Musical cryptogram
A musical cryptogram is a sequence of musical notes which can be taken to refer to an extra-musical text by some 'logical' relationship between (usually) note names and letters. The most common and best known examples result from composers using ciphered versions of their own or their friends' names as themes or motifs in their compositions. Much rarer is the use of music notation to hide messages for reasons of espionage or private security.
History
From the initial assignment by Western music theorists of letter names to notes in the 9th century [1] it became possible to reverse the procedure and assign notes to the letters of names. However this doesn't seem to have become a recognized technique until the Baroque period. From the mid 19th century it has become quite common. Sporadic earlier encipherments used solmization syllables.
Systems
Syllables to solmization names
It is believed that this method was first used by Josquin des Prez in his Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie. It was named Soggetto cavato by the later theorist Zarlino. Under this scheme the vowel sounds in the text are matched to the vowel sounds of the solmization syllables of Guido of Arezzo (where 'ut' is the root, which we now call 'do'). Thus the Latin name of the dedicatee 'Hercules Dux Ferrarie' (Ercole d'Este, Duke of Ferrara) becomes re-ut-re-ut-re-fa-mi-re, which translates as D-C-D-C-D-F-E-D in modern notation with C as 'ut'. This is used as the cantus firmus of the mass setting.
Letters to note names
Since the note names only cover letters A to G (reflecting the octave repetition of these names), the problem arises as to how to cipher the rest of the alphabet. Historically there have been two main solutions, which may be labelled for convenience the 'German' and the 'French' methods.
German
Because the development of note names took place within the framework of modes, in the German speaking world B-flat was named 'B' and B-natural was named 'H' (see the entry for musical Note). Thus the most common musical cryptogram is the B-A-C-H motif, which was used by Johann Sebastian Bach himself, by his contemporaries and by many later composers. Other note names were derived by sound, for example E-flat, 'Es' in German, could represent 'S' and A-flat the digraph 'As'. Composers less fortunate than Bach usually seem to have chosen to ignore other letters in generating their motifs. For example Robert Schumann used S-C-H-A (E-flat, C, B-natural, A) to represent himself -- it is the main theme in Carnival -- A-B-E-G-G for the name Abegg, B-E-S-E-D-H for Bezeth and so on. Johannes Brahms used B-A-H-S (B-flat, A, B-natural, E-flat) for himself in the A-flat minor organ fugue and the mixed language Gis-E-La (G-sharp, E, A) for Gisela von Arnim, among many examples.
French
The French method of generating cryptograms arose in the late 19th century and was more akin to normal encipherment. The most popular version involved writing out the letters H-N, O-U and V-Z in lines under the original diatonic notes A-G, as follows:
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H | I | J | K | L | M | N |
| O | P | Q | R | S | T | U |
| V | W | X | Y | Z |
so that A, H, O, and V are enciphered by note 'A', B, I, P, W by 'B' and so on.
This scheme was used by Jules Ecorcheville, editor of the journal S.I.M., to solicit centenary commemorations of Joseph Haydn in 1909, except that he diverted the 'H' to B-natural, presumably to avoid too many repeated notes. [2] Writing to Gabriel Fauré about the invitation, Camille Saint-Saëns said he was writing to Ecorcheville asking him to prove that Y and N could signify D and G as "it would be annoying to get mixed up in a farcical business which would make us a laughing stock in the German musical world." [3] The many-to-one mapping of this method makes it more difficult to extract possible motifs from the musical score than the one-to-one correspondence (apart from 'As') of the German system.
20th century
Cryptograms were less common in England but Edward Elgar, who was also interested in general cryptography and puzzles, wrote an early Allegretto for his pupils the Gedge sisters using G-E-D-G-E [4] and it has been suggested that part of the enigma in the Enigma Variations might involve cryptograms, possibly even the BACH motif itself.
A French tradition of commemorative uses developed from the Haydn centenary, with tributes to Gabriel Fauré by Maurice Ravel, Florent Schmitt, Charles Koechlin and others in 1922 (added to later by Arnold Bax, 1949[5]) and to Albert Roussel by Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and others in 1929.[2]
Dmitri Shostakovich used the German scheme for his personal motto D-Es-C-H (D, E-flat, C, B-natural) from D.SCH, which appears in many of his most characteristic works.
Olivier Messiaen developed his own full cipher, involving pitches and note lengths, for his organ work Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité. [6]
Warning
Because of the multitudinous ways in which notes and letters can be related there is always the possibility of commentators seeing encipherment in a piece of music where none was intended.
Summary of signature motifs
- A, B flat, B natural, F (= A, B, H, F) for Alban Berg and Hanna Fuchs-Robettin (A. B. and H. F.), used in Berg's Lyric Suite
- A, B flat, E, G, G (= A, B, E, G, G) for Meta Abegg, the inspiration for Robert Schumann's Abegg Variations, Op. 1
- A, D, A, A, F for Jehan Alain, used by Maurice Duruflé in his Prélude et Fuge sur le nom d'Alain (op. 7).
- A, E flat, C, B (= A, S, C, H) and A flat, C, B (= As, C, H), used in Schumann's Carnaval. He was romantically involved with one Ernestine von Fricken, who came from the town of Aš, whose name in German is "Asch". Every piece in the whole cycle is based on one or other of these motifs. These letters appear in Schumann's own name. He also used the motif E flat, C, B, A (= S, C, H, A), as a direct reference to his own name, in the section Sphinxes.
- B flat, A, C, B natural (= B, A, C, H), the widely used BACH motif.
- B, A, D, D, G (= H, A, D, D, G), for Joseph Haydn, used by Maurice Ravel in his Menuet sur le nom de Haydn and other contributors to the S.I.M. commemoration.
- B, E, B, A or B, A, B, E for Béla Bartók (Béla Bartók, the latter motif recognizing the Hungarian practice of placing the family name before the personal name, see eastern order)
- C, A, G, E for John Cage, used by Pauline Oliveros[7] and, in the composition "CAGE DEAD", by Simon Jeffes of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
- D, E flat, C, B (= D, S, C, H) for Dmitri Shostakovich (D. Schostakowitsch; see also DSCH)
- E flat, C, B natural, B flat, E, G (= S, C, H, B, E, G) for Arnold Schoenberg (Schönberg)
- F, E flat, C, B (= F, S, C, H) for Franz Schubert (F. Schubert)
- G, A, D, E for Niels Gade, used once in a piece written in his homage by his good friend Robert Schumann.
References
- ^ Hiley, David 'Notation III, 1 (vi)' in Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove dictionary of music and musicians, Macmillan, 1980, (6th ed. of the Grove dictionary), vol.13, p.348-349
- ^ a b Sams, Eric 'Cryptography, musical' in Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove dictionary of music and musicians, Macmillan, 1980, (6th ed. of the Grove dictionary), vol.5, p.80
- ^ quoted in Nichols, Roger, Ravel, Dent, 1977, ISBN 0-460-03146-5, page 66
- ^ McVeagh, Diana, Elgar the music maker, Boydell Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84383-295-9, p. 3
- ^ Baxworks
- ^ Halbreich, C., 'Ciphered creed', Music and musicians, vol. 20 (1972) p. 18
- ^ Dear.John: A Canon on the Name of Cage