Baroque.Me, This Makes Everything Better

I don't know what kind of Thursday you're having, but I'm having one that sounds like the sigh an old armchair makes when you sit in it, like exasperation is too much effort, and instead deflating despondency is all that can be enunciated. And then I found this.

Bach makes everything better, as I think we can all agree (no matter what the World Health Organisation keeps telling my clients), so Baroque.me's distraction in a website form soothes all ailments. It's a remarkable little thing in which white circles pluck at ever-changing-in-length strings to produce baroque heavenliness. Why am I mentioning it on a so-called gaming site? Well, you can interact with those white balls, messing with their pathways, to influence the music. And interaction means game, and game means post.

Grab one ball (snigger) with the mouse, and the other three will start following loosely behind it, so you can pluck at the strings for yourself, creating your own baroque masterpiece while the strings reform themselves for you. Let go and the balls will gradually make their way back to their regular pattern. You can also "throw" a ball, which creates stranger sounds. In fact, just put your mouse cursor in the way of one of the blobs and it will get stuck, leaving the music missing a quarter of its plucks.

It's the mixture of movement and sound, form and shape, tune and untune that I think makes such a tiny thing so compelling. Being able to see not just the "shape" of the music, but also the patterns it forms, the routes it takes, gives something I already dearly love (Bach's baroque mastery) an extra dimension. And that soothes my soul. Which in turn protects those around me. Go fiddle. (Which would be a clever joke if this were on the neck-based strings.)

Discovered via the amazing Jad Abumrad.