term to describe and construct pleasurable unisensory perceptual experiences, it has also been suggested that music and painting may be combined harmoniously (e.g., see the literature on “color music”). Furthermore, those working in the area of “sonic seasoning” sometimes describe certain sonic compositions as harmonizing crossmodally with specific flavor sensations. In this review, we take a critical look at the putative meaning(s) of the term “harmony” when used in a crossmodal, or multisensory, context. Furthermore, we address the question of whether the term's use outside of a strictly unimodal auditory context should be considered literally or merely metaphorically (i.e., as a shorthand to describe those combinations of sensory stimuli that, for whatever reason, appear to go well together, and hence which can be processed especially fluently).

和声的概念最初是在形而上学的背景下发展起来的，然后才应用于音乐领域。然而，近几个世纪以来，该术语也经常被用于描述视觉艺术工作者特别令人愉悦的颜色组合。同样，如今，口味的协调经常被称为支持食物和饮料的慎重搭配的指导原则之一。然而，除了该术语用于描述和构建令人愉悦的非感官知觉体验的各种用途之外，还有人建议音乐和绘画可以和谐地结合起来（例如，参见有关“彩色音乐”的文献）。此外，那些在“声波调味”领域工作的人有时将某些声波成分描述为与特定风味感觉交叉协调。在本次审查中，当在跨模态或多感官上下文中使用时，我们会批判性地审视“和谐”一词的假定含义。此外，我们还解决了这个术语在严格单模态听觉环境之外的使用是否应该按照字面意思或仅仅比喻的方式来考虑（即，作为一种速记来描述那些无论出于何种原因似乎很好地结合在一起的感觉刺激组合，因此可以特别流畅地处理）。