Palimpsest started with poems you could wear. Wearable Music is the same idea in another language: the opening bars of a famous work, printed as the notation itself — the clef, the key, the first phrase — with the piece and composer beneath, exactly like a poem's byline.
The notation is the design
A great musical opening is as recognisable as a great first line. Beethoven's four notes. Bach's plunging flourish. You don't need to read music fluently to feel them — but if you do read music, the shirt says something specific and correct. That's the point: it rewards a second look.
Why we set every note by hand
There's a copyright wrinkle most people never think about. A composition by Bach or Mozart is long out of copyright — but a modern printed edition of the score has its own copyright in the engraving. So we don't copy anyone's sheet music. We set the bars ourselves, from scratch, in our own line-art style. The music is public domain; the engraving is ours.
The first four
The line opens with Beethoven's Fifth, Bach's Toccata in D minor, Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, and Vivaldi's Spring. See them in Wearable Music.