Decoding Cryptograms in Musical Compositions
From Bach to the Telephone.
There's a curious relationship between music and puzzles; it turns out that musical notes can convey messages as well as just beautiful sounds.
A musical cryptogram is a series of musical notes that have a logical relationship with the alphabet. By connecting each alphabet letter with a single musical note, it becomes more memorable to the human ear.
In another post, "Cipher and Cryptogram: What is the Difference?" I touched briefly upon how secret messages have been encrypted or hidden in musical compositions for ages.
There are examples of musical cryptograms in everyday life. Make a phone call and listen closely—each number you punch in triggers a distinct tone. Your best friend's phone number is, technically, a little musical cryptogram every time you dial it!
By assigning a musical note to each letter of the alphabet, you can write a message using music notes. Of course, your "spelling" can affect the music composition. Obviously, the more complex the message, the more it interferes with the flow of the piece.
To the untrained ear, this wouldn't necessarily be evident, but to a trained ear, or at least a person experienced in reading music, it would be obvious that something was amiss. The objective is to create a distinctive melodic cryptogram.
Any melodic note comprises seven fundamental keys: C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.
Classical composers have encoded secret messages in their music, and have done so for centuries.
It's true!
Johann Sebastian Bach was the first major composer to create a musical cryptogram for creative purposes.
Bach didn't need to rely on a substitution cipher, though—he took advantage of the fact that German musical notation uses eight letters, A through H (where H stands in for the note B), and used those letters to spell his name in a song.
Thus "B-A-C-H" became a four-note melody for his composition. Listen below to hear the BACH motif played on piano:
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the first composers to cipher his name B-A-C-H (B-flat, A, C, B-natural) into his music, using the BACH motif.
Johannes Brahms put the name of a young woman he had fallen in love with, Agathe von Siebold, into one of his musical compositions.
Brahms incorporated the notes A-G-A-D-H-E in the first movement of his 1868 piece "String Sextet No. 2 in G major" to profess his love toward von Siebold.
How romantic!
Although Brahms later broke off their engagement to focus on his musical career, he felt that by encoding von Siebold's name into one of his musical works he was honoring Agathe as well as giving himself closure on a relationship that would never be.
Not sure Agathe felt the same way!
Agathe von Siebold and Johannes Brahms, whose romance inspired the A-G-A-D-H-E cipher in his String Sextet No. 2.
You can decode musical cryptograms in the Tempo's Alphabet puzzle "Accident-al's!"
Players learn how to decode them using my special speech translator.
As you can see in the video below, each alphabet letter replaces a music note. The English word "Sorry!" doesn't just spell out my spoken word—it also sounds like a melody. See if you can decode my musical messages!
In the Tempo's Alphabet puzzle "Accident-al's!" the player's objective is to decode Tempo's musical cryptograms.
It takes both a musical flair and a puzzler's mind to create a musical cryptogram.
Perhaps the side effect of decoding cryptograms in musical compositions is that listening to and identifying them could make you a master puzzle maker (like Moi) in the future. Ahem—maybe.
Well, that's all I have for you.
Ready to try decoding one yourself? Head to interactive mode and solve Suit 2 to unlock "Accident-al's!"
Bye, for now!
