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REVIEW BY RUPERT TILL
I first came across Graeme Lawson’s work about 16 years ago. He is a pioneer in exploring musical instruments in the archaeological record. His work is always highly detailed, applying an archaeologist’s methodological rigour to provide detailed evidence from excavations. He is also an excellent musician; unlike some music archaeologists, he plays replicas with a musician’s ear for detail. Lawson’s first publication was a letter in CA 52, in 1975, written from Cambridge University, where his PhD was published in 1981. It was soon followed by a Cambridge fellowship at the age of 25, starting a long-standing association with the university’s McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
His book is highly anticipated, as he hasn’t published extensively in recent years due to his commercial work. It draws on a lifetime of work as a music archaeologist, studying musical instruments often in fragments, with a detective-like approach to unveiling their stories. It is written in an erudite but accessible, intelligent style, but does not include academic citations. It is highly readable, with small chapters of a few pages each, telling bite-sized stories about individual artefacts. It’s a shame there are few references, but Lawson’s knowledge of music archaeology is unique and very reliable. Many of the chapters in his book refer to instruments where he was the archaeologist who studied the find; he has direct knowledge of many of these cases, or otherwise has a close connection to those who do.
Most stories tracking the history of musical instruments start with the oldest and move forward through time, but this book delves into the musical past beyond history into archaeology’s timescale. It starts with the modern era and stretches backwards through the industrial era, Enlightenment, Renaissance, ancient Rome, Greece, and beyond into prehistory. Layer by layer, Lawson takes us back in time, a process reminiscent of H G Wells’ time machine, telling stories at points through the journey and providing an understanding of the development of musical instruments.
We hear of fragments of a harp lost at sea which helped archaeologists identify the ship it sailed on, of ancient lutes, and Transylvanian bells. Lawson studied musical instruments of the Mary Rose, preservation in Irish peat bogs, and the music archaeology landscape of Scandinavia. This study goes beyond Europe, reaching out to musical whistle jars in Latin American Mexico, flutes in Peru, instruments in Africa, stone and bronze bells in China, and his particular expertise in the stringed lyres and harps of Europe.
The book’s format shares stories about instruments woven with information about their history and construction, and research findings. This makes it a highly rewarding read, requiring no knowledge of archaeology or music research, although the more you know, the more you gain from the text. Without giving away too much, one chapter deals with Tutankhamun, describing the musical instruments found in his tomb, including a trumpet that was destroyed and hastily glued back together for a live radio broadcast after a military bandsman used a modern mouthpiece on it. This incident inspired the field of music archaeology to use replicas of ancient artefacts to preserve original items.
Lawson tells it more elegantly, but you get the idea: the detail of an archaeological find is described, and one also learns about replicas, reconstruction, preservation, musical culture, and the stories evolving around past cultures. As the final chapters plunge backward, the book accelerates into increasingly fascinating worlds: the lyre of Ur, Ice Age instruments, 40,000-year-old vulture-bone pipes, and discussion of the birth of music in prehistoric humanity.
Overall, this is a wonderful book. Lawson draws links between different cultures and traditions in a very insightful way. Rather than a dry academic monograph, this is a book full of research and knowledge, the deft writing of a lifetime’s experience spent doing music archaeology. It’s highly recommended for anyone interested in archaeology, history, or music, and a must-read for those fascinated by all of those things.
Sound Tracks
Graeme Lawson
Penguin (£25)
ISBN 978-1847926876
