Sean Hickey’s epic solo piano work, Sapiens: A Temporary Historical past of Humankind, in eight sections, is predicated on the e book of the identical title, written by Noah Harari. Sean’s Sapiens is performed commandingly in a brand new recording by pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev, launched by Sono Luminus.
As a result of it is a great recording of an necessary new work of music, we encourage you to take the time to expertise it now. On this article, we wish to discover the way it took place.
What Is the E book Sapiens: A Temporary Historical past of Humankind by Noah Harari?
First printed in 2011 in Hebrew, after which in 2014 in English, Sapiens: A Temporary Historical past of Humankind has rapidly change into one of the celebrated, influential, and controversial books of our time.
The e book explores the journey of homo sapiens – in different phrases, us – ranging from the daybreak of our species 100,000 years in the past.
As we’ve developed, Harari writes, we handed via durations which have included a cognitive revolution (together with Adam and Eve and the flood), an agricultural revolution (we cultivated crops and constructed the pyramids), the unification of mankind (we created cash, faith and empires), and the scientific revolution (we married science and empires, created capitalism, and constructed industries).
The e book is fairly heady stuff, an exploration of the evolution of human concepts, not simply of our our bodies and our cities. But Sapiens presents greater than a timeline of historical past. It explores deeper questions concerning the concepts we’ve had that grew to become realities. In different phrases, we’ve imagined issues that didn’t beforehand exist and made them actual.
How Intently Does Sean Hickey’s Work Adhere to the Construction of the E book?
Sean has created his personal distinctive construction for his musical traversal of the matters that Harari covers in Sapiens. He has used a number of historic and narrative options of the e book, distilled into an unique work for piano. The titles of the sections are beneath:
- Pre-Historical past
- Lascaux
- Fertile Crescent
- Jericho
- Imply Temperament
- Double Helix
- Affirmation Bias
- Commonwealth
The items are dramatically totally different. Some are percussive, others gently lyrical and ruminative. However in sum, listening to them performed by a outstanding pianist like Vladimir Rumyantsev makes for a very satisfying expertise that resonates deeply with one thing about what it means to be human.
And Sean’s piece is exclusive. Not many composers have endeavored to jot down works descriptive of the ages of man. One who tried one thing related was Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799), who wrote a sequence of symphonies pertaining to totally different modifications from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. However frankly, they sound quite a bit like his different classical symphonies, just about the norm. These centuries later, Sean has damaged genuinely new floor.
What Was the Artistic Course of behind Sean Hickey’s Sapiens: A Temporary Historical past of Mankind?
Within the liner notes to the recording, Sean writes, “Nearly instantly after I started the e book I’d begin to sketch out some concepts for an in depth piece of music, some coping with its broadest ideas. This proved to be ineffective, however the thought for a chunk stayed with me for a 12 months, ultimately taking form, like lots of my works, solely throughout its composition. On no account have I attempted to create a chapter by chapter illustration of the e book nor of humankind (!), nor have I intently adopted its total define or timeline. What I’ve tried is a humble musical response to human signposts, ideas, mythms or concepts that we as a species have carried with us, growing alongside the best way these previous couple hundred thousand or so years, breadcrumbs on the trail of humanity.”
Sean explains to Classical Archives: “In some methods, I struggled with the composition of the piece. Fertile Crescent, with its advanced, central part, took almost as lengthy to compose as the remainder of the piece. Composition was additionally interrupted by the pandemic and private crises, and resumed later in 2020. The ultimate 4 sections had been composed in a two-month dash, the reminiscence of the work already considerably fleeting to me.”
We Invite You to Expertise this Outstanding Work
We’re delighted to report that Sapiens: A Temporary Historical past of Mankind by Sean Hickey is obtainable for listening on Classical Archives. It has enriched our sense of what it means to be human, and we all know will probably be simply as significant for you.
Sean Hickey