I saw an interesting query in the statistics gizmo used to run this web site. Someone entered the following search string: “how to solve music puzzles”.

Well, here’s your answer. This article is somewhat spoilerific. While it doesn’t tell you how to solve any specific puzzle, the information it contains is derived from puzzles I’ve solved in the past. I’ve tried to supply enough hints to get moving in the right direction without totally spoiling any particular puzzle.

Solving a music puzzle requires some understanding of music theory, which is the study of the language and the notation of music. Musical notation is any system which uses written symbols to represent aurally perceived music. Many types of notation systems have been created throughout history, but most written music you are likely to encounter will use only  modern musical symbols.

The topic of music theory is vast – far too big to include in a single article here. But the links presented so far will take you to a great set of resources to understand how music works so that you can get started in cracking puzzles that use music.

Here are just a few of the many possible ways in which music could be used to conceal information (such as a secret message or the coordinates of a geocache):

Note Names

Notes have letter names, from A to G. A puzzle constructor might begin with a word that uses only those letters, such as BAG, ACE, BADGE, or CABBAGE, then replace each letter in the word with a corresponding note.

Intervals

An interval is the difference in pitch between two notes, played either at the same time or played successively. An interval of a single half step is called a minor second, two half steps is a major second, three half steps is minor third, and so forth. A puzzle constructor might encode a series of numbers as a series of intervals.

Rhythms

A beat is a pulse that constitutes the fundamental unit of time in a piece of music. A measure is a segment of time, and the number and note value of beats in a measure is called the time signature. For instance, a measure of four beats in which a quarter note gets the beat is said to be in 4/4 time. A measure of six beats in which an eight note gets the beat is said to be in 6/8 time. Patterns of beats can be used to encode just about any kind of information, including letters, numbers, symbols, and more.

That should be enough to get you going. Good luck!

Sir Edward Elgar was an English composer who lived from 1857 to 1934. If you have ever attended a graduation ceremony in the United States, you have heard his music – his composition March No. 1 in D from Pomp and Circumstance Military Marches, Op. 39, is the de facto standard for processional music.

After a tiring day of teaching in 1898, Elgar was daydreaming at the piano. A melody he played caught the attention of his wife, who liked it and asked him to repeat it for her. So, to entertain his wife, he began to improvise variations on this melody, each one either a musical portrait of one of their friends, or in the musical style they might have used. Elgar eventually expanded these improvisations into his Enigma Variations, Op. 36.

The “Enigma” of the title refers to two puzzles contained within the work. The first puzzle is to determine which of Elgar’s friends each variation represents. Here is what Elgar had to say about the second puzzle:

The enigma I will not explain – its ‘dark saying’ must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’, but is not played … So the principal Theme never appears, even as in some late dramas … the chief character is never on stage.

Variation 10 called “Dorabella” refers to Miss Dora Penny, a friend whose stutter or laughter is depicted by the woodwinds section. Elgar wrote a letter to Penny dated July 14, 1897, that enclosed another letter, enciphered by Elgar, which has become known as the Dorabella Cipher. She was never able to decipher it, and its meaning remains unknown to this day.

The true meaning of Elgar’s ‘dark saying’ in his Enigma Variations has never been determined. Years later, when Dora Penny questioned Elgar about the secret of the Enigma Variations, his only comment to her on the subject was this: “I thought that you, of all people, would guess it”.