Melodies within the Vargo Gothic cards

There were many cards who I considered (10 of Cups comes to mind, 4 of Swords) but decided against adding to my "musical" pile.

When the placement of the Cups/Swords/Wands (no musical Pents) looked more sculptural/artchitectural to my eye in how they were placed in the card, I set the card aside.

However, the 10 of Cups does look like a very simple little melody too :

C - D - C - E - F - F - E - C - D - C

It's a catchy tune, that one, now that I try it out.

I've resorted to playing all the tunes in C minor, as I find the minor key suits this deck more appropriately than the major key. And if ever there were a deck suited to a minor key, it would have to be the Vargo Gothic.

I approached transcribing it as using the key of C (for sheer ease) and I often choose to see the first "note" as Middle C, just as a way to start placing the melody into a tune.

However, if one was tempted or curious, they could easily transpose these into another key. And, if some more rhythm is added to the melodies, they start to dress up nicely.....

Vargo's response to the cards' melodies

I wrote to Vargo to forward links of our questions and musical discussion, and the following letter was received in response.

Alissa,

I am currently putting the finishing touches on the next Nox Arcana cd, Necronomicon, with my fellow musician William Piotrowski. After reading your comments and listening to the music posts, we couldn't resist tinkering with some of the melodies.

How fascinating, however, I must admit that the melodies that you discovered hidden within the various cards were not placed there intentionally. But I do love the concept and I can assure you that I will definitely be concealing some haunting refrains within future works. I especially liked the idea of using steps as the treble clef and the skulls as musical notes. As for the music the group has been sharing, I think you are all very talented and creative and I give each of you my highest commendations for delving so deeply into the mysteries of the tarot. May the dark muse continue to inspire you.

Darkest wishes,
Joseph

Click to expand...

I say, if the melodies weren't intentional by the Artist, they were still "intentional". The more interesting question becomes, if Vargo didn't mean to do it... Who Did? [Just how I think....]

Edited to add : Here is a link to the Nox Arcana website as well.

See! Even more reason to love this deck!

I agree Alissa, they were just ment to be!

OK....this is just wild.

Tarot is just the coolest!!!!!!!!!

Two of my favorite things.....music and Tarot, merged by the powers that be.....so even still the mysteries of tarot reinvent themselves........

More melodies

I transcribed a few more... another glance at the 8 of swords looked very musical this time around, and I still wanted to bend my mind around the 10 of swords.

Incidentally, the Nine of Swords, listed on the previous page, should be played in descending notes, which would correspond to the illustration. However, when just reading letters as notes, that may not be clear.

Still, think minor. All tunes. Alissa digs on minor for these.

The Eight of Swords. I rather like this tune. The swords looked, for no reason at all, "a fifth apart." So I transcribed it as:

C - low F - D - low G - E - B - D - C

Catchy.

The 10 of Swords took me, no kidding, 20 minutes to figure out. And I'm still not sure this is "right". And I have no idea what key it may actually be in. I told you I saw half-notes.

C - low Eb [rest] B - Eb - low F - G# - low A# - D [rest] low F - low A

So there it is. My brain is tired after the 10 of Swords. I *feel* like the 10 of swords, trying to transcribe the 10 of Swords....

I just wanted to bump this because I thought this was one of the coolest things we had discovered about the deck, and yes, the mp3 links still work

Neat to see this again, I remember how on fire I was that day. Hard to believe that was only a year ago.... I still sometimes hear the melodies when the cards come up during readings too....

What I find interesting now is if you begin to examine the way that Vargo's band, Nox Arcana, writes their music, it isn't that far from some of the longer melodies here. Perhaps his subconsicous was composing in these paintings?

That is definitely food for thought! When he heard about them he said he definitely planned to take a closer look.. I wonder if the card melodies inspired him.. I still love to play them! That was an amazing find if I do say so myself! I went through most of the wands and cups looking for more, and each find was a beautiful melody!

Its made me respect this deck all the more finding out how deep it truly is! I've subbed the melodies "Pandora's Music Box" I really enjoy diving into these cards.. the melodies are beautifully harmonic, pretty amazing considering they were not intentional!