Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/221 - A Musical Enigma/Solution

Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $221$

A Musical Enigma

Here is an old musical enigma that has been pretty well known in Germany for some years.

Solution

The solution is $\text {B A C H}$.

If you turn the cross round, you get successively:

$\text B \flat$ (treble clef)

$\text A$ (tenor clef)

$\text C$ (alto clef)

$\text B \natural$ (treble clef).

In the German tradition, $\text B \flat$ (that is, $\text B$ flat) is called $\text B$, and $\text B \natural$ (that is, $\text B$ natural) is called $\text H$,

making it read $\text {B A C H}$.

Dudeney then goes on to discuss an organ fugue by C.P. Emmanuel Bach, which begins as follows:

but fails to call to mind the last work of his father Johann Sebastian Bach, who included that exact motif in the final (uncompleted) movement of his The Art of Fugue.

This sequence of four notes is known as the BACH motif.

Sources

• 1926: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Modern Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): Solutions: $221$. -- A Musical Enigma
• 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Answers: $518$. A Musical Enigma