Suisa has music composed for the year 2123
Published: Monday, Apr 15th 2024, 11:10
Back to Live Feed
To mark the 100th anniversary of Suisa, the cooperative of authors and publishers of music, 40 concepts of future music have been written. The works are to be preserved until 2123. Some of the artists involved are breaking new ground - and storing the music on DNA.
40 concepts of future music were developed for the project. Until 2123, 200 years after Suisa was founded, the sheet music and writings will be kept in a sealed container under the care of the Swiss National Sound Archives in Lugano. This raises many questions, said project manager Johannes Rühl in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. For example, whether handwriting or sheet music can still be read in 100 years' time.
The requirement was that the works for the "Future Music" project should still be reproducible in 2123. Sound carriers were not permitted - CDs, for example, would not last long enough. So paper was primarily used to record the works.
In collaboration with the ETH, Ludwig Berger used DNA to record the composition: "The digital files are recoded and can be stored for 500 years," said Berger. To do this, the code of the sound file was converted into a DNA sequence and stored in DNA molecules. These in turn were enclosed in tiny glass spheres. The sound artist documented the sounds inside the Morteratsch Glacier.
Glacier sound for the future
You can hear the sounds created by air bubbles escaping from the ice. Berger: "I wanted to preserve the sound of the glaciers for the future - they will probably be gone in 100 years' time.
Other artists took a more traditional approach. Nik Bärtsch wrote a piano piece intended to emphasize the importance of civil and democratic society - even in 100 years' time. Percussionist Fritz Hauser used Morse code and an accompanying text.
The idea behind the project is to express yourself at a time when you no longer exist. "It's a freedom that you never have otherwise," said Rühl. The Ticino native by choice is realizing the project with the support of Suisa and other stakeholders. It makes him a little wistful, "when I think that I won't live to see the rediscovery of the works," said Rühl.
https://blog.suisa.ch/de/40-musikstuecke-die-in-100-jahren-uraufgefuehrt-werden/
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic