Hearing The Past

Professor Jim Al-Khalili explores what the past would have sounded like to our ancestors, and investigates how it is helping us to improve our acoustic designs of the future.

We hear what a singer in Coventry Cathedral would have sounded like before it was bombed in 1940, and how a Stonehenge ritual four thousand years ago had a bass-synthesiser effect going on that Depeche Mode would have been proud of!

Designers of modern concert venues are learning lessons from the layout of Stonehenge and we also learn how better acoustics in today's buildings improve our quality of life, and can even save lives.

Producer: Jane Reck

An Alfi Media production for BBC Radio 4.

Jim Al-Khalili explores what the past would have sounded like to our ancestors.

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