“Buddha Thompson” is a song made from musical cryptograms—words spelled with notes. Composers like Bach (Bb A C H) and Brahms (Bb A B Eb [B, r, A, H, m, Es]) spell out their own names in their work. Bach’s name works out perfectly, like sonar baby, but Brahms is a little bit of a stretch. John CAGE would have had any easy name to make into a cryptogram, if only he wrote music.
The Phish song “AC/DC BAG” spells out “AC/DC FAG” in the chords, but the change from BAG to FAG is probably for musical reasons and not because of the band’s well-known conservative bias and reactionary fanbase.
A popular cryptogram is found in the grade school mnemonic for remembering the notes of the stave—”FACE”. Together, the notes form an F Major Seventh chord. Drag over the black stemmed noteheads below to hear the FACE Chord sung in 4-part harmony.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Motif is referenced by many composers over the years. In German notation, H is for B, and B is for B-flat.
Both the FACE Chord and the Bach Motif are found in the metal opera “Buddha Thompson” among other musical cryptograms. The abbreviation “Before the Common Era” heralds the start of the song in the major chords B, C, E, and Anno Domini—as A major, and D major. The low B of the Earth Tone is played while sung about, as if the literalist song-writer can only sing about what they know, and all they know is chord names.
Also featured prominently is the dreaded Schuman Scale—the lick of thunder and lightning. The Schuman Scale is derived from the electromagnetic frequencies in our own local Magnetosphere.
The B of the Grid is also the B of the Earth. “B” is for Buddha Thompson, best friend of Jesus Christ.
Yet again, it seems as though this blog has written a song rather than a human being. I think more blogs should write songs, like that hit from a few years back: “The Ballad of Blog.com”.
Buddha Thompson 1
Super Buddha Two
Buddha Thirteen Years Later
