MUSIC AT ROCK ART SITES (CONTINUED):

On March28, 2010, I posted a column concerning evidence of the creation of music as a subject of a painted panel in the Sanctuary of the cave of Le Trois Freres. Additional evidence of Paleolithic music in connection with rock art is presented by the upper Aurignacian carved relief known as the “Venus of Laussel” cave in France. This famous female figure is shown holding what appears to be a bison horn in her right hand. The horn is marked with thirteen striations down the side.

"Venus of Laussel", stone relief carving, Laussel cave, France.
p.41, Rault, Lucy, Musical Instruments, Craftsmanship
and Tradition from Prehistory to the Present,2000.

This figure actually suggests two possible musical implications. One, the horn might be played trumpet fashion. In Musical Instruments, Craftsmanship and Tradition from Prehistory to the Present, Lucy Rault (2000) provided pictures of tribal people playing animal horns trumpet fashion. In playing a trumpet the sound is provided by vibration of the player’s lips blown into the mouthpiece, in these examples a hole drilled into the side of the horn down near the pointed end. Although the Venus of Laussel does not have the horn held to her mouth we must allow the possibility.

Side-blown Kudu horn, Chad. p.198, Rault, Lucy,
Musical Instruments, Craftsmanship and Tradition
from Prehistory to the Present, 2000.

Another possibility relates to the thirteen striations on the side of the horn. With these it is possible that the horn was played as a rhythm instrument known as a rasp. The Ute Indians of Colorado and Utah use a rasp called a morache for their annual Bear Dance in which a notched stick or bone (reportedly originally a bear jaw bone) is held against a resonator such as a basket, a drum, or a plank over a hole in the ground, and rubbed with a stick. The rubbing of the stick back and forth over the notches provides the vibration of the instrument. The sound was felt to reproduce the growling of the bear. Back in 1980 my wife Charlotte and I attended the spring Bear Dance at Ignacio in the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in southwestern Colorado. The continuing low drone of the morache is immensely compelling and quickly begins to resonate in the mind of the listeners. Rault points out that with the striations marked on the side of the horn held by the “Venus of Laussel” it could have been played as a rasp, rubbed with a stick like the Ute morache and the conical form of the horn would also provide the resonating chamber. Perhaps this sound echoing within the cave would provide a roaring or growling sound to emulate one of the great animals painted on the cave walls.

Stalactites as lithophone, South Africa. p.25, Rault, Lucy,
Musical Instruments, Craftsmanship and Tradition
from Prehistory to the Present, 2000.

Another interesting possibility for music played within a cave is provided by the presence of stalactite and stalagmite formations which can be played as a percussion instrument. Such a formation used to make music is known as a lithophone, a stone instrument. Rault stated that in some of the painted caves of Europe evidence remains as signs of impact on such stalactite and stalagmite formations that would ring like a xylophone when struck with a wooden, bone, or perhaps an antler hammer.

As I stated in my previous posting none of this is proof that there was ever any playing of music in company with rock art painted on the cave walls. We must, however, acknowledge that it could have been, and I prefer to assume that on ceremonial occasions music and other sound effects would have been included in at least some of the ceremonies.

REFERENCE:

Rault, Lucy
2000 Musical Instruments, Craftsmanship and Tradition from Prehistory to the Present, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York.