Kodaly is Hungarian, not Czech. Melis Behlil. paulr wrote: During a recent viewing of this Spielberg speilfest, I noticed a scene involving a conference speech, given by Truffaut's character, in which he demonstrates the symbolic gestural equivalents relating to each note of the famous five-note musical sequence of the aliens' greeting message. This system of gestural symbols is said to derive from a pedagogical method for teaching musical notation authored by the (Czech?) composer Zoltan Kodaly. What I missed in this expositional scene, was, why was Kodaly's system especially relevant to communication with the aliens? ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]