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News
From metronome to genome
Muncie Star Press, May 6, 2005
By JOHN CARLSON
MUNCIE – Ryan Fraley is not your typical composer.
Confronted with a monumental scientific breakthrough –
in this case, the unlocking of the human genetic code –
your typical composer would not automatically wonder how he
could turn it into a swell piece of music.
Fraley did.
The result is his Genome: Symphony No. 1, which was officially
premiered on April 20 by the Ball State University Wind Ensemble
at the Indiana State Museum. To hear the 31-year-old BSU graduate
tell it, the leap from a metronome to a genome, which is an
organism's complete genetic material, wasn't that big a deal.
"I do not have a background in science. I would just
consider myself scientifically literate," he said, explaining
why he decided to write the piece. "It's because I'm
a composer. That's how I think."
For those of us numbered among the scientifically challenged,
genetics offers the sort of mind-boggling facts and figures
that are almost too much to grasp. As Fraley noted in program
notes to the piece, the human body has 10,000 trillion cells,
each of which contains nearly 6 feet of DNA, meaning we're
all walking around with 12.4 million miles of genetic material
stuffed inside us.
Figure a way to make music with that genetic material and
you have the opportunity to create a load of notes. To use
them, Fraley had to devise a way to limit them.
"I knew the trick would be coming up with a system,"
said the composer, a trombonist whose earlier works have included
serious symphonic music and big-band jazz.
To be laughably simplistic, Fraley assigned certain musical
pitches to certain DNA characteristics. With the endless combinations
of sounds the DNA pitches offered him, he picked and chose
strings of melody that best suited his musical purposes.
Melody was important.
Fraley's piece was commissioned by director Joseph Scagnoli
and the BSU Wind Ensemble in celebration of the university's
new Sursa Performance Hall. Scagnoli wanted a piece that was
memorable – but memorable for the right reasons.
"He was a little apprehensive," Fraley admitted,
noting Scagnoli had early concerns that the music would be
"cold and unlistenable."
But he needn't have worried.
"It's very melodic because I went mining for that material,"
the composer said, discussing his ability to use or discard
the resultant lines of DNA–inspired melody as they suited
his composition. "It shouldn't be surprising if you consider
the sheer volume of data. Every combination of notes is there
somewhere. ... I would just download large chunks of it."
Use of the computer notwithstanding, Fraley also employed
the methods of the composers of old.
"I encoded the musical pitches by hand," he said,
calling the result "a collection of melodic themes."
He also studied styles of music from Tibetan to progressive
rock, sounds he described as being "all across the spectrum,"
for inspiration.
What does Scagnoli think of the half-hour work that resulted?
"It's a wonderful piece," the professor said. "This
piece has a lot of wonderful musical moments."
"Impact" moments is what Scagnoli calls them, times
when a piece of music sends a chill down your spine.
"He just didn't miss," he added. "I think in
years to come this will go down as a major piece for concert
bands. ... This'll make his mark as a composer."
The person earning these raves comes off as a friendly, unassuming
fellow.
Tall, with short blonde hair and a shadowy smudge of beard,
Fraley was recently on hand when the ensemble recorded the
work at Ball State University. That done, the composer helped
pack recording equipment, looping the electrical cord and
breaking down microphone stands before helping to haul it
away.
Fraley's work is, Scagnoli acknowledged, a challenge for his
young musicians to perform.
For the young composer, whose wife, Abby, is also a BSU music
graduate, the completion of the piece marks the end of a process
that began in 2000 with the announcement that the genome had
been mapped.
After some preliminary work, Fraley began putting notes to
paper about two years ago. Since completing it, he has been
gratified by its reception, but now he's ready to try other
things.
"I do need a bit of a break," said Fraley, who works
for FJH Music Company, a major publisher.
Many more of his compositions will undoubtedly be forthcoming.
Will his experience with the genome piece make writing those
easier?
Nah.
"It's such a different aesthetic," the composer
said.
Whatever music follows, however, Scagnoli said success, appropriately
enough, is in Fraley's genes.
"That guy's a winner," he said of his former student.
"They know he's a young talent that's really coming on."
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