Music-based Ciphers

Referenced in article "Can Musical Encryption be Both?" (Code, 2022)

The ciphers discussed in this article are accompanied by a web interface that allows you to try the cipher yourself. The interface is fairly self-explanatory: you simply type in a plaintext message and it is automatically rendered into music staff notation and a playable audio file. There are additional features and settings depending on the characteristics of each individual cipher, such as the selection of a clef, basic durational unit, tonic, or cipherkey. Some interfaces will generate different outputs for lower- and upper-case letters. Whenever the original cipher did not utilize a 26-letter alphabet, I added substitutions based on similar letters (e.g., j = i, u = v). To indicate that they are extrapolations, the letters appear with parentheses and the notes with a staccato mark. Spaces in the plaintext are ignored, but if you wish to add a bar line, you can type a comma. If the line gets too crowded, a period will start a new staff

Table 1. Écorcheville Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/ecorcheville.html
Figure 2. Porta Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/porta.html
Figure 4. Schwenter Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/schwenter.html
Figure 7. Wilkins Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/wilkins.html
Figure 8. Thicknesse Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/thicknesse.html
Figure 10. British Foreign Office Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/bfo.html
Figure 11. Philip Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/philip.html
Figure 13. Argenti Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/argenti.html
Figure 14. Terzi Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/terzi.html
Table 2. Honegger Cipher Interfacehttps://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/honegger.html
Table 3. Duruflé Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/durufle.html
Figure 17. Sams Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/sams.html
Figure 19. Chailley Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/chailley.html
Figure 20. Haydn Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/haydn.html
Figure 22. Cazden Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/cazden.html
Example 24. Messiaen Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/messiaen.html
Figure 25. Öttingen-Wallerstein Cipher Interfacehttps://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/oettingen.html
Figure 32. Port-Lesney Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/port-lesney.html
Figure 34. Klüber Cipher Interface wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/kluber.html
Figure 35. Bücking Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/bucking.html
Figure 36. Mozart Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/mozart.html
Table 7. Metric-Tonal (Solfa) Cipher Interface https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/ciphers/metric-tonal.html
Solfa Cipher https://wmich.edu/mus-theo/solfa-cipher/secrets

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