Rhythm is the force of life, constantly moving and evolving.

If you look around, everything seems to have a rhythm, from the changing of the seasons to the

rising and falling of the tides and the movement from day to night, We can see and feel life's rhythms everywhere.

But for me, the most powerful rhythm is found in the Sonic world that surrounds us

providing a vast array of oral pulses waves and vibrations that create a unique soundtrack to our lives.

My whole life is about sound. It's what makes me human.

For a musician fascinated by a rhythm,

I'm on a constant journey of discovery to learn everything I can about the sounds of the world,

which are the sounds of life.

I'm Evelyn Glenenny and in this BBC World Service program with the help of a

wide range of musicians, scholars and scientists I'm keen to discover more about the history of the rhythms

that provide the basis for the music we create today. Our modern Western music has evolved over several millennia

and contains elements from a wide variety of different cultures that have

via migration, produced a fusion of styles that provide the basis for new

rhythms in contemporary music.

I have a particular interest in how rhythm affects us as humans because I lost my hearing as a child, but I was able to attune myself to the vibrations of the world around me and taught myself to sense the rhythms of music with my whole body, not just with my ears as most people do.

Inspired to join the orchestra at school in Aberdeenshire, Scotland,

I became fascinated by percussion and I literally took my hearing aids off

and began using my body as a huge ear.

I went on to study music at the Royal Academy of Music in London and set out to learn

everything I could about how we are impacted by rhythm.

And I spent my whole rhythm. The seeds of the first instrument were

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