Notes on notes (solution No. 3,292)

After some easy puzzles for summer, Hot and Trazom took us back to school and did not bother with starting off slowly: this is postgraduate puzzling.

Themework:  A large part of the theme is the names of musical notes on a scale: (“do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do”), though there are a few clues trading on other definitions of “notes” (10 across).  The latter could really trip people up if they were expecting that once they got the theme there would only be one definition in play.  

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): hard.  Even after you got the theme, the clues trading on other definitions of “notes” were a banana peel waiting to trip up unsuspecting solvers.

Political content: 12a

Musical content:  See themework.  Also 27a, which is one of the first electronic musical instruments, working on principles of variable capacitance in tuned circuits that were also part of the MR probe tuning R&D I did as part of my graduate work (see my patent on the DoubleDrive circuit: there were variable capacitors to tune to the two or more desired frequencies and then you would tweak the inductors to match both resonances to 50 ohms impedance).  The theremin is the instrument you hear in the theme of the original Star Trek TV show.

  

Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,292 below the fold.

 

Legend: "*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed; "( )" letters inserted; "_" or lower case: letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue, “^” first or last letter or letters, “{“ relocated letter or letters; “§” heteronym, “¶“ letter bank

Across

1a	SOL(AR F)LARE	ARF (“bark”) contained in (“interrupting”) SOL LA RE (notes)
6a	FARE	See 18d
10a	<NOTES<	<SET ON< (“attack”, reversal indicated by “in retrospect”) This answer is cross-referenced anywhere you see red in the annotation.
11a	MUL(TILA | N)E	TI LA (notes) + children^N^ (last letter indicated by “finally”) contained in (“riding”) MULE (“hybrid”)
12a	*EXT(REMI)ST	RE MI (notes) contained in (“immersed in”) *TEXTS (anagram indicated by “subversive”)
13a	BILLS	Double definition, with cross reference to another definition of “notes”
14a	*EM DASH	*MASHED (anagram indicated by “painfully”)
15a	*OUTINGS	*UNITS GO (anagram indicated by “berserk”)
18a, 6a	FANFARE	FAN (“supporter”) + FA RE (notes) This was the answer that tipped me to the theme.
19a	*SESTINA	*ITS SEAN (anagram indicated by “redrawn”) Very obscure.  Had to look this one up.
21a	RAF | FLE_	RAF (“British pilots”) + FLE_w_ (“took to the air,” omission of last letter indicated by “almost”)
24a	*STONE	*NOTES (cross-reference to 10a, anagram indicated by “roll”)
26a	IN | AU | <GUR< | AL	IN (†) + <RUG< (“wig,” reversal indicated by “flip”) contained in (“in between”) AU (“gold”) + AL (“aluminum”)
27a	THE(REMI)NS	THE (†) + NS (“poles”) containing (“on either side of”) RE MI (notes)
28a	LO(I)RE	LORE (“traditional knowledge”) containing (“encompasses”) I (“one”)
29a	DODO	DO DO  (notes) The wordplay is entirely notes.
30a	*TRANSCRIPT	*SPRINT CART (anagram indicated by “recklessly”) Here “notes” figures into the definition part of the clue.

Down

1d	~SENSELESS	~CENTS-LESS (“with no pennies,” homonym indicated by “in your ears”)
2d	LATI | *TUDES	LA TI (notes) + *DUETS (anagram indicated by “dissonant”) Nice choice of anagram.
3d	RO_STERS	RO_o_STERS (“chickens,” omission of one O indicated by “with one egg instead of two”)
4d	LIMP | ID	LIMP (“exhausted”) + ID (“source of primal urges”: psychological term)
5d	RELATI | ON	RE LA TI (notes) + ON (“appearing in”)
7d	<AVA(I)L<	<LAVA< (“molten rock,” reversal indicated by “flowing upward”) containing (“around”) ^I^sland (first letterindicated by “tip”)
8d	EVEN}S}	}S}EVEN (“7,” transposition of first letter indicated by “shifting top to bottom”) Very good to stick this numeric clue in a puzzle with so many cross-refs.  It was a smart misdirection.
9d	<GIB< | BET	<BIG< (“large,” reversal indicated by “raised”) + BET (“stake”)
16d	N | *EFER |TITI	^N^orway (first letter indicated by “capital”) + *FREE (anagram indicated by “footloose”) + TI TI (notes) Second one I got, confirming I understood the theme.
17d	STEELIEST	¶TILES (letter bank indicated by “broken up and reassembled repeatedly”) Good time to pull out the letter bank.  This word is made entirely of very common letters, so other clues would likely have been more boring.
18d	FAMI | LIAR	FA MI (notes) + LIAR (“Pinocchio sometimes”)
20d	I | CEMEN_	I (“iodine”) CEMEN_t_ (“glue,” omission of last letter indicated by “for the most part”)
22d	*ANGELIC	*I GLANCE (anagram indicated by “diabolically”)
23d	RAISIN_	RAISIN_g_ (“cultivating,” omission of last letter indicated by “largely”)
24d	*SATED	*DATES (anagram indicated by “stewed”) Most obvious clue in the puzzle.
25d	O | READ	O (“nothing”) + READ (“to peruse”)