Reflection on Art & Music by Harry Nutter

Sermon delivered via Zoom April 26, 2020

       
Today I wish to reflect on the benefit of art and music for surviving this time of isolation and confinement.  In order to do so, I will contrast the rise of art and music with the human activities of hunting and agriculture.

The earliest small projectile points humans made date to about 50,000 years ago.  They are rather crude and were most probably used much like darts.  The earliest arrowheads date to about 40,000 years ago.  They were more refined and fastened to a shaft launched by a bow.  This means of hunting was a great advance in three ways.  One, an arrow has greater velocity and hence more lethal effect.  Two, it could be used to hunt prey at a greater distance and was thus farther removed and safer from the dangerous reactions of prey.  Three, it permitted far greater accuracy at such longer ranges than throwing a spear.

Our human ancestors also nourished themselves by foraging for food.  But their great advance in food gathering occurred quite a bit later than their improvement in hunting techniques.  Humans did not perfect the sustained perennial cultivation of plants until approximately 12,000 years ago.

Now what is so remarkable about art and music is they both preceded the innovations of archery and agriculture by thousands of years.

Bird and mammal bone flutes have been found on almost every continent.  The earliest have been dated to 49,000 years ago.  Many of them when played produce a scale of almost perfect fifths.  That would be akin to striking just the black keys on a piano.  That pentatonic or five note scale is very prevalent in African music.  Notice, too, that those five notes are incorporated within the white keys on the piano which by themselves constitute a scale of seven notes: do, re, me, fa, so, la, te.  The five black keys on a piano are half tones within those seven whole notes which collectively comprise twelve notes and constitute what is commonly understood as the Western classical scale. Prior to playing notes on flutes, our forebears almost certainly produced vocal sounds with differing pitches or notes.

Art is older than the first constructed musical instruments, and perhaps older than music itself except for the rhythmic musical element of percussion which did not require sophisticated construction of an instrument.  Pigment made by humans have been found in South Africa, along with the tools and materials Most of the healthcare providers shall ask you about your general wellbeing status with your speviagra from usa t to guarantee that you are sufficiently fit to utilize Vardenafil. They relax the penis muscles and the arteries and veins viagra australia online near the corpora cavernosa. There are several problems where these doctors buying tadalafil tablets pay attention. Men should acquire an adequate amount of buy cialis from india sun or else they can add foods enriched with vitamin D i.e. salmon, eggs, ricotta cheese, small serving of pork & beef, fortified cereals etc. for making it, at a site dated to approximately 90,000 years ago.  Not surprisingly the pigment was red, the color of blood.  The pigment may have been mixed with plant resin and/or animal fat for placing on rocks or quite likely rubbed on the body as some kind of marking or adornment.  Color is an indispensable ingredient in art, and the deliberate manufacture of it so early reveals the ancient interest in creating art.  Prior to the manufacture and use of color, early humans probably drew shapes in the sand or carved them on trees or rocks.

What can we surmise from the fact that music and art both arose tens of thousands of years before the major improvement in hunting and the agricultural revolution?  I suggest both art and music were as necessary to the survival of our hunter gatherer ancestors as the sword and plow.  Why?  Perhaps for numerous reasons.  Making art and music are forms of communication and thus they are social acts.  As such art and music promote social connection and cohesion.  Art and music being social acts are cooperative endeavors between the actor-creator and the audience.  Thus, art and music fulfilled important roles in communal rituals, entertainment and celebration.  We know that stories played an important role in imparting information or knowledge vital for survival and socialization long before the advent of written language.  Art and music are effective ways to tell stories and greatly enhance the telling of them.  As sensory beings, art and music grab our attention and incite thoughts and feelings.  We could probably surmise more reasons why art and music were vital for human survival and development.

In this trying quarantine time, I suggest you use art and music to brighten and enliven your environment.  Look at paintings, pottery, sculpture, glassware, carving, fabrics. Search the internet or google Van Gogh, Rodin, Calder, or find examples of periods such as Impressionism or Surrealism. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a site which will direct you to other videos on art and artists. Find some colored markers and scrap paper and be spontaneous.   What thoughts and ideas does art convey and provoke?

Play your favorite music.  Dance and move to it.  Search for musical styles such as jazz improvisation of classical genres.  Tap varying rhythms at the dinner table.  Call up YouTube performances.  How does music make you feel?

Take a walk socially distancing in neighborhoods and parks observing the sights and sounds of nature. If art and music were so important in the dawn of human history, they certainly still hold something of value for us today.  Before HD TV and headphones, sunsets and songbirds delighted humans and inspired them to create beauty and joy.  I believe art and music will help us survive this time of uncertainty and frustration.

Thank you for listening and may art and music enrich your lives in these dark times as they have done for countless others throughout the ages.

– Harry Nutter, long-time member of UUCOM