Okay, this is not the most easily-explainable of ideas, and I'm not
very eloquent today, so if it's too difficult to fathom it's my fault
and
please let me know. Thanks.
Every letter of the Alphabet corresponds to a musical note [once
you
finish the conventional scale, just start again],
this is used as a
basis
for Ravel's [beautiful] piano piece Menuet sur le Nom d'Haydn [lit.
Minuet on the Name of Haydn], which is also where I got this idea
from. See linky.
[Note: Ravel uses the notes B A D D G - H here stands for B [which
is
traditional] as opposed to A [which is simpler], but because that
means missing out
the
A [which would over-complicate things] to make this idea simpler,
I
will use H=A, I=B etc.]
Where else do letters crop up? Well, everywhere really, but one of
the more interesting places where they occur is in chemical
symbols.
Each element has its own symbol, these symbols can be further
combined into compounds, compounds can be combined to form
more complex compounds, and so on. My idea is to combine the
alphabetic properties of music with chemical symbols.
I've come up with some rules [for want of a better word] to
turning a
compound into music...
1 - Take the first letter from the symbol of your first element, and
work out what note it corresponds to.
2 - Next, take the second letter [if your element is only one letter,
like carbon, ignore this bit] and if it's between A and H, your note
is
flat, between I and R your note is natural, and between S and Z,
your note is sharp.
3 - Repeat this process for the rest of the elements in the
compound.
If there is more than one atom of a certain element [like hydrogen
in H2O], then repeat that note again an octave higher or lower.
4 - Play all the notes as a chord
For example: Copper sulphate [CuSO4] would be a chord
containing
C sharp, E and four A - a perfect A major chord. [I am picking
these
at random, btw]
Let's take an equation now: Sodium + Copper Sulphate [Na +
CuSO4 ->
Cu + NaSO4] turns into G flat [F sharp] followed by an A major
chord, both
chords are played together for a few seconds [forming what I think
is an F sharp minor 7th chord], then going to a C sharp before
finishing
on [I think]
a F sharp minor 7th chord [minus the 5th].
I just tried playing this on the piano, and, while it's no
masterpiece, it really doesn't sound bad, either.
Now, that was just a simple equation - think what sort of music
would come out of more complex ones - DNA, for example, or
nuclear chain rections as chord progressions. I think there is quite
a
lot of scope for refining this idea, and turning it into something
really interesting... your thoughts, please?