Language and Music Theory Challenge

[JJuggle]

My music theory is quite rusty never having really been polished to begin with, but here's a challenge that I'm sure already exists, but occured to me just now.

Write a grammatical English sentence, no matter how simple, that is also musically valid, and by that in my simple understanding of the theory both melodic and resolved, using only the notes of the scale, c d e f g a b...

And let me just say that I have no idea if it can be done and if it can be, there's no way I could even begin to attempt it myself.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

[Sipid Malapropism]

Deaf Gabe bagged beef?
(it sounds quite atrocious though)

[JJuggle]

Originally posted by Sipid Malapropism
Deaf Gabe bagged beef?
(it sounds quite atrocious though) Maybe so, but it make a great sig.

What instrument did you try it on. I'll bet it sounds great on the bagpipes. :)

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

[Sipid Malapropism]

Originally posted by JJuggle
What instrument did you try it on. I'll bet it sounds great on the bagpipes. :)
Just in my head haha. I suppose that if you put it in a proper key and actually give it rhythm, it *might* sound bearable. But in the key of C with each note getting one beat, it is not a pleasant tune at all.

[john_childs]

If you allow some leeway and some creativity you can get a few extra letters. For example in German music notation the note B-flat is denoted by the letter H. And with a little more creativity you can get a few additional letters.

Dmitri Shostakovich used the motif D-S-C-H in his 5th and 10th symphonies. DSCH stood for his name. D for Dmitri and SCH for Shostakovich (it probably makes more sense when spelled in Russian).

Anyways, here's a web page explaining some of the creative musical spellings: A Musical Spelling Lesson (http://www.opus1.com/~ehoornaert/roussel/hommage.htm)

[phil]

A bad cafe faded dead beef?

(related aside) Us geeks have a similar challenge; writing sentences in hexadecimal. numbers 0 to 9 (ie. you can use "0" as "O") and letters A to F.

FEEDFACEC0FFEE is possibly the coolest 64 bit integer in the known universe; and all Java programs actually start with the number CAFEBABE.

Phil

[UniBrier]

You really shouldn't post this kind of stuff while I'm at work.;)


Egad, a bad Ace egged a face.

[PopeSamXVI]

I actually tried to write a song with a chord progression that could be a sentence, but I couldn't think of anything...

Swipe.

[GILD]

Originally posted by JJuggle
using only the notes of the scale, c d e f g a b...this could just keep me busy enough to spare u another 'Friday Thread'
;)

i was thinking, if we list all the words u can write with those letters first, we can string them together in sentences later?

(including some used above) here goes

deaf
face
dab
bad
cad
cab
fag (as in ciggarette)
fed (are abbreviatins allowed?)
fad
a
cafe
faded
dead
beef
gabe
bagged

someone else carry on

[Borges]

If you want to hear what your words and sentences sound like, then take a look at
the ABC musical notation page (http://staffweb.cms.gre.ac.uk/~c.walshaw/abc/)