Amidst the growing musical output inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic – such as Amy Dickson’s Solo Sessions or Decibel New Music Ensemble’s 2 Minutes from Home – indie-rock drummer turned molecular biologist Dr Mark Temple has released a new work to celebrate International Strange Music Day. Temple’s new work, Coronacode Music, substitutes regions of the coronavirus genome with computer-generated musical notes.

A still from Dr Mark Temple's Coronacode MusicA still from Dr Mark Temple’s Coronacode Music

Temple, a lecturer at Western Sydney University, published a study in 2017 on how audio can be used to distinguish a gene sequence from repetitive DNA. “DNA is a long, string-like molecule made up of repeating G, A, T and C bases. When you think about it, these bases can easily be converted into a long sequence of musical notes,” he said. “By replicating the pattern of a DNA sequence in an audio format, the study found that it’s possible to hear mutations in the gene sequence that might not be obvious by visual inspection alone.”

Temple has continued to experiment with Sonification, that is, creating musical renditions and melodies that convey the information content of a DNA...