Team cracks chapel's music 'code' BBC - April 30, 2007
A father and son team from Edinburgh think they have found a secret piece of music hidden in carvings at a famous medieval chapel in Midlothian.
Stuart Mitchell, 41 and his father Tommy, 75, said they had deciphered a musical code locked in the stones of Rosslyn Chapel for more than 500 years.
The Rosslyn Stave Angel - Music Cipher YouTube (4 min 40 sec.).
Webs of Maya YouTube (2 min. 6 sec.)
Webs of Maya YouTube (2 min. 6 sec.)
My friend, musician Stuart Mitchell called Sunday to share some very exciting news about his work at Rosslyn Chapel. How well I know the feeling of finding a hidden truth your soul has searched after for many years. Last week I mentioned Stuart when he sent me his CD and book, "The Rosslyn Motet".
Sunday, April 22, 2007 - Stuart was in the news again ... Exclusive Da Vinci Chorus Sunday.mail.co.uk
A father and son codebreaking team have discovered music's Holy Grail - hidden in intricate carvings at Rosslyn Chapel for almost 600 years. Music teacher Thomas Mitchell, 75, strived for 27 years before he and pianist son Stuart, 41, deciphered symbols in the chapel which featured in the Da Vinci Code book and film. The pair will reveal the secret songs in a special concert at the Midlothian chapel next month. Thomas, of Edinburgh, said: "The music is the result of years of painstaking research, recreating secret notes hidden for almost 600 years in carvings on the arches within the chapel itself. "We believe this is the Holy Grail of music and, unlike the Da Vinci Code, it is absolutely factual."
Thomas was intrigued by the sculpted angels and hundreds of intricately carved cubes in the arches of the Lady Chapel. Using skills learned as an RAF code-breaker during the Korean War and his lifetime knowledge of classical music, he finally realised they depicted the vibrations of musical notes. He said: "It was a Eureka moment to end all Eureka moments. "Many angels were carrying musical instruments and some were even grouped as if they were a choir. "But one angel gave me the biggest problem. He was carrying something and at first I thought it was musical instrument which had been lost in the mists of time. "It was only when I realised that he was carrying a musical stave, the blueprint for all musical composition, that I knew I was looking at a secretly coded piece of music. "By recreating the patterns on each of the carved cubes, with Stuart's help, we unlocked the notes to find a haunting piece of music had been hidden in the arches for centuries. "For the choral sections, we've used the words from the hymns to St John the Baptist taken from Matthew in the Old Testament which is fitting because the chapel itself is dedicated to St Matthew."
Stuart, a classical composer and pianist, used computers to decipher the carvings' secret music. He has named the medieval music the Rosslyn Motet. He said: "I also used authentic mediaeval instruments to recreate the music exactly and it truly is a masterpiece. "While the Da Vinci Code was full of red herrings to make it a thrilling work of fiction, the Rosslyn Motet music is a tangible work people can listen to. For centuries, scholars have been convinced Rosslyn holds the key to many different areas of knowledge. "We think we've cracked one particularly fascinating code, although we're convinced Rosslyn holds many, many more."
Four singers will join eight musicians playing mediaeval instruments to perform the Rosslyn Motet at Rosslyn on May 18. Simon Beattie, of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust, said: "We're looking forward to the event as this is a such an exciting and intriguing piece of work. "The music is particularly haunting and we cannot help feel this is yet another of the many puzzles that make Rosslyn such an astonishing place."
Rosslyn Chapel was built by Sir William Sinclair and Sir Gilbert Haye in the 15th century. Steeped in the history of the Knights Templar and Freemasonry, Rosslyn's mysteries are famous worldwide. Among the theories surrounding Rosslyn is that it is the secret resting place of the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant and even the mummified head of Christ.
How They Did It
1. Carved angels and blocks above their head in arches of chapel baffled Thomas until he realised this one was holding a musical stave - and that the blocks signified notes.
2. Using this specially enhanced photo, Thomas and Stuart worked out that the carvings above the angel represent A, B and C.
3. Thomas and Stuart used this metal plate to recreate the ancient method of making notes. The plate is vibrated and sand poured on until it forms a particular pattern - indicating the correct pitch. The patterns match those carved into the arches of Rosslyn Chapel.
From Stuart:
At (ancient tunings)
A = 432
B = 488
C = 512
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Gilbert Hay (fl.1432-1456) or Sir Gilbert the Haye, Scottish poet and translator, was perhaps a kinsman of the house of Errol. If he is the student named in the registers of the university of St Andrews in 1418-1419, his birth may be fixed about 1403. He was in France in 1432, perhaps some years earlier, for a "Gilbert de la Haye" is mentioned as present at Reims, in July 1430, at the coronation of Charles VII. He has left it on record, in the Prologue to his Buke of the Law of Arrays, that he was "chaumerlayn umquhyle to the maist worthy King Charles of France." In 1456 he was back in Scotland, in the service of the chancellor, William, Earl of Orkney and Caithness, "in his castell of Rosselyn," south of Edinburgh. The date of his death is unknown.
Hay is named by Dunbar in his Lament for the Makaris, and by Sir David Lyndsay in his Testament and Complaynt of the Papyngo. His only political work is The Buik of Alexander the Conquerour, of which a portion, in copy, remains at Taymouth Castle. He has left three translations, extant in one volume (in old binding) in the collection of Abbotsford:
The Buke of the Law of Armss or the Buke of Bataillis, a translation of Honoré Bonet's Arbre des batailles
For the Bulk of Alexander see Albert Herrmann's The Taymouth Castle Manuscript of Sir Gilbert hays Buik, etc. (Berlin, 1898). The complete Abbotsford Manuscript has been reprinted by the Scottish Text Society (d. JH Stevenson). The first volume, containing The Buke of the Law of Arms, appeared in 1901. The Order of Knighthood was printed by David Laing for the Abbotsford Club (1847). See also SFS edition Introduction and Gregory Smith's Specimens of Middle Scots, In which annotated extracts are given from the Abbotstord Manuscript, the oldest known exsample of literary Scots prose.
At (modern tunings)
A = 440
B = 493
C = 523
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Check out this link -- The Octave: Tuning at A432 or F432 Pitch: A440 or A432
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This is after we talked about 440, below.
away for 600 years on the columns of Rosslyn Chapel
Basically we have calculated the frequencies of the 3 notes that the stave angel is pointing out and it amounts to this;
1,432
The Buke of the Order of Iinichthood from the Livre de l'ordre de chevalerie
The Buke of tile Governaunce of Princes, from a French version of the pseudo-Aristotelian Secrela secrelorum
The second of these precedes Caxton's independent translation by at least ten years.
1456 (the year Sir Gilbert Haye Died)
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