Melodic Morse
 

I've heard of four tunes with Morse-code messages hidden in their rhythms. :) All are unconfirmed but plausible (to me anyway);).

1. The theme tune from Inspector Morse (what else;)) encodes something (probably MORSE).
   
2. The theme from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (the classic BBC sitcom starring Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice) encodes its own title.
   
3. A guitar solo from Amarok (the last album Mike Oldfield recorded for Virgin Records) has a message to Richard Branson which can't be mentioned here due to Forum rules. :D
   
4. YYZ by Rush contains the Morse for YYZ, the international abbreviation (and beacon pattern) for Toronto Airport, which is their home airport.

Anyone know any more?  Or any other Easter Eggs in tunes, software or wherever?

(Please don't tell me about the Wolfsites; I've learned the hard way that they have tabloid ethics, i.e. as long as it's sensational who cares if it's true.  I gave up on all three sites long ago.)

I don't know about "YYZ", but the Rush track of that name certainly contains plenty of Ys (- · - -).  So it's feasible...

(Z is - - · ·)

The title song from Radiooactivity by Kraftwerk contains lots of Morse; I think one word is KRAFTWERK, but I have no idea about the others...

I know there is a song "Morse Code of Love" by the Capris but the lyrics of the song are actual morse code.

nobody mentioned the most famous...the DUM DUM DUM DUMMMMM beginning of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, which is the letter "V" (for victory?) in Morse... (ok ok I know that Beethoven came way before Morse code but still... :D )

(edited) and yeah, before anybody catches it...I'm well aware that Beethoven was German and that therefore it would be "der Sieg" and not "victory" to him :D I think I read somewhere that the theme of the Fifth Symphony became a sort of underground "cheer" among Nazi- conquered populations in Europe during WWII.

But perhaps Morse chose to assign ...- to the letter V due to Beethoven's 5th.

I just remembered something else — but I'm not sure if I have a copy of Police's Synchronicity — is there any Morse Code in "Sending Out an S.O.S.?" (Is that the actual title of the song?)

maybe... *strokes chin* :confused: :D

I think that as well... if not, it's quite a coincidence...

I take it you're referring to an album called "Synchronicity" (I'm not sure of the Police album titles, I only have Message in a Box); if not, then do you mean Synchronicity I or Synchronicity II? ;)

The song title you're thinking of is Message in a Bottle, and I don't think there's any Morse in the tune (although the lyric "I'll send an SOS to the world" has approximately the rhythm OOS, but this may have been accidental)...

The opening of Beethovens 5th is a fate motif, not victory, so it seems unlikely that morse would have assigned V for that reason.

^ The hypothesis (on my part anyway) is that the Roman numeral for 5 is V, hence as Beethoven's 5th has the very distinctive "···–" as its first bar, Morse assigned this pattern to V for that reason.

Incidentally, the usual spelling in music is "motiv" (the German spelling, still pronounced "motif")...

Actually, my copy of the COED gives motif as the only correct spelling, but are we going to start picking up spelling mistakes :rolleyes:

I saw Oliver Postgate on TV recently and he told a funny story about the clanger's scripted whistling noises. Part of it is here
but he went on to say that when they later produced the clanger toys, they had them say that line when you squeeze them.

"motif" is French, "motiv" the same word with a German flavor (as in the Wagnerian "leitmotiv"). We can use the word "theme" to mean much the same thing ;)

Our Public Service had a rule to not use such music containing ... --- ... on their shortwave transmissions due to risk of rescue operation being charged on them for sending it.

Not sure of if this still apply. several goups use SOS in morse as a dramatic message in their songs.

trew

PS I failed to learn morse or CW as we name it. I coudl ahve been a HAM radio operator. :o

I know it's drifting-off a bit, but...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3760088.stm

Wow really??

I have this song on cassette,8track and record from thier 1981 concert EXIT STAGE LEFT..

I hadnt ever noticed that,Im gonna listen now and see if I hear it (The concert is 100% analogue so it should be easily heard on that)

Yes, the introduction of the Rush song "YYZ" has several (I believe 9) repetitions of YYZ. Y is "dah-di-dah-dah" and Z is "dah-dah-di-dit". In the first few bars of the song, you hear "dah-di-dah-dah dah-di-dah-dah" followed in a much faster tempo by "dah-dah-di-dit". The last two dots at the end are very fast drumstick beats. The three characters YYZ are very close to each other, with very little gap. So to someone like me (a ham radio operator for 52 years whose most favorite mode is Morse Code CW), it doesn't stand out as code unless you are expecting it to be there.

The Inspector Morse series for British TV (also played on many US PBS stations) definitely has "MORSE" sent slowly in the theme music.

The teaser music (before the news update) for the NPR game show "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me" includes what sounds to me like "di-dah-di-di-dit dah-di-dah-dit dah-di-dit", which translates to " <AS> C D " or " <AS> <CD> ". The <AS> means "wait", but I can't think of a reason for "C D" or <CD> (strung together). Because the "wait" part is pretty clear, my assumption is that it was intentional, as it is the beginning of the program name.

There are many other examples of Morse Code used in the media. My guess is that most of these were slipped in as "Easter Eggs" by someone, and that most people in the production team have no idea they are there. Some are probably accidental. Nokia phones for years had a default SMS text message ringer tone which played "di-di-dit dah-dah di-di-dit", which is SMS in Morse code. I'm sure that must have been intentional. I was very surprised when I first heard phones sending that Morse Code message when those phones became popular years ago.

Beethoven's 5th Symphony (which begins with di-di-di-dah, the Morse code letter "V") was written about 30 years before the early versions of Morse Code were developed.

Bill

Def very interesting!!

I didnt ever hear code in YYZ but then again I wasnt listening for it either..... Next time I hear the concert I will really listen close........ It should be on the live concert one also right? (I havent listenend yet)