Musical discovery in the Stirling Castle carvings
From The Daily Mail:
Scotland’s earliest harp music was encrypted in an unknown binary code in a ceilings at Stirling Castle.
Wood carver John Donaldson discovered the mysterious code around the head of a woman in a wood panel that adorned the bed chamber of King James V of Scotland.
And now, for the first time in almost 500 years, the historic music has been brought to life on harps played by pupils at Allan’s Primary School in Stirling.
Mr Donaldson, 62, noticed the 0 and I Roman numeral markings immediately when he began creating new versions of the roundels over five years ago. But he failed to understand the meaning of the unusual sequence of Roman numerals.
It was his musical son, Gregor, who eventually converted the markings into a sensible sound.
Previous posts on the Stirling carvings:
16th century wood carvings from Stirling Castle studied
Stirling Castle carvings update
Bladerunner said,
August 31, 2009 @ 11:22 pm
It would be nice if we could have heard the music too!
A Different Lara said,
September 1, 2009 @ 6:57 am
I know! a little file sample or something!
Totally cool.
Lara said,
September 1, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
I found a link to a BBC article with a clip of someone playing it on the harp. It’s nice! I’ve updated the post, but here’s the link again, just in case:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8223720.stm
Tudorrose said,
September 2, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
I have heard of this castle but I have never heard about the roman numeral carvings on one of the walls there.Who would think that it actually symbolized a sonnet?! Fascinating.:-)
It is funny that it took for this mans son to examine this and find out what it meant.So the father couldn’t even work it out.Clever.!