Posted: June 13, 2008

Silver, gold, tin and oxygen: The chemical elements most frequently cited in music


(Nanowerk News) Here is our 'Slow News Friday' story for this week: Do the chemical elements, Mendeleev or the Periodic Table play any role in the world of music? Here are a few preliminary notes for an answer to that question, maybe just the tip of an iceberg. Some suggestions are offered on music that is worth listening to, although some of the works commented on may require more of a good sense of humour than musical sensibility from the reader. No word yet on nanoparticles in popular music, though.
The four chemical elements cited most often in musical songs and compositions are, in this order, silver, gold, tin and oxygen, followed by copper and iron, according to a study carried out by Santiago çlvarez, professor at the School of Chemistry of the University of Barcelona, and recently published in New Journal of Chemistry ("Music of the elements").

The music of the elements

To quantify the presence of these elements in the music market, çlvarez analysed the English and Spanish names of each element in a musical cyber store. The chemist explained to SINC that the results may include some redundancies due to different versions of a same piece - especially in classical music - and that some elements appear overvalued since they have several meanings (such as radio or indio in Spanish, lead in English or mercury (mercurio) in both languages). In any case the final aim of the study was not so much a comprehensive statistical analysis. but rather to "build bridges between science and music".

In general, with the exception of oxygen, the elements that appear most frequently in musical compositions are the metals seen most often over the history of humanity and daily life, comments çlvarez, "and silver and gold share the pedestal of popular imagination". Both appear in songs not only because they are components of a large variety of objects, but also because they are the symbol of wealth, luxury and power or due to the metaphors referring to their properties such as metallic shine.
Numerous classical composers have referred to gold or silver in their works such as Bach (Gold und Ophir ist zu schlecht, aria from the cantata BWV 64), Beethoven (Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben, from Fidelio), Dvorçk (O Silver Moon, from Rusalka), or Wagner, in his opera Rhinegold, whose plot revolves around a golden ring and power and the accompanying curse. In the field of pop and rock music there is an abundance of groups that mention these precious metals in their songs: the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Genesis, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Sting, Spandau Ballet, Status Quo and many more.

Another metal with a significant musical presence is tin, which Krzysztof Penderecki uses as an instrument in his work Fluoresences together with pieces of wood and glass, a siren and a typewriter. It is also found in March of the Tin Soldiers by Tchaikovsky although perhaps the piece most related to this metal is Tin Roof Blues interpreted by legendary jazz figures such as Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory or Tommy Dorsey. Curiously, in English the expression "tin earÓ is used to refer to people who have little ear for music, observes çlvarez. ...