Oh dear… a musical theme this week: not my forte. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too technical, although the preamble indicated otherwise:
The FUGUE’s four-note motif appears four times, entering lower each time and at a later point; each statement must be highlighted. The entry of each statement is ignored in wordplay. 26 other clues contain an additional letter that must be removed before solving; these hint at the motif and its mode of entry. Solvers must also highlight a linked 8-letter motif entered similarly in two groups of four. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended, and one entry is an abbreviation.
In fact, all the musical features were only required for the endgame. It seemed fairly obvious to me that what was ignored in the wordplay was the first letter of each 4-note motif. Additionally, as I later discovered, each motif started further to the right and below the one before. That said, the solve wasn’t exactly a doddle and took me in excess of 3 hours. This wasn’t necessarily due to the omitted letters, all Bs and six of them, but more the extra clue letters.
Now obviously (?) the entry at 20ac was meant as a red herring: HOVEN. With the omitted Bs, BEETHOVEN was presumably being dangled in front of our eyes, although even I knew it was Ludwig van Beethoven rather than what was given by the extra clue letters. These eventually gave Johann Sebastian; knight’s move. Looking for notes in a knight’s move from each B soon led me to see BACH, although the H looked a bit odd. It needed some googling to discover the BACH motif where B-flat A C B-natural is written as B A C H in German musical notation.
I’ll stop there before I get out of my depth and thank Kcit for a brief journey into the world of Bach. Of course, I mustn’t forget his (Bach’s) GOLDBERG Variations (BWV 988), which I think are only linked by being by Bach and which appear across the middle of the grid. (Feel free to tell me if there’s a stronger link.)
Solving time: well over 3 hours
Note for Phi: Closing date for EV entries is the Thursday 11 days after publication, although our EV blogs appear two days later still.
Legend:
Definition in clue
[X] = Extra letter in clue
B = letter omitted by wordplay
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Extra Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | SPEC | J | Foremost of some pilots ([j]erks>) consistently gamble (4) first letters of Some Pilots Erks Consistently |
| 5 | STONERAW | O | Mo[o]t including printer supply as a source of colour (8) SAW (mot, adage) including TONER (printer supply |
| 13 | BROACH | Start to speak about fish (6) ROACH (fish); B omitted from wordplay |
|
| 14 | CUMULI | Copper chimney put over one sort of clouds? (6) CU (copper) LUM< (chimney, put over ie reversed) (one) |
|
| 15 | COARSE | H | Rough [h]eight, perhaps, observed in church (6) OARS (eight as in rowing) in CE (church) |
| 17 | OCELLATE | Ring and group of activists polished off, having ‘eyes’ everywhere? (8) O (ring) + CELL (group of activists) ATE (polished off) |
|
| 18 | AMBO | Type of pulpit found in basilica, mostly (4) in basilicA MOstly; B omitted from wordplay |
|
| 20 | HOVEN | A | Hospital gets cooking device influenced by [A]gas? (5) H (hospital) + OVEN (cooking device); hoven/hoove is a disease of cattle marked by distension of abdomen due to gas |
| 21 | REFLATE | Increase spending recently after appearance of official (7) LATE (recently) after REF (official) |
|
| 23 | EYRE | N | [N]early ready, in extreme cases, to do for remote stronghold (4) extremes of EarlY and ReadY |
| 25 | GERALD | N | Guy year[n]s to be embraced by heartless girl with daughter (6) ERA (years) surrounded by GL (heartless GirL) + D (daughter) |
| 27 | BUSING | S | Fault about crime[s] for transportation (6) BUG (fault) about SIN (crime) |
| 29 | SOLI | E | Exposed passages h[e]ard incompletely (4) SOLI[d] (hard, unfinished) |
| 30 | MYCENAE | Ancient city, one recalled in the writer’s opening to chronicle (7) AN< in MY (the writer's) CEE (letter C, beginning of Chronicle) |
|
| 31 | CRUMB | Cold liquor, a small amount (5) C (cold) RUM (liquor); B omitted from wordplay |
|
| 34 | SHIM | B | It fills quiet, I think, though lacking hint of [b]oldness (4) SH (quiet) IMO (I think, ie In My Opinion) – O (hint of Oldness) |
| 35 | AUTUMNAL | A | A note in mutual playing recalling Fall[a]? (8) A N in MUTUAL* |
| 39 | MUDCAT | Current, active, surrounded by a lot of dumb fish (6) DC (current) A (active) surrounded by MUT[e] (dumb, mostly) |
|
| 41 | DALETH | S | Mos[s]es’ character revealed by valley with half of them (6) DALE (valley) + TH (half of THem) |
| 42 | BARISH | Local stubble field lacking some of its growth? (6) ARISH (stubble field, dialect; B omitted from wordplay) |
|
| 43 | SISSIEST | Is son involved in working sites of wettest quality? (8) IS S (son) in SITES* |
|
| 44 | ADAR | T | Pa[t]’s entering Arabia for a month (4) DA (pa, ie father) in AR (Arabia) |
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Extra Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 2 | PRO | I | Expert m[i]en upheld under pressure (3) OR< (men, up) after P (pressure) |
| 3 | EOAN | One participating in votes against mostly getting up around dawn (4) A (one) in NOE[s]< (votes against, mostly, up) |
|
| 4 | CARGO | A | Haul se[a]t out under vehicle (5) GO (set out) under CAR (vehicle) |
| 6 | THECA | American spies dropping one case (5) THE CIA (Ameirican spies) – I (one) |
|
| 7 | OCREAE | N | [N]o timeless form in stem coverings (6) O CREATE (form) – T (ie Timeless) |
| 8 | NULL | K | [K]new University law degree mostly to be invalidated (4) N (new) U (university) LL[b] (law degree, mostly) |
| 9 | EMPLOYS | N | Hires me[n], taking up power tools in Ireland (7) ME< + P (power) LOYS (tools, Irish) |
| 10 | RUSA | Sport with the Springboks on grass (4) RU (sport, Rugby Union) against SA (South Africa, the Springboks); sort of cryptic wordplay, I guess |
|
| 11 | ALATE | Winged muscle brought into A&E (5) LAT (muscle, latissimus dorsi) in A & E |
|
| 12 | WITENAGEMOT | I | Historic council: two men working with it, accommodating Spa[i]n (11) (TWO MEN IT)* containing AGE (span) |
| 15 | CHARGE CARDS | G | They help you buy se[g]ar? Segar and CD, possibly (11, two words) CHAR (sear) + (SEGAR CD)* |
| 16 | SMEE | Duck appears to soar, abandoning South (4) SEEMS< (appears, up) – S (south) |
|
| 19 | TALIB | Contributor to fundamental Islam (5) in fundamenTAL Islam, &lit. |
|
| 20 | HEUCH | H | Very hard accepting hint raised in pit[h] of Scottish discourse (5) HH (very hard) containing CUE< (hint, raised) |
| 22 | FRO | T | [T]old out of heartless fear and love (3) FR (FeaR, heartless) + O (love) |
| 24 | RIN | S | Endlessly peel [s]trip (3) RIN[d] (peel, endless) |
| 26 | ALMUCES | College wear Samuel sported around college (7) SAMUEL* about C (college) |
|
| 28 | NAIF | M | A[m]ir twisted imprisoning one with unworldly views (4) FAN< (air, reversed) containing I (one) |
| 30 | MANCHE | Two males holding coloured garment feature on shield (6) MAN and HE (two males) containing C (coloured) |
|
| 32 | RUBAI | O | Buff[o] aria regularly showing verse form (5) RUB (buff) + AI (ArIa, regularly) |
| 33 | JAMBS | Pushes supporters of entry (5) JAMS (pushes); B omitted from wordplay) |
|
| 34 | SUDRA | V | Low-caste Hindu di[v]ed into religious chapter (5) D (died) in SURA (chapter of the Koran) |
| 36 | TELS | E | Removed contents from twelve loos[e] heaps of waste (4) TE LS (TwelvE and LooS without contents) |
| 37 | MUTI | Italian conductor elevated one key feature of Falstaff? (4) (I (one) TUM (feature of (fat) Falstaff)< |
|
| 38 | ACID | Ill-natured Conservative contributing to support for the poor (4) C (conservative) in AID (support for poor) |
|
| 40 | ASA | Sea’s always containing swimmers (3) in seAS Always; abbreviation noted in preamble — Amateur Swimming Association |
|
Knowing the closing date and remembering that one does know it are different things… HOVEN’s potential relevance never crossed my mind, I’m afraid.
The blog is up at: http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/fugue/