The Descent Of Language

According to Darwin, the origins of verbal communication lay in a musical 'protolanguage', in which speech and song were one. The Descent of Language is a playful exploration of this ancestry, and the unexpected ways it is revealed in everyday experience. Performed live in Wellcome Collection's Reading Room by vocal ensemble The Clerks, and including audience participation, the programme features new works by Christopher Fox and Edward Wickham alongside music and sounds both exotic and commonplace; a sequence embracing madrigals and 'motherese', football chants and fa-la-las, in a unique celebration of that intrinsically human instinct - to sing. Presented by Sarah Walker, with contributions from evolutionary expert Ian Cross and Edward Wickham.

The Clerks led by Edward Wickham discover the links between music and language.