History of Music - Part I

Ancient and Pre-historic Music

When you have no words to tell your feelings, silence is the best way to express it. But sometimes when silence fails to do its work, we take refuge to music. To quote Aldous Huxley After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. Music has the magical powers to tell the world your thoughts and feelings. It is the best creation of the Gods' best creation (man). A song floating from any distant place would fill your heart with sudden joy and remove your sadness. There are different kinds of music to describe the different kinds of moods.

But what made man to create this rhythm or what is the source of his inspiration and creation? To answer this question we have to travel thousands of years back, when man was nomadic or was not fully civilized. It might be that long-long ago man was enticed by the natural beauty and sounds. The chirping of birds, the quivering of the lissome rivers or the gushing wind must have created some ripples in his heart and led him to produce this melody. So we can say that nature taught man to give birth rhythm. Every object of nature is steeped in music. Man learned to create music against the natural backdrop of sound. The music produced by the animals and birds in the form of sound which use to communicate, taught them to make this melodious discovery. Music is found in every culture and society, both past and present. However there is gulf of differences in their type and style.

Scientists believe that the modern human beings have emerged from Africa some 160,000 years ago. Around 50,000 years ago, they began to disperse to all the habitable continents around the world. As music is traced in all the cultures, including the most isolated groups of people, so scientists hold the view that music must have existed even before the dispersal of human beings. Thus it has been concluded that the first music must have originated in Africa. Some evolutionary biologists hold the view that the ability to recognize the sound not created by human beings as musical gives them a selective advantage. Prehistoric music or also once called as primitive music, is the name given to all kinds of music in the prehistoric culture. The prehistoric era ends with the development of writing and so with that, ends the prehistoric music.

The oldest known song was written in cuneiform in harmonies of thirds using Pythagorean tuning of the diatonic scale, about 4000 years ago from Ur. It was deciphered by Prof. Daffkorn Kilmer. At that era double pipes, bagpipes, double flutes were most prevalent. In Indus Valley Civilization, however, seven holed flutes as well as uses of string instruments prove that music was well cultured art in ancient period.

All these information clearly present the idea that, from the very beginning of human civilization and even before that, music was a great companion in the struggles for existence. The buoyancy of music relieved wretched prehistoric people from their grief, sorrows, fear and loneliness. It is those feelings which led man to explore more and more into the fields of music.

Kanquona Bhattacharjee is a freelance writer and bloger. She has completed her post graduation in English from the University of Calcutta. She has some deep insight into social problems and often present these infront of the most strongest medium. Her personal website url is http://www.wertex.org/ She can be contacted at kanquona@wertex.org http://www.ezinearticles.com/?expert=Kanquona_bhattacharjee

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