Major
Chemistry
Second Major
Anthropology
Minor(s)
Mathematics; Physics
Advisor
Gilliland, David
Advisor Department
Music
Date
5-2025
Keywords
Human Evolution; Musical Composition; Intellectual Ideas Through Music
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Abstract
The story of human evolution has been an elaborate progression entrenched in metamorphic processes and associated trial and error to create the species we are today. While these milestones are primarily explored through an academic lens, intellectual ideas are less often conveyed through a creative or abstract approach, such as through music or other art forms. Similarly, while music is often employed to evoke emotion, inspire reflection, or symbolize experiences, it is underutilized in conveying intellectual ideas. This project explores the juxtaposition of benchmark concepts of what makes our species distinctly human with instrumental musical expression in order to design a piece that represents these scholarly thoughts in a unique and creative way. By first gaining proficiency in music composition with MuseScore, a free and open-source music notation program, and isolating essential ideas of what makes us human, I cultivated awareness, experimentation, and dexterity in representing intellectual concepts through musical themes throughout the creation of my original composition. Human Evolution: A Musical Portrait is a four-movement piece for chamber ensemble (flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet, and trombone) which explores arboreality, environmentally-variable moments accompanying evolutionary changes, bipedalism, hunting, the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor, evolutionary change over deep time, harnessing fire, creation of stone tools, language and communication, as well as imagination and capacity for abstract thought. To document and showcase this project, I enlisted an ensemble of community musicians to create a formal recording, allowing for the preservation and accessibility of my musical reimagining of evolutionary concepts.