This research study tries to encompass many worlds of knowledge or possible knowledge, or wished-for knowledge:
“AVPR1A and SLC6A4 Polymorphisms in Choral Singers and Non-Musicians: A Gene Association Study,” Andrew P. Morley, Madan Narayanan, Rebecca Mines, Ashraf Molokhia, Sebastian Baxter, Gavin Craig, Cathryn M. Lewis, Ian Craig, PLoS ONE 7(2), 2012: e31763 The authors, at King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre in London and at King’s College London, report:
“We conducted a genetic association study on 523 participants to establish whether alleles at these polymorphisms occur more commonly in choral singers than in those not regularly participating in organised musical activity (non-musicians)…. In a related musical project involving one participating choir, a new 40-part unaccompanied choral work, ‘Allele’, was composed and broadcast on national radio. In the piece, each singer’s part incorporated their personal RS3 genotype.”
BONUS: An essay by Michael Zev Gordon [pictured here], the composer of the musical piece, and a Royal Society of Medicine press release about the music.
BONUS: Genetic Changes in a Population of Boreal Chorus Frogs