Posted on 04/30/2007 6:43:09 PM PDT by blam
Music mystery of Da Vinci Code chapel cracked
By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 2:05am BST 01/05/2007
A Scottish church featured in The Da Vinci Code is embroiled in a fresh mystery of secret codes and heretical knowledge - but this one could be more than mere fiction.
An ex-RAF codebreaker and his composer son say they have deciphered a musical score hidden for nearly 600 years in the elaborate carvings on the walls of Rosslyn Chapel.
Rosslyn Chapel, theories connect it with the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant and the head of Christ
The pair believe the tune was encrypted because knowledge of music could have been considered heretical.
Thomas Mitchell, 75, a music teacher, and his son Stuart, 41, a pianist and composer, say they became intrigued by the markings on the chapel's arches more than 20 years ago.
Thomas was particularly struck by the 213 carved cubes in the Lady Chapel.
"I was obsessed by these symbols. I was convinced they meant something." Using codebreaking skills learned during the Korean War and his knowledge of classical music, Thomas Mitchell finally realised that the cubes depicted patterns made by sound waves.
"After scratching our brains for years the whole thing just came together in a eureka moment. We believe this is the Holy Grail of music and, unlike The Da Vinci Code, it is absolutely factual." Mr Mitchell realised the patterns on the cubes seem to match a phenomenon called cymatics or Chladni patterns. These form when a note is used to vibrate a sheet of metal or glass covered in powder.
Different frequencies produce different patterns such as flowers, diamonds and hexagons - shapes all present on the cubes.
The two men have brought the music back to life using instruments from the Middle Ages, adding words from a contemporary hymn to finish the piece, called The Rosslyn Motet.
Among the theories about Rosslyn is that it is the secret resting place of the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant and even the mummified head of Christ.
“I was obsessed by these symbols. I was convinced they meant something.”
I’m with you. The only thing missing from the above fanatical phrase are the words “...in my heart”
or “In my heart of hearts...”
Funny, I was thinking "Stairway to Heaven". ;-)
Thanks... I don’t know why I thought it was a dancing bear. Who’s Dr. Johnson?
For once Wikipedia is pretty much on the money. I might disagree with details here and there, but this is a pretty accurate summary of the good doctor's life and work.
Speaking of heretical, what happended to the threads on the Lost Tomb of Jesus shockumentary ?
BUMP
“An ex-RAF codebreaker and his composer son say they have deciphered a musical score hidden for nearly 600 years in the elaborate carvings on the walls of Rosslyn Chapel.”
That’s a coincidence!! I just deciphered a hidden code written in the sidewalk patterns of New York City!!
Knowledge of music is different. The study of music was one of the original scientifc desciplines in Ancient Greece. The Study of Geometry, Arithemetic, Astronomy and Music made up a course of study known as the Quadrivism. Rhetoric, Logic and Grammar made up the Trivium. These two courses of study are the basic foundation of the Arts and Sciences that make up a Liberal Arts Education (a REAL Liberal Arts Education). Just as the study of astronomy became heretical, it could be that the scientific study of music was also viewed suspiciously without disruption the artisitc creation of music.
Thanks for the GREAT link! Bookmarked.
This should be interesting.
Fwiw, my music prof. likes Gothic Voices a lot, better than the Anonymous Four. I don't mind the very clear, very straight tone, Anglican-type sound (what a surprise! I sang in one Anglican choir or another for about 40 years) but he likes a warmer sound and so do most people I think.
The anthology textbook for my music course was FULL of Dufay's works. He was the Big Dog of his generation.
I think the music is beautiful. Very stately.
A couple of years ago I read an article about a Grecian vessel, or urn, that was discovered that the musicologists claimed was carved with a musical score, or notation. They were going to be working on it to try to determine the tune that it represented. That set me to thinking about how old our music really is.
Our oldest writings mention music — the Bible, Torah, and Greek mythology. We have no reason to doubt that early people sang just as we do. But do we have any record of what those tunes really were?
Every time we sing a hymn at church I check the dates of the author. Seldom do I ever find anything older 1800. A few hymns date from the 1700s, with fewer still from the 1600s — mostly Christmas carols.
What did the earliest Christians sing? What did their predecessors, the Jews, sing? What did the Romans sing? Persians? Aztecs? Mayans?
I suppose we’ll never know.
There are few scraps of Classical Greek music that have come down to us, quite a bit from the early Church (although notation was scanty). You can read all about it in Donald Grout's History of Western Music. That is considered the leading authority.
H&B Recordings also sends out a hard copy catalog. It’s a low-budget production catalog, crammed with listings that’s very dry reading. And you have to know your composers to get what you really want. But they have probably the broadest cross-section of classical music recordings I’ve seen just about anywhere.
Ah yes. Grout. What every college music student has been studying Music History from for the last several decades. I remember my sister talking about snoozing thru her 8am Music History class back in the 1970s ;-).
The Chinese have had stringed music instruments going WAY back.
My prof. used them for our course. We all showed up with different editions (purchased at used books stores and off the internet), and it was funny to see how they had changed details. I won a prize for my dramatic reading of the paragraph from my circa 1970 edition explaining why modern rock 'n' rollers just don't "get" Gregorian Chant, and why they ought to.
H&B sounds a lot like the Dover catalogs - tiny print and minimal descriptions, but much treasure there if you know it when you see it . . . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.