Science :: DNA in Beethoven’s hair sequenced to make one last song

There's a piece of Ludwig van Beethoven that still exists almost 200 years after his death — a lock of his hair. The hair even survived through The Holocaust thanks to an enterprising prisoner who knew the safest place to hide it was inside his behind! But that's not the most fantastic part of the story. After the lock of hair was sold at an auction in 2009, a team of artists and musicians got their hands on a piece of it, submitted it for a DNA analysis, and actually composed a piece called Ludwig's Last Song using the results.

The details of Beethoven's genes were given to Scots composer Stuart Mitchell who was involved in Cymatics, which is essentially the study of visible sound and vibration. Mitchell decided to assign a note to each of the 22 unique amino acids he found in the DNA sequence. Every note was placed on a musical staff that corresponded to the resonance frequency of its amino acid. Using these notes, he then arranged a piece for the viola and a piece for the piano, which when combined made up the finished product that's available for purchase.

But Beethoven fans take heed: the song doesn't sound anything like the maestro's compositions, as you can hear in the video above. As Mitchell said, "Everyone expected to hear it in the style of Beethoven but the melody is almost tragic. To me it sounds like somebody fighting, struggling, a really sympathetic melody with a great deal of soul."