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History
Main article: History of music
Origins and prehistory
Further information: Origins of music and Prehistoric music
The Divje Babe flute, the oldest known musical instrument. It is made from the femur bone of a cave bear.
It is often debated as to what extent the origins of music will ever be understood, and there are many competing theories which aim to explain it. Many scholars highlight a relationship between the origin of music and the origin of language, and there is disagreement surrounding whether music developed before, after, or simultaneously with language. A similar source of contention surrounds whether music the intentional result of natural selection or was a byproduct spandrel of evolution. The earliest influential theory was proposed by Charles Darwin in 1871, who stated that music arose as form of sexual selection, perhaps via in mating calls. Darwin’s original perspective has been heavily criticized for its inconsistencies with other sexual selection methods, though many scholars in the 21st century have developed and promoted the theory. Other theories include that music arose to assist in organizing labor, improving long-distance communication, benefiting communication with the divine, assisting in community cohesion or as a defence to scare of predators.
Prehistoric music can only be theorized based on findings from paleolithic archaeology sites. Flutes are often discovered, carved from bones in which lateral holes have been pierced; these are thought to have been blown at one end like the Japanese shakuhachi. The Divje Babe flute, carved from a cave bear femur, is thought to be at least 40,000 years old, though there is considerable debate surrounding whether it is truly a musical instrument or an object formed by animals. Instruments such as the seven-holed flute and various types of stringed instruments, such as the Ravanahatha, have been recovered from the Indus Valley civilization archaeological sites.
India has one of the oldest musical traditions in the world-references to Indian classical music (marga) are found in the Vedas, ancient scriptures of the Hindu tradition.
The earliest and largest collection of prehistoric musical instruments was found in China and dates back to between 7000 and 6600 BCE.
Antiquity
Main articles: Music of Egypt and Music of Greece
Musicians of Amun, Tomb of Nakht, 18th Dynasty, Western Thebes
The earliest material and representational evidence of Egyptian musical instruments dates to the Predynastic period, but the evidence is more securely attested in the Old Kingdom when harps, flutes and double clarinets were played. Percussion instruments, lyres, and lutes were added to orchestras by the Middle Kingdom. Cymbals frequently accompanied music and dance, much as they still do in Egypt today. Egyptian folk music, including the traditional Sufi dhikr rituals, are the closest contemporary music genre to ancient Egyptian music, having preserved many of its features, rhythms and instruments.
The “Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal”, found on clay tablets that date back to approximately 1400 BCE, is the oldest surviving notated work of music.
Music was an important part of social and cultural life in ancient Greece, in fact it was one of the main subjects taught to children. Musical education was considered to be important for the development of an individual’s soul. Musicians and singers played a prominent role in Greek theater, and those who received a musical education were seen as nobles and in perfect harmony (as can be read in the Republic, Plato). Mixed gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration, and spiritual ceremonies. Instruments included the double-reed aulos and a plucked string instrument, the lyre, principally a special kind called a kithara. Music was an important part of education, and boys were taught music starting at age six. Greek musical literacy created significant musical development. Greek music theory included the Greek musical modes, that eventually became the basis for Western religious and classical music. Later, influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe, and the Byzantine Empire changed Greek music. The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The oldest surviving work written on the subject of music theory is Harmonika Stoicheia by Aristoxenus.
Asian cultures
Main article: Music of Asia
Indian women dressed in regional attire playing a variety of musical instruments popular in different parts of India
Asian music covers a vast swath of music cultures surveyed in the articles on Arabia, Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Several have traditions reaching into antiquity.
Indian classical music is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world. Sculptures from the Indus Valley civilization show dance and old musical instruments, like the seven holed flute. Various types of stringed instruments and drums have been recovered from Harappa and Mohenjo Daro by excavations carried out by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. The Rigveda, an ancient Hindu text, has elements of present Indian music, with musical notation to denote the meter and the mode of chanting. Indian classical music (marga) is monophonic, and based on a single melody line or raga rhythmically organized through talas. Silappadhikaram by Ilango Adigal provides information about how new scales can be formed by modal shifting of the tonic from an existing scale. Present day Hindi music was influenced by Persian traditional music and Afghan Mughals. Carnatic music, popular in the southern states, is largely devotional; the majority of the songs are addressed to the Hindu deities. There are also many songs emphasizing love and other social issues.
Indonesia is the home of gong chime, there are many variants across Indonesia, especially in Java and Bali.
Indonesian music has been formed since the Bronze Age culture migrated to the Indonesian archipelago in the 2nd to 3rd centuries BCE. Indonesian traditional music often uses percussion instruments, especially kendang and gongs. Some of them developed elaborate and distinctive musical instruments, such as the sasando stringed instrument on the island of Rote, the Sundanese angklung, and the complex and sophisticated Javanese and Balinese gamelan orchestras. Indonesia is the home of gong chime, a general term for a set of small, high pitched pot gongs. Gongs are usually placed in order of note, with the boss up on a string held in a low wooden frame. The most popular and famous form of Indonesian music is probably gamelan, an ensemble of tuned percussion instruments that include metallophones, drums, gongs and spike fiddles along with bamboo suling.
Chinese classical music, the traditional art or court music of China, has a history stretching over around three thousand years. It has its own unique systems of musical notation, as well as musical tuning and pitch, musical instruments and styles or musical genres. Chinese music is pentatonic-diatonic, having a scale of twelve notes to an octave (5 + 7 = 12) as does European-influenced music.
