Posted on 08/27/2009 5:40:25 PM PDT by Daffynition
In the depths of Stirling Castle a secret code has lain hidden in the king’s bedchamber for almost half a millennium.
Peering down from the ceiling of the apartments of James V of Scotland, mysterious markings carved in a wooden panel have revealed a musical score written in code around the edge.
The Renaissance carving of an unknown woman is only one of 56 oak roundels that adorned the king’s chambers, but it is believed to contain the first written example of harmonic musical notation found in Scotland.
A wood carver, commissioned to make exact replicas of the panels, noticed in the border of one of the roundels a code-like sequence of symbols that experts say represent a 16th-century musical composition.
After months of research, the notation has been transcribed and yesterday, for the first time for nearly 500 years, the sound of a lost Renaissance hit echoed around the castle’s Chapel Royal, performed on harps by children from Allan’s Primary School in Stirling.
The carvings were used to decorate the ceilings in the king’s bedchamber and his “presence chamber”, where he met favoured courtiers and visiting dignitaries.
The discovery of the musical pattern was made by John Donaldson, a carver from Livingston, who has spent five years making copies of the roundels for a new permanent display. Mr Donaldson, 62, said he noticed the markings as soon as he began preparations for his copy of the original head, the 20th in the sequence.
“This is one of the finest of all of them in terms of craftsmanship,” he said. “The markings seemed incoherent at first, but when I looked more closely, I thought, ‘There’s something going on here’.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk ...
So let’s hear it! Download link? Close-up photo? Translation to current standard notation?
It sounds like “Freebird”!!!
jk
All dead ends so far ...I’ve been looking. Supposedly a CD is coming out.
If my words did glow,
with the gold of sunshine,
and my tunes were played,
on the harp unstrung,
would you hear my voice,
come through the music,
would you hold it near,
as it were your own.
—”Ripple”, Grateful Dead
Very nice!
The song is a beautiful little tune about nature’s God.
Reach out your hand,
if your cup be empty,
if your cup is full,
may it be again,
let it be known,
there is a fountain,
that was not made,
by the hands of men....
ripple in still water,
when there is no pebble tossed,
nor wind to blow..
—it’s describing the observable, motive force of Creation.
end of digression :-)
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Thanks Daffynition. |
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But it it sucks will anyone say it sucks?
All that work and watch it turn
out to be “Greensleeves”.
I love that song, and almost all other Dead songs.
I’ve got a tape with a 45-minute Dark Star with Pigpen, man, oh man, what transcendent music..absolutely magnificent.
Ed
LOL ...let’s all chip in a buy the CD.
For some reason my mind went back to the scene in the Python movie, Time Bandits, where the dwarves, falling in to a command variety performance for Napoleon start playing some antique instruments and doing a soft shoe to the tune of Me and My Shadow. I tried to find an image on the net without any luck.
The look on the faces of the Maestro and Napoleon was priceless.
(You’d have to know the movie but I’m still laughing as I write this.)
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