As you all may know, I am a huge fan of Metal and Rock music. From Metallica to Queen, all I want to listen to during a workout or leisure time is Metal / Rock songs. However, this won’t stop me from exploring other genres. Classical music is one of those genres that I always want to connect with, but for unknown reasons, I never found my spot in this type of music.
I know you are wondering why I started the NYT Crossword analysis Feb 17 by talking about music. Today’s NYT Crossword includes some subtle nods to classical music and its technical terms, which at times are hard to understand.
NYT Crossword of Feb 17: Theme
There are eight groups of circled letters in the grid separated by black squares. At first glance, you may think that they all are separately meaningful, but each group of circled letters which are adjacent to each other must be connected to form a technical term from classical music.
For example, 17-Across (White rodent often used in lab research) solves to ALBINO RAT. The marked letters are ORAT. On the other hand, 19-Across (Hunter in the night sky) is ORION (Orion is also the name of a Metallica song). Like the previous one, we have ORIO in circles. Attach the circled parts together and you have ORATORIO, a large-scale musical composition. It’s like a play for your ears, featuring an orchestra, a choir and solo singers, but without the acting or costumes.
24-Across (Complete fiasco) and 26-Across (“I suppose that’s right”) solve to SNAFU and GUESS SO. Again, the circled letters (FU and GUE) form FUGUE, a composition in which a short melody or phrase is introduced by one part and successively taken up by others.
52-Across (Someone’s public identity) is PERSONA and 55-Across (Workout inspired by martial arts) is TAE BO. Combine the SONA and TA and voila, you successfully craft a SONATA, a multi-movement composition for one or more solo instruments.
The final group of theme clues comes at 61-Across (“The Addams Family” butler) and 63-Across (Spoken evaluations), which solve to LURCH and ORAL EXAMS. Combine the circled letters and the term will be CHORALE, a musical composition (specifically a hymn) intended to be sung by a choir or a congregation in unison.
You may ask why the sections are separated; just check the revealer at 39-Across (Music genre for the words hidden in this puzzle’s circled letters … or a punny description for them?) which is BAROQUE. With a little wordplay, BAROQUE sounds like “broke.” Now everything is clear: the sections are “broken” by the BAROQUE.
The NYT Crossword of Feb 17 was like a classical music workshop for me, full of technical terms that I learned today. Moreover, it made me listen to several classic pieces which are among the best. By the way, please listen to Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 (the Funeral March); it is a timeless masterpiece.
