THE SOUNDS OF MUSIC
Today, the grid is alive with the sound of music. Eight theme answers, all tied to music, and each taking a short dip at the end to leave vertical, as if on a scale, the notes of the musical scale, rising from bottom to top. It's a tiny bit of a shame that they could not rise from left to right, as one reads music, but one can't have everything, can one.
In addition to the shaded notes, extra theme material plays out in the longer answers - ADORINGFANS (Groupies, e.g.), "Like musical mixes that overly emphasize bass notes" (BOTTOMHEAVY), "Autumn colors ... or an alternative title for this puzzle?" (FALLTONES), and SCALEDOWN (Cut back ... or an alternative title for this puzzle?). Then there's "What Beethoven's next symphony would have been" (TENTH) (I can't tell if that's funny or just sad), MARACA (Percussive shaker), HALO (Grammy-winning Beyoncé hit of 2009), DOT (Staccato marking), NEAL (____ Smith, drummer for Alice Cooper), EMO, POP, SIRENS (Classical singers?), Adam ANT, references to Mr. Roboto, SEAN Lennon, Vanilla Ice, and Steely Dan, "Musical's beginning" (ACTI), "Like bossa nova or salsa" (LATIN), "Marsalis family patriarch" (ELLIS), ADELE, "Guitar cords?" (STRAPS), "Beatles hairdos" (MOPS), CRESCENDO, NINA Simone, Gladys Knight and THEPIPS, Gregorian CHANT, ITINA (1986 autobiography of the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll"), Victor BORGE, OLDIE (Throwback hit), MILES Davis, and maybe even BLARE (Trumpet). That's a heck of a lot of music-related fill! So much so, that there's really little else to talk about!
Except HINKY (Suspicious, informally). I liked HINKY.
- Horace
The scale rises from bottom to top because of SCALE DOWN - it’s a scale going down from top to bottom.
ReplyDeleteI thought the SCALEDOWN revealer just indicated that the notes of the scale each drop down one row. And the scale can be read either way I suppose, but one usually starts low and goes up when singing "Do, Re, Mi," for example.
DeleteThanks for the comment(s)!
Thanks Horace. SCALEDOWN was originally pointing to the tones going down the scale, and FALLTONES was the “command” that eight horizontal clues were obeying. The good editors adjusted and I like them as a double revealer. Oh - this is Mike, I just don’t have an account set up so I’m anonymous today. I like your blog!
DeleteAnd I liked HINKY too :-)
ReplyDelete