Sounds of the Neanderthals

Cave paintings show the Neanderthals had a level of artistic sophistication

A modern jazz composer from Cardiff is going back in time to imagine how music was made more than 130,000 years ago.

Simon Thorne was asked by the National Museum of Wales to create a soundscape inspired by fossils in its exhibition Origins - In Search of Early Wales.

Thorne composed the music for singers and stone instruments, pointing out that cave paintings showed that Stone Age man could create sophisticated art.

The music will be performed live during a short tour of Wales in late March.

Neanderthal provides a musical backdrop for the exhibition as visitors look at artefacts and remains that have been excavated across Wales after being buried for many thousands of years.

However, such has been the interest in the musical accompaniment to this exhibition that Thorne is now touring it in its own right.

His 75-minute piece of music will be performed live by four musicians, singing and using stone instruments, and accompanied by a video evoking Neanderthal life.

Neanderthal man existed side by side with early Homo sapiens before becoming extinct some 130,000 years ago.

Despite having a reputation for lacking intelligence, recent research suggests the Neanderthals were a lot more resourceful and innovative than we first thought.

As Thorne says: "Given that Neanderthal man's brain was about the same size as ours, and much of our brain is given over to language, then you can assume they probably had language too.

"Every culture has language and music, so we can probably assume that they had some kind of music too."

Simon Thorne used a combination of ancient and modern instruments

The Cardiff-based composer admits that knowing exactly what such music would have sounded like is impossible.

"It's a ridiculous notion to suggest we could ever know the precise role that music played in the lives of the Neanderthals," he says, "but imagining it has been a fascinating experience.

"When you look at the cave paintings you have to think that if they can make these kinds of marks, then it would be inconceivable that they couldn't make music that was sophisticated.

"They were a perfectly functioning society. Okay, it was a bit drafty but it worked."

Thorne researched the era extensively before beginning to compose. Two books - Professor Steven Mithen's The Singing Neanderthals and David Lewis Williams' The Mind In The Cave - provided much inspiration and historical context.

Stone Age man would have used stone instruments to make music

Along with singers Mary Anne Roberts, Sianed Jones, Shaun Palmer and Jon Baker, Thorne began to imagine the noises Neanderthal man would have been familiar with.

"It was the Stone Age, so while they would know what stones sounded like they would not have heard metal because they had not invented it," he says.

"There was a guy at the museum knapping flint, so we recorded that. We recorded a dog and some peacocks. Slowed down they make great mammoths."

The performance also features a video projection by Rhombus Arts that leads the viewer into the cave of our first consciousness.

"Music often becomes a part of spiritual ceremonies, and when we look at cave paintings and the part of the caves they were in, you can imagine this is where music would have taken place too. The cave is a magic space," says Thorne.

The composer says that for him the project has been less about imagining what Neanderthal music sounded like, and more about giving an insight into our own communication.

"We use language for words, to communicate. But how do we learn language? If you look at babies and the noises they make, they learn to make singing noises before they learn to speak.

"We as human beings are instinctively creative," he says. "We can't not be; we have to invent things and who's to say Neanderthal man did not invent the beginnings of music?"

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Performances of Neanderthal - featuring four singers, stone instruments and video projection - will take place at Theatr Harlech on March 25; Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan, on March 26; Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, on March 27; and Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea, on March 28.

Neanderthal can still be heard as part of the Origins - In Search of Early Wales exhibition at the National Museum Cardiff until February 2010. A CD of the music is available from the museum shop and from Simon Thorne's website at www.simonthornemusic.co.uk