Survival Machine

Sound to Music
Once the sounds were created I set to composing music for the flute part. In order to allow for a certain level of flexibility and expression I allowed myself to adjust the DNA sounds as follows:

• The rhythms for all sounds generated by list type 0 were freely composed, but no pitches could be repeated or reordered.
• Sounds from different lists could overlap freely within the same exon.
• List type 11 can repeat
• In the last section (exon 6) list type 12 can repeat, and the repetitions can be freely reordered, but not shortened.

While working with the material I was surprised—and pleased—to see pitch patterns emerge. For example, in the first section the pitches F, Bb, F#, appear twice in that order. Many other times a pitch will repeat (usually in a different octave). These patterns were all helpful when trying to create continuity within sections, as well as overall through the piece.

The flute music always relates to the DNA music in some way. In the open, recitative-like passages the flute lines use the computer pitches points or arrival and departure. I was also able to draw motifs from the list type 12 music that also provide abundant material for the flute.

In the last part (exon 6) a section of improvisation is included. This is natural in the context of the loop based music (due to repetitions of lists 11 and 12). And it provides one last element of tension between the strict coding the the DNA music and spur of the moment creativity.

In performance, the player will be provided with a foot pedal connected to a computer, controlling the playback of the DNA sounds. At certain points in the piece the computer will pause playback, allowing the player to catch up. Or more accurately: allowing the player to be expressive without running the risk of losing synch with the playback. Giving the player this control is appropriate, not only in general performance terms, but also in keeping with my metaphor. As Dawkins puts it:

The genes too control the behavior of their survival machines, not directly with their fingers on puppet strings, but indirectly like the computer programmer. All they do is set it up beforehand; then the survival machine is on it's own and the genes can only sit passively inside… Like the chess programmer the genes have to 'instruct' their survival machines not in specifics, but in the general strategies and tricks of the living trade.*

*Richard Dawkins. The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press, 1976), pg. 56, 59.