Crossword Music
Crossword Music is an ongoing project in which I am reading the weekly Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle as if it is musical notation. Using audio software, I translate the visual pattern of the crossword into the appropriate notes on the MIDI keyboard. (This is basically like running a playhead across the puzzle from left to right.) I then transpose the output according onto a pentatonic scale (a scale with five pitches per octave) to create a more pleasing melody.
The structure and variations of a crossword are rhythmic. A large majority of the letters are notes are between A and G, especially A and E. Intervals often happen every fourth or fifth square. There are lots of four letter words. And by definition there is a strict symmetry in all crossword puzzle. I wondered if this was all something you'd be able to hear.
I am currently working on a version that runs one week from Monday through Saturday. During the week the puzzle is smaller than Sunday, but there is an increasing difficulty (and longer words) as the week progresses. I suspect this progression will be audible in the results.
This project began in a sound class I took Fall 2007 with Rafael Attias.
Crossword Music was recently included in Invisible Sounds at RISD's Sol Koffler Gallery. April 2008