History of music
Although definitions of music vary wildly throughout the world, every known culture partakes in it, and it is thus considered a cultural universal. The origins of music remain highly contentious; commentators often relate it to the origin of language, with much disagreement surrounding whether music arose before, after or simultaneously with language. Many theories have been proposed by scholars from a wide range of disciplines, though none has achieved broad approval. Most cultures have their own mythical origins concerning the invention of music, generally rooted in their respective mythological, religious or philosophical beliefs.
The music of prehistoric cultures is first firmly dated to BC of the Upper Paleolithic by evidence of bone flutes, though it remains unclear whether or not the actual origins lie in the earlier Middle Paleolithic period. There is little known about prehistoric music, with traces mainly limited to some simple flutes and percussion instruments. However, such evidence indicates that music existed to some extent in prehistoric societies such as the Xia dynasty and the Indus Valley civilisation. Upon the development of writing, the music of literate civilizations—ancient music—was present in the major Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Indian, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Middle Eastern societies. It is difficult to make many generalizations about ancient music as a whole, but from what is known it was often characterized by monophony and improvisation. In ancient song forms, the texts were closely aligned with music, and though the oldest extant musical notation survives from this period, many texts survive without their accompanying music, such as the Rigveda and the Shijing Classic of Poetry. The eventual emergence of the Silk Road and increasing contact between cultures led to the transmission and exchange of musical ideas, practices, and instruments. Such interaction led to the Tang dynasty's music being heavily influenced by Central Asian traditions, while the Tang dynasty's music, the Japanese gagaku and Korean court music each influenced each other.
Historically, religions have often been catalysts for music. The Vedas of Hinduism immensely influenced Indian classical music, and the Five Classics of Confucianism laid the basis for subsequent Chinese music. Following the rapid spread of Islam in the 7th century, Islamic music dominated Persia and the Arab world, and the Islamic Golden Age saw the presence of numerous important music theorists. Music written for and by the early Christian Church properly inaugurates the Western classical music tradition, which continues into medieval music where polyphony, staff notation and nascent forms of many modern instruments developed. In addition to religion or the lack thereof, a society's music is influenced by all other aspects of its culture, including social and economic organization and experience, climate, and access to technology. Many cultures have coupled music with other art forms, such as the Chinese four arts and the medieval quadrivium. The emotions and ideas that music expresses, the situations in which music is played and listened to, and the attitudes toward musicians and composers all vary between regions and periods. Many cultures have or continue to distinguish between art music, folk music, and popular music.
Origins
is regarded as a cultural universal, though definitions of it vary depending on culture and throughout history. As with many aspects of human cognition, it remains debated as to what extent the origins of music will ever be understood, with scholars often taking polarizing positions. The origin of music is often discussed alongside the origin of language, with the nature of their connection being the subject of much debate. However, before the mid-late 20th century, both topics were seldom given substantial attention by academics. Since the topic's resurgence, the principal source of contention is divided into three perspectives: whether music began as a kind of proto-language that led to language; if music is a spandrel that was the result of language; or if music and language both derived from a common antecedent.File:Ancient Egyptians playing music.png|alt=Ancient Egyptians playing music|thumb|An ancient Egyptian mural of people playing music.|left
There is little consensus on any particular theory for the origin of music, which have included contributions from archaeologists, cognitive scientists, ethnomusicologists, evolutionary biologists, linguists, neuroscientists, paleoanthropologists, philosophers, and psychologists. Some of the most prominent theories are as follows:
- Music arose as an elaborate form of sexual selection, perhaps arising in mating calls. This theory, perhaps the first significant one on music's origins, is generally credited to Charles Darwin. It first appeared in Darwin's 1871 book The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, and has since been criticized as there is no evidence that either human sex is "more musical" thus no evidence of sexual dimorphism; there are currently no other examples of sexual selection that do not include considerable sexual dimorphism. Recent commentators, citing music's use in other animals's mating systems, have nonetheless propagated and developed Darwin's theory; such scholars include Peter J.B. Slater, Katy Payne, Björn Merker, Geoffrey Miller and Peter Todd.
- Music arose alongside language, both of which supposedly descend from a "shared precursor". The biologist Herbert Spencer was an important early proponent of this theory, as was the composer Richard Wagner, who termed the music and language's shared ancestor as "speech-music". Since the 21st-century, a number of scholars have supported this theory, particularly the archeologist Steven Mithen.
- Music arose to fulfill a practical need. Propositions include:
- *To assist in organizing cohesive labor, first proposed by the economist Karl Bücher.
- *To improve the ease and range of long-distance communication, first proposed by the musicologist Carl Stumpf.
- *To enhance communication with the divine or otherwise supernatural, first proposed by the anthropologist Siegfried Nadel.
- *To assist in "coordination, cohesion and cooperation", particularly in the context of families or communities.
- *To be a means for frightening off predators or enemies of some kind.
- Music had two origins, "from speech and from emotional expression ", first proposed by the musicologist Curt Sachs. Reflecting on the diversity of music around the world, Sachs noted that some music confines to either a communicative or expressionistic form, suggesting that these aspects developed separately.
- Music presents sounds that are based on two primary origins: 1) the sounds heard by the fetus in the womb and 2) emotionally generated vocalizations, according to the theory of the emotional origins of music first proposed by David Teie. This theory accounts for musical elements found in all cultures, including pulse, meter, discreet single-frequency segments, continuousness, and instruments that create resonance-enhanced periodic sounds.
Prehistory
In the broadest sense, prehistoric music—more commonly termed primitive music in the past—encompasses all music produced in preliterate cultures, beginning at least 6 million years ago when humans and chimpanzees last had a common ancestor. Music first arose in the Paleolithic period, though it remains unclear as to whether this was the Middle or Upper Paleolithic. The vast majority of Paleolithic instruments have been found in Europe and date to the Upper Paleolithic. It is certainly possible that singing emerged far before this time, though this is essentially impossible to confirm. The potentially oldest instrument is the Divje Babe Flute from the Divje Babe cave in Slovenia, dated to 43,000 and 82,000 and made from a young cave bear femur. Purportedly used by Neanderthals, the Divje Babe Flute has received extensive scholarly attention, and whether it is truly a musical instrument or an object formed by animals is the subject of intense debate. If the former, it would be the oldest known musical instrument and evidence of a musical culture in the Middle Paleolithic. Other than the Divje Babe Flute and three other doubtful flutes, there is virtually no surviving Middle Paleolithic musical evidence of any certainty, similar to the situation in regards to visual art. The earliest objects whose designations as musical instruments are widely accepted are bone flutes from the Swabian Jura, Germany, namely from the Geissenklösterle, Hohle Fels and Vogelherd caves. Dated to the Aurignacian and used by Early European modern humans, from all three caves there are eight examples, four made from the wing bones of birds and four from mammoth ivory; three of these are near complete. Three flutes from the Geissenklösterle are dated as the oldest, BP.Considering the relative complexity of flutes, it is likely earlier instruments existed, akin to objects that are common in later hunter and gatherer societies, such as rattles, shakers, and drums. The absence of other instruments from and before this time may be due to their use of weaker—and thus more biodegradable—materials, such as reeds, gourds, skins, and bark. A painting in the Cave of the Trois-Frères dating to BCE is thought to depict a shaman playing a musical bow.
Prehistoric cultures are thought to have had a wide variety of uses for music, with little unification between different societies. Music was likely of particular value when food and other basic needs were scarce. It is also probable that prehistoric cultures viewed music as intrinsically connected with nature, and may have believed its use influenced the natural world directly.
The earliest instruments found in prehistoric China are 12 gudi bone flutes in the modern-day Jiahu, Wuyang, Henan Province from BCE. The only instruments dated to the prehistoric Xia dynasty are two qing, two small bells, and a xun. Due to this extreme scarcity of surviving instruments and the general uncertainty surrounding most of the Xia, creating a musical narrative of the period is impractical. In the Indian subcontinent, the prehistoric Indus Valley civilisation has archeological evidence that indicates simple rattles and vessel flutes were used, while iconographical evidence suggests early harps and drums also existed. An ideogram in the later IVC contains the earliest known depiction of an arched harp, dated sometime before 1800 BCE.