Covirna – the genetic code of COVID-19 rendered into music.
Covirna is a COVID project undertaken by our former director, Rupert. Below is a short description of the project provided by Rupert:
”This piece of music is played directly from the genetic code of the COVID 19 coronavirus, the full genome of which has been published online. This genome was the first to be sequenced and was from a person in Wuhan. Genetic code of this virus comprises a single strand of RNA. The genome is very big for a virus so I have only played the first 600 of approximately 29,870 bases. RNA genetic code comprises 4 bases, which are abbreviated as G, A, C and T. G, A and C can obviously be directly transposed into music and T by a process of extrapolation. I transposed them into jianpu (简谱) – Chinese numbered musical notation and then played the result on a xiao (Chinese vertical bamboo flute) (箫) in G.
My intention in playing this piece was to make a direct connection with the virus and thereby to open up a path to an understanding of its origins and at the same time to provide a measure of reassurance that that knowledge can, hopefully, be harnessed to bring it under control.”