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The Radio 3 Boards > The Music Boards > Music Through The Ages > Early Music > "Hidden composition" by Leonardo da Vinci decoded (allegedly)
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Author Topic: "Hidden composition" by Leonardo da Vinci decoded (allegedly)  (Read 378 times)
Reiner Torheit
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« on: 04:56:31, 10-11-2007 »
The Independent today has a story about a hidden composition which has been decoded from a painting by Leonardo da Vinci.  Given the polymath's known reputation for encoding information, to me it seems quite likely?

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3146406.ece
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Hermita
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« Reply #1 on: 09:05:56, 10-11-2007 »
Was there nothing that man didn't/couldn't do?
I remember a wonderful programme on Radio 3 (Third Programme?), one October evening over 20 years ago, entitled 'The Leonardo Tapes.'  It was claimed that among Leonardo's many inventions there were plans for a machine that was able to record sound.  Someone had constructed this machine and was able to play 'recordings', made by Leonardo himself 500 years ago, which threw light on many of the mysteries surrounding the man, not least the reason for the smile on the face of the Mona Lisa. Convincing stuff it was, and very well put together, with examples from these alleged recordings, very scratchy but still decipherable, and highly plausible explanations.
It wasn't until after all the credits that the announcer, in archetypal R3 style, told us, "This programme was originally intended for broadcast on April the first."
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Kittybriton
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Thank you for the music ...


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« Reply #2 on: 13:19:12, 10-11-2007 »
My first reaction was skeptical. But after reading the article, the idea does, indeed seem plausible. It would be helpful to see a key drawing with the "clues" highlighted. For example, where is the pitch / starting note indicated? do the pieces of bread / hands alternate as different durations?
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #3 on: 14:01:04, 10-11-2007 »


Hm.

Surely though there was nothing stopping Leonardo actually composing music had he wanted to?
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richard barrett
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« Reply #4 on: 14:36:19, 10-11-2007 »
Quote from: oliver sudden on 14:01:04, 10-11-2007
Surely though there was nothing stopping Leonardo actually composing music had he wanted to?

No, but he was inordinately interested in ciphers and in basing his paintings on hidden geometrical forms, so it's the kind of conceit I can well believe he might have indulged in.

On the other hand, your picture tends not to inspire much confidence.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #5 on: 14:47:10, 10-11-2007 »
Given the contemporary interest in the "Music Of The Spheres" and similar topics, perhaps the painter's interest was not to "hide a piece of music in a painting" so much as to make a painting out of a piece of music?   In the same sense, perhaps, that some modern "graphical scores" have become aesthetically attractive in their own right?  And also viz the birdcage in EIGHT SONGS FOR A MAD KING etc?
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richard barrett
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« Reply #6 on: 14:50:46, 10-11-2007 »
Quote from: Reiner Torheit on 14:47:10, 10-11-2007
perhaps the painter's interest was not to "hide a piece of music in a painting" so much as to make a painting out of a piece of music? 

Perhaps... but from the picture Ollie posted I suspect some dodginess in the "discovery".
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #7 on: 14:53:47, 10-11-2007 »
Quote from: richard barrett on 14:36:19, 10-11-2007
On the other hand, your picture tends not to inspire much confidence.
I hasten to point out that it's not my picture... Wink

Quote
Alessandro Vezzosi, a Leonardo expert and the director of a museum dedicated to the artist in his hometown of Vinci, said he had not seen Pala's research but that the musician's hypothesis "is plausible."

Vezzosi said previous research has indicated the hands of the Apostles in the painting can be substituted with the notes of a Gregorian chant, though so far no one had tried to work in the bread loaves.

"There's always a risk of seeing something that is not there, but it's certain that the spaces (in the painting) are divided harmonically," he told the AP. "Where you have harmonic proportions, you can find music."

Indeed, it certainly seems fair enough that he might have hidden something away in there. Now what would be interesting would be if it were some known piece of appropriate and/or enlightening chant, for example.
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