There is a musical tune hidden in the artwork of the Gate of Time in Skyward Sword. The song is in the symbols between the goddess marks. Upon close inspection, one can see a modified musical staff with accompanying notes on it. Each of the three sections has different arrangements of the nodes representing musical notes. Further, the notes are either hollow or full, indicating how long the notes are played. The tempo on the song is provided in the ticking gear of the Gate itself. Each staff is five units long, though the staff between Farore and Din has only four notes. The staff can be represented in standard notation by changing the horizontal lines on the gate to the empty space of a regular staff. There are four of each.

Each staff also share the same special note. That circled note has what appears to be a staccato symbol above it. The upper dot may also be a second note attached with a ledger. Since the note is surrounded by a circle, we can ascribe them as double notes.

It seems that whole notes do not usually have stems, but the ones included here do. I’ve included them for further analysis.

Goddess symbols as clefs: The position in relation to the staff and the size of the goddess symbols implicate them as clef symbols. Searching through musical clef symbols, Nayru’s symbol most resembles a modern Gregorian chant notation of an F-Clef. Din’s symbol looks like an Octave Clef used in choral writing. And lastly, Farore’s symbol (and by extension the Kokiri symbol) closely resemble a bass clef. If we flip Farore’s symbol horizontally, it would resemble a modified F-Clef used in hymnals. This would be consistent with the other, choral, symbols.

I will certainly admit that idea of goddess symbols as clefs is very flimsy. Especially when we include the beams emanating from the Triforce in the centre. Here too are varying sizes that, when taken in a musical context, can translate into a musical notation. That implicates the goddess symbols as notes within a continuous looping tune.

When interpreting the music, feel free to disregard the clefs and choose one that is appropriate for the instrument you are using. Unfortunately, while I have the ability to discern and interpret these notes, I do not have the ability to read or perform them.

Here is the musical staff represented on the Gate of Time

Note that the Triforce beams have three extra notes where the goddess symbols would be in the upper staffs.