T. 49--Experiment with Letters

I remember sitting at a table in a room on the 11^th floor of the SWKT (Spencer W. Kimball Tower) at BYU. I believe it was the Psychology Research Center at the time. I was working on some homework for my introductory Psychology class when I had a thought: How could I write letters and words with music notes? I took a break from my homework and made a few sketches. I wrote out music notes in such a way that they looked like the letters of the alphabet. I wondered what they would sound like. What would an “A” sound like? How would it different from a “B” or a “T” or a “Z”? I wrote up the notes on Finale. I modified the document so I could see what it looks like with and without the stems of the music notes. In case it’s hard to read the letters in the images below, here is a translation: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z-HI-MY-NAME-IS-NICK. At that last part, on the bass clef staff, I just wrote a very simple accompaniment that doesn’t mean anything to hear what letters might sound like when they are accompanied. If I were to use this system of letters in a composition, it wouldn’t mean anything to the listeners but the performers could read the message and let the audience know what it meant, if they desired. This is just an idea that I may or may not use in the future. I like to explore what non-musical things would “sound” like, including the shapes of letters and words.