A Secret Chord

When did we, as a species, first start to sing?

Archaeologist Dr Brenna Hassett takes us on a several-million-year-long journey to ask how we came to be the species that makes music. It is the story of noise. Purposeful, beautiful noise. And the unbelievable talent we have for adapting the material world we live in to make instruments that make noise. And from there, to make music.

But before reed whistles, wooden flutes, stone lithophones and clay drums, the first ever instrument was surely the human voice. When did we learn to sing with it?

This series of essays is part of Key Changes: Radio 3's Essential History of Classical Music
Written and read by Dr Brenna Hassett from the University of Lancashire
Produced and directed by Becky Ripley