Stephanie G. Mathis Researchers do know that it occurred thousands of years ago. Music was present in the earliest cultures of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Many people believed that music was a divine gift created by the gods.
Many gods and goddesses in mythology and religion are linked to music. The stories and artworks tell us that the African god Ayan is a drummer. The Greek god Apollo plays the lyre. Jubal, a descendant of Adam, is named the Father of the Harp and Flute in the Book of Genesis.
Scientists may never be able to credit a single person or group with the invention of music. As a musicologist, someone who studies music’s history, I have seen many objects and evidence which can help us to understand how and why the ancients played music.
Ulysses is moved to tears as he listens to the music of Demodocus, the blind musician. From the book ‘Stories From Homer,’ by Rev. Alfred J. Church, M.A. Illustrations from designs by John Flaxman. white may/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images
Singing
According to some scholars, singing was the first musical sound. It’s not that people sang full-length songs back then. They made simpler vocal sounds, perhaps only a few notes. If this is true, early humans started to sing and speak at the same time.
Why did they sing? Perhaps they wanted to mimic something beautiful, like bird sounds. However, vocal imitations of animal sounds, such as a modern duck call, may have been used to hunt.
Singing was also a way for infants and toddlers to communicate, as early versions of lullabies did. It’s important to note that people weren’t singing full songs or melodies; it took centuries for our modern lullabies, like ” rock-a-bye baby,” to be developed.
The singing in Catholic churches across Europe during the Middle Ages has been well documented. At first, there was only one vocal melody sung by either a soloist or a small group of male clergy. Nuns were also taught to sing by convents. Later, polyphony was more common, where two, three, or four voices sang different melodies to add complexity.
Bianzhong is a Chinese musical tool that could be as old as 3,000 years. The bells were part of China’s court and ritual music. xia Yuan/Moment Opening/via Getty Images
Instruments
The artifacts that archaeologists have uncovered can help musicologists to learn more about ancient instruments. They discovered flutes and whistles that were made from bone, pottery, and stone.
Archaeologists used Carbon-14 dating in order to determine the age of the bone instruments. Carbon-14 is found in all living organisms, including animals, plants, and humans. When they die, carbon-14 levels decrease over time, little by little.
Scientists measured the carbon-14 left in flutes made from bones of large birds and discovered that some instruments were over 30,000 years old.
Some ancient rattles and whistles made from stone or clay in Japan are around 6,000 years old. These instruments produced high, shrill sounds through their small blowholes. Some people may have believed the sounds to be magical and played them in religious rituals. Some of the stone whistles still produce sounds.
Pottery bells in China may have been the ancestors of bronze bells. They appeared more than 4,000 years before. In Greece, instruments such as the krotola (a set of leather-bound hollow blocks) were played more than 2,500 years back. The Greeks used frame drums and finger cymbals, similar to those you may have seen in school.
Different types of people were also associated with musical instruments. Shepherds played a similar instrument called the Syrinx. Today, it is known as the pan-flute. The instrument was simple and easy to carry into the field. A more complex woodwind instrument, the aulo consisted of two pipes. Aulos requires more skill, so you’ll need to hire a musician to perform for you.
