Departures of note

In 1827, Jean-François Sudre devised Solrésol, a musical language in which each note represented a word or letter of the alphabet. He trained two musicians, Édouard Deldevez and Charles Larsonneur, to play and interpret his system, and the trio toured France, answering audience questions through Sudre's violin. The idea soon attracted military interest: a bugler on a battlefield could transmit orders to a regiment by playing an appropriate tune. This hypothesis came to nothing because the system proved too vulnerable to wind and weather, and Sudre's subsequent offer of a set of musical cannons was also declined.

Born in Albi in southern France on 15 August 1787, Sudre studied music as a child and was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris on 12 May 1806 at the age of eighteen. There he studied violin under François Habeneck and harmony under Charles Simon Catel. He later formed a group of musicians dedicated to developing a way of transmitting language through music, which led to his invention of Solrésol.

Sudre died on 3 October 1862 at the age of 75. Although his musical language never saw practical military use, it remained his most notable achievement and is remembered as an early attempt to create a universal means of communication through sound.