Richard Einhorn Writes About The Origin

On the eve of the 200th anniversary of his birth, The Origin celebrates the science and life of Charles Darwin. With texts drawn exclusively from Darwin's voluminous and deeply eloquent writing, the piece centers upon the making of Darwin's masterwork, The Origin of Species, surely one of the most important, misunderstood, and extraordinary books ever written.
Charles Darwin

As both a youth and college student, Charles Darwin had “a taste for collecting beetles” and showed little interest in anything else, much to the despair of his father, a successful doctor in Shrewsbury. But one of Charles’ professors, at least, must have sensed some talent for science in the young man as he recommended Darwin to Captain Robert Fitzroy as a suitable ship’s companion for a world-spanning “journey of discovery” on H.M.S. Beagle. Quickly assuming the role of ship’s naturalist, Charles Darwin spent nearly five years merrily collecting specimens of animals, plants, and rocks from numerous locations including South America, the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, and Australia. By the time he returned to England in 1836, the 27-year-old Darwin had, most likely, already become convinced that the prevailing scientific theory for the origin of species – that each species was created separately – must be wrong. Within a year or so, he had worked out the essential aspects of the theory of evolution by natural selection, eventually scribbling in July, 1837 “I think” in one of his notebooks next to a crude drawing of a tree, the first depiction of the famous Tree of Life. He spent the next twenty-two years publishing nothing but the vaguest hints of his theory while he gathered exhaustive evidence in its support. Finally, his hand was forced when another scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace, independently arrived at the same theory of evolution he had. Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, sparking a revolution in the natural sciences, a revolution still going on today.

During the twenty-two year period Darwin worked on his theory, he married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood (her father ran the famous pottery concern) and fathered 10 children, 8 of which survived childhood. The death of his much loved daughter Annie at the age of 10 in 1851 devastated Darwin to the point that it subtly affected his science.

The publication of The Origin of Species catapulted Charles Darwin to international fame, yet he remained to the end of his life in 1882 a near reclusive and often sickly figure, carefully expanding upon his theory of natural selection and publishing additional works on a vast range of scientific topics. He was an exceedingly whimsical, compassionate, and generous man whose personality shines through all his writings, even the most technical. His reputation is assured as one of the greatest scientists of all time and his theory of evolution by natural selection remains one of the grandest, robust, and accessible of all scientific theories.

The Theory of Natural Selection

The basic concept behind natural selection is simplicity itself. The individuals within any given species, while greatly resembling each other, also vary slightly in their features. There is great competition for survival. Those individuals with variations that permit them to thrive will live to reproduce. However, those individuals with deleterious variations will not have an opportunity to produce offspring. Gradually, over an immense period of time, these small variations will accumulate and a new species will be produced. The older species will either die out or co-exist with the new.

That’s it, that’s the essence of the theory of evolution by natural selection. "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!" Thomas Huxley exclaimed after finishing The Origin of Species.

The Origin

In the most general sense, the fundamental "literary" theme of my piece, The Origin, is the rapturous and sensuous nature of thought. Some of the texts are autobiographical, such as Darwin's private notes on the profound loss of his ten-year-old daughter. However, it is Darwin's mind that is the main subject, as he develops, struggles with, and enthusiastically describes his theory of the evolution of new species through natural selection, often praised as "the single best idea anyone's ever had." Musically, the work can be thought of as an attempt to explore, in a metaphorical sense, some of the implications of Darwin's theories. To oversimplify, musical themes go through various stages of "evolution" and variation as the piece unfolds, spawning new themes and musical textures, often directly related, but just as often obscurely related, to themes heard earlier. The extraordinary female vocal ensemble, Kitka, is the “Voice of Darwin,” singing excerpts from Darwin’s autobiographical writings (with a cameo appearance from his wife, Emma). Both chorus and soloists perform excerpts from Darwin’s scientific writings, mainly from “The Origin of Species” and from the notebooks he kept.

While informed by Darwin's theories and history, the piece's is not didactic or historical. Instead, much of the time, it is simply joyous-- often humorously so. This is in keeping with the main subject. Serious thought is not a solemn activity for Darwin, but an opportunity for serious fun. The sheer delight Darwin takes in trying to make sense of the world shines through all his writings on nature, as he speculates on whether an oyster dreams of the future or he grapples with how the human eye could possibly evolve. The best way, I think, to be true to Darwin's spirit is to embrace that overarching sense of wonder he brings to his thought and try to bring some of that spirit into one's own life and work. Bill Morrison’s extraordinary films, commissioned especially for this piece, perfectly capture that sense of awe.

It was in Darwin's nature to be curious, in every sense of the word. This led him to investigate exhaustively the implications of his revolutionary theory, including the objections that may be raised to it. With exceptional candor, Darwin discussed and refuted these objections in his earliest published writings on evolution. Interestingly, many of these same objections have been revived in our own time and once again, all have been refuted, this time by modern scientists with modern versions of Darwin's original arguments. In certain sections, The Origin directly engages those objections, arguments and refutations through excerpts from Darwin's discussion of them in The Origin of Species and other works. It is my hope that The Origin will be perceived not as a polemical work, except to the extent that it unabashedly celebrates the often enigmatic and exceedingly wonderful nature of human thought and achievement.

Bibliography

In a memorable “Simpsons” episode, Marge read the entire Origin of Species. It was a smart choice on her part because Darwin’s masterpiece remains one of the most enjoyable and accessible introductions to the subject. Try the first edition, which is available in inexpensive reprints, and also for free online. Also, Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle is an excellent read, especially if you are traveling to South America.

Niles Eldredge’s Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life (W.W. Norton & Company, 2005) was an important inspiration for my piece, as was the traveling exhibition of Darwiniana that originated at Eldredge’s scientific homebase, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Highly recommended.

A few more wonderful books on Darwin and/or evolution (and there are many more):

Janet Browne’s two-volume biography of Darwin. Volume 1: Darwin: Voyaging (Knopf, 1995) and Darwin: The Power of Place (Knopt, 2002)

Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Sean B. Carroll (W.W. Norton & Company, 2005) about the new science of “Evo-Devo:” evolutionary developmental biology.

The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner (Vintage, 1995). About modern research in the Galapagos on the “Darwin finches.”

Summer for the Gods, by Edward J. Larson (BasicBooks, 1997). An account of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925.

Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design by Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross (Oxford University Press, updated edition 2007). An account of modern-day efforts by creationists to throw doubt on Darwin’s theory.

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould (Norton, 1990). A classic, and one of many great books by one of the preeminent evolutionary scientists of the 20th century.