U of I professor commissioned to compose a piece of classical music from coronavirus

Posted on April 7, 2021

*Depiction of proteins becoming music in computer form. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)*

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – What does coronavirus sound like?

A University of Illinois music professor was commissioned to write a song not about it, but from it. He didn’t say anything about a savage beast, but composer Stephen Andrew Taylor says there is something special about music.

“We are all on the planet for a pretty short time,” says Taylor. “I think we are just trying to help each other to get through things as best as we can, to try to be friends with other people, to try to help other people, and I think music is a deep way of doing that. It’s just such a fundamental part of being a human being.”.

Commissioned by connections he has in Arizona, Taylor uses an algorithm to turn proteins into notes, played now by a campus quartet.

Jupiter String Quartet – Arizona Friends of Chamber Music (arizonachambermusic.org)

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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