Coding Music to Resemble DNA: Life Governing Patterns pt. 2

This is a continuation of this article discussing the fascinating work of Susumu Ohno, a geneticist who transcribed a Chopin Nocturne into a genetic code similitude.
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After some browsing an the help of a friend I was able to get my hands on Dr. Ohno's original publication. Now we can really dig in to the 'how' and 'why.'

Why music?
As mentioned earlier if we think of music in the simplest of terms it is audible time. Also consider that music, in addition to being temporally based, contains multitudes of patterns and, as Ohno puts it, periodicities. Consider the following elements of music:

Tempo- the overall speed of the music.

Rhythm- The beat and subdivisions of the beat in music.

Melody- A series of pitches.

Harmony- Groups of pitches that support the melody and occur in a progression. Along with rhythm, the scaffolding of music.

Dynamics- The range of volume in music.

Texture- The number of melody lines and their relationship(s) to each other.

Form- The larger scale organization of the above elements into a musical composition.

Ohno noticed something strikingly similar about a coding sequence for phosphoglycerate kinase (a sugar metabolizing enzyme) and the form of a musical composition. Let's take one quick step back to grade school biology class:

A= Adenine
T= Thymine
C=Cytosine
G= Guanine

These are the four base pairings found in DNA. In the coding sequence 419 codon long for that enzyme mentioned above a string of 10 bases (referred to as a decamer) A A G G C T G C T G and its shortened derivative (referred to as a hexamer) A A G C T G occur endlessly because they are building block base oligomers. This recurrence of the primordial decamer and derivative hexamer are broken up with another decamer ( A A C A A C C A G A) and its shorter derivatives sprinkled in there in a way that reminded Ohno of the way melody and harmony are organized in musical composition.

Assigning Pitches to Bases

Dr. Ohno produced compositions from DNA to music and vice versa based on the following set of rules.

As you can see, the four bases were assigned consecutively in the ascending order of A, G, T, and C. His rationale for doing it that way reinforced that A and G should be on the lower end of the octave scale because of their heavier molecular masses as purines. He also considered that since T pairs with A, it should precede C so that in the next octave the next A will be placed above C and that in descending the scale C can occupy two consecutive positions. It is also important to note that yes, the above is a C major scale, but think of the note values instead as solfege for transpositional value. Remember that the Nocturne in question is in the key of F minor.

With these rules established the translation between music and DNA was born.

Do you think the rule set is viable for means of accurate and purposeful translation or does it smell like a coincidence/ arbitrary assignments? Comment below with any thoughts or questions!

To be continued in part 3...

Sources:

"The All Pervasive Principle of Repetitious Recurrence Governs Not Only Coding Sequence Construction but also Human Endeavor in Musical Composition" by Susumu and Midori Ohno.