All works on this disc were recorded in Beall Hall, on the campus of the University of Oregon. 

Brian McWhorter – producer 
Lance Miller – engineer 

Mastered by Nick Lloyd at Firehouse 12, New Haven, CT. 

David Lang’s music is published by Red Poppy, Ltd. and administered worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc. (ASCAP). 

Grammy-Award winning flutist Molly Alicia Barth is the Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Oregon. 

A contemporary music specialist, Molly was a founding member of the new music sextet eighth blackbird, and is a co-founder of Duo Damiana and the Beta Collide New Music Project. Molly plays a Burkart flute and piccolo. 

For more information, visit mollybarth.com. 

Molly Barth would like to acknowledge the support of her collaborators, David Lang, the Oregon Arts Commission, and the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance in the production of this CD. 

David Lang would like to thank Molly Barth for her musicality and commitment. Plus all the presenters and commissioners and funders and musicians and tech people involved with this recording. And Kenny Savelson, Philippa Thompson, Tim Thomas, Mike McCurdy, Sruly Lazaros, Brian Petuch, Bill Murphy, Adam Cuthbert, Denise Burt, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe and Suzanne Bocanegra. 

Executive producers: Michael Gordon, David Lang, Kenny Savelson and Julia Wolfe 
Label manager: Bill Murphy 
Cantaloupe sales manager: Adam Cuthbert 
Photography and art direction: Denise Burt / elevator-design.dk

thorn

David Lang – thorn (Molly Barth)

While we cannot see small nanoscopic objects like proteins or other molecules that make up virtually all living matter including our cells, tissues, as well as pathogens such as viruses, our computational algorithm allows us to make its material manifestation audible.  This piece is a musical representation of the amino acid sequence and structure of the spike protein of the pathogen of COVID-19, 2019-nCoV (protein data bank identifier 6VSB [1]). 

MUSICAL DECEIT

A virus’ genome hijacks the host cell’s protein manufacturing machinery, and forces it to replicate the viral genome and produce viral proteins to make new viruses from it.  This musical art teaches us something about the fine line between beauty of life and death as an opposite pole.  As you listen to the protein you will find that the intricate design results in incredibly interesting and actually pleasing, relaxing sounds. This doesn’t really convey the deadly impacts this particularly protein is having on the world. This aspect of the music shows the deceiving nature of the virus, how it hijacks our body to replicate, and hurt us along the way. So, the music is a metaphor for this nature of the virus to deceive the host and exploit it for its own multiplication. 

HOW IT IS DONE: 

What you hear is a multi-layered algorithmic composition featuring both the vibrational spectrum of the entire protein (expressed in sound and rhythmic elements), the sequence and folding of amino acids that compose the virus spike structure, as well as interwoven melodies - forming counterpoint music - reflecting the complex hierarchical intersecting geometry of the protein [2].

Scientific references:

[1] Wrapp et al., "Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation," Science, 2020, DOI: 10.1126/science.abb2507

[2] Buehler et al., "A Self-Consistent Sonification Method to Translate Amino Acid Sequences into Musical Compositions and Application in Protein Design Using Artificial Intelligence," ACS Nano, 2019, DOI: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.9b02180

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