"The full clock-face of twelve notes supplies the complete chromatic scale of modern music."
—Sir James Hopwood Jeans, Science and Music (1968)

(Photo via danseperdue)

Word lovers will flip over the Swedish band BwO (a.k.a. Bodies without Organs).  Some of our favorite words from their lyrics:

• juggernaut
• thunderdome
• transhuman
• electrolyte
• halcyon
• bourgeoise
• tarmac
• mundane
• odyssey
• expressway
• cobblestones
• favela
• consecrating
• galvanized
• supersonic
• masquerade
• Martian invasion
• testosterone
• supernova
• boogaloo
• Himalayas

Don't miss BwO's stunning "Right Here Right Now" music video, in high-def on YouTube.

We applaud singer Deborah Harry for sidestepping one of the most tiresome, lazy, near-rhyme clichés to mar pop music.  Instead of imperfectly rhyming "girl" and "world," Harry boldly changes sex for a "boy / world" couplet:


(We acknowledge that "girl/world" is an echo of "mother earth," just as "man/hand" echoes the Spanish and Italian "mano," meaning "hand."  Regardless of the merits of half rhymes, "girl/world" and "man/hand" are contemptibly overused.)

Debussy had a secret for evoking a feeling of timelessness.

SPOILER: His secret is a pentatonic melody above two alternating chords.

[Thanks to Brent Hugh.]

We're proud (and somewhat astonished) to announce the World Premiere of Erik Satie's beguiling 18-hour composition "Vexations," performed in the style of a music box. The poet Chris Piuma requested this unprecedented performance, in anticipation of a cross-country train expedition.

Listener take note: Satie's composition is eerie, mind-bending, and hallucinatory. Please don't play while operating heavy machinery.

What does this highly unusual performance sound like? The first listener likened it to "the uncanny valley between creepy and pleasant, between soothing and agitating, between meditative and disturbing. And I'm sure 15 hours into it I will be in some other state entirely. . . . I've wanted to hear an uninterrupted performance of this piece for over a decade, and now here it is!"

Click above to play streaming version.

The second listener praised music box maestro Ken Clinger for capturing "the continual, unrelieved dissonance, with no obvious sense of direction or tonal centre, and the total chromaticism. I think anyone listening to this for 18 hours and 40 minutes would definitely hallucinate. . . . I suppose it would be curious if for the next 18 hours I kept writing a response. I'm not sure if it would reveal the anguish over unreciprocated affection that I feel listening to this aural Auschwitz. Maybe I should instead podcast. . . . Hours have passed and my hands feel like balloons, my feet like stars, and my hair has turned gray. . . . The 17th repetition I have designated as the Schwarzschild radius. See how slowly I appear to move? Do not be fooled. . . . My elbows tingle in calliopeic sympathy (or that may just be an odd manifestation of the carpal tunnel). . . . I can't stop crying. And laughing."

Fun fact: A music box cylinder containing the full score (with all 840 repetitions) would measure 4,032 inches in diameter (336 feet), which is the same height as the Victoria Tower at London’s Westminster Palace.


In addition to streaming audio, a 63 MB mp3 of "Vexations" is available.

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Dankitti writes:

Come in the evening, or come in the morning;
Come when you're looked for, or come without warning;
Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you,
And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you!
—John Williamson Palmer, Folk Songs (1861)

Don't miss the twee pop band Original Silly Pillows, who coincidentally have a song called "Come in the Evening" (hear it on their MySpace page).

Oh if you ain't got the do re mi, folks,
If you ain't got the do re mi,
Why, you'd better go back to beautiful Texas,
Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
—Woody Guthrie, "Do Re Mi," a Dust Bowl ballad of the 1930s

Earth–Moon–Earth (Moonlight Sonata Reflected from the Surface of the Moon)

Earth-Moon-Earth "is a form of radio transmission whereby messages are sent in morse–code from earth, reflected from the surface of the moon, and then received back on earth. The moon reflects only part of the information back – some is absorbed in its shadows, 'lost' in its craters.  Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata has been translated into morse-code and sent to the moon via E.M.E.  Returning to earth 'fragmented' by the moon’s surface, it has been re-translated into a new score, the gaps and absences becoming intervals and rests."

View the sent score and the crater-filled score received back, and hear excerpts of the score here.

Via Vvork.

Artist Jon Sasaki modified a subwoofer to vibrate a Ouiji pointer over a Ouiji Board, "spelling out the sinister directives that have been encoded in all popular music as subliminal messages."  See a video of the device in action!

Via Vvork.

The best way to play Dixie Jazz?

A fully working, manual record player made entirely of paper.  Designed by Simon Elvins.

I'm learning to play this on the conch shell trumpet.

Original size via.

I'm studying the Romantic Period in my music class.

A detail from a tribute to Serge Gainsbourg, via ffffound.com. Jonathan writes: Very realistic--the composer has even included the rests!

Of all my projects, my whimsical children's song "Indoor Kitty" (sung by lo-fi pioneer Ken Clinger) has inspired the most fan mail.  Perhaps the "twist ending" in the lyrics is the key to the song's success?  Below is my favorite visual tribute, created by longtime listeners Samantha and Catherine.

"Indoor Kitty" is available for online listening on such sites as SoundClick, Last-fm, and here on OneLetterWords.

Timeless Gossip From the World of Music*

It would have been funny had it not been so witheringly embarrassing for the divine Annie Lennox.  On the final night of Eurythmics' triumphant Peacetour in 1999, Annie caught herself singing her song "I Need a Man" shortly after an audience-rousing rendition of "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves."  Though hardly the best Eurythmics song (by a long shot) and certainly not the greatest feminist manifesto ever penned, "Sisters" brought the house down in an explosion of equal-rights enthusiasm that beggared belief.  Imagine Annie's mortification when she later heard herself repeating the words "I need a man" in front of the fully-packed stadium.  It was as if she were lighting her voter registration card instead of her bra.  A mumbled negation at the very end of the song, stating that in fact she did not need a man after all, seemed too little, too late.  Luckily, this listener knows that a singer can play the role of actor, not necessarily agreeing with the words she communicates.  If one demands a political message in every lyric, there's always Bono.

*When a musical performance is recorded, it transcends the fleeting moment and becomes timeless—as fresh and exciting the next hour as it is the next day, month, year, decade, and so on.  Music gossip transcends time in the same way.

Recording artist Ken Clinger's rendition of the One-Letter Words theme song has made another appearance, this time on an album entitled "Cassette Culture Compilation 2."  The album (released by Harsh Reality Music) features new tracks by 28 artists from the U.S. and Europe who first emerged as part of the international cassette-culture scene (1978-1990).

Do-Re-Midi: Funkamentals of a Text-Based Musical Notation

version 1.0

Do-Re-Midi allows musical ideas, melody lines, riffs, arrangements, and even full scores to be easily shared via e-mail or other text-based (ASCII) English communication.  Now, when a friend writes asking how that bass line of Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" goes, you can type it out and save humming it over a long-distance call.  Or you can compose a new song on an airplane when all you have is a PowerBook with a word processor.  No special composing software or music font is needed.  Each voice of a composition is typed as if in sentences using familiar and intuitive syllables, symbols, and phonemes.  Novices can read Do-Re-Midi more easily than standard musical notation, as no more than a rudimentary familiarity with the musical scale is requisite.

An example of a famous music passage written in Do-Re-Midi follows the full description of this notation below.  

A standard fixed-width font (e.g. Courier) is required for writing and displaying Do-Re-Midi.

Note: A shareware program to automatically convert MIDI files into Do-Re-Midi is in the early stages of development.

Suggestions for revision are welcome.

----------

Contents:

I. Notes
II. Duration
III. Rests
IV. Octaves
V. Dynamics
VI. Time Signatures
VII. Other Tones, Sound Effects, and Noises
VIII. Other Notation
IX. Do-Re-Midi Example

----------

I. Notes:

do = C
re = D
mi = E
fa = F
so = G
la = A
ti = B

do# = C sharp or D flat
re# = D sharp or E flat
fa# = F sharp or G flat
so# = G sharp or A flat
la# = A sharp or B flat

----------

II. Duration:

do = quarter note
re = quarter note
mi = quarter note
fa = quarter note
so = quarter note
la = quarter note
ti = quarter note

doo = half note
ree = half note
mii = half note
faa = half note
soo = half note
laa = half note
tii = half note

dooo = dotted half note
reee = dotted half note
miii = dotted half note
faaa = dotted half note
sooo = dotted half note
laaa = dotted half note
tiii = dotted half note

doooo = whole note
reeee = whole note
miiii = whole note
faaaa = whole note
soooo = whole note
laaaa = whole note
tiiii = whole note

----------

III. Rests:

: = quarter rest
:: = half rest
::: = dotted half rest
:::: = whole rest

----------

IV. Octaves:

-do = low C
-re = low D
-mi = low E
-fa = low F
-so = low G
-la = low A
-ti = low B

do = middle C
re = middle D
mi = middle E
fa = middle F
so = middle G
la = middle A
ti = middle B

+do = high C
+re = high D
+mi = high E
+fa = high F
+so = high G
+la = high A
+ti = high B

----------

V. Dynamics:

do = piano
re = piano
mi = piano
fa = piano
so = piano
la = piano
ti = piano

Do = forte
Re = forte
Mi = forte
Fa = forte
So = forte
La = forte
Ti = forte

DO = fortissimo
RE = fortissimo
MI = fortissimo
FA = fortissimo
SO = fortissimo
LA = fortissimo
TI = fortissimo

----------

VI. Time Signatures:

4/4
3/4
2/4
(and so on)

----------

VII. Other Tones, Sound Effects, and Noises:

ah
bz
ch
mm
oo
ft
pr
sh
ss
ts
zp
zz

----------

VIII. Other Notation:

^ = slur
x = drum hit (specify type)
X = drum hit accented
* = cymbal (specify type)
5 = hand clap

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IX. Do-Re-Midi Example (four seconds of a famous song)

In the example below, each voice of the piece is typed from left to right on its own line.  Voices which sound simultaneously are aligned vertically.  Notice that the melody has two lines to indicate harmony.  The arrangement of the piece can be easily altered in Do-Re-Midi by moving the notations left or right, just as notes are adjusted in sequencing software.

"Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" by Eurythmics (P) 1983

4/4 (180 bpm)

(lyric)
     Sweet dreams  are   made of           this

(melody)
::   Ree#  Ree#    Doo   Re#  Reee#        Re#^Reee  
::   Soo   Soo     Ree#  So   Sooo         Soo^Faaa

(bass)
-DOO do do re# re# do do -so# -so# -so# do -so -so -la# do

(bass drum)
x :  x  :  x   :   x  :  x    :    x    :  x   :   x    :