Music Banter - View Single Post

TechnicLePanther · 08-02-2015, 03:10 PM

Getting Started

Before we begin our journey, we have to establish our starting point, and our destination. Our destination seems pretty simple. Today, right? Actually, there is no twist here. We end at the modern world. However, the starting point is much harder to take care of. Where did music begin? Let's see if we can figure it out.

Finding Point A

This may just be the hardest part of our journey. The origin of music has been debated over, researched, and then debated over again. Given our current definition of music, it began when the universe began. After all, that's when noise began. But we're not going to talk about atomic bombs or potato farmers when we talk about music (I think). My point is that our current definition seems a bit broad. So how about this. Music is noise intentionally made for outward expression. If music is intended to be music, then it is music. Using that definition, we could go back to the first piece of music ever written.

Likely, the actual first piece of music ever written is completely unavailable to the modern world. However, we can't talk about that if we wanted to. The oldest complete piece of written music that we know of today is the Seikilos epitaph. It was written in ancient Greek musical notation, and was discovered on a tombstone in Turkey. You can listen to a performance of it on Youtube. Its age very obviously shows.

However, there is another partially incomplete fragment of older music. Known collectively as the "Hurrian songs", they are a collection of hymns and melodies. Most of them are almost completely faded away, but one almost complete writing is known. The Hurrian hymn no. 6 could certainly be considered the oldest substantial piece of recorded music. So, that's where we should begin right?

Maybe. Think about this. Just because music wasn't recorded doesn't mean it wasn't made. How long ago could music have been intentionally made for the purpose of expression. There have been some studies of zoomusicology. Perhaps animals around before humans were really the first musicians. After all, they have voices, and can intentionally make noises. So does that make it music? I believe so. So let's start there.

Zoomusicology

Animals making music. Seems very plausible. Everybody knows the term "birdsong". So what would animal music have sounded like? I believe most early music would have been mating calls. Deliberate calls made to express the animal's prowess as a mate. Perhaps early communication would have been music as well. Lots of grunting and tweeting and banging and shouting. Sounds like fun. I could say a ton about zoomusicology, and based on the amount of time it was probably around, it could take up almost all of this story. However, as most people aren't extremely interested in hearing me jabber on about a bunch of animals, I'll try and make this quick.

If you're into Darwinism, you may be asking yourself a question. Where is the line between human music and animal music? I believe it may lie in making music for the sake of making music. The first person to blow into a tube was most likely just screwing around. They didn't know a sound would come out of it. And when it did, they wanted to make the sound again. And then their friends wanted to make sounds come out of tubes. So everybody's blowing into wooden tubes, and then suddenly someone cuts a hole in their tube. When they cover the hole, everything is normal. When they don't cover the hole, a different sound is produced. Then suddenly, everyone has a hole in their wooden tube (excuse any innuendos to come out of this paragraph).

I think this was pretty much how the advent of music came about, except perhaps with vocal chords instead of piccolos. People started making noises for fun. It seems sometimes like people are born with music. Perhaps it was some giant evolutionary trick that beat and rhythm became parts of human nature. And when we discovered different tones, it opened up the doors for so many different melodies and harmonies. Or perhaps music was just random chance. Both of these theories are just that. Theories. They aren't history at all. So how do we go from point A, to history? The answer is prehistory.

Keep your ears open for the next part.

08-02-2015, 03:10 PM	#3 (permalink)
TechnicLePanther and the livin' is easy... Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: New York Posts: 1,997	Getting Started Before we begin our journey, we have to establish our starting point, and our destination. Our destination seems pretty simple. Today, right? Actually, there is no twist here. We end at the modern world. However, the starting point is much harder to take care of. Where did music begin? Let's see if we can figure it out. Finding Point A This may just be the hardest part of our journey. The origin of music has been debated over, researched, and then debated over again. Given our current definition of music, it began when the universe began. After all, that's when noise began. But we're not going to talk about atomic bombs or potato farmers when we talk about music (I think). My point is that our current definition seems a bit broad. So how about this. Music is noise intentionally made for outward expression. If music is intended to be music, then it is music. Using that definition, we could go back to the first piece of music ever written. Likely, the actual first piece of music ever written is completely unavailable to the modern world. However, we can't talk about that if we wanted to. The oldest complete piece of written music that we know of today is the Seikilos epitaph. It was written in ancient Greek musical notation, and was discovered on a tombstone in Turkey. You can listen to a performance of it on Youtube. Its age very obviously shows. However, there is another partially incomplete fragment of older music. Known collectively as the "Hurrian songs", they are a collection of hymns and melodies. Most of them are almost completely faded away, but one almost complete writing is known. The Hurrian hymn no. 6 could certainly be considered the oldest substantial piece of recorded music. So, that's where we should begin right? Maybe. Think about this. Just because music wasn't recorded doesn't mean it wasn't made. How long ago could music have been intentionally made for the purpose of expression. There have been some studies of zoomusicology. Perhaps animals around before humans were really the first musicians. After all, they have voices, and can intentionally make noises. So does that make it music? I believe so. So let's start there. Zoomusicology Animals making music. Seems very plausible. Everybody knows the term "birdsong". So what would animal music have sounded like? I believe most early music would have been mating calls. Deliberate calls made to express the animal's prowess as a mate. Perhaps early communication would have been music as well. Lots of grunting and tweeting and banging and shouting. Sounds like fun. I could say a ton about zoomusicology, and based on the amount of time it was probably around, it could take up almost all of this story. However, as most people aren't extremely interested in hearing me jabber on about a bunch of animals, I'll try and make this quick. If you're into Darwinism, you may be asking yourself a question. Where is the line between human music and animal music? I believe it may lie in making music for the sake of making music. The first person to blow into a tube was most likely just screwing around. They didn't know a sound would come out of it. And when it did, they wanted to make the sound again. And then their friends wanted to make sounds come out of tubes. So everybody's blowing into wooden tubes, and then suddenly someone cuts a hole in their tube. When they cover the hole, everything is normal. When they don't cover the hole, a different sound is produced. Then suddenly, everyone has a hole in their wooden tube (excuse any innuendos to come out of this paragraph). I think this was pretty much how the advent of music came about, except perhaps with vocal chords instead of piccolos. People started making noises for fun. It seems sometimes like people are born with music. Perhaps it was some giant evolutionary trick that beat and rhythm became parts of human nature. And when we discovered different tones, it opened up the doors for so many different melodies and harmonies. Or perhaps music was just random chance. Both of these theories are just that. Theories. They aren't history at all. So how do we go from point A, to history? The answer is prehistory. Keep your ears open for the next part. __________________ Many have tried to destroy it... but... true evil never dies. It is only... REBORN *SUGGEST ME AN ALBUM* - I'm probably not going to listen to it but I will if you bother me enough.