The First Symphony
It was at a time when people lived in caves or in the hollow of trees. Thirty- three billion years ago. Humans still had much to learn.They could hardly
walk straight, having only recently learnt to stand upright. Speech was restricted to grunts, bellows, screeches and hand waving, but since in those days life was very simple, these largely sufficed for everyday communication. Even in those days there was a sense of the family, but not yet of community.
Man, woman and their children lived together. Monogamy was the norm, but many strayed when the opportunity presented itself. The family hunted together, and had fun together. When there was a disagreement, they beat each other up, but usually shortly after they had sex and made up.
In comparison, animals were much more developed. Birds flew as expertly then as they do now. The animals behaved and functioned in much he same
way as they do now, but obviously there were varieties which are gone now, and ancestors of fauna which now inhabit our universe. Dinosaurs, archaeopteryx, for example. But birds already chirped and sang, quadruped barked, howled, crowed, wailed and belled in much the same manner as their descendants would.
Humans had much to learn.
As an example, those ancestors had not learnt singing, let alone invented a musical instrument, and a fortiori, play one. But that was about to change.
There was this one family who lived in the hollow of an ancestor of the baobab. We will simplify matters and just call it a baobab. In the same spirit, when we talk of, for example of nightingales, we mean birds of the genus which later evolved into nightingales.
They had no names, but when the woman wanted to communicate to her man, she made a khrak sound, and he made a Horok sound. The baby was Khrikhri. We will call them Khrak, Horrok and Khrikhri.
Bees were quite different from what they are now, but they already buzzed, lived in hives and made honey. Scientists agree that it was just as tasty and sweet as today’s honey. There was a hive at a short distance for the family’s baobab. The definition of short distance has not changed much over a few billion years, although with light years and what not, long distance has.
Khrikhri was a sweet little boy, and his parents loved him in a manner no different from how modern couples love their kids. They provided for all his needs, chewing his meat before transferring it to his mouth. They took turns rocking him to sleep, and worried themselves to death if he coughed or showed any sign of discomfort. They had a strong belief in the curative powers of honey_ whenever the child appeared under the weather, they rubbed him all over with the nectar of the bees.
When the child could not take a nap after his first afternoon breastfeed, one of them would take him in their arms and rock him to sleep. One thing bit Khrak and Horrok had noticed was that there were three things which made it easier for baby Khrikhri to nod off were, the bees humming outside their house, nightingales singing, and the wind making branches of casuarinas rubbing against each other.
That winter was particularly hard, and Khrikhri had caught a chill. As is well-known, in winter bees don’t buzz, and nightingales don’t sing. The boy was restless, and no animal skin or wood fires would keep him warm. He cried and wailed for hours. Suddenly Horrok had an idea: she began to make ouik ouik noises in an effort to replicate nightingale songs. Not satisfied, she said them differently, rounding the modulation, instinctively adjusting the sounds coming out of her mouth in an attempt to imitate that lovely bird. Khrak, understanding what his wife was trying to do, began to make a noise resembling the humming of bees. At first it sounded nothing like it, but he too adjusted, altered and re-instated until it indeed bore a passing resemblance to the humming of bees. The boy calmed down but only for a short while, and flailing his arms wildly he started whining again. Khrak suddenly grabbed two small logs that he used to light a fire and began rubbing them together. Husband and wife perfected their playing until, Horrok’s nightingale imitations with Khrak’s humming together with the rhythmic rubbing of the two logs finally sent the boy to sleep.
Yes, Nature had invented the first symphony.
