Transcriptions
The Music of
Protein Sequences


M. A. Clark
Texas Wesleyan University

clarkm@txwes.edu

Bovine Gamma Crystallin
Bovine gamma crystallin (Swiss-Prot)

Click to turn off music

Pulse of the Planet Interview: 13-15 August 2001
Patterns of Life
One Blood
They're Playing Our Song

You are hearing Gamma Crystallin Music, a representation of the amino acid sequence of a lens protein. More music samples .

The Life Music CD including these and other protein-based pieces is now available.   

Life Music, an article by John Dunn and M. A. Clark in the journal Leonardo, describes the making of this CD.
The annotated source list Genetic Music  provides information about other DNA and protein-based music.
All of the music samples listed below were produced from the primary and secondary structure of protein sequences, using music software developed by John Dunn at Algorithmic Arts.

A Protein Primer:
A Musical Introduction to Protein Structure

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Free Crescendo MIDI player

Protein Music Featured in
Ancient Airs: A Musical Analysis of Protein Structure
Presentation for American Aesthetics Society, Santa Fe, July, 2001
Musical transformations of animal protein sequences at WhoZoo
Human protein sequences from the Gene Project Reports at Texas Wesleyan University
Projects for 2001
Projects for 2002

Note: all of the sequences from the links immediately above are simple linear readouts of the amino acid sequences of the proteins indicated. However some sense of the protein's higher order structure emerges from the alternation between the higher-pitched polar amino acids and the lower-pitched nonpolar amino acids.