CRACK the C O D E !
Substitution codes!
This is one of the simplest kinds of ciphers.
Each letter is represented by another letter or number:
This looks like a letter substitution cipher but isn't.
Can you figure out what I've done?“Whenth: es eve, nandt het woa lign;
Wi thhe, whosi tsi nhi, s’chos: enho us e -
An dtheth reet hou; san den case dinst one;
Wi tne ssthes: acr edtw, ent yfo ur.”
- An nam agd ale nab ach
Anagrams!
Here are some anagrams of "Johann Sebastian Bach":
Aha! Banjo's bench saint.
Ha ha! Ancient snob jabs!
Can you solve these anagrams of other famous composers' full names
(arranged in roughly chronological order
from the Renaissance to the 20th Century)...?Prophetic (apocalyptic) poetry!
Some people (including me) believe that prophetic verses - such as
those by Nostradamus - and the genre of apocalyptic poetry that
includes the Book of Revelation, are actually metaphorical descriptions
of past and present events.
In The Fugue Code, however, the prophecy of a certain poem
(cleverly referred to as "The Fugue Code") turns out to be real.
This is not a cipher in the sense
that one letter or word stands for another. Instead, it is a code
of metaphor and allusion - and is consequently open to interpretation.
I claim in the play that, in the original German of this poem,
the sum of the number-equivalents of each letter (ex. 1-26) in
each line of the poem is the same. This is not true. I
don't have the skill to write a poem that does that and moves the plot forward!
But this is an ancient technique used in Cabbalistic texts, called Gematria.
Bach would have been well aware of such puzzles, since they
regained popularity in the days of the early Lutheran church.
Here is my supposed piece of gematria that really functions as
metaphorical prophecy. My poor characters have to sort out what
it all means...
The Four Keys are to be found
Above, within, between, throughout.
When the Seven and the Two Align
With He who sits in his chosen place,
And the Three Thousands encased in stone
Witness the sacred Twenty-Four.
The Four Keys will awaken him,
But to the Four, add one more:
The Keystone opens the final door -
Four into One, One into Four -
At the End of the Cycle, He will return.