In the spring of 2021, information spread on social networks that an American student had deciphered the musical notes that were written on the buttocks of a character in Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych. We checked whether this is actually true.
The Garden of Earthly Delights is perhaps the most famous work of the Dutch artist, which he completed by 1510. The right wing of this triptych is called “Musical Hell”. One sinner here is crucified on a harp, another, as if in a pillory, is tied to the neck of a lute. The third, on whose bodies the musical notes are imprinted, is crushed by this very lute. Also on the flap there are images of a hurdy-gurdy, pipes and a drum, and in total there are several dozen different characters on the flap.
In recent days, social networks have received a large number of views and reposts of a publication that a student from Oklahoma deciphered the musical notes that were written on the buttocks of one of the characters in the picture. Posts often include link on the YouTube video, where you can listen to the transcribed “gluteal” music. Among the blogs where this story appeared was the popular public "Suffering Middle Ages".
Was there a decryption?
There is no doubt that Oklahoma student Amelia Hamrick actually deciphered the notes from Bosch's character's ass. She converted the set of buttock symbols to a modern notation system back in 2014. February 11 of the same year Hamrick told about this in his blog on Tumblr, attaching his own rendition of this melody. The post gained wild popularity, and within a few days many publications wrote about it (in the world, for example, The Guardian And BBC, in Russia - Naked Science). When the media reported Hamrick's transcript, the Internet joked, "So this is what 500 years of hellish ass music sounds like." Amelia herself called composition buttsong, that is, “song of the priest.”
Music in the video on YouTube played according to Bosch's scores?
As stated in the description under the video, this is modern music composed by James Spalink based on the Hamrick transcript shortly after its publication. Spalink's work was performed on a lute, harp and hurdy-gurdy - instruments depicted by Bosch. The author does not hide the fact that some fragments are his “assumptions”.
Obviously, all this wealth of polyphony could not fit on one sinner’s butt - there is a very small number of musical notes written there that can be played literally with one finger, as it actually sounds in the original versions Amelia Hamrick.
Was Hamrick really the first to transcribe these notes?
At least seven years ago, the media wrote about this find as its discovery. A search of publications before February 2014 also did not reveal any earlier transcripts, although it is strange that in 500 years not a single musicologist has become interested in the notes depicted in such a famous painting.
IN one from articles about Bosch’s “hellish music” it is said that back in 2003, the composition De jordiska fröjdernas paradis (“The Garden of Earthly Delights”) by the Swedish group Vox Vulgaris appeared, created “based on notes from the buttocks” of Bosch’s character. The work is also on the website collective, it is included in the album The Shape of Medieval Music to Come. On the page, dedicated this album, it is stated that De jordiska fröjdernas paradis is an interpretation of the notes depicted on the butt of Bosch's hero, "the very music that a decade later would become known as 'music from the ass' or 'hell's music from the ass'." Some similarities with Hamrick’s melody can be found in it if desired, but still this is an interpretation, and not a “bare” transcript.
In October 2013 (several months before Hamrick's publication), The Shape of Medieval Music to Come was released posted on YouTube by Passaro Trovao. The composition De jordiska fröjdernas paradis is also there. Album dated 2003, available and on Spotify, and on Last.fm a Bosch-inspired composition by Vox Vulgaris commented back in 2008.
Moreover, the Swedish group is not the first to try to perform music “based on” the notes inscribed on the buttocks of the sinner from the famous painting. Back in 1978 this did the Spanish ensemble Atrium Musicae de Madrid, which recorded the album Codex Glúteo and placed the corresponding fragment of the picture on the cover. Nevertheless, the fame of the discoverer of Bosch's “hellish music from the ass” went to Amelia.
Thus, the verified story is mostly true, only the transcript was published back in 2014, and it is not the original melody that is circulating on social networks, but improved and expanded music by a modern composer, written based on it. There are also doubts that Amelia was the first in history to try to play “notes on the ass,” although this does not detract from her merits in decoding.
Mostly true
- “The Garden of Earthly Delights” on the Prado Museum website
- Interactive journey through the triptych
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