 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John Stackpole
Date: 2005-01-12 15:45
Remarkable web page...
http://www.musipedia.org/
Just type in the note sequence - but NOT the notes, just the change in notes - of any old theme, and there it is!
"Repeat", "Up", "Down" is all you need
Can you guess this one? it's unique (*is the first note)
*UURDD DUUUR DDDUD
or this one (not unique, but obvious)?
*RRDURRD
(There is one entry about this - the "Parsons Code" - in the Klarinet data base, which is where I found the first one to guess at. With some hisory.)
JDS
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Author: John Stackpole
Date: 2005-01-12 16:12
Or for a slightly surprising association, try
*rrrrrrudur
Then go check Ecclesiates 1:9
JDS
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-01-12 16:25
Grrrrrrr, John! Another oddity I like is "Misunderstood Song Lyrics"
Bob Draznik
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Author: John Stackpole
Date: 2005-01-12 21:59
Yeah, that's better.
Apparently, the search algorithm will lop off a note-change or two at the end in order to find "approximate" matches.
The surprizes of seeing the same "theme", or almost, in so many places is the fun of it.
JDS
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Author: John Stackpole
Date: 2005-01-12 22:46
Yeah, that's better.
Apparently, the search algorithm will lop off a note-change or two at the end in order to find "approximate" matches.
The surprizes of seeing the same "theme", or almost, in so many places is the fun of it.
Or LACK of "cousins", for that matter.
*ruruud
is the first phrase of Simple Gifts (AKA Copland) "Tis the gift to be simple"
and it has lots of matches, but add on "Tis the gift"
*ruruuduuu
and it is unique.
I'll bet there are any number of musicology theses here, if they haven't already been written. What makes music memorable, "beautiful", special?
JDS
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Author: GBK
Date: 2005-01-12 23:05
I have a copy of the parent book from where this idea originated: "The Directory
of Tunes and Musical Themes" by Denys Parsons, (published in 1975 by Spencer
Brown and Co, 17 Halifax Road, Cambridge, England, ISBN 0 904747 00 X).
This book (although from 1975 and now a bit outdated for the most recent standard tunes) is a handy reference for when you have a theme and can't place its origin.
It is from where the term "Parsons Code", (the up/down/repeated pattern of the melody) originated.
On the back jacket of the text it states that it took Mr. Parsons 5 years to complete the book. It has been called the "most original and useful idea ever to be devised for indexing melodies".
Here is a link which shows a sample page from the book:
http://www.af.lu.se/~fogwall/notation.html
BTW - The web link says that my copy of the book is now worth $700 (!!) - and I thought that only Kasper mouthpieces were ridiculously over priced ...GBK
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