A Ritual Soundscape
Humans learn to control sound for rituals with impressive monuments. David Hendy hears bizarre effects while beating a drum in Orkney.
Orkney's Neolithic sites feel like theatre stages, encouraging us to move through them in unfamiliar ways. If the people noticed striking sound effects, they must have been tempted to exploit them. But exploit them how, exactly?
Were these the kind of places where our ancestors came to make a spectacular din - or places where they came in search of silence and sensory deprivation?
Professor David Hendy of the University of Sussex explores the ritualistic use of sound.
30-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.
Producer: Matt Thompson.
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.
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Echoes in a Neolithic stone circle
Duration: 01:01
Broadcasts
Thu 21 Mar 201313:45BBC Radio 4- Thu 22 Oct 201514:15BBC Radio 4 Extra
- Fri 23 Oct 201502:15BBC Radio 4 Extra
- Thu 23 May 201914:15BBC Radio 4 Extra
- Fri 24 May 201902:15BBC Radio 4 Extra
Noise retold by Matthew Herbert
The head of the New Radiophonic Workshop retells the Noise series using only the sounds.
