Skip to content
Archive of posts tagged Cryptograms

Musical Cryptography

Composers love to sign their own names in musical cryptograms, because they’re super lonely. Bach signed his name in German notation: B♭, A, C, B♮(H), and this melody can be found throughout his work, just in case you forgot whose fugue you were listening to. Below I have created a cryptogram of my own name. […]

Buddha Thompson

“Buddha Thompson” is a song made from musical cryptograms—words spelled with notes. Composers like Bach (Bb A C H) and Brahms (Bb A B Eb [B, r, A, H, m, Es]) spell out their own names in their work. Bach’s name works out perfectly, like sonar baby, but Brahms is a little bit of a […]

Musical cryptograms

Musical cryptograms are words spelled using the 7 note names: A-B-C-D-E-F-G. For instance, you can spell the word “FACADE”, meaning the front of a building. Another longer example is “BAGGAGE”, meaning a number of bags. Baroque composer J.S. Bach, often spelled his name out in a musical motif. (In German notation, B is denoted by […]