Chess music. For absolutely no good reason, I found myself wondering what a chess game would sound like if played on the piano. One can’t help but notice that algebraic chess notation maps almost perfectly to scientific pitch notation… The eight columns of a chess board correspond to the eight audible octaves. E.g., C4 is a middle square on the chess board and C4 is “middle C” on the piano… (Both images from Wikimedia Commons).
I know what you’re thinking: the diatonic scale has seven notes “A” through “G,” but the chess board goes up to “H.” Fear not! The Bach Motif So we now have a system for mapping the moves of a chess game onto a piano keyboard. The remaining task is to assign note values. The relative value of chess pieces is Pawn = 1, Knight = 3, Bishop = 3, Rook = 5, Queen = 9, and King = Infinity. Assigning these exact ratios to note values will create some rather annoying polyrhythms. So without further ado, here are three famous chess games mapped onto the piano: THE OPERA GAME 1858, Paris. 5 secs hit songs. Summer sounds.
aM lab. Swinger. Listen to your mood. Nudge. Wolfram tones. Nature sounds. Incredibox.