Posted November 10, 2007 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." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 Such a joke. Turning in his grave, but laughing as he does so. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 What a load of old horking crap. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 ha well thats a new way of writing jesus i should try this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 Another persons 5 minutes of fame. I think anyway. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 Why are so many people skeptical of this? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 Not skeptical, just curious as to why this in any way advances the human race, should be considered news, or why anyone genuinely thinks this makes a difference? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 Probably true, the man was a fricking genius. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 or why anyone genuinely thinks this makes a difference? disproves the whole 'he's an atheist' view maybe? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 Firstly I doubt this is 100% consistently a hidden music bar, and secondly, The Beatles have predicted the Armageddon just by playing their music backwardly and stuff like that. There's music and messages in everything. Da Vinci was not a composer - at least it's not a talent he ever displayed. This is just one of those things people want too much, and therefore I'm skeptical. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 disproves the whole 'he's an atheist' view maybe? Oh! Thank the heavens for that! Da Vinci wasn't an atheist! War is over people, the planet is at peace! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 Oh! Thank the heavens for that! Da Vinci wasn't an atheist! War is over people, the planet is at peace! oh come on you could say that for ANYTHING. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 Quick, someone make a film about it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 11, 2007 oh come on you could say that for ANYTHING. Oh! Thank heavens for that! I could say that for anything! War is over people, the planet is at peace! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 12, 2007 I think some people here are making out that other people are making a big deal out of it. When really they're the only people making a big deal out of anything. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 12, 2007 I think some people should be more specific especially when some people are being so vague! :P Anyway, I just don't think this qualifies as news in any way. You could design a computer program and it could divine a sonata from a child's finger painting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 12, 2007 I think some people should be more specific especially when some people are being so vague! :P Anyway, I just don't think this qualifies as news in any way. You could design a computer program and it could divine a sonata from a child's finger painting. Dude if anyone here made a programe that did that, then they should totally post it on here. It's totally better news than hearing about games sale numbers, or delays to rubbish ports. Big Leo was an ace guy. It's at least nice to hear about this. Even if it could be a load of horse-crap, and that you could find music in anything, so what? I'd love to know what a picture of me sounded like. It's COOL. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 13, 2007 [ATTACH]1672[/ATTACH] Uh oh... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
