Musical secret uncovered in chapel carving

Published on Monday 30 April 2007 12:10

A FATHER and son team think they have found a secret piece of music hidden in carvings at Rosslyn Chapel.

Stuart Mitchell, 41 and his father Tommy, 75, from Edinburgh, said they had deciphered a musical code hidden in stones, like a "CD from the 15th century".

They are now set to perform the music in May in the chapel.

Pianist and composer Stuart noticed a series of angels at the foot of arches near the altar, each holding a musical instrument, and decided the cubes jutting out from the arches could represent musical notes.

He said: "What we have here is a recorded piece of music, it is almost like a compact disc from the 15th century."

Tommy Mitchell added: "If these patterns and cubes had not contained music, anything we turned up would have been purely random and would not have sounded hauntingly beautiful."