Tags
cipher, dorian, Doug Dorst, interlude, JJ Abrams, locrian, mixolydian, phrygian, VM Straka
If Interlude contains a cipher, no one has come forward with its solution, or even its nature. However, an S. enthusiast has consulted a professor of music theory who specializes in musical ciphers. This highly qualified and amazingly cooperative expert has been unable to identify any encrypton method in Interlude. Prof.Hi.Scale, as he wishes to be known, has not read the whole book, but he has read Interlude. He has found nothing resembling the kind of musical cipher he is familiar with (and creates).
However, Prof.Hi.Scale was very helpful in providing a possible starting point for the rest of us. He offers this observation about the “tumble of notes” FXC delimits in Footnote 5 (P. 307):
If you overlap the tumble of notes in the order of modes provided, you could generate a 21-element sequence (without repeating the final e) or 22-element sequence.
[E-phry] ‹B-loc› «B-loc»
[E F(G A ‹B C {D E] F G) A «B› C D} [E F G A B» C D e]
(G-mixo) {D-dorian} [E-phryg] ^last note or wrap-around?
This interpretation is based on all of the modes sharing the same key signature. In this example they are all relatives of C major (or C Ionian). All of the modal scales are created from circular permutations of the same 7 note sequence. For example, E-Phrygian is formed by rotating a C major scale two steps to the left: E becomes the new starting note and C&D get rotated to the end.
==============================================================
As a different example, if you stayed with the same starting note, the scalar transformation through each mode would be like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Scale degree numbers
E F G A B C D E Phrygian
E F# G# A B C# D E Mixolydian (change 2, 3, & 6)
E F G A Bb C D E Locrian (change 2, 3, 5, & 6)
E F# G A B C# D E Dorian (change 2, 5, & 6)
E F G A Bb C D E Locrian (change 2, 5, and 6)
E F G A B C D E Phrygian (change 5)
In this case, scale degrees 1, 4, and 7 remain constant, the the other scale degrees nudge up or down depending on the mode. This could (theoretically) suggest some progressive shifting of a cipher key.
===========================================
Yet another way to think about it: each modal scale is a pattern of half-step (1) and whole-step (2) intervals.
Phrygian = 1-2-2-2-1-2-2
Mixolydian = 2-2-1-2-2-1-2
Locrian = 1-2-2-1-2-2-2
Dorian = 2-1-2-2-2-1-2
Thoughts On "S" 
There’s some evidence that the mnemonic major system is used in Interlude. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic_major_system)
While not technically a cipher, it acts like one, representing numbers as letters. The most compelling evidence for its existence is on page 307. That page has the footnote about the “tumble of notes” and the various musical modes. By the Major system, 307=MuSiC. (It can also be MuSK, MaSK, MoSQue, etc.)
On page 300, Fn.1 has the word “rumor” twice, and Fn.8, P. 316, refers to “The Principality of Rumor.” The first two Agent #s are 4, 34. By the Major system, 434=RuMoR.
I’ve tried to find a message in the Agent #s, but the best I could come up with was “Rumor in Chirac of pardon.” This is almost certainly wishful thinking. The Major system is inherently ambiguous, and not well suited for communicating important messages.
Another possible instance of the Major system is also in Fn.5. FXC says VMS should have made up a term for the “tumble of notes.” “Made up” is in italics, for no obvious reason. By the Major system, “made up” = 319. 3×19 =57, the number of Agents S. is dispatching.
Fn.2 refers to Princip, the assassin of Archduke Ferdinand. I’d bet that “The Principality of Rumor” is a key to the cipher.
Prof.Hi.Scale observed that in the 22-step system he made from the various modes, the 1, 4, and 7 are constant. 0147=STRaKa. The chapter contains many words with these numbers: cardiac arrest, distractions, Karst, etc. Still, those are high-frequency letters, and 0147 is 40% of the numbers.
The musical theme of Interlude suggests a possible connection to Ragnar Rummo. FXC says his only publicly performed work was “Fantasia for Strings and Whistles.” The Disney movie “Fantasia” was released in 1940, so Straka (and FXC) probably knew about it. The first composition in the movie was “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” by JS Bach.
In Fn.8, FXC says Straka told her of “The Principality of Rumor” in a 1944 letter. 44=RR, by the Major system. Perhaps RR refers to Ragnar Rummo. Also, “Rummo, R” =434 by the Major system.
“The Principality of Rumor” has 22 letters, the same as the number of notes in the system Prof.Hi.Scale provided.
“The Eotvos Wheel site mentions “Vaclav A. Straka (1891-1910), who worked in a Prague factory that made either armaments or ladies’ shoes”.”
Look up the etymology of that name (Novacek, as I recall). It means “shoemaker.” It’s a circuitous etymology that starts with the idea of “newcomer” or “stranger.” Newcomers are immigrants, and immigrants need shoes to, you know, immigrate. Or emigrate.
That footnote also mentions that the factory might have been a pencil factory (if I recall correctly). One style of women’s shoes is the stiletto (dagger), which… well, what Wikipedia says:
“The Italian word “stiletto” comes from the Latin stilus, the thin pointed Roman writing instrument used to engrave wax or clay tablets in ancient times.”
So, women’s shoes, daggers (armaments) and pencils are all related in this footnote.
I hope that helps.
Unfortunately doesn’t seem to be related to Carmina Burana (see footnote on p.285), which would have been nice, but it is Aeolian. The Wikipedia article on this piece does note “Much of the compositional structure is based on the idea of the turning Fortuna Wheel”, which sounds interesting.
Another interesting thing is on p.394: “And the memories? The feeling of being part of a family… heartbreaks of a teenager for whom the real world begins to resolve into focus as he spends day after day packing gunpowder into brass casings?” Could also explain why the browncoats seem to know him in B_, which is unfortunately described as a Port City (and so Calais?) and the story during the bomb blast (p. 106).
The Eotvos Wheel site mentions “Vaclav A. Straka (1891-1910), who worked in a Prague factory that made either armaments or ladies’ shoes”. Vaclav jumped to his ‘suicide” on 31 October 1910. As an aside, the Translator’s Note to S. is dated October 30 1949? Coincidence? The books was printed on the anniversary?
Timothy, great observations. Thank you. Regarding the anniversary of Vaclav’s leap on October 30, 1910 and the book’s foreword dating October 30, 1949 – there are a few other October 30s to ponder. On p187, we see that there is a letter from “V. Finch” to Tiago Garcia Ferrara on 10/30/1937. 8 years later to the day – October 30, 1945 – TGF is found dead, hanging from an apple tree (see EOTVOSWHEEL.COM). And finally, and surely not coincidentally, Signe Rabe, who was born on 11/4/30 (p361) turned 19 on 11/4/49 – less than a week after the book’s publication.
Don’t forget that Vaclav Straka would have been 58 when SoT was published.
Sorry, Timothy; I hit the wrong “reply” button. Here:
“The Eotvos Wheel site mentions “Vaclav A. Straka (1891-1910), who worked in a Prague factory that made either armaments or ladies’ shoes”.”
Look up the etymology of that name (Novacek, as I recall). It means “shoemaker.” It’s a circuitous etymology that starts with the idea of “newcomer” or “stranger.” Newcomers are immigrants, and immigrants need shoes to, you know, immigrate. Or emigrate.
That footnote also mentions that the factory might have been a pencil factory (if I recall correctly). One style of women’s shoes is the stiletto (dagger), which… well, what Wikipedia says:
“The Italian word “stiletto” comes from the Latin stilus, the thin pointed Roman writing instrument used to engrave wax or clay tablets in ancient times.”
So, women’s shoes, daggers (armaments) and pencils are all related in this footnote.
I hope that helps.
Timothy/Adam, @anabramsfan has an entire blog article on the connection between munitions, shoes, and pencils. It’s a great read… https://anabramsfan.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/munitions-shoes-and-pencils-are-these-connected/
Toccata & Fugue in D minor is an actual song by Bach, who was highly mathematical in his compositions. Also, a musical chord a-flat dim, was given as a clue. Interlude is something in between. Has there been a code yet relying on spaces in footnotes??? Just random ideas.
The AbDIM chord actually spells out Abdim – the name of the man who gave S the all-important valise. Perhaps that is a further indication that there is a musical cipher embedded in “S.”
There is controversy as to the authorship of T&f in D minor…..not a coincidence. And just because it spells Abdim does NOT mean it isn’t also a hint for other ciphers…
Well, I have been looking into the Bach Motif and possible ciphers around that, but so far no luck. I’ve also looked at a variant of the Atbash cipher (“At Bach”), but that doesn’t seem to make sense either. What puzzles me is the AA DD mention in the first footnote (the letters for two names), making me think of a square cipher, but despite rummaging about still nothing. I even toyed with the idea of grey codes for a while (Dorian Grey, ha ha) but nothing clear there. I keep thinking that the Agent numbers might mean something (interesting that the known agents are 3 x 19 in number), and that S. was Agent X (10) keeps coming into mind too. Delightfully lost.
And what’s with the list of scents in fn 10? Lots of lists in fns in interlude.
Could it be something as simple as, say, the nth note of the Bach Dorian interpreted as a letter? I guess several octaves to get an entire alphabet?
Where n=agent number?
FN1, Interlude has this hint: “Strikingly, though, the author turns the tables on the Black Hand agent in this first section.”
Turn. The. Tables.
Is modal mentioned? Modular arithmetic will change numbers. Some codes rely on this. ???
More than one T & F by Bach. Red Wikipedia page on “Toccatta and Fugue.” One by Bach is also called “Dorian”. !!!!
Ok, the T&f BMV 538 has no time signature “free time” , and is nicknamed Dorian. See Wik pg for this composition. If there’s a musical cipher here, that must be the piece used.
So, I am thinking the message from the sub title of the chapter is Dorian
In Ch.2, a footnote mentions Straka’s hearing loss from 1620 Hz to 1670 Hz. That’s 50 Hz. A later footnote mentions the (fictional) Bavarian town of Funfherzen. That’s 5 Hz. 55 Hz is the second A key on a piano, 7 from the left.
The A flat diminished chord (Abdim) would be used in a transition from one passage to another–it would not be used as the main key of a composition.
I think the musical cipher spans several chapters, or even the whole book.
So if super low A (the 55 Hz one) is the start of the alphabet, then the nth (=agent number) note of Bach’s Tocatta & Fugue with no time sig, also called Dorian, could spell out something. (Not sure how to “Turn The Tables”.) don’t have a copy of the music handy though….
Various “tables” are used in ciphers.
But if the music code/cypher runs entire book, incorporating Carmina Burana, etc, etc; then there is likely another code in interlude as well…..
Interesting factoid from googling….T&F is organ music, an organ cipher is when the organ is broken in a way that a note is held without being played…..
I was going another direction with “Turn the Tables”, ie, a turntable, a record. Like how they used to play music in Straka’s time….
Or the turntable that S. uses to lure Agents 9&41 into the room. I think I mentioned that in another thread.
It’s not that that composition has no time signature… it’s that it doesn’t have a specified key.
Yes, I did mix up key & time sit. Oops. Wonder what “free time” means then? What is entire sig of this one!? Another thought…if it’s for organ, then there are 3 lines of music: right, left, feet. 3×7=21, which nearly covers the entire alphabet for a cipher. Not sure where one could go with that. Counting notes corresponding to agent numbers? Did FXC or VMS put in agent numbers? Use first note in each measurem(hence free time?) curiouser & curiouser.
Wikipedia says the fugue at least is in cut time. Maybe “free time” means that when one is counting the nth note, they mean in standard or free time?? Feels like a stretch, but I am just brainstorming…
I think the frequencies in the ch.2 footnote mean something else: The only musical note in that frequency range is A flat 6 @ 1661.22Hz. Unfortunately, I have no idea what that might mean re: Abdim…
How do you disregard Funfherzen? It’s in the same chapter. 55 Hz exactly equals the A1 key on a piano.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_key_frequencies
55 is also the sum of 1+2+3…+10, for what it’s worth.
However, the word “heart” appears exactly four more times in that chapter, on facing pages. That makes 59 hearts, which baffles me.
I let an observation slip through the cracks: The various modes likely don’t all start in the same key, as ProfHiNote suggested. The most common starting notes for the modes listed are
EGBDBE
Here’s an unformatted page of musings on this. You’d do well to C&P, and restore the original alignment of the columns.
=====================
MODERN MEDIEVAL ANCIENT
Phrygian: EFGABCDE GABCDEFG DEFGABCD
Mixolydian: GABCDEFG GABCDEFG BCDEFGAB*
Locrian: BCDEFGAB BCDEFGAB BCDEFGAB
Dorian: DEFGABCD ABCDEFGA EFGABCDE (Same as Modern Phrygian) (Medieval is Hypodorian.)
Locrian: BCDEFGAB BCDEFGAB BCDEFGAB
Phrygian: EFGABCDE GABCDEFG DEFGABCD
*Modern Locrian mode??? I replaced the Wikipedia scale with this. I’m probably wrong. Wikipedia had this:
B | A G F E | (E) D C B
a descending scale (FALLING?)
The B Locrian mode starts on B and contains the same notes as the C Major scale. (B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B)
The E Locrian mode starts on E and contains the same notes as the F Major scale. (E, F, G, A, B♭, C, D, E)
The G Locrian mode starts on G and contains the same notes as the A♭ Major scale. (G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♭, F, G)
The F♯ Locrian mode starts on F♯ and contains the same notes as the G Major scale. (F♯, G, A, B, C, D, E, F♯ )
MODERN MEDIEVAL ANCIENT
Phrygian: EFGABCDE GABCDEFG DEFGABCD
Mixolydian: GABCDEFG GABCDEFG BAGFEDCB (Wikipedia, descending)
Locrian: BCDEFGAB BCDEFGAB BCDEFGAB
Dorian: DEFGABCD ABCDEFGA EFGABCDE (Same as Modern Phrygian) (Medieval is Hypodorian.)
Locrian: BCDEFGAB BCDEFGAB BCDEFGAB
Phrygian: EFGABCDE GABCDEFG DEFGABCD
Agent 2 is the 8th agent. 8 % 6 = 2 (for six modes mentioned in that order), and using the 2nd (mixolydian mode) on the 2nd (the agent number) note of Bach’s toccata and fugue yields a G#5, of 830 Hz. That’s VMS in major mnemonic.
Wow. That’s either really cool, or some industrial grade apophenia. Good job.
Yes, definitely…. I took the uppermost note per chord and counted, which yields:
E5 (4), F4 (34), D4 (26), G4 (47), A4 (8), E4 (9), G4 (41), G5 (8). Adjusting Phryg., Mit., cyclically yields:
E5, F#4, D4, G4, A4, E4, G4, G#5
In frequencies:
659 370 293 392 440 329 392 830
And 830 is VMS. Note that the doubles are 4 and 3, corresponding to r and m. Since there are words with two of those, this just might make sense somehow.
….Leaning myself out of the window, 659 is SHLP. Or Send Help?
I don’t know if it has anything to do with the cipher, but it struck me as odd that the ‘f’ in ‘Ilifá’ on p.300 was set in Italics.
I’ve wondered about that, too. It’s definitely anomalous. Google yields common African names. Nothing jumps out at me.
Apparently, ‘ilifa’ (without the acute) also means ‘inheritance’ in Zulu and Xhosa. Not too sure where to go from there, though.
Is that the only one r are there more in chapter? That could have lots of musical meanings…
There are other italicized words in the chapter, but that’s the only time a single letter in a word is italicized.
Don’t think that is italics. Think it is a special character letter from another language? But TBH, it reminds me of a violin scroll FWIW.
Wait, it’s the “fortissimo” = loud sound from music. Not italics or violin.!!!!!
FWIW
I have a copy of the French version, and there “Ilifa” is “Ilic” with no italicized letter. And, in the audio version, the pronunciation in the English version sounds like “Ilic.” Not sure what all this means, but wanted the information here to aid in the wonderful discussion going on.
Either that, or even the florin sign, which looks similar to the lower case italic f. It was used as a symbol to denote different currencies throughout history… FWIW indeed.
Brian–
Was it Iliҫ? Or Ilic?
The former. I did not know how to include that character. Is that important?
Everything’s important. Do you have another translation to compare these to?
No – but I will reach out to a few folks from other translations I have been dialoguing with…
The German version is also “Ilifa” with the italicized “f”.
OK, good. That’s actually useful. I don’t know what it means, but at least we know that it’s a clue, and that it’s language-dependent. My first thought is that it’s a musical notation. Not fortissimo, because that’s a double-f, and French borrowed the word from Italian. I think I’ll drop Prof. HiNote a line.
The letter ҫ in French is pronounced like an S. What if the name is a clue about a “fake S?”
Interesting, because the audio version sounds like TS – “ill-its” or even “eel-eets”
Iliҫ is a town of 2,500 in Turkey, 6 km NE of one of the Çöpler gold mine, one of the largest in the world. You can see it on Google Earth.
Forte would be one f.
But, didn’t old handwriting use an f-like character for an s sound?
Like Ben Franklin era handwriting…
http://theappendix.net/blog/2013/7/why-does-s-look-like-f-a-guide-to-reading-very-old-books
Ok, FWIW, was just at International Spy Museum, and eye discussed a Cardano grill. Is it possible that the italic f/s indicates words to be removed on some sort of page and then laid over another page, or some other chapter? Maybe more likely on the words SWrites on the ship????
Eye should be they, darn spell checker….
Hi everybody,
I finished S. One week ago and I’m trying to catch up with all the incredible amount of discoveries and brainstorming that you’re sharing here and on other sites.
I wanted to point something to your attention, hoping it has not been pointed yet.
Talking about musical ciphers, I was wondering: 19 has been the key number to solve many codes, but the “black” part of the title was never used.
What if in our case “black 19” could be the 19th black key of a piano?
In this case it would be: F4# 369.99kHz.
Not sure how to use it, I’m not good with codes and this whole musical subject is totally obscure to me, but maybe you can find some use for it…
I’ll keep digging, as soon as I get home I’ll check the italic words in the Italian translation of the book 😉
Interesting idea on Black 19. If you count from the left, you get F#. If you count from the right you get the D# key just to its left. Between the two are the two center keys of an 88-key piano. E and F. Interestingly, the cipher on p45 mentions a range between 2710hz and 2760hz that Straka claims he cannot hear. This range is also between the notes E and F, albeit it the final E/F combo on the far right of the keyboard.
Don’t forget Funfherzen (fn5, p. 52).
Straka’s alleged hearing loss (fn3, p. 45), plus the 5 Hz from Funfherzen is 55 Hz. That’s exactly A1, the 13th key on a piano. And it’s white.
55 Hz.
I don’t know if anyone else finds interesting, but on the two facing pages 54-55, the word “heart” or “hearts” appears four times. The last is on page 55. “Dint I jus’ ware y’ on weepin hearts?”
I’ve jut checked the Italian version for the name with the F in italic.
For us is simply Ilić, no other strange looking letters on that page.
I’ve also checked word number 99 at page 369 (369.99 is the kHz for the 19th black key of a piano) but nothing really useful, unless it’s a key word to decipher the code.
Could anyone check word 99 at page 369 of an English version?
Thanks!
That word would unfortunately be “the” with no emphasis. It is included in three highlighted lines by the marginalia with the note, “But there was a baby. Signe, Durand, Desjardins – we know they’re connected.
Pingback: The Musical Cipher in “S” | Thoughts On "S"
Is there room for more?
So. I know that this blog hasn’t been updated in over a year but I’m just now getting a chance to read this book and I’ve been trying to crack the Interlude cipher. So my first clue was that the chapter title is a composition title “Toccata and Fugue in Free Time” so we have a title and a time signature (or a lack of one). Then quickly we are given agitato in italics and the random F in italics. That flagged me as being a tempo (agitato) and a dynamic (forte). So we have all the things you’d find at the start of a piece of music except a key signature. We know the chapter titles were added by FXC but I am making a little bit of a leap with agitato and the f being added by her, but I think it stands up.
So I started looking through the footnotes for anything that might be a key signature and settled on the Black Nineteen. The 19th key on a piano is black and happens to be an D-Sharp/E-Flat. You never play in D-sharp because it’s like 9 sharps or some insanity so I decided (albeit with little other evidence) that our key signature is E-flat major.
But now we need notes and here’s maybe my biggest leap since usually there is some separation between the text of SOT and FXC’s footnotes, but bear with me. If she added all the stuff about the music cipher then she could pick the key signature based on what was already in the text. So I took the agent numbers as notes giving us these (all in flat and neutral, but of course they could all be sharps and neutrals as well; the numbers denote piano octave):
A1 G-flat3 B-flat2 G-four E-one F1+D-flat1 B-flat0
(the plus is for the section with two agents)
So, assuming that E-flat is the key signature then we can also establish the different modes FXC mentions in fn 5. I have a whole chart writing the scales out, but the short version is there are two ways to write scales in different modes. You can start each scale on the same tonic (root) note (in this case E-flat) and then lower each note according to a specific pattern. The second is to change the tonic note based on the mode (i.e. phyrgian is the third mode so you start the scale on G which is the third note in the E-flat major scale). Finally, each mode scale is cross-listed so to speak in another key since the scales can be written two ways. So, for instance, E-flat Phyrgian starting on E-flat is also C-flat Phyrgian starting on the 3rd note in the C-flat major scale.
Also, in fn 5, FXC italicized “made up” leading me to suspect she has invented her own cipher here and we are gonna have to rely entirely on her clues to figure this out.
If this blog is totally, totally dead and someone is looking for a buddy to solve ciphers with (I know the chapters without in-text solutions must have ciphers and I also am convinced there is a second cipher in chapter 2 and/or all the footnotes that don’t contribute to the chapter cipher are part of a longer cipher), I’m totally down to set up a discord or email chain or something to share ideas. I love puzzles and my life is in shambles rn so I’m investing a ton of energy into this as an escape.
Hello Samantha, so good to read that someone is still working on this! I am here just to thank you for sharing your thoughts and to let you know that’ I’d be very intrigued to read more of this. Unfortunately at the moment I don’t think I’ll have time to work on this, as I am on other puzzle books, lately, but if you’ll ever start a discord/email thread I’d be more than glad to be kept in the loop, if this doesn’t bother you 🙂 Good luck with your findings!
Hello,
I’m also glad to see that somebody picked this up again. That this is the last chapter without any known cipher kept bugging me. Since I don’t have any musical training whatsoever, I won’t be much help here, though. But I would be very much interested if you made any progress! Good luck!
Hi, can you recommend some other puzzle books?
Here are a few I am currently on:
https://www.thegoldentreasureoftheententecordiale.com/en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAZE:_Solve_the_World%27s_Most_Challenging_Puzzle
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sur_la_trace_de_la_chouette_d%27or
https://www.philibertnet.com/fr/livre-jeu/87693-la-clef-astolie-9782956173205.html.
There is also a “House of leaves”, and I am not completely sure it hides a puzzle, but there must be something about it, since there are clues and codes inside it…
Nice work!
I finally finished the book yesterday (after reading the whole thing in a week) and now I am hot for solving some puzzles! So, I would love to be part of any Discord-channel.
(But I will be travelling a lot until the end of the year, so I won’t be able to contribute much until after.)
Hi, italian reader here as well. Italian version of “interlude” has the same numbers as for the “agents” and the same information overall in the FN.
Something strike me: about music modes, in FT, FXC says something about “The tonal differences” between the different musical modes. In musi theory, modes play the same notes but in different intervals, because starting from different notes the steps between the notes change: so, for example, in Dorian mode you have 2 whole Tone from the first to the second note, and one whole note and a half note between 2 and 3. Could these changes between music modes be the “tonal differences” so important for Straka? Could be here some sort of hint?
It could be useful to know that the modes start from different note, Phrygius on III (roman numbers) Myxolidyan V, Locrius VII, Doric II.
More over: FT 8 says something about a “suite of literary caprices”. Suites and “caprice”(or “capriccio” in italian) are musical form. With “interlude” “toccata” “fugue” they are in the same semantic field.
don’t know if this could be useful, but there are too many musical hints on that chapter
Going to sit here with my tea on a cold(ish) Saturday and read your post. Thank you!
My musical training is not of the theoretical, but I would love to be in on the conversation. Do not have much to contribute except enthusiasm at this point, and I suspect we will be getting more replies if you wait a week or so!
Text term frequency analysis of the Fns of the Interlude appear to be promising. did anyone count same and or similar words over all 13 Fns and rank them? bc there is an absolutely exceptional and non neccesary reoccurence of terms over various Fns.