I've developed a process to transmute text into music.  Each letter of text is assigned a note which creates a melody line and chords are built by stacking notes assigned to the letters of a word.  Rest lengths are assigned to spaces, grammatical signs, and some other ways.  There is no room for subjectiveness, except for the speed of the tempo, which, so far, seemes to be at the discretion of the person transmuting the text.  This began about a month ago when a member of another forum suggested I try expressing my Word Stack study (www.globallablog.com) as music.  This got me to thinking in a wider scope of any text.

The music you are hearing is transmuted from the first two paragraphs of of the Torah (which is the first five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).  I'm using a freeware called Finale Note Pad 2008 to write notation, and the program plays the music too.  It's exciting because the finished product is left up to the text, which you don't hear until after a perfect transmutation is written and then you press the play button.  The text below, the first three paragraph of Genesis, is what you are hearing.  I cut some of the song off at the end because it's just some melody without chords underneath.  More chords will fill up the space when I transmute the fourth paragraph of Genesis.  


Transmuted text:


TORAH

GENESIS

When God began to create heaven and earth -- the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water -- God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.  And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.

God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, that it may separate water from water.”  God made the expanse, and it separated the water which was below the expanse from the water which was above the expanse.  And it was so.  God called the expanse Sky.  And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

God said, “Let the water below the sky be gathered into one area, that the dry land may appear.”  And it was so.  God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering of waters He called Seas.  And God saw that this was good.  And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: seed-bearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.”  And it was so.  The earth brought forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it.  And God saw that this was good.  And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.


P.s. If you would like to add an ambient track to be a backdrop for the piano line, please let me know, and we can work something out.

I'm still  enthralled by the conceptual part of this.I really think you should take this and run with it.Develop it to what would sound attractive to the ear(melodic concept) and "wallah "the merging of science and religion will be unified in the sound of music(lol)Sorry got carried away.Nice job!

You might want to experiment with some homophones to get some interesting effects. Sun ra was a good source (sorry I'm reading a biography on him). word were'd wierd, etc... Good book God Book Cod Book Code book.....

Very innovative.

Also have you tried writing lyrics and then singing them to what has been generated?

later

Superb creativity.

Musically I cant really say I could get into it, although when I first heard it, it reminded me of some wild Jazz
projects in the seventies.

So how about adding some jazz drums and perhaps some brass hmmm.

I reaaly interested how you are going to develop this.

Cheers

Denis

Marino: thnaks again for the eclats

Bass4YourFace: Bass/Cod... what's goin' on here?... Sounds quite fishy!    Want some coffee?...  coughy... coughin'... coffin... heavin'... Heaven.    I like the lyric/song transmutation idea; intriguing and I'll try it with a poem I have... stay tuned!

Denis: I understand how one might have trouble getting into it as music, but it can be appreciated according to its science.  It would help if more instruments were added to it.  It's in 4/4 time at 275 bpm, so if anyone wants to add drums, go ahead.  Ultimately, I think it could be enhanced by adding some very atmospheric ambience.  Maybe even breaking the piano up into segments to be more bearable to the listener.