£3.5m project to research ancient music

Music lecturer to create record label and ‘digital time machine’

MODERN Europeans will hear again the music and the instruments of their distant ancestors – from dwellers in caves to audiences at Greek and Roman amphitheatres – thanks to a £3.5 million project in which a University of Huddersfield lecturer plays a key role.

Dr Rupert Till (pictured) – who is already renowned for projects such as a recreation of the acoustics of Stonehenge – is one of a team of researchers throughout Europe who have devised the European Music Archaeology Project (EMAP). Its aim is to seek a common European musical heritage rooted in antiquity. Dr Till himself will oversee the creation of a special record label, which will feature the project’s findings.

Using a wide range of evidence – including archaeological survivals and ancient pictures – the EMAP researchers will attempt to reconstruct primitive musical instruments from as long ago as 40,000 BC and as “recently” as 400 AD. Specialist performers will then experiment with the recreated instruments and reach conclusions about the type of music that was played on them.

The first video is a virtual reconstruction of Stonehenge using visual and acoustic digital modelling, created by Rupert Till and his project team. (*)



The second is an audio file of the Stonehenge Radio 4 wind drums piece for the European Music Archaeology Project. (*)



“The project is not really designed to recreate ancient music as such,” says Dr Till. “You can’t really know what music sounded like thousands of years ago.  But you can produce music that demonstrates the instruments and some of the techniques used.” [...] hud.ac.uk

(*). Vídeos YouTube añadidos a Paleo Vídeos > Prehistoria Universal > L.R.2.5 nº 32 y 33.

Actualización 14-06-13. Proyecto de la Unión Europea para investigar la música antigua

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