Sounds of HIV

Sounds of HIV: Music Transcribed from DNA is a composition and album by Alexandra Pajak.

At the time of the piece's creation, Pajak was a graduate student at the University of Georgia, studying clinical social work.

[2] After examining the National Institute of Health's record of the genome, Pajak composed Sounds of HIV by assigning pitches to various nucleotides, proteins, and amino acids, in part based on affinity for water.

[1][3] Pajak's other previous compositions include a piece based on the DNA of the mother of the founder of Agnes Scott College, where she did her undergraduate degree.

[1] In his review of the work, Robert Tomas noted the "general sense of unease, creeping in[to]...this undeniably beautiful music", adding "what terrible beauty is there to be found should we glimpse inside the genome of the plague, syphilis, smallpox or even flu?