"Lascaux" genre: Electronic Classical
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	Lascaux is the first movement of a four movement piece for tenor saxophone and electronics, entitled Chorus of Silent Voices. The music and CD are available for purchase.
	CD: Chorus of Silent Voices   Label: BrunoSteele Music Credits: Bryan Steele-tenor saxophone and programming
	Story Behind the Song Chorus of Silent Voices(Program Notes)- 50,000 years ago humans lived in caves and roamed the plains of Asia, Africa and Europe in search of game. This vastly distant time saw the beginnings of human civilization as men banded together for safety and solace. What little we know of these ancient people has been recorded in a precious few examples of cave art that tantalize us with suggestions of the minds of pre-historic men. Awe-inspiring by virtue of its age and the miracle of its survival, cave art, such as that discovered at Lascaux, remind us vividly of the timelessness of human struggles and imagination. This is a period that saw the beginnings of religion and the discovery of fire. Magic seemed to pervade the life of early humans as they sought to explain and perhaps in some small way control the supernatural world around them. Shamans populate the world of cave drawings, presiding over the growing religious life of men, acting as interpreters of and emissaries to the "invisible world." In the midst of their awakening to the supernatural world, men learned to control fire the greatest of men's early tools and his greatest triumph over the world of magic. It is this world that has inspired my work. That so little is known about pre-historic humans gave me great freedom to create my soundscape. The plaintive, almost human, cries of the saxophone in the introduction give voice to the silent figures on the walls of Lascaux, to let them in an imaginary, momentary sense communicate with the modern world. A slow meditative dance follows in which the shaman chants his incantations in the moonlight. Next, storm drums, black and ominous, proclaim man's ancient dread of fire. Men bewail the terrifying chaotic destruction but exult finally in its harnessed power. The piece ends with the gradual retreat of the glaciers, great slow undulations of passing time, setting the stage for the dawn of civilization.

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