‘Sapiens’ is the title of the international best-selling book by Yuval Noah Harari – a monumental, ground-breaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution, that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”
Inspired by Harari’s celebrated book, American composer Sean Hickey has created a large-scale work for piano of the same title. He wrote the first three sections in 2019, and then the project was interrupted by the pandemic, the work being completed “in a rush” at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021. The piece was premiered at New York’s legendary Klavierhaus on 2/1/24 and has been recorded on the Sono Luminus label, with pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev.
‘What I have attempted is a humble musical response to human signposts, concepts, myths 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 Hickey, composer.
By his own admission, Hickey finds the piano ‘incredibly intimidating’ to write for, yet as his ideas for the work developed, the modern piano seemed the ideal instrument, both physically and philosophically, representing a ‘sort of a meta instrument, present at the dawns of humankind, the cognitive and agricultural revolutions, and some of the most notable inflection points of our troubled and triumphant history. A voyeur. A scribe. A portrait painter applying a brush across the millennia of our existence.’ (Sean Hickey, from the liner notes to Sapiens)
Sean Hickey
The work draws its structure from topics covered in the book – Pre-History, Fertile Crescent, Lascaux, Jericho, Mean Temperament, Double Helix, Confirmation Bias, and Commonwealth – translated into a unique and satisfying work for solo piano. The listener is taken on an absorbing 50-minute journey through eight contrasting movements which attempt to embody in music human forms of understanding and imagination. It’s an ambitious project, reflected in Rumyantsev’s virtuosity and deft command of the material and the instrument, even though the music itself is not especially virtuosic. In fact, it’s rather minimalistic, and, at times, reflective and restrained; for example, the work begins not on the piano, but at it, with a single breath, as the first music might have been at the dawn of our species. Each movement is dramatically different: some are percussive, others gentle, lyrical and contemplative.
Sean Hickey: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – I. Pre-History (Vladimir Rumyantsev, piano)
Vladimir Rumyantsev
There are hints of Ronald Stevenson and Sorabji in both the work’s scale (both composers wrote large-scale works built around broad themes) and musical ideas, as well as some discernible nods to Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky and Shostakovich. The movement called Mean Temperament was in part inspired by the music of David Lang, founding member of Bang on a Can, whom Hickey much admires.
Sean Hickey: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – V. Mean Temperament (Vladimir Rumyantsev, piano)
Sapiens music score
Overall, Sapiens, like the eponymous book before it, is provocative and reflective, impressive in its concept and scale, and beautifully presented by pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind for the piano is available on the Sono Luminus label.
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