First Section:
The first section of the piece represents the worldwide growth in new countries/areas/territories, new infections, and new deaths due to SARS-CoV-2. The data is presented chronologically and always in the same order: countries, infections, deaths. The beginning of each day is represented by a solid bar line. Dashed lines are used when multiple measures are needed to clearly realize the data. Solid measure lines are numbered by the numerical day of the month. The data of each day measures the daily increase of each category.
Rules of Composition:
Data points of 4x or smaller are evenly distributed within the quarter note.
Days where data points are not met are represented by a quarter note rest.
Data points of 5x are represented by a dotted eighth note on an instrument which is lower and more resonant than the original.
Data points larger than 5x are represented by Rule #3 plus the remainder on the original instrument.
Data points of 25x are represented by a dotted quarter note on an instrument which is lower and more resonant than the instrument mentioned in Rule #3.
Each data point will be expressed with as few notes as possible.
Second Section:
Rules of Composition:
The second section of the piece represents the comparison of daily new cases in the United States of America and the European Union. The data is presented chronologically. The beginning of each day is represented by a solid bar line. Days with repeating data are represented by repeated measures. The data of each day measures the 7-day average of the daily increase of infections per region divided by 3000.
Interpretation:
The percussion instrumentation is indeterminate. Each data group should be represented by a similar family of sounds (i.e. wood=countries, skin=infections, metal=deaths). The instruments that represent larger numbers within the group should sound lower and more resonant.
This piece can also be performed in any other instrument class (winds, voice, strings). If this is desired, then pitch groups or extended techniques could be assigned to the different note positions on the staff. Resonance should still be accounted for.
The tempo is up to the performer. Tempo should be maintained throughout the piece.
Notes:
• The WHO reported the data at 10:00 CET until March 18th, where they changed the reporting time to 00:00 CET (or 23:59 CET the day prior) through March 22nd. On March 23rd, the WHO went back to reporting at 10:00 CET.
• Feb 17th saw a spike in recorded infections due to a change in recording methods.
• The accuracy of the data is limited to the efficacy of the organizations providing it.
This piece should be thought of as a reflection of the crisis through the lens of
government bodies across the globe.