DNA and Music (General)

by BBella @, Saturday, July 03, 2010, 08:13 (5069 days ago)

Wasn't sure what category to place this under so just placed it under general.-I found these links in my email recently that spoke of the connection between DNA, music and healing. This information might have been discussed here before but I'm not aware of it. I thought some here that listen to classical music would appreciate these links. It may not be new info here, in Agnostic Web, but it was news to me (altho the info itself is not). When I began my healing process it was done thru inward exploration. At the same time I was moved to begin writing poetry that expressed my finding in my explorations of the universe I found within. Much of my poetry in those first years spoke of music I sensed from the eons written within all that IS. Maybe if I had known how to play an instrument and write music I would have written music instead of poetry.-Intro:-Larry Dossey, M.D. in his article, "The Body as Music," addresses a deep level of music when he states: "Why are we moved by music? One reason may be that the body itself is intrinsically musical, right down to the DNA that makes up our genes." The idea that DNA and music might be connected originates with the work of Dr. Susumu Ohno, a geneticist at the Beckman Institute of the City of Hope Hospital in Duarte, California. Dr. Ohno has notated more than fifteen songs based on the DNA of a variety of living organisms. He finds that the more evolved an organism, the more complicated the music. The DNA of a single-cell protozoan, for example, translates into a simple four-note repetition. But music transcribed from human DNA......such as the body's receptor site for insulin......is much more complex. "Listeners knowledgeable about classical music hear similarities between these DNA-based compositions and the music of Bach, Brahms, Chopin, and other great composers," writes Dr. Ohno.
"DNA melodies are majestic and inspiring. Many persons hearing them for the first time are moved to tears. They cannot believe that their bodies, which they believed to be mere collections of chemicals, contain such uplifting, inspiring harmonies......that they are musical." -http://www.nslij-genetics.org/dnacorr/l-imm86-oo.html-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2766288/-http://www.musicandmeaning.net/issues/pdf/JMMart_8_5.pdf-http://www.vantagequest.org/trees/door2.htm

DNA and Music

by David Turell @, Saturday, July 03, 2010, 13:07 (5069 days ago) @ BBella

"DNA melodies are majestic and inspiring. Many persons hearing them for the first time are moved to tears. They cannot believe that their bodies, which they believed to be mere collections of chemicals, contain such uplifting, inspiring harmonies......that they are musical." 
> 
> http://www.nslij-genetics.org/dnacorr/l-imm86-oo.html
> 
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2766288/
> 
> http://www.musicandmeaning.net/issues/pdf/JMMart_8_5.pdf
> 
> http://www.vantagequest.org/trees/door2.htm-These articles offer a fascinating insight. Had never thought of musicality in our bodies in this way before. Music certainly moves us and pleases us in various ways. Thank you, Bella!

DNA and Music

by dhw, Sunday, July 04, 2010, 14:14 (5068 days ago) @ BBella

Many thanks to BBella, who has introduced us to some fascinating websites on the subject of DNA and music. We've discussed music on several occasions, but this is a brand new approach. One of the websites mentioned a video link which would enable us to hear Dr Ohno's DNA music, but I couldn't find it. Very frustrating. Could you possibly give us instructions?-You mentioned that during your own healing process, you wrote poetry, often about music. For me, great poetry is a marriage of music and language, and the impact is very similar. One of the websites mentions the fact that certain types of music have the opposite effect from healing, and of course no-one can proclaim that the object of art is to heal. I do wonder, though, whether trends in modern art, poetry and music haven't gone too far in their efforts to expunge subjectivity, emotion, harmony etc. How often do we need to be reminded that life is disorderly? These articles are a welcome reminder that there is also order underlying the disorder, because otherwise we wouldn't be here. -You probably already know the famous lines in Act V Sc. 1 of The Merchant of Venice, in which Shakespeare captures music in poetry, but perhaps not everyone does. I think I quoted the following in an earlier post on the subject:
LORENZO: There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
 But in his motion like an angel sings,
 Still quiring to the young-eye'd cherubins;
 Such harmony is in immortal souls,
 For whilst this muddy vesture of decay
 Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.-The continuation of this scene could easily be viewed as a parallel to the healing effect described on the websites. Just take the colts as a symbol.-JESSICA: I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
LORENZO: The reason is your spirits are attentive:
 For do but note a wild and wanton herd
 Or race of youthful and unhandled colts
 Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
 Which is the hot condition of their blood, -
 If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
 Or any air of music touch their ears,
 You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
 Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze
 By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet
 Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods,
 Since naught so stockish, hard, and full of rage,
 But music for the time doth change his nature.
 The man that hath no music in himself,
 Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
 Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils,
 The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
 And his affections dark as Erebus:
 Let no such man be trusted.-And all this written 200 years before Beethoven!

DNA and Music

by George Jelliss ⌂ @, Crewe, Thursday, July 08, 2010, 00:18 (5064 days ago) @ BBella

Quote: "The DNA of a single-cell protozoan, for example, translates into a simple four-note repetition. But music transcribed from human DNA......such as the body's receptor site for insulin......is much more complex. 'Listeners knowledgeable about classical music hear similarities between these DNA-based compositions and the music of Bach, Brahms, Chopin, and other great composers,' writes Dr. Ohno.
"DNA melodies are majestic and inspiring. Many persons hearing them for the first time are moved to tears."-I'd like to hear this music before coming to any conclusions, but it doesn't seem to be included in any of the links.-One of my chess correspondents is able to derive music from knight's tours of the chessboard, but it need cause Mozart no worry.

--
GPJ

DNA and Music

by David Turell @, Thursday, July 08, 2010, 02:24 (5064 days ago) @ George Jelliss


> I'd like to hear this music before coming to any conclusions, but it doesn't seem to be included in any of the links.
> 
> One of my chess correspondents is able to derive music from knight's tours of the chessboard, but it need cause Mozart no worry.-Google: Dr. Ohno DNA music. I've heard some awful stuff, and one that was interesting.

DNA and Music

by George Jelliss ⌂ @, Crewe, Saturday, July 10, 2010, 12:02 (5062 days ago) @ David Turell

There was a bit on the Today programme this morning. 
Someone is orchestrating it for 40 voices singing their own DNA. 
It sounded a bit like "Spem in Allium" by Thomas Tallis.
I just located this extract from the BBC site:-0822
Scientists have collaborated with the composers to produce a score in which singers are assigned notes that represents bits of their own genetic codes. So they are singing about themselves. The new piece, Allele, is performed by the New London Chamber Choir.

--
GPJ

DNA and Music

by xeno6696 @, Sonoran Desert, Sunday, July 11, 2010, 02:35 (5061 days ago) @ BBella

It could be that our ancestors were "more in tune" (pardon the pun) with the power of music and its ability to join us with the almighty.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"

DNA and Music

by dhw, Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 08:20 (5051 days ago) @ xeno6696

This has nothing to do with DNA, but there was a sentence in The Guardian's obituary of David Fanshawe that I found particularly striking. I remember hearing African Sanctus back in the 1970s, when it became a bestselling success, and was fascinated by it. Just in case you don't know the work, Fanshawe recorded live tribal music and interwove it with his own to create an extraordinary blend of African and western, ethnic and classical. The sentence I found so evocative reads:-"Most importantly though, David identified the core of truth behind all religions as a unifying rather than divisive factor, and saw a common tonality as an apt metaphor."-Of course the link between religion and music goes back to time immemorial, but I must confess I'd failed to grasp the philosophical implications of Fanshawe's achievement: his identification of the common ground between the art and religion of all cultures. We can blend not only the music but also the thought. And if we strip away all the sophisticated trappings particularly of the main religions, what we come down to is a basic force of Nature, an ungraspable, harmonious essence of life that lies way beyond the scope of language. You don't even need to believe in a god or gods to appreciate the wonder of it all.

DNA and Music

by George Jelliss ⌂ @, Crewe, Thursday, July 22, 2010, 00:47 (5050 days ago) @ dhw

dhw seems to be trying to make a distinction between "religions" which in my experience are divisive, and "religion" which he sees as some "core of truth", or "unifying factor" or "common ground" between religions or cultures. If there is some common ground I would see it as being our common humanity. If you take all the religious elements out of religion you end up with humanism. Many exponents of the Church of England come close to being humanists, when they say that the teaching of Jesus is "Love your neighbour as yourself". The trouble is they are not able to divest themselves of all the rest of the superstitious baggage.

--
GPJ

DNA and Music

by dhw, Thursday, July 22, 2010, 20:21 (5050 days ago) @ George Jelliss

GEORGE: dhw seems to be trying to make a distinction between "religions" which in my experience are divisive, and "religion" which he sees as some "core of truth", or "unifying factor" or "common ground" between religions or cultures. If there is some common ground I would see it as being our common humanity. If you take all the religious elements out of religion you end up with humanism. Many exponents of the Church of England come close to being humanists, when they say that the teaching of Jesus is "Love your neighbour as yourself". The trouble is they are not able to divest themselves of all the rest of the superstitious baggage.-Although this post overlaps with the one under Categories, you have raised an additional point which I'd like to respond to. The "core of truth" that binds religions and cultures is what I've referred to in the two posts as a "life force" or "a basic force of Nature". I described it as "an ungraspable, harmonious essence of life that lies way beyond the scope of language" and went on: "You don't even need to believe in a god or gods to appreciate the wonder of it all." Your reference to humanism concerns a social code, with which I wholeheartedly agree, but I think you can also extend it to appreciation of all things "spiritual", in a non-religious sense. Whether you believe in God or not, you can still love your fellow human, marvel at Nature (one of the few features of Dawkins' work which I much admire), or revel in Verdi's Requiem, Berlioz's Grande Messe des morts, or for that matter Fanshawe's African Sanctus. And so in case I have not already made it clear, I identify with the thoughts underlying your post, and I categorize myself as an agnostic humanist.
---

DNA and Music

by George Jelliss ⌂ @, Crewe, Friday, July 23, 2010, 19:59 (5049 days ago) @ dhw

dhw refers to: a "core of truth" a "life force" a "basic force of Nature" an "ungraspable, harmonious essence of life ... beyond the scope of language".-So not only is dhw no longer an agnostic, he is now a mystic!-I agree of course that one can have a sense of wonder or awe at aspects of Nature, but object to this being called "spiritual", even if it is meant "in a non-religious sense", because frankly it doesn't have a non-religious sense. Spirituality implies having a "spirit", which like "life force" etc is an unscientific concept.-I would prefer to say that reacting mentally to music or the productions of nature is a matter of "aesthetic appreciation". Perhaps there is a better word for it. But that word is not "spirituality".

--
GPJ

DNA and Music

by dhw, Sunday, July 25, 2010, 22:15 (5046 days ago) @ George Jelliss

GEORGE: I agree of course that one can have a sense of wonder or awe at aspects of Nature, but object to this being called "spiritual", even if it is meant "in a non-religious sense", because frankly it doesn't have a non-religious sense.-You have suggested that such things are a matter of "aesthetic appreciation", though perhaps there is a better word for it.-In my mind I was including a far wider range of things to wonder at, such as love and empathy (crucial also to humanism), imagination, reason, and so "aesthetic" really won't do. As far as I am concerned, this seemingly immaterial dimension of human nature constitutes a major obstacle to atheism. I understand your objection, and that was why I added the non-religious tag, but perhaps someone else can come up with a better word.-I have a similar problem with the term "life force" (see under Categories, but we may as well combine the posts). I wrote that "most religions may have a central core of truth in them, since there is certainly some kind of life force responsible for our existence." You object to the term "life force" because of its religious associations. I've looked it up, and you are right. I remembered the expression from the distant time when I acted in a production (amateur) of Shaw's Man and Superman, but I hadn't realized Shaw had borrowed it from Bergson, and both of them used it in the manner you've suggested. I suppose "chi" also has unwanted associations. One comes back to "Nature", and in the post you objected to, I wrote that I didn't see much difference between "venerating Jehovah, Allah, the Earth Diver or Mother Nature". Perhaps, then, we could say that the core of truth shared by most religions is the unknown source of our existence. How we define that unknown source then becomes a matter of subjective belief. Theists will call it God, Allah etc., and atheists will say it is an unconscious, impersonal Nature. Is that acceptable?-.

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