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Why Do We Sing?

Choirmaster Gareth Malone mixes science and cultural history to explore singing's role in our development. From 2008.

Gareth Malone explores how man developed the vocal capability to sing.

He investigates how singing as we know it today began hundreds of millions of years ago.

Discover how prehistoric man used a type of vocal communication which could be called the precursor of singing.

Gareth finds out how this changed and developed as man evolved.

He explores what this tells us about human communication and how our relationship with song has grown out of moments in early history.

Producer: Emma Kingsley

First broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 in 2008.

30 minutes

On radio

Thu 6 Mar 2025 10:30

Broadcasts

  • Tue 19 Aug 2008 13:30
  • Sun 2 Nov 2008 13:30
  • Fri 6 Feb 2015 06:30
  • Fri 6 Feb 2015 13:30
  • Fri 6 Feb 2015 20:30
  • Sat 7 Feb 2015 02:30
  • Thu 21 Dec 2017 06:30
  • Thu 21 Dec 2017 13:30
  • Thu 21 Dec 2017 20:30
  • Fri 22 Dec 2017 01:30
  • Thu 6 Mar 2025 10:30
  • Thu 6 Mar 2025 16:30
  • Fri 7 Mar 2025 00:30