tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post325136374929437136..comments2024-03-27T21:39:23.192-07:00Comments on Sacnoth's Scriptorium: Stone of InvisibilityJohn D. Rateliffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12324926298336489295noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2239062544101975016.post-84626745962235103752011-08-03T06:42:35.022-07:002011-08-03T06:42:35.022-07:00Very interesting post, John. I had never heard of ...Very interesting post, John. I had never heard of this book, so thanks for sharing!<br /><br />That Godwin's lunar language is musical in nature is quite striking — especially since we now know that sound, let alone music, is impossible in the vacuum of space. This could well be the earliest example of an invented musical language. There are other examples of musical languages in fiction (and of course, there are some real ones too), but I have not heard of an earlier.<br /><br />Solresol, devised by François Sudre, is unique among artificial languages for being based on musical tones, but it came two centuries after Francis Godwin. I actually made an attempt to learn and use Solresol during an artificial language kick in junior high school. :)<br /><br />And of course, who can forget the use of music for extraterrestrial communication in <i>Close Encounters of the Third Kind</i>? John Williams's five-tone motive is now justly world famous.Jason Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05809154870762268253noreply@blogger.com