Words you can spell with music notes

March 20, 2005 at 05:48 AM · How many words can you think of made out of notes? For example, CABBAGE.

Replies

March 20, 2005 at 12:53 PM · well obviously you have to have BACH (H being Bb in German)

Aba - a sleeveless outergarment worn by Arabs

abaca - a Philippine plant yeilding manilla hemp

Acadia - A former French colony in south-eastern Canada; ceded to Great Britain in 1713

accede - to give consent; agree; yeild

ace - a single spot or mark on a card or die

adage - a proverb

add - to unite or join so as to increase the number etc

ADF - Automatic direction finder or approved deposit fund or Australian Defence Force

age - the length of time during which an object has existed, also Aged

to hell with the meanings:

babe

bad

bade

badge

bag

BBC

bcc

be

bead

bed

Bede (Saint Bede)

bee

Beeb (colloq. for the BBC)

beef

Bee Gee (one member of the famous BeeGee's)

beg

Bega (a town on the NSW coast)

cab

cabbage

cad

cafe

caff

cage

CD

CE

cede

CFC

dab

Dacca

dad

dada

dag

de

dead

deb

decade

deed

deface

ecad

edge

efface

egg

facade

face

fad

fade

fag

fed

fee

feed

gab

gad

gaff

gaffe

gag

gaga

gage

gee

don't mind me, i was bored

March 20, 2005 at 03:28 PM · Wow, Ben! I guess this game might not last as long as the "OR" game...;)

March 20, 2005 at 09:50 PM · well you could change the rules to include H and I'm not allowed to play.

March 20, 2005 at 11:20 PM · Haha Ben, what a spoilsport! Might as well archive this one now lol

March 20, 2005 at 11:38 PM · I wonder if anyone could write a good piece of music using those "musical note-words" to write a story as well as a piece.

March 20, 2005 at 11:40 PM · This exercise reminds me of a homework assignment from one of my first music classes. Hmmmmmmm.

March 21, 2005 at 12:01 AM · Is anyone up to trying to "play" these words?

I'm tempted to add the German Bb so that we could put in:

HAHAHAHA which I guess gives us vocal staccato to the tune of a major second or a laughing trill.

March 21, 2005 at 12:21 AM · HAHAHA FEED BAD BEEF CABBAGE

or something like that...

March 21, 2005 at 12:24 AM · H isn't that a half tone in hyper-music-space?

March 21, 2005 at 02:09 AM · Ben, you missed out Decca. There goes your recording contract. Oh well...

I seem to remember a composer (that I can't remember) writing a (violin?)piece based on Gabriel Faure's name. I can't remember what happened when he got to U, but he found a way around everything else. Anyone help me out here?

March 21, 2005 at 03:30 AM · Just to put things straight...

American Bb is German B

American B is German H

So German BACH is played BbACB, and DEssCH (Shostakovich) is played D Eflat C B

We do as the Germans in Sweden.

March 21, 2005 at 03:45 AM · Out of curiosity, how did it come to be called H, and why the distinction only with B? There has to be some history to that.

March 21, 2005 at 04:55 AM · Inge, that's very interesting question. Maybe the reason goes to history of hexachords. Hexachord is diatonic 6th stepped mode which related to Greek music of 9th century. The lowest pitch was named 'A' following by B (which was sounded like B flat), C, D, E, F, G. Later, for B note was used the letter 'H' (next to 'G'). I heard this version: the letter 'b' looks like flat, and the letter 'h' looks like natural...

BTW, I am back to hexachords. So, probably when this hexachord was formed from 'F' note, there was no letter for B flat. Pretend we form hexachord from note 'C': we have CDEFGA. From 'D'- DEFGAB (B sounds like real B natural); From 'E'- EFGABC; From 'F'- 'B' doesn't sound well (Lydian mode doesn't exist yet)... So, maybe this letter 'B' fitted better for B flat pitch... Who knows? Italian theorist, Guido d'Arezzo, organized notation of already existed music. He put notes to music staff which had 4 lines (instead of 5,what we have today) and gave the sylable for each pitch. This system we know today as Solmisation. These sylables was brought from beginning lines of latin hymn to St. Iohann:

Ut queant Laxis

Reconare fibris

Mira gestorum

Famili tuorum

Solve polluti

Labis rearum

Sancte Iohannes.

March 21, 2005 at 06:11 AM · Sorry, I was out of topic. So what about MiDoRi?

March 21, 2005 at 07:19 AM · B,H,b,h,#, the natural sign, and the flat sign all come from the same Germanic letter. If you think of the American names of H and b, and then remember 'b' is the flat sign you'll see what's going on. Then remember H is a half step higher and you'll see where # came from. I don't know why it's different anyplace else though. Maybe Germany hung on to tradition.

March 21, 2005 at 07:47 AM · ok why dont i got it started

bad, bag,peg, ace, face, dab, dag. ok i'm trying to chat to people on msn and this is distracting me. cya

March 21, 2005 at 09:12 AM · Jim and Rita, nice teories But...

The story goes that the Germans wanted to leave the Nevmer stadium and learn notes so they got help from abroad through mail correnspondanse.

The writer write that the name on the notes was

c d e f g a b (naturlly) but wrote the 'b' sloppy so the bottom _ in the 'b' didn't show so the early german musicologist read 'h' and not 'b'.

Simple, huh?

March 21, 2005 at 09:36 AM · I just made up what I wrote. Sounded pretty good eh?

March 22, 2005 at 02:31 AM · There is another version (I've made it up too):

Flat is "bemol"( in Franch);

Soft, minor is "moll"(Franch);

So, "bemol" and B-moll sound equall. To avoid this confusing, B flat pitch was named with letter "B".

Hard is "hart" (German);

All hexachords from ancient Greek music (I described above) was divided by three kinds: soft, hard and natural. Later, 'soft' was associated with minor keys, and 'hard'- with major (I did not make it up, that's true history);

So, the letter "H" (the first letter from the word 'hart') was placed (probably) for B natural pitch.

If we form hexachord from 'G' note, we obtain GABCDE- soft hexachord, or minor, where 'B' sounds like B flat; and -GAHCDE- hard hexachord, or major, where 'H' sounds like B natural.

March 22, 2005 at 02:30 AM · All this talk of hexachords is making me thirsty.

March 22, 2005 at 02:32 AM · Daniel, haha, what kind of beer do you prefer? Or maybe vodka with honey and lemon is better? After drinking, read my version again:)

March 22, 2005 at 02:35 AM · Jim, I like your explanation, even if you did make it up. It makes things easy to remember. Mattias, I like your explanation, too. It's so beautifully simple.

March 22, 2005 at 02:47 AM · Pauline, you made me feel sad:(

March 22, 2005 at 03:13 AM · Well, cheer up, Rita Livs, because what you wrote is what I was trying to remember all day long. The other stuff was fun and funny, but it didn't solve the mystery. Besides, now I can sleep without it bugging me. Here's a :-) to replace the :-(

March 22, 2005 at 03:15 AM · Thank you, Inge. I knew you are a true friend:)

March 22, 2005 at 03:20 AM · Someday you'll be reading something and accidently discover what I said was true.

March 22, 2005 at 03:37 AM · Jim, I like your version. If you read 4th sentence from my 1st response, you will find that I was just thinking about the idea, you described later more clearly. But to say true, my sister told me today the same story as Mattias (she is professional musicologist).

BTW where is Buri? Interesting to hear from him about it.

March 23, 2005 at 07:21 AM · Ben, this was hard work, but I thought of some words that you did not:

abba (as in abba dabba doo), Abe, abed, Ac (symbol for actinium), aced, ad, added, aft, Ag (symbol for silver), aged, Ba (symbol for barium), baggage, bagged, Be (symbol for beryllium), beaded, Ca (symbol for calcium), CA (abbreviation for California), caged, Cd (cadmium), Ce (cerium), dabba (see abba), deaf, decaf, defaced, edged, egad, Fab (as in Fab Four), fab (semiconductor fabrication plant), faced, Ga (gallium), Ge (germanium), GE (General Electric).

Should we try it again using h this time?

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