Prehistoric music

The development of music among humans occurred against the backdrop of natural sounds . It was possibly influenced by birdsong and the sounds other animals use to communicate. Some evolutionary biologists have theorized that the ability to recognize sounds not created by humans as "musical" provides a selective advantage. (See animal music).

Prehistoric music, once more commonly called primitive music, is the name given to all music produced in preliterate cultures ( prehistory ), beginning somewhere in very late geological history .

Traditional Native American and Australian Aboriginal music could be called prehistoric, but the term is commonly used to refer to the music in Europe before the development of writing there. It is more common to call the "prehistoric" music of non-European continents – especially that which still survives – folk , indigenous, or traditional music.

Music in ancient civilizations

The prehistoric era is considered to have ended with the development of writing, and with it, by definition, prehistoric music. "Ancient music" is the name given to the music that followed.

Ancient music was long thought to be all monophonic Sensations of tone, but recent archaeological evidence indicates that this view is no longer true. The "oldest known song" in cuneiform, 4,000 years old from Ur, deciphered by Prof. Anne Draffkorn Kilmer ( University of Calif. at Berkeley ), was demonstrated to be composed in harmonies of thirds, like ancient English gymel (Kilmer, Crocker, Brown, Sounds from Silence , 1976, Bit Enki, Berkeley, Calif., LCC 76-16729), and also was written using the diatonic scale . Therefore, neither harmony nor the diatonic scale can still be considered developments having only "Western" or European beginnings.

In addition, double pipes, such as used by the ancient Greeks, and ancient bagpipes, as well as a review of ancient drawings on vases and walls, etc., and ancient writings (such as in Aristotle, Problems, Book XIX.12) which described musical techniques of the time, all indicate harmony existed.

One pipe in the aulos pairs (double flutes) likely served as a drone or "keynote," while the other played melodic passages.

Instruments, such as the seven holed flute and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus valley civilization archaeological sites.

Indian classical music ( marga ) can be found from the scriptures of the Hindu tradition, the Vedas. Samaveda, one of the four vedas describes music at length.

The term Early music era may also refer to contemporary but traditional or folk music, including Asian music , music of India , Jewish music , Greek music , Roman music , the music of Mesopotamia , the music of Egypt , and Muslim music .

Classical traditions

Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of art, ecclesiastical and concert music. A music is classical if it includes some of the following features: a learned tradition, support from the church or government, or greater cultural capital. Classical music is also described as complex, lasting, transcendent, and abstract.

In many cultures a classical tradition coexisted with traditional or popular music, occasionally for thousands of years, and with different levels of mutual borrowing with the parallel tradition.