Gilgamesh is one of the most powerful men in Iraq. A king; a demi-God and a fearsome tyrant; he thrives on the shame and suffering of his subjects; robbing them of their innocence to fuel his lust. But when the Gods turn against him; an almighty battle of will ensues; and a defiant Gilgamesh is forced to learn love; friendship; empathy and; in the end; mortality.Gilgamesh is the worlds first known epic. In this electrifying stage adaptation; Derrek Hines has turned his highly acclaimed version of this ancient tale into a cutting-edge; 21st-century drama.
#3594479 in eBooks 2008-06-13 2008-06-13File Name: B00DGPYGV0
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Darwin would have welcomed this informative; well-researched; encyclopedic work.By Ellen DissanayakeIn his great opus on the descent of man; Charles Darwin pondered the mystery of music; noting that ldquo;neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least use to man in reference to his daily habits of life.rdquo; He was probably thinking mostly of Western European music and; in any case; he could not have known in 1871 the multitude and variety of human societies that existed on every continent. Today; anthropologists have not discovered any society that lacks what can be identified as ldquo;musicrdquo; and; indeed; large amounts of time; effort; and resources are devoted to performing and listening to it. Laymen as well as scholars have wondered why music should ever have appeared in our species; and from what origin(s). Both these questions cannot be answered simply: we need scholars like Iain Morley to describe the many capacities and components required for even asking the right questions; much less putting together plausible answers.The Prehistory of Music is a trove of the latest information and theory about what needs to be included in any comprehensive and systematic understanding of the phenomenon of music. It is a truly interdisciplinary endeavor that necessarily includes ethnomusicology (a description of musical behavior in different hunter-gatherer groups); archaeology (the earliest physical evidence of musical behavior including a 42 page appendix table with an inventory of proposed Palaeolithic pipes and flutes); anatomy and neurophysiology (of the vocal tract; the ear; and aural perception); the relationships between music and speech production and perception; infant and child development (innate elements of melodic and rhythmic production and perception); the relationship between vocal control and gesture; (including rhythm; movement; and emotion); and musical emotion and communication. Only then; with an understanding of these diverse sources of evidence; can one propose and evaluate the selective benefits of musical behavior as a whole and the implications of the foregoing subjects with regard to understanding musicality and its origin and place in human evolution.Although not light reading; the book is clearly written; comprehensive; and a necessity for anyone who is serious about understanding the phenomenon of music; its deep and complex roots in our biology; and its necessity to human life. Darwin would have welcomed this informative; well-researched; encyclopedic work. One can only hope that Oxford University Press will soon bring out a paperback version so that more readers who are interested in the subject can afford to own the book.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Four StarsBy Richard Freedlandergood book