I wove a lap rug to commemorate our 21st anniversary.  I decided that an appropriate theme would be musical; so I chose music appropriate to our ancestry:  'Waltz Across Texas' for Katherine's paternal forebears and 'I Kiss Your Hand, Madame' the superhit of the 1930's which was written by my uncle. The result is shown in the four images, consisting of an overview and a close-up of each side of the blanket.

I have asked around and searched the literature but have not been able to find any reference to the approach I took to solving the problem.  All references to music inspired weaving that I have found either are simply 'inspired by' pieces without explicit reference to individual musical notes, or 'name' drafts where the melody line defines the threading (see bibliography, below). 

This blanket is based on the idea that seven shafts of the loom represent the seven notes (do, re, ..., ti) and the eight represents a rest.  The music (with orchestration or chords) is then played on the 'treadles', conceptually direct tie-up, but implemented in peg plan.  All notes are collapsed into a single octave and incidental sharps and flats ignored.  Each weft shot represents an 1/8th of a bar.  The repeat for "Kiss you Hand" is 832 shots, and for
"Waltz" it is 416 shots.  This congruence was achieved by minor adjustments to the intro and coda of each piece.  The threading is point twill.

The piece is double woven, with a tabby shot after every four pattern shots to stitch the two layers together and to hold down long floats.  If I were to do it again, I think I would space the tabby shots further apart, possibly after four shots on each layer, i.e., eight shots apart. 

If you, dear reader, know of any published reference to this treadling approach to musical weaving, please let me know. 

The warp is a 3000 yd./lb. natural camel/silk blend from Robin & Russ set at 48 epi (24 epi each layer).  The pattern weft is Scottish Beehive tweed (#163) 2700 yd./lb.  The tabby shot is light cream silk, my best estimate is 80/2/3. 
 

Bibliography

'Music for Inspiration' Handwoven, March/April 1983, p 51

'Weaving Music' by Karel Henneberger, SS&D 64: (Fall 1985) pp7-9

'Miniature Musical Drafts' by Margaret Newman, ibid.  pp. 70-71

'Supplementary information'  (Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee) by Marjie Thompson in Cross Country Weavers, March 1999.