5. The Hominid Score
Music is thought to be a phenomenon unique to humans. But does it echo deeper into the story of life on earth? Ben Garrod explores expressions of music in our early ancestors.
Ben Garrod, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of East Anglia is on a mission to uncover a world of unexpected rhythm and melody across nature and in doing so, question our assumptions about the boundaries of musical expression and its role.
In this final essay, he draws upon his experiences as a primatologist, having lived and worked alongside monkeys and apes 鈥� to understand at which point and why, music features so heavily in our own story. From the practical roles of highly choreographed melodic duets of gibbons to the way creative drumming and calls produced by chimpanzees play in generating emotional states, that shed light on how music has become so influential for us as humans.
With contributions from Dr Dena Clink, bioacoustics researcher at Cornell University; Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes, archaeologist, author and honorary research fellow at Universities of Liverpool and Cambridge
Presented by Professor Ben Garrod
Produced by Adrian Washbourne
Mixed by Julian Mayers
Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar
A YadaYada Production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
On radio
More episodes
Next
Coming soon
Broadcast
- Friday 21:45蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
Death in Trieste
A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.
Watch: My Deaf World
Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.
The Book that Changed Me
Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.
Download The Essay
Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.
Podcast
-
![]()
The Essay
Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
