Music’s Humble Beginnings

The Stone Age?

The Bronze/Iron Age?

The first musical instruments?

Lasted approximately 2.5 million years

Classified by the use of stonework

Instruments found in Germany – 35,000 years old

Carved from animal bones or skins

Why do you think the caveman made instruments?

Flute carved from the bone

of a vulture

Beginning of the 4th Millennium

Classified by the use of copper, bronze, and gold in the making of weapons and the trading of goods. Later, iron and steel were developed.

Instruments made of wood, animal skins, string (perishable materials), and metal (lasting)

Recorded images in cave drawings and archaeological findings

Swedish Lure Irish Bronze Age Horn

“The Killyfaddy Four” The Loughnashade Trumpa

Mesopotamia, now part of Iraq and Syria (Middle East)

Insert scan from “A History of Western Music,” page 7

Gregorian Chant

Simple chants from Roman melodies and new melodies

“Vica voce” – learning by ear

One of the earliest form of notated music

The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos

“Puer Natus Est Nobis”

“Veni Sancti Spiritus”