Where and how did music originate?

Answer 1

As near as I can tell, music is simply a part of what it is to be human. Nor are we the only animals that make music and/or rhythms. Of course, there are birds, whales, and more, but, many more do rhythms as a part of mating ritual or for territory. The oldest instrument ever found is nearly 100,000 years old (before humans) - it's a little bone whistle. We cannot even recognize much of what was some of the earliest instruments, because they are found sounds like hollow logs, dried gourds with loose seeds inside, seed pods, nuts attached to a stick,sticks on sticks, rocks, logs etc, and cow horns, seashells and much more. We seem to find or create musical things where ever we go. Probably, the earliest music was rhythms only. The are the easiest to find and make for instruments and to create things. They were probably first created for religious ceremonies, but, it could have been just for fun. Look at little 1 and 2 years olds, they are forever banging and clanking on everything they can find.

Today, the voice is considered the first and most important instrument as it probably was long ago. I expect that a lot of the first songs were imitating other things, especially birds. Also, in folk music the 2 largest categories of songs are dances and lullabies. People have been dancing to rhythms and then melodies for a very long time, there are all kinds of petroglyphs and other types of ancient pictures that show us this along with many depicted simple instruments dating back 10's of thousands of years. Lullabies? Well, anyone who has cared for a baby knows how well they respond to quiet songs and humming. Lullabies can be a life saver for the caregiver! You were probably sung to as well. In fact, lullabies are often some of the earliest memories people hold.

When did music began to sound as it does now? There can be many answers to this depending on where you live. Probably most of the most ancient music sounded somewhat similar. As music got more sophisticated it gained a lot more variety. Suppose you have a long metal string. Pluck it, you will get a low tone. Divide it exactly in half, and you will get a pitch that is exactly an octave higher (like C to the next C), divide in half again and it's an octave still higher and so on.This is simply a principle of how sound works and many places in the world discovered this. In the Western world, we divided this octave distance into 12 pieces, roughly spaced evenly apart and said that 8 notes, spread roughly evenly across the octave is our scale and this originated in ancient Greece. But of course, not every culture did this. In China and other parts of the far East, the Octave was divided into only 5 or 7 pieces, creating the classic Asian sound, kind of "Chinesey". The really cool thing about the 5 tone scale is that it does not matter what notes are played together or how many at a time - it all sounds good together! Down in India, they divided the Octave into 32 pieces. Ever listen to a snake charmer? It sounds like they are hitting the wrong notes. They are not, the pitches are just halfway between the notes we are used to hearing!

During the Dark Ages, after the Roman Empire collapsed, the monasteries were pretty much the only places in the Western World where higher level learning was saved. When their world began to reorganize itself from the chaos left by the exiting of the Roman Empire, scholars of all types looked back to the last great golden age, which was the Roman Empire heavily influenced by the Greeks. The Greeks created a lot of scales called modes. The 2 we use a lot today are the Ionian (Major) and Aeolian (minor). The scholars mixed a few names up, but the system works anyway. Many traditional folk tunes use a number of the modes and today many composers work modes into their music to create different types of sounds and feelings within the music.

In Western Music, about a 1,000 years ago in the Middle Ages, a monk began to write music down. The monks quickly discovered that it was easier to learn, remember and take the music to new places when written. Gradually the music became more and more complicated. Eventually, it began to look like what we have now around the year 1500. At that time, harmony had not yet been invented. Usually, the music was a melody with some percussive rhythms and perhaps a string or wind instrument that played the same melody.

Writing down the music started to affect how they wrote the music. They tried writing down 2 or more melodies at the same time. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. Little by little, they learned basic rules to keep the music sounding good together. Music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance still sounded quite a bit different than we are used to. The 4 periods of Western Music, that sound like we expect it to, did not start until about 1600 AD. The 4 periods are Baroque(1600-1750, Classical (1750-early 1800's), Romantic (early 1800's to 1900),and 20th Century (1900's). Modern or Contemporary music is usually music of the last 30 to 50 years. In the Baroque period, there was still no harmony. JS Bach, considered the pinnacle of Baroque formal style could have as many as 12 or 14 melodies playing at the same time! And, they all sounded good together! The music was very fancy and usually quite emotional as well. Folk tunes and dances were popular as well, but rarely written down. Simple Harmony appeared in the Classical period. They very much wanted simple, elegant, balanced perfection in their music. In the Romantic period, music had to appeal to everyone, so they made the music emotional again and descriptive (like the Trout in the Mill Stream). Romantic era folks also wanted lots of beauty in all their art. The Harmony became much fancier and used notes not in the scale of the piece. Finally, in the 20th Century, there is no one rule. Anything goes! We experimented with a vast number of styles and also looked to the old styles as well for inspiration. Artists as a rule, are often trying to create something no one has seen before.