Big-up to the Druid Massive!
This isn’t strictly speaking a music post, but it’s close enough to be of relevance to this blog. Plus, you know, it’s my blog and I say it counts. Oh, the power.
So, anyway, Stonehenge.
Stonehenge. house of ROCK!
There have been all sorts of suggested uses for the place, too. Some say it was a focus point for sun worship. Others a meeting place for festivals, or perhaps a Lourdes-like destination for pilgrimage. More luridly, it has also been imagined that human sacrifice too place on that altar in the centre.
It’s recently been suggested that the central purpose of Stonehenge was… a music venue?
Apparently so. Rupert Till, an acoustics expert and part-time DJ from the University of Huddersfield, is convinced that the ancient site would have had the ideal acoustics to set up a ‘repetitive trance rhythm.’
Bangin’. Maybe it would have been a bit like this:
Those crazy Pagans. Seem like a restrained bunch, don't they?
Of course, everyone who’s ever been to Glastonbury, Cropredy, or even a particularly rowdy village fete, knows that music is better in the open air. It’s also true that there are a few neo-pagan festivals kicking around the UK, for example Edinburgh’s Beltane Fire, which give a bit of a hint as to how something could have been done. It’s also silly to think that back in the days when people were scratching a living from these lands before the Romans came, people wouldn’t have put a premium on having a good time.
Music is an intrinsic part of our culture- that’s something which it can be all too easy to forget, especially when you hear the latest music industry spiel about how downloading is killing music and eventually, rock and roll will be a thing of the past. Something like this serves as a reminder that music was always with us, and probably always will be.
Still, it’s all speculation. No proof.
I do like to think Stonehenge was a music venue, however. The world seems simply better if that’s true. I also like to think that the music that was played there went a little something like this:
LONG LIVE ROCK AND ROLL!
Actually the point is there is some proof, or at least some evidence to indicate it is the case. If you look on the soundsofstonehenge.wordpress.com website you can see that the Early Decay Time, Reverberation Time (T30), Loudness and other acoustic measurements are similar to that in a venue for amplified music. And there is other evidence, from measurements, from digital modelling, and from Thomas Hardy, for example.
cheers
Rupert
Oh, goodness, my hastily-formed and over-sarcastic ramblings on this subject have actually been read by the actual expert? Time for some embarrassed backtracking!
Thanks for commenting, Rupert. No disrespect intended to your ideas, (or taken, I hope, though I’m a sarcastic git so fair enough if you did!). I guess when I said ‘No proof’ I meant more that we can’t know for sure that this this is actually what went on back in the day.
I’m not entirely sceptical, and it’s often true that religious buildings and public spaces are constructed with acoustics in mind (for instance, my dad lives in a converted chapel which was absolutely FANTASTIC for playing Led Zeppelin in until they did the place up!), and I won’t argue with you about acoustics, as you clearly know more about the subject than me. I do know a fair bit about paganism, and the subsequent reinventions of the ‘tradition’ which have gone on down the years, though. I’m not entirely sure that we can say anything for certain about what the purpose of neolithic monuments are- I know in Hardy’s time that there was a bit of a vogue for all things ‘Celtic’ which was more of a reinvention than anything else, so I’m not sure I trust him as a source. It’s an interesting idea, though.
Plus, at the end of the day, I really wanted to link to some Spinal Tap