Comments on: Guardian 23962/Rufus – Racy motley crew of clues

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petebiddlecombe — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 07:52:42 +0000

All the tonic sol-fa note names (do, re, mi etc.) have variant spellings to watch out for (and the variant name Ut for Do in some countries). Note can also of course mean A/B/C/D/E/F/G, N.B. and in theory at least, breve, minim, crotchet, quaver etc.). The resulting range of possibilities means that some people don’t like “note”, for the same reasons as “state” and “man/woman” (Art, Bert, Les, Des, Vi, Di, etc. etc.). I sit on the fence a bit – I don’t mind these if the setter makes sure there’s enough other stuff to work off, and uses them in moderation. And if he uses “note” for something like the E-flat in DEFLATE, that’s fine as a crafty bit of novelty.

For more on the musical stuff see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfege . The “accidental” names like Di = “Do sharp” are not used in crosswords, probably because they’re not listed in the dictionaries used for reference.

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ilanc — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 05:28:07 +0000

TE is the 7th note the scale — also TI. (My source: Julie Andrews in the “The Sound of Music”)

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Sudheer Krishnaswamy — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:35:33 +0000

The letters “TE” for note occurs often in crosswords. Can anyone tell me the connection? Thanks in advance.

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petebiddlecombe — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 16:46:20 +0000

I'll bet more people know Vesti la guibba than they think. Try some recordings here - Franco Corelli does it pretty well.