A sonic interpretation of the transmission of the COVID-19 disease across nineteen of the earliest countries to report the disease.

The piece works with nineteen of the earliest countries to report the SARS-CoV-2 virus, beginning with China, and then followed by Thailand, Japan, South Korea, USA, Singapore, France, Malaysia, Germany, Italy, Sweden, UK, Iran, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Netherlands and Belgium (in that order).  Each country is given its own harmonic relative to a low 'C' assigned China.  As the number of active cases rises and falls, so do the volumes of each country's tone, and the result is a slowly changing timbre depicting the transmission of the disease. 

The data source is drawn from the daily updated COVID-19 Data Repository by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.  It is updated daily and provides an alternative way to experience one aspect of the story, or journey, of this virus, as it is told through the reported data and translated into sound.

SonoraV19

The first part of a longer work-in-progress, that takes its inspiration from statistics relating to the almost daily mass shootings in the United States of America.  When complete, it will incorporate the entire mass shooting index for the year 2019. 

The audio-visual composition is scored for trombone, piano, electronics and projected text.  As the events of the year unfold, the trombone plays one note for every person killed, and the piano for every person wounded.  The first piano note for each displayed slide also corresponds to the latitude of the location of the shooting.  The electronics carry the 'memory' of the fatally shot and come to the fore on the days when there are no displayed incidents.  As the piece develops the electronics take on a more prominent role as the killings accumulate. 

My intention is that the work will be presented as an integrated video and audio installation.  It would also be possible to perform the work, and to this end I also intend to release the compositional score with the idea that it could be adapted for any instrument or combination of instruments, to encourage further exhibition possibilities.  All going well, the full piece should be ready early autumn 2020. 

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Robert Jarvis