If everyone alive today traced their ancestry back through their mothers, and their mothers, and their mothers before them, we would all eventually converge.
Shrouded in the mists of time and gene pools, we would discover a woman who everyone walking the planet today is descended from.
Scientists have named her Mitochondrial Eve and determined that she lived sometime between180,000 and 581,000 years ago.
The reasoning is simple. On paper at least.
In reality, the idea that Amazonian tribesmen, Inuit whale hunters, the squad of the Dallas Cowboys and you all share a grandmother seems impossible.
In fact, I can only think of one man who would have grasped it all with ease. Largely because, he wielded such ideas every day. And because he could put them to work, sculpt the same immeasurable results in just 10 minutes of music.
His name was Jean Sibelius and those 10 minutes form the first movement of his 5th Symphony.
It begins with its Eve, a seven note idea. Tranquil French Horns and soft Timpani, the first fingertips of dawn at the horizon.
For what is about to unfold, I’d encourage listening to them right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8qiAMOiygs. (0.00-0.12) Enough times that you can hum the melody to yourself.
Her first child is born immediately. Gentle flutes and smiling oboes answered by bassoons.
New and independent though these voices seem, map their shape and rhythm against our first idea. You’ll hear that they are just a variation on our Eve, an offshoot of the same genetic code.
Inevitably, this new melody begins to grow up. It acquires a few extra notes (0.34) and a few more until eventually an unsettled, undulating line is all that’s left (0.54).
It snakes its way into what surely must be a new world. One of angst, tension, fear, completely removed from the peace with which we began (1.30).
And yet, somehow, it is not. For the begging and pleading that emerges in the woodwind (1.45) is just our Eve turned upside down.
Struggling to hear it?
Go back to the beginning and listen again. After the first long notes, you can hear that the melody rises up with a distinctive short-long rhythm. Now, go back to where we were (1.45) and listen to the rhythm there too. Yes, you’re right it’s the very same.
In 105 seconds we have travelled from peace to panic, from dawn to night. Beautifully at times, bizarrely at others. It’s a wonderfully cryptic journey that can certainly be relished in its own right.
But when we realise it took us just 7 notes to get here, something changes. A sense of awe starts to run through our veins, a feeling that some perfect magic, a power beyond our understanding, is at play here.
Do you have to put in this work to enjoy the music? Of course not. But just look at all the things you love most in the world, the things you’re most proud of.
Whether it was the exhausted muscles that took you across the finish line, the vulnerability that came with saying ‘I love you’, or the sacrifice it took to raise them, You’ll have paid quite a price for all of them.
Great music can be your inspiration, your courage, consolation and identity. It can be your soul food.
But, just as with all the things you listed, it required your agency, your energy, your inquisitiveness to become all that.
Armed with the melody and the rhythm we’ve just unearthed I’d love you go on a detective mission, to discover just how this entire movement flourishes, blooms, multiplies from just that single idea.
You’ll travel many thousands of miles, fly through the centuries and find yourself generations away from where you began.
Just like the journey from our mitochondrial grandmother to us, the steps will be simple but the results impossible: https://youtu.be/V8qiAMOiygs?t=8m46s.
Most importantly you’ll gain an unfailing companion. A friend with whom to share the great, a teacher who’ll open your eyes to the world anew, an unwavering ally in times of distress.
Who would want to watch the race when they can run in it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8qiAMOiygs
Recent Comments