Jeremy

@Elise either is correct. The scale is known as "solfege" and is named after the middle two notes ("fa" and "sol"). Because "sol" is followed by "la" it usually gets elided when spoken, so eventually "so" became acceptable as well. Fun fact: "Do" (the first note) was originally called "Ut".

@Cat Lady Margaret What's funny is that I originally entered "modulation" (same number of letters, same initial letter) and thought to myself, "A much more common modulation would be d to F rather than D to F." Then I started thinking about early Romantic composers like Schubert who loved doing that very thing, and then of course I eventually realized my error. To answer your question, not sure if this technically qualifies, but the opening chord of Bach's B minor mass, with the soprano singing the (minor) third of the chord, is an early indicator that the piece is going to be a doozy.

@Eric Hougland Were you a fan of Robert B. Parker's Spenser series? Spenser's paramour for the entire series was named Susan Silverman.

@Craig Nevill-Manning Yup, that was the last wrong entry for me before I finally realized my mistake. "Reagan" kinda seemed like it fit, too; I was pretty sure "agit" was slang for "agitated", and I'm too young to remember the KCAR. Of course "ager" doesn't really make sense, but this is what happens when your primary source of new vocabulary words is crosswords. Is "Ager" that much less logical than, say, "URNING"?