Sea Bass
by Bryan Lee, David Hashe, Edgar Chen, Ivan Wang, and Patrick Xia
Answer: HAMILTON
We are presented with an unusually shaped grid and some cryptic-looking clues. A google search of the flavor ("language created out of music") yields Solresol, a constructed language using musical notes.
A keen eye might notice musical flavor in various clue surfaces, such as “dotted double bar,” “tonic,” “dominant,” and “key.” In addition, some partially solved homophone-based cryptic clues yield solfège: “I heard the Ah-Boong shop” refers to Somisomi, which sounds like “sol-mi-sol-mi”, and “Contra dance move” clues “do-si-do.” We can also find various solfège notes in surfaces like “LA” or “sire.”
This suggests that we should solve the clues by applying cryptic transformations on music notes and translated Solresol! The definition half is translated from Solresol. To aid in solving, the grid can be filled with solfège. A useful tool is the community Solresol dictionary.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | ||
D | T | D | S | D | |||||||||||||||||||
1 | R | R | T | L | R | T | T | M | M | R | R | D | L | T | L | R | R | M | L | D | F | S | T |
M | M | D | M | D | T | T | R | D | |||||||||||||||
2 | M | S | M | T | M | F | S | D | S | L | R | R | L | D | D | R | M | R | M | T | M | S | M |
R | R | R | F | L | M | R | R | R | T | ||||||||||||||
3 | L | S | F | S | T | L | D | F | T | L | L | T | M | S | D | L | R | T | S | L | M | R | R |
L | L | M | F | D | R | ||||||||||||||||||
4 | S | D | M | D | T | M | M | F | D | S | R | D | S | L | S | F | M | S | D | D | R | R | S |
D | L | T | F | L |
| Answer | Translation | Clue | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| ReReSiLa | Sewer, drain, cesspit, sink | Sink or swim? Second person with both legs amputated loses lead and falls back | (fLfd + fTRR)< |
| ReSiSiMiMiRe | Six/eight | Sibling captures "Good day" with a common signature (2 wds) | RT(TM)MR |
| ReDoLa | Proverb, Maxim | Heads of Masonry Church spin a yarn or saying | Rrdl + Ddtd + Ldsr |
| SiLaRe | Crown, tiara, coronation | What a princess wears in the East, except on March 2nd or 3rd | FTLR - dFF |
| ReMiLaDo | Bedroom, sleeping room | Shelled grenade follows end of life to resting place | dmfR + dMLDr |
| FaSolSi | Prepare, make ready, preparation | It leads to Discord channels regularly ending from contradiction | FlSr(channel) + mlsT(contradiction); "preparation" in music theory precedes dissonant or discordant notes |
| MiSol | Good | The music center got 4 out of 5 stars | music=S(MS)R |
| MiSiMiFa | Responsibility, responsible | Mostly inebriated bellhop (not yours) is left holding the bag | MTl (inebriated) + rmFM (porter) - rm(yours) going left. to be responsible is to be holding the bag |
| SolDoSol | Translate, interpret, translation, interpreter | Headless nut is lost in translation | r<DSS> |
| LaRe | Today, this day | When mystery hunt is not removed from a cup? | DLRD - both Ds |
| ReLaDoDo | Balance (v. & n.), equilibrium, balancer, upright, balanced | Your dodo is standing with its weight evenly distributed across both legs | RL + DD |
| ReMiReMi | Walk, stroll, wander, promenade | Amble around your dotted double bar | [your=RM] x2, dotted double bar indicates repeating in musical notation |
| SiMi | Good morning/afternoon, hello | A greeting one might hear going west from Barcelona: "My, yes!" | hom("mi, si")< (Spanish) |
| SolMi | Bad | I heard the Ah-Boong shop is half bad | hom(SOMI) |
| LaSolFaSol | Importance, important, significant, considerable | It's imperative to never cover a piece of furniture in conversation | (hom(sofa) in LS(never) |
| SiLaDoFa | Flee, escape, run away, desert, fugitives, deserter | Reeling at just deserts | <F(at) + DTL(just)> |
| SiLaLaSi | Hundred guards, Gardes du Corps | Yes, the gallows finish two factions of the military | T + L + (tt)LT |
| MiSolDoLa | Change, vary, variation, mutation, variability, instability, variable | Change of heart from exhausted person | sMSs + DL |
| ReSiSol | To be sad, sadness, gloom, melancholy, sad | Dishevelled sire looks after fourth minor (mood) | <TR> + fddS(looks after); minor keys express sad moods |
| LaMiReRe | Braid, plait, twine, weave, enlace | Reshape hair in May or November | dl(L M RR)l |
| SolDoMiDo | Opera | Lower one step of the honorary Otello, e.g. | (L + RFR) - 1 = SDMD |
| SiMiMiFa | Mortgage | Leaders of House of Representatives now finally decide to take loans from the bank | (house of reps) Trlr + (now) Mmtm + (finally) Mtll + (decide) Fsl = TMMF |
| DoSolReDo | Order | Reorder nothing, then redo order | <SD>+RD |
| SolLaSolFa | To chisel, engrave, chisel | Chisel the start of London Bridge | First 4 notes of London Bridge |
| MiSolDoDo | That is to say, for example, in other words, for instance | The first time ever that approval is rescinded, for example | MSTD = inaugural, T(Yes) -> D (No) |
| ReReSol | October | A period of alternating romance and heresy | sRsR rSm |
| LaLaSolDo | Jewelry, jewellery, jewels, jeweler | Crap? No, lose the head and it's valuable | sLLS+D |
| SolReSol | Language | Motown genre and its pioneer spirit, I hear, will help you decipher this puzzle | hom(Soul Ray Soul) |
| DoSiMiMi | After/later | After a tonic, fiancé got tipsy | D(tonic) + <MTM> |
| SiReSol | Regular, symmetric, symmetry, correct | Hypothesis on shortage of Chinese rice, reportedly, is the same on both sides | mTRS - hom(mi) |
| SiReMiMi | Physics, physicist | A branch of science rooted in politics or lack of reason | trTR (politics) M (or) Mlmd (unreason) |
| SiLaSiLa | Lose, loss, deficit, loser, lost, irremediable, irreparable | With a particular KEY, BABA IS NOT WIN | BABA in C is TiLaTiLa |
| FaReLa | Mail, post, post office | System for transporting letters to lose the cover of a book full of translations | F(to) + sRL (dictionary) |
| DoSiDoSol | Season, flavor, dress, seasoning, dressing | Contra dance move sounds... for a start, savory, for example | hom(do si do) + Sf |
| SolFaSi | Impatient, irritable, impatience, chafe | The dominant strategy rewards leaders without patience | S(the dominant)+Fsmr+Tmrs |
| ReMiLa | Give, gift, present | Give back curtailed credit | (LMRM - M)< |
| LaMiReSi | Delay, procrastinate, adjourn, prolong, postpone, extension, delayed, belated | Put off cleaning edges after empty shell | LssM + RsmT |
| ReLaSi | Regret, be sorry, repent, rue | Flesh starting to fall off with remorse | dRLT |
| LaDoLa | Preface, foreword, preamble, introduction | You might find this before a table, or at the end of one? | DLDL = table, preface can be found before table of contents |
| DoMiSolFaLa | Canada | An American ally is revolutionary, neutral tomorrow | <SFD + LM> |
| SolLaSiDo | Academy, academician, academic | One might study a language here if consecutively ascending | Consecutive ascending notes from S |
| ReReLa | November | Reporting two sunbeams and one that follows; so it is an autumn month | hom(ray ray) L(follows SO in Do-Re-Mi) |
| ReSiMi | Spite, bad mood/attitude, sulky, grumpiness, cantankerous, recalcitrant | Bad spelling of foul mood | <TRM> (spelling) |
| ReReSi | December | A comet orbited back at the end of the year | TRR< |
| SolDoDoFa | Chilblain, frostbite | You might get this when the temperature drops down two fifths from the sun | sol - do, do - fa (two 5th intervals starting from Sol) |
| DoReSiReLa | Oyster | We take care of the world for you | we=DR+(take care=TRL) |
| MiReReLa | Too bad, what a shame | How unfortunate, your inconvenience may repeat in the end | rM + rlR + flR + tfL |
| DoSolDoSol | Enter, penetrate, entry | Enter or exit north | (SDSD)< |
| MiSiRe | To last, durable, stability, permanent, duration | Perpetual, ominous destruction of LA | MTRl - L |
The final step makes use of the puzzle title, “Sea Bass,” which sounds like C and Bass Clef. Treating the grid as a staff in bass clef, we see that the white rows correspond to spaces while black rows correspond to lines on a staff. We can then highlight all the notes whose solfège matches that of a bass clef in C Major.
This draws out a melody. Through recognition or by humming the melody into an app such as Google Assistant, we can identify the song as “Alexander Hamilton”, specifically the lines “Alexander Hamilton / My name is Alexander Hamilton”. Taking just the lyrics in the highlighted pink columns gives us the answer HAMILTON.