Nov 9, 2020

Bottoms Up on "The Butt Song"

A story of some strange artwork and the college student who made it viral.

"Garden of Earthly Delights" oil painting created by Dutch Artist Hieronymus Bosch. (1450 - 1516)

DISCLAIMER: In order to fully experience this piece about butts and the music written on them, listen to this song while reading the article. The performance is by James Spalink and he's playing the lute, harp, and hurdy-gurdy.

So, let's get into it, shall we?

A college student from Oklahoma Christian University, Amelia Hamrick, was studying the artwork of Hieronymus Bosch in class, when she noticed on the bottom right panel of the painting — something quite unusual, in fact.

There was a human experiencing something very strange in a really strange world. Oh, and he had musical notes on his buttocks, too.

So, Amelia decided she was going to transcribe the musical notes to hear what the song would sound like. Also, Amelia is the first musician to play this song after 600 years.

Simply amazing! There's no if, ands, or butts about it.

The task went viral in 2014 all over the internet, which brought Amelia much attention.

Below is The Hieronymus Butt Song - Gregorian Chant Version:

I find it fascinating that in such an intense painting Amelia managed to find this gem.

Now, we've come to the bottom of our investigation, and so all I can say is, you never know what you might find when looking deeper into an ancient painting.