By Barry Lenson
Sean Hickey’s epic solo piano work, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, in eight sections, is based on the book of the same name, written by Noah Harari. Sean’s Sapiens is played commandingly in a new recording by pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev, released by Sono Luminus.
Because this is a wonderful recording of an important new work of music, we encourage you to take the time to experience it now. In this article, we would like to explore how it came about.
What Is the Book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Noah Harari?
First published in 2011 in Hebrew, and then in 2014 in English, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind has quickly become one of the most celebrated, influential, and controversial books of our time.
The book explores the journey of homo sapiens – in other words, us – starting from the dawn of our species 100,000 years ago.
As we have evolved, Harari writes, we passed through periods that have included a cognitive revolution (including Adam and Eve and the flood), an agricultural revolution (we cultivated crops and built the pyramids), the unification of mankind (we created money, religion and empires), and the scientific revolution (we married science and empires, created capitalism, and built industries).
The book is pretty heady stuff, an exploration of the evolution of human ideas, not just of our bodies and our cities. Yet Sapiens presents more than a timeline of history. It explores deeper questions about the ideas we have had that became realities. In other words, we have imagined things that did not previously exist and made them real.
How Closely Does Sean Hickey’s Work Adhere to the Structure of the Book?
Sean has created his own unique structure for his musical traversal of the topics that Harari covers in Sapiens. He has used several historical and narrative features of the book, distilled into an original work for piano. The titles of the sections are below:
- Pre-History
- Lascaux
- Fertile Crescent
- Jericho
- Mean Temperament
- Double Helix
- Confirmation Bias
- Commonwealth
The pieces are dramatically different. Some are percussive, others gently lyrical and ruminative. But in sum, listening to them played by a remarkable pianist like Vladimir Rumyantsev makes for a completely satisfying experience that resonates deeply with something about what it means to be human.
And Sean’s piece is unique. Not many composers have endeavored to write works descriptive of the ages of man. One who tried something similar was Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799), who wrote a series of symphonies pertaining to different changes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. But frankly, they sound a lot like his other classical symphonies, pretty much the norm. These centuries later, Sean has broken genuinely new ground.
What Was the Creative Process behind Sean Hickey’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind?
In the liner notes to the recording, Sean writes, “Almost immediately after I began the book I would start to sketch out some ideas for an extensive piece of music, some dealing with its broadest concepts. This proved to be ineffective, but the idea for a piece stayed with me for a year, eventually taking shape, like many of my works, only during its composition. In no way have I tried to create a chapter by chapter illustration of the book nor of humankind (!), nor have I closely followed its overall outline or timeline. What I have attempted is a humble musical response to human signposts, concepts, mythms or ideas that we as a species have carried with us, developing along the way these past couple hundred thousand or so years, breadcrumbs on the path of humanity.”
Sean explains to Classical Archives: “In some ways, I struggled with the composition of the piece. Fertile Crescent, with its complex, central section, took nearly as long to compose as the rest of the piece. Composition was also interrupted by the pandemic and personal crises, and resumed later in 2020. The final four sections were composed in a two-month sprint, the memory of the work already somewhat fleeting to me.”
We Invite You to Experience this Remarkable Work
We are delighted to report that Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind by Sean Hickey is available for listening on Classical Archives. It has enriched our sense of what it means to be human, and we know it will be just as meaningful for you.
Sean Hickey
