Grooved Whale

When I look at the many different avenues I have explored over the past decade in my search for music in other species, one of the main differentiators I see between us and other creatures is that the human species has many songs and we have to create each and every one of them.

How is a song brought into being? Why is it brought into being? What is its lifespan? Why do some outlive others? Can everyone create music? What is the ratio of creators to listeners? Why do composers compose? Why do I compose?

What would the human species look like if we only had one song? Would we still consider ourselves be a musical animal?

The whys and wherefores of our present form continue to be revealed in this article on the  short legs of our ancestors. I can only wonder how our sense of balance must have been challenged as we left the tree canopy and began foraging on the ground. Did our sense of rhythm change?

I love this line in this article:

“We don’t really know how aggressive australopiths were,” Carrier says. “If they were more aggressive than modern humans, they were exceptionally nasty animals.”

The mystery of how we evolved fascinates me, especially since we carry so many vestigial features within our present day bodies. I’m glad we let go the hairy female chest but perhaps we aren’t really all that different from Ardipithecus?

“Inside the Music explores the whys and wherefores of music, through documentaries and radio series about the lives and work of great Canadian musicians.”

I received an invite to be interviewed by the CBC Radio series “Inside the Music” .  I am honored as this was an opportunity to inspire and share my work, but also to be considered among the great names in Canadian music was humbling.

Presented by National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis, the Interview will be aired this Sunday, November 22nd at 3:00pm on Radio 2 or 9:00pm on Radio 1.