SOUNDMAPPING THE GENES - Journal of Music and Meaning

JMM – The Journal of Music and Meaning, vol.8, Winter 2009
JMM 8.5. For multimedia material in this article, please see the online version at:
http://www.musicandmeaning.net/issues/showArticle.php?artID=8.5
Soundmapping the Genes
Fredrik Søegaard and Claus Gahrn
1. Introduction
“Art is the sedimentation of human misery.” (Adorno 2004)
The above remark by Adorno implies that art has its own way of preserving human experience,
using a metaphor from geology and zoology, as well as its own languages for so doing (painting,
musicmaking, sculpturing, etc).
Biology also has its own way of preserving some of the information about living beings and a
language for so doing – the DNA coding sequences present in all biological beings.
SMTG is a project involving music composition and improvisation based on biological data –
the complete DNA genetic code of the H1 Histonine protein of the rainbow trout.
Nature has always been one of the dominant aesthetic ideals for artists of any art form. Painters
have used nature in their work from cave paintings up until our day, and composers and musicians
have dedicated numerous works to the celebration of nature (see Adorno 2004).
In music, however, there is an ongoing discussion regarding exactly how nature is relevant in a
musical context. What does a sunset sound like? Or a sea?
In 1986 Japanese-American Biologist Susumu Ohno from the Beckman Research Institute of
The City of Hope, Duarte, California, created a system for composing music from DNA code
sequences, transcribing the four nucleotides into the diatonic scale according to a set of rules
formulated by Ohno (Ohno 1986). SMTG is a contemporary project in this tradition, using the DNA
coding sequence from one protein of the rainbow trout to form e.g. the melodic structure, the
rhythmic, the dynamic, etc. Structures in the 642-nucleotide-long H1 Histonine protein code
sequence are transcribed into the chromatic scale and transferred into the MIDI (Musical
Instruments Digital Interface) language. Thus the code sequence can be used as a chromatic melody
or as MIDI information, controlling chosen musical parameters in electronic and digital
environments. In this way, nature itself can appear as a ‛controller’ – via pitch or MIDI information
– of the music in the form of the structural characteristics of the genetic code sequence. In addition
to providing pitch information and creating melody and/or MIDI information to control electronic
parameters, this complete H1 Histonine coding sequence also brings a specific form to the music,
as this coding sequence is different from every other existing sequence.
2. About the Coding Sequence Translation
The translation from the genetic code to music is of course one of the basic issues of interest within
SMTG. Ohno (Ohno 1986) suggests a translation based on the diatonic scale. The problem is that
this scale consists of seven notes, but the DNA code only has four different ‛notes’. Ohno solves the
problem by including the octave and thus arrives at eight notes: two notes per nucleotide. This
entails an element of choice as the composer at any point in the coding sequence has to choose one
of two notes. Furthermore, adding to the choices, there are several diatonic scales: Ionian,Dorian,
Phrygian etc. (as well as melodic and harmonic minor and other synthetic modes), and they are all

asymmetrical – half and whole steps are distributed unevenly, an aspect which has no immediate
correlate in the four nucleotides.
Four note scales can be found in music, though: the tetrachords of Ancient Greek music theory,
for instance. These also exist in several forms, however, according to how the half/whole steps are
distributed, as all of the classic tetrachords – CDEF, DEFG, EFGA, FGAH, GAHC, AHCD, HCDE
– apart from the Lydian one from the note F, consist of one half step and two whole steps. Since
they are all assymetrical as well, the mapping process would consequently involve an element of
choice regarding which tetrachord to use.
For SMTG we wanted a system of translation that was unambiguous and completely
symmetrical and it had to be based on the number of nucleotides. We found that if one included the
next nucleotide to a given one (ie.CG) you would arrive at twelve possibilities:For each of the four
nucleotides it can be followed by one of three others apart from itself, that is 4 x 3 (= 12). If it is
followed by an identical nucleotide, the translated note just doubles its length and this also adds
rhythmic variety to the coding sequence melodies. This makes a completely unambiguous
translation into the chromatic scale possible. And, furthermore, the chromatic scale is one out of
two music scales that are fully symmetrical (the other one being the whole tone scale).
This translation is used for generating melodies in a simple fashion from various coding
sequences, but it is also transferred into MIDI language, thus enabling code sequence structures to
be used as controllers of chosen parameters in electronic music equipment (see below).
3. About DNA ‘Rhythm’
SMTG also exploits the concept of rhythm based on mechanisms in the DNA. The genetic code,
generating information on the basis of which amino acids are to form a specific protein, is based on
a triplet reading of the RNA strings, and triplets are also occurring in musical rhythms. The protein
synthesis can thus be seen (or rather heard) as a waltz, a mazurka or any other piece of music
organized in units of three beats each (see Søegaard 2003)
Research into the linguistics of nucleotide sequences (Brendel et al. 1986)
studies the concept of ‛words’ in continuous languages – languages devoid of blanks – and
introduces an operational definition of words. By means of this strategy, nucleotide sequences may
become the objects of linguistic analysis. The typical word size of the nucleotide language is found
to range from 3 to 7 (tri- to heptamers). As different genomes have distinct vocabularies,
comparisons of these vocabularies can serve as a basis for revealing functional and evolutionary
relatedness of sequences.
For each protein code sequence, it is possible to decide which polymers are ‛words’ and which
are to be avoided – as mentioned above, different genomes have distinct vocabularies. Linguistic
analysis will clarify the ‛word’ polymers and this reading will result in ‛sentences’ consisting of
different polymers, from trimers to heptamers. This framing of different ‛word’ polymers results in
an asymmetrical rhythm, resembling rhythm concepts from e.g. North Indian classical music, also
used in Western classical music by composers like Olivier Messiaen.
As the result of this linguistic analysis, the nucleotide sequences may be read as a series of
asymmetrically rhythmic measures.

4. Music
In this section we describe four pieces of music, all of which have been performed in concert. Video
documentation is presented for the first two.
H1 HISTONINE RAINBOW TROUT CODING SEQUENCE - Melodic Improvisation
(Guitar, MIDI genemap, percussion, electronics)
The solo melody that appears from the beginning is the H1 protein code in its melodic form using
the chromatic translation of the code mentioned above.
The following guitar-harmonies use the MIDI translation of the code to control various
dynamic filterings of the sound. These filterings are then also used to control the percussion
instruments towards the end of the composition.
H1 HISTONINE RAINBOW TROUT CODING SEQUENCE - rhythmic improvisation
(guitar, MIDI genemap, percussion, electronics)
This piece starts off with the H1 protein melody played in a very high tempo. The guitar, with pitch
controlled by the MIDI genemap, and percussion improvise in various sections throughout the
composition.
At the end, the super-fast version of the H1 melody is heard again. The breaks in the
improvised section use rhythmic framing principles corresponding to nucleotide sequence
linguistics taken from various DNA sources.
HUMAN X PRIMORDIAL HEPTAMER POLYRHYTHMS
(Percussion/Electronics)
This composition is made up of percussion improvisation upon an electronically recorded matrix of
multi-layered digital percussion instruments. The layers form a complex polyrhythmical structure
consisting of nucleotide sequence linguistic readings of genetic code-sequences, the polymers
originating from above mentioned linguistic analysis, taken from excerpts of a variety of DNA
strings. The percussionist is then instructed to use similar techniques employing polyrhythms and
improvise in the same “language” as the strings.
20 PROTEINS ACROSS 5 TIME POINTS.
(Electronics)
This piece is based upon protein data , and not, as in the previous pieces, upon DNA codes. The
data was given to us by Professor Mustapha Kassem of Odense University Hospital who wished to
be able to gain new insights into the protein data by listening to it as sound or music. We decided to
make three versions using different approaches to mapping the protein data into parameters that
would be easier for the ear to comprehend. The parameters in this case were the changes in pitch,
tempo and loudness of pitch. We did not wish the music to reflect a particular style or genre,

although the result in the end could be said to come close to certain abstract classical works from
the 20th century.
5. Perspectives
With growing access to biological algorithms, it is becoming possible to let nature be a part of
music-making in the form of data-interfaces between electronic sound, musical instruments and
complex computer software based on biological information, such as the MIDI genemap used in
SMTG. This opens the possibility for a closer relationship between biological information,
structures and forms in music, allowing for completely new ways of conceiving questions of
musical material and form – instead of sonata form you could have protein-based form and instead
of three-part fugues you could have polymer readings of DNA strings, just to name a few examples.
The research into the linguistics of nucleotide sequences suggests an interesting relationship
with the growing field of work in biosemiotics Together these areas will surely result in added
knowledge about the “words” and “sentences” in the nucleotide sequences. By comparing one
system of semiotics (spoken and written languages) with other systems (of, say, music and biology)
one might even produce a better knowledge of how all of the systems work.
Future goals of the project will then be to make more music, using biological information, and
to integrate the project with scientific research in the various affiliated areas: molecular biology,
sonification of DNA information and biosemiotics.
SMTG thus becomes a truly cross-disciplinary project, involving art (music), the natural
sciences (biology), nucleotide sequence linguistics (linguistics) and technology (sonification) – not
a bad accomplishment.
6. References
Adorno, T. W. (2004). Aesthetic Theory. London and New York: Continuum.
Brendel,V., Beckmann, J. S. and Trifonov, E. N. (1986). “Linguistics of Nucleotide Sequences:
Morphology and Comparison of Vocabularies.” Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics 4
(1).
Ohno, S. and Ohno, M. (1986). “The All Pervasive Principle of Repetitious Recurrence Governs
Not Only Coding Sequence Construction but Also Human Endeavor in Musical Composition.”
Immunogenetics 24, 71-78.
Søegaard, F. (2003).“ Calypsoen der gik baglæns”. Kesera 7.