Lord Byron once said, “There’s music in all things, if men had ears, the earth is but an echo of spheres.” The entire human race, caught up in the web of dissimilarities and aggression are yet bound by the integral connection formed with music — one key element in the unification of our existence. Mankind could not have emerged and evolved without music. And, the stark ability to permeate and penetrate through the boundaries of reality, makes this art form one of the purest known to civilisation. So it comes as no surprise that Stuart Mitchell was seduced early by the creative simplicity of music.
A Scottish pianist and composer, Mitchell strongly feels that his music is a symphony of connection that can bring us all together under one melody. Unearthing the hidden music locked in DNA sequences and discovering a motley assortment of melodies in medieval structures, this revolutionary artiste has dedicated his entire life to harmonising the endless shades of distinction between art and science. In 2005, a collaborative project with his father led the music composer to unravel a secret musical code hidden in the intricate carvings of the Rosslyn Chapel (whose unusual structures and masonic symbolism played a significant role in the novel The Da Vinci Code). By matching the Chladni patterns on the carvings with musical notes corresponding to the same frequencies, the father-and-son team produced the hauntingly beautiful Rosslyn Motet. Thereby, introducing music’s holy grail to humanity.
His forthcoming venture will provide an extraordinary opportunity for musicians and artistes to express our ancestral mitochondrial DNA data in music, sound and emotion. Mitchell has successfully stroked the limen of consciousness by deciphering the DNA code sequence in the world’s oldest human fossil (250,000 years). A worldwide music and science collaboration, The Eve Project will melodise a song that connects us and our ancient history — The Song of Eve.
In conversation with Express, Stuart Mitchell shares his thoughts on The Eve Project, spirituality of music and the global song of mankind.
Can you tell us a little about the Eve Project?
The Eve Project was an idea born out of my research into DNA and music. Mitochondrial DNA is very melodic and the most musical of our research findings. The Eve Project is a global science and art project that expresses the data found in mitochondrial DNA, a DNA code used by genealogists to determine our ancestry. The nucleotides in this sequence can be translated into musical pitch, opening up the opportunity for musicians and artistes to express our ancestral mtDNA data in music. This sequence was obtained from our earliest known ancestor commonly known as Mitochondrial Eve. Tenor Martin Aelred and I shall be performing at various musical events and concerts of the Eve music throughout 2011.
What can you tell us about the ancestral music of mankind?
Music translated from the Mitochondrial (ancestral) DNA of humanity brings about greater awareness to each individual human being and within the data that is our genetic make-up, is a symphony of connection that can bring us all together under one melody — The Song of Eve. With the help and collaboration of musicians, writers and artists, we can express a sequence that we all carry within each of us. A song that connects us and our ancient history for all time. DNA translation to music is a new step in the evolution of human art and endeavour, and because we all carry this code passed on from mother to offspring, we can find deep inspiration in the data’s connection with our past and ourselves.
Can you tell us about your experience deciphering a musical code hidden in the ceiling design of Rosslyn Chapel?
The Rosslyn project was a fascinating five-year journey into history, science and art. It opened up the idea to me that music/vibration is a key element in the balance of life. The fact that the music was encoded using a phenomenon we call today ‘cymatics’, a form of vibrating sound to create geometric patterns, really opened our eyes as to how well-informed ancient people were and aware of the properties and potential of sound.
The decoded music has become an integral part of the Chapel’s daily routine, and my father and I find the music strangely haunting and familiar. It was extremely long, hard and tedious work but the results and discovery of the music made the effort more than worthwhile. We have a concert of The Rosslyn Motet coming up on March 19 performed on authentic 15th Century instruments.
‘The Design of a Tear’ is an experimental piece based on the musical possibilities of DNA research and various chamber works. Could you tell us more about this piece?
‘The Design of a Tear’ is my unique DNA sequence taken from one of my own tears. I wanted to create a piece that held as much emotion as it took for the tear to exist. The music is in three movements describing the birth of a tear, the life and finally the death of a tear and the piece is scored for Tenor and Piano.
The revolutionary collaboration between music and science is rather interesting. Can you tell us what your thoughts are on creating music from within (DNA) in its truest form?
Working with the music in a DNA sequence is an education unto its own. Although I am purely a musician, I have found myself understanding a great deal about genetics and the mechanisms that make it work. Discovering that vibration and ‘waves’ were largely responsible for the building blocks of life to operate made me feel I was working with a musical score and the amino acids were the orchestra. It really is a symphony of life in its truest sense. DNA music is a new form and medium of music that will be greatly appreciated by musicians, artistes and scientists alike. It is highly beneficial for education by combining two disciplines together that is educative and creative at the same time.
It was no accident that scientists recognised the musical properties in DNA and they continue to use sound and vibration as a way to re-write and repair broken DNA code in a field called ‘Wave Genetics’. Precisely tuned DNA music to a particular frequency is already being used in the healing of DNA in many fields of alternative medicine.
Would you consider music to be your spirituality?
Very much so. I do feel I was put on this earth for very little else but to explore, create and find out as much about music and its connections as possible. It is a language in a universal sense and I have always tried to express its qualities with this idea in mind. The more we understand about astronomy, physics, biology, geology and nature the more the scientist keeps running into vibration and resonance. In simple terms, music could be said to be the organisation of these vibrations into an artistic and communicatively descriptive ‘vibrational package’. It is much, much more than that. So much more that it makes you wonder why it is not recognised more in the fields of younger education and politics. It is highly valued within religious, cultural and ethnic beliefs, yet completely used and abused within our society’s infrastructure as a method of utilising and accumulating wealth.
What is it about music that intrigues you the most?
I think what intrigues me the most about music, is we don’t exactly know what it is. We feel what its effects are but it always holds a great mystery within its silence. We know humanity is not the first to interact with music. Every morning you will hear a bird symphony that has been created over millennia of time to arrive at a song that resonates with the bird’s world of today. It would be so interesting to jaunt back a million years and compare the songs the birds were singing then to their current command of music. They must be pretty good by now. Whales and dolphins especially come to mind as experts in the creational field of music using sonar to communicate, locate prey, mate, fall in love and the ultimate functional synthesis in music, to heal the DNA.
With all this time to develop their existence and integrate music into its own survival, I would say the birds, dolphins and whales did a pretty good job up until now by building their social network and life survival around a musical system.
Can you tell us about DNA Variations II — The Earth which is scheduled to release during April to coincide with Earth Day?
DNA Variation — The Earth is my second album in a series of tree, sea, earth and sky-inspired by selected and rare species Mitochondrial (Ancestral) DNA music. I chose Earth Day on April 21 to release it on because the symphony is dedicated to John Muir, the naturalist and explorer who was originally from Dunbar, Scotland, and where we will be performing Calypso Borealis with Martin Aelred on this day at the local cathedral.
As I understand, you would be collaborating with Martin Aelred for The Eve Project. How has your experience been so far ?
Martin is a wonderful artiste to work and perform with. The warmth and control of his voice expresses the Eve music in a very human and touching way. Martin is also very active in Earth conservation which is a great bonus to our project.
What genres of music do you enjoy listening to?
Although I primarily listen to classical and jazz music, I love all kinds of music. My son Lewis (13) influences me a great deal now by introducing me to hip hop and dub step artistes, keeping me from growing old. Chopin is my most-listened to composer in my home at the moment.
Word on the street is you are going to perform one of your compositions at an open air concert at The Great Pyramid of Giza in 2012? Is that true?
Yes, we have provisionally booked Light Show Arena in Giza for December 21, 2012. This concert is a culmination of a concert series going on throughout 2012 including a new piece of music composed and commissioned for The Transit of Venus in June 2012. The Giza concert will feature Martin Aelred, The Monte Carlo Philharmonic and myself conducting.
So what is in your agenda for the year ahead?
I have two new albums to be released in April and June, coupled with concerts and events with Martin in Italy and Monaco. The Eve Project will be taking up a lot of our time throughout the year and we hope to have the entire sequence completed by musicians worldwide by the beginning of 2012.
And your future plans?
To find more time to compose more music. I am working closely with scientist John Reid on a work called
Musica Celestial which is based upon the actual sound frequency of the 15,000 visible stars, to be released in 2012. I am also releasing a new book with author/musicologist Richard Merrick about some of the latest and amazing new discoveries we have made at Rosslyn Chapel since we decoded it five years previously.
— akshatha@expressbuzz.com