lily
11-10-2007, 03:34 AM
http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2007/WORLD/europe/11/09/italy.davincicode.ap/art.davincicode.ap.jpg
Couldn't figure out where to put this, but this looks as good place a place as any. (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/09/italy.davincicode.ap/index.html)
Italian musician uncovers hidden music in Da Vinci's 'Last Supper'
ROME, Italy (AP) -- It's a new Da Vinci code, but this time it could be for
real.
A laptop screen shows musical notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last
Supper."
An Italian musician and computer technician claims to have uncovered musical
notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper," raising the possibility
that the Renaissance genius might have left behind a somber composition to
accompany the scene depicted in the 15th-century wall painting.
"It sounds like a requiem," Giovanni Maria Pala said. "It's like a
soundtrack that emphasizes the passion of Jesus."
Painted from 1494 to 1498 in Milan's Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the
"Last Supper" vividly depicts a key moment in the Gospel narrative: Jesus'
last meal with the 12 Apostles before his arrest and crucifixion, and the
shock of Christ's followers as they learn that one of them is about to
betray him.
Pala, a 45-year-old musician who lives near the southern Italian city of
Lecce, began studying Leonardo's painting in 2003, after hearing on a news
program that researchers believed the artist and inventor had hidden a
musical composition in the work.
"Afterward, I didn't hear anything more about it," he said in an interview
with The Associated Press. "As a musician, I wanted to dig deeper."
In a book released Friday in Italy, Pala explains how he took elements of
the painting that have symbolic value in Christian theology and interpreted
them as musical clues.
Pala first saw that by drawing the five lines of a musical staff across the
painting, the loaves of bread on the table as well as the hands of Jesus and
the Apostles could each represent a musical note.
This fit the relation in Christian symbolism between the bread, representing
the body of Christ, and the hands, which are used to bless the food, he
said. But the notes made no sense musically until Pala realized that the
score had to be read from right to left, following Leonardo's particular
writing style.
In his book -- "La Musica Celata" ("The Hidden Music") -- Pala also
describes how he found what he says are other clues in the painting that
reveal the slow rhythm of the composition and the duration of each note.
The result is a 40-second "hymn to God" that Pala said sounds best on a pipe
organ, the instrument most commonly used in Leonardo's time for spiritual
music. A short segment taken from a CD of the piece contained a Bach-like
passage played on the organ. The tempo was almost painfully slow but
musical.
Alessandro Vezzosi, a Leonardo expert and the director of a museum dedicated
to the artist in his hometown of Vinci, said he had not seen Pala's research
but that the musician's hypothesis "is plausible."
Vezzosi said previous research has indicated the hands of the Apostles in
the painting can be substituted with the notes of a Gregorian chant, though
so far no one had tried to work in the bread loaves.
"There's always a risk of seeing something that is not there, but it's
certain that the spaces [in the painting] are divided harmonically," he told
the AP. "Where you have harmonic proportions, you can find music."
Vezzosi also noted that though Leonardo was more noted for his paintings,
sculptures and visionary inventions, he was also a musician. Da Vinci played
the lyre and designed various instruments. His writings include some musical
riddles, which must be read from right to left.
Reinterpretations of the "Last Supper" have popped up ever since "The Da
Vinci Code" fascinated readers and movie-goers with suggestions that one of
the apostles sitting on Jesus' right is Mary Magdalene, that the two had a
child and that their bloodline continues.
Pala stressed that his discovery does not reveal any supposed dark secrets
of the Catholic Church or of Leonardo, but instead shows the artist in a
light far removed from the conspiratorial descriptions found in fiction.
"A new figure emerges -- he wasn't a heretic like some believe," Pala said.
"What emerges is a man who believes, a man who really believes in God."
Couldn't figure out where to put this, but this looks as good place a place as any. (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/09/italy.davincicode.ap/index.html)
Italian musician uncovers hidden music in Da Vinci's 'Last Supper'
ROME, Italy (AP) -- It's a new Da Vinci code, but this time it could be for
real.
A laptop screen shows musical notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last
Supper."
An Italian musician and computer technician claims to have uncovered musical
notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper," raising the possibility
that the Renaissance genius might have left behind a somber composition to
accompany the scene depicted in the 15th-century wall painting.
"It sounds like a requiem," Giovanni Maria Pala said. "It's like a
soundtrack that emphasizes the passion of Jesus."
Painted from 1494 to 1498 in Milan's Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, the
"Last Supper" vividly depicts a key moment in the Gospel narrative: Jesus'
last meal with the 12 Apostles before his arrest and crucifixion, and the
shock of Christ's followers as they learn that one of them is about to
betray him.
Pala, a 45-year-old musician who lives near the southern Italian city of
Lecce, began studying Leonardo's painting in 2003, after hearing on a news
program that researchers believed the artist and inventor had hidden a
musical composition in the work.
"Afterward, I didn't hear anything more about it," he said in an interview
with The Associated Press. "As a musician, I wanted to dig deeper."
In a book released Friday in Italy, Pala explains how he took elements of
the painting that have symbolic value in Christian theology and interpreted
them as musical clues.
Pala first saw that by drawing the five lines of a musical staff across the
painting, the loaves of bread on the table as well as the hands of Jesus and
the Apostles could each represent a musical note.
This fit the relation in Christian symbolism between the bread, representing
the body of Christ, and the hands, which are used to bless the food, he
said. But the notes made no sense musically until Pala realized that the
score had to be read from right to left, following Leonardo's particular
writing style.
In his book -- "La Musica Celata" ("The Hidden Music") -- Pala also
describes how he found what he says are other clues in the painting that
reveal the slow rhythm of the composition and the duration of each note.
The result is a 40-second "hymn to God" that Pala said sounds best on a pipe
organ, the instrument most commonly used in Leonardo's time for spiritual
music. A short segment taken from a CD of the piece contained a Bach-like
passage played on the organ. The tempo was almost painfully slow but
musical.
Alessandro Vezzosi, a Leonardo expert and the director of a museum dedicated
to the artist in his hometown of Vinci, said he had not seen Pala's research
but that the musician's hypothesis "is plausible."
Vezzosi said previous research has indicated the hands of the Apostles in
the painting can be substituted with the notes of a Gregorian chant, though
so far no one had tried to work in the bread loaves.
"There's always a risk of seeing something that is not there, but it's
certain that the spaces [in the painting] are divided harmonically," he told
the AP. "Where you have harmonic proportions, you can find music."
Vezzosi also noted that though Leonardo was more noted for his paintings,
sculptures and visionary inventions, he was also a musician. Da Vinci played
the lyre and designed various instruments. His writings include some musical
riddles, which must be read from right to left.
Reinterpretations of the "Last Supper" have popped up ever since "The Da
Vinci Code" fascinated readers and movie-goers with suggestions that one of
the apostles sitting on Jesus' right is Mary Magdalene, that the two had a
child and that their bloodline continues.
Pala stressed that his discovery does not reveal any supposed dark secrets
of the Catholic Church or of Leonardo, but instead shows the artist in a
light far removed from the conspiratorial descriptions found in fiction.
"A new figure emerges -- he wasn't a heretic like some believe," Pala said.
"What emerges is a man who believes, a man who really believes in God."