CiTR

During the Second World War, the enigma machine, a highly sophisticated enciphering machine, was used extensively by the German military to send encoded messages. The bombe machine, developed by Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, was the key to deciphering these codes.
The musical machines employed in this project use the computational mathematics and computational mechanics of encryption in precisely the same method as the original bombe and enigma machines. This musical enigma machine then generates musical pitch, melodies, harmonies, and forms, simply by imputing a melody of choice, and letting the musical enigma machine transform it through all it's various devices of encryption. Once at the highest level of encryption, these musical structures are then deconstructed by plugging them through the musical bombe machine. Both the processes of musical encryption and decryption—with all the various transformations undergone in that process—play out musically across this piece.
Woven through this work are recordings of the mechanical noises made by the enigma and bombe machines within the national museum of computing UK. While the violin plays the enigma/bombe constructed pitches, the computer track plays sonically designed enigma/bombe recordings.
The melody which Jack Campbell has chosen to encrypt—which you will hear finally unveiled at the end of the piece—is the traditional song "Molly Malone," which was Alan Turing's favourite piece of music. The musical form of this piece is that of an Agnus Dei. An Agnus Dei is an ancient musical form; Agnus Dei is also the codename of the first Turing/Welchman Bombe Machine.