Formulaic

 

The reason I stopped reading mysteries as a kid, such as the Encyclopedia Brown series, was that all of the age-appropriate stories of that genre follow the same formula: There’s a small detail at the beginning of the story that is the key to solving the mystery. We find ourselves at the end of this mystery without resolution. Therefore, we need to look to the beginning.

Where M and B are set in stone

What’s interesting about this line is that it’s not interesting! It’s superfluous, pointless. The young men who found the casque didn’t need this clue at all. Why didn’t Byron just start at Roosevelt University and Congress Parkway or at the Bowman? We therefore have to ask the question: Are the clues here to show us the path, or is the path here to show us the clues? This just might be the clue that is the key to solving the mystery. Let’s read the end of the poem again, but instead of reading the final lines of the poem individually, let’s read them together, as a complete sentence. 

“For finding jewel casque, seek the sounds of rumble brush and music hush.”

The verb hush means to quiet or to silence, in other words, a transition from noisy to quiet. “Music hush” then translates into music that becomes silent. Can you think of a clue (from the beginning of the poem) that fits this description, a case where there was music that fell silent? Beethoven started to lose his hearing around age 28, and by 45 was completely deaf. Maybe that’s what it alludes to.

The words rumble and brush seem like very different words. However, they do have one intersecting definition, that is to say, meanings that are the same. Both rumble and brush can refer to a fight or conflict, as in the sentences, I had a brush with Jeremy today, and your gang and mine will rumble tomorrow. Therefore, “rumble brush and music hush” gives us a fight and Beethoven. So the question now becomes, was the famous composer ever in a fight? That would be interesting! It would have to be a noteworthy one, one for the ages. The answer to this question is, emphatically, yes! Beethoven was involved in an epic battle, considered by many to be the greatest duel in music history!