From the depths of the sea

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From the depths of the sea

20.06.2025

by Oriol Rossinyol, ex-head of Collections

It happened many years ago, many, no one can know or remember. And it happened near the sea. It came from the sea, not like a ship, perhaps on a ship, or carried by the waves or by its force, because it was life. And it was food. And then an object, to fill and to empty. Of water, of food, of treasures, of sounds.

The gift of the waves (Photography: Oriol Rossinyol)

The shell trumpet, when it was not used as a jug or as a container, rested in any corner and often children's hands searched in it what they did not know. Placed next to the ear, the shell trumpet was the door to all dreams. All the sounds of the sea were inside: the waves bathing the ships, the songs of the ocean fish and perhaps also the voices of fishermen trapped forever in the depths of the vast blue. Secretly, each child had their journey, their dream, their song. And in every place by the seas of this planet, the conches softly told the stories of the waters.

And one day, in one place or many places bathed by the waves, the shell trumpet broke. But it didn't break completely, just at the tip, at the closed end. The object no longer served to contain water or anything else. Through the small hole everything would come out. Nothing could be kept inside. And the girl who listened to the sounds of the distant waves singing inside the conch, was filled with anguish. She waited for her father, who with other fishermen lost in the darkness of the storm, could not return to the shore. If she from the land did not hear the sounds inside the conch, her father might not return. It was the link between sea and land. The way back.

With her lips she kissed strongly the small hole of the conch. The sounds could not be lost. Her kiss made a strong and powerful sound emerge from the conch. They were not the constant and changing sounds she always heard. It was like a deep cry that gathered them all into one. A powerful call that went beyond the waves of the beach. And behind that kiss another, and another. Each one longer, like the sounds that came from that object and called the lost boats in the ocean.

And in the midst of the darkness, the fishermen oriented themselves toward the shore listening to the conch’s song.

Like all discoveries or inventions of humanity, sometimes they are the work of one person or culture, but often they are events that develop in different places, simultaneously or in different times.

Since that day, all ships always carried a conch to communicate. Also from the coasts around the planet, the sound of the sea horn guided navigators through fogs and darkness.

Sound that communicates (Photography: Oriol Rossinyol)

And the sea horn, in the hands of men, traveled inland, and the signals that called the sailors also served to communicate people in the mountains. And days, years and centuries passed and this animal from the sea, faithful companion of navigators, stopped sounding. Sirens and other more sophisticated instruments were its substitutes in marine communication. And the conch that whispered dreams and secrets to children, that object that human curiosity, desire and chance transformed into a sound guide for navigators, was forgotten.

Since prehistoric times, the conch or sea horn has been used for the sound communication of navigators. Specimens more than 5,000 years old are preserved, some found in excavations far from the coast, confirming its inland use. They were also used as signaling instruments in armies, sometimes replaced by animal horns or bugles and later by metal instruments. Until the mid-20th century it was mandatory to carry a sea horn on all ships for acoustic signaling.

But, also thousands of years ago, someone, in one or several cultures bathed by waters, searched inside the sea snail what could not be seen. Where were, where did each of the small and magical songs that formed the voice that communicates, the call that warns come from?

And this animal shell, the one that contains the dance of all sounds, the one that sings with a powerful and wild cry, was the origin. In every corner of this planet new devices that wanted to sing emerged. An animal horn, a bone, a perforated tree branch, a bamboo cane, manipulated wood and metal tubes, were other objects that contributed to the search for sound. All the sound potential of these tubes had to be let out. And cultures, each with their materials, searched, discovered and arranged the hidden sounds.

The search and transformation of sound objects used by cultures as communication tools generated new instruments with more sound possibilities. The sound object became a musical instrument.

First the kiss, the strength of the lips. The air that comes out and travels through the tube, the path. Each action and each part of the object, the pressure of the lips, the volume of air, the length and width of the tube, defined the sound. The object is now an instrument and the sounds that communicate over distance become music.

By vibrating the lips placed at the end of a tube a sound is produced that depends on the vibration of the emitted air and the dimensions of the tube. By varying the tube's geometry and the lip pressure different sounds can be obtained. This technique develops worldwide and each culture uses its materials and technique to create instruments and music. We know them as reed instruments.

And the conches born in the sea sing in Hindu, Korean, Japanese rituals...

Nagak, conch with silver mouthpiece (MDMB 12801, photography by Esther Fernández)

And the eucalyptus branches perforated by termites of the Australian continent transform into the didgeridoo of the aborigines of that territory.

Australian playing didjeridoo (Fotografia: Kenneth R. Hendrix, public domain)

And in the highest mountains of the planet, in Tibetan temples, like the sound of a sea conch, the bones of those who no longer have life give voice to their memory.

Tibetan rkang gling, human femur (MDMB 13263, photography d'Esther Fernández)