Origin Of Music...Read On

The origin of music is somewhat speculative at best, due to the original creators, being on the razor’s edge of self awareness, having no reason to document their activities for future readers. We can only guess as to how music was created in the primitive psyche of the time. What follows is pretty much my guess.

   Early man most likely took some interest in the sounds around him, in some cases it meant life or death, as in the roar of a tiger, or it was pleasing to the ear, as in a bird singing away. I can imagine that after a successful hunt, the hunters would prance and growl around a fire emulating the sounds of the fierce beast they had just slain. They might even have started hitting sticks together in an attempt to emulate the sounds of their clubs thumping dully upon the head of some prey, or the hollow melon sound of a neighbor’s skull when they were fighting amongst themselves over some chunk of meat, or for the best looking mate. The former most likely, due to the fact that the latter would be a six of one half dozen of the other proposition, cosmetics having yet to be invented. 

   In any case, as far as the origin of music is concerned, drums were probably the first primitive music instrument if we remove the human voice from the equation.

   The Encyclopedia Britannica states "Drums appear with wide geographic distribution in archaeological excavations from Neolithic times onward; one excavated in Moravia is dated at 6000 BC. Early drums consisted of a section of hollowed tree trunk covered at one end with reptile or fish skin and were struck with the hands. Later, the skin was taken from hunted game or cattle, and sticks were used. The double-headed drum came later, as did pottery drums in various shapes”. Basically “Bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee¹” was probably our first artistic expression in the realm of music. (¹ Money for Nothing—Dire Straits) 

   The next logical step up from percussion instruments may have been in the woodwind or string family. Imagine a primitive man fascinated by the sound of the wind blowing over some hollow reed, then recreating the effect for his fellow villagers at the next log bashing party, what a hit he would have been! Regular life of the party, such as it was.

   Panpipes would have been an easy progression for the primitive mind of the time, stick a bunch of varying length reeds together and voila, let the good times roll. The move from the panpipe to the flute must have taken a much greater leap of faith for the period, yet wooden and bone flutes discovered in china have been dated as far back as 9,000 years ago, and one bone flute made from mammoth bone dates back 35,000 years and has a 4 note scale comparable to the Do, Re, Mi, Fa, scale that was so adamantly drummed into our little grade school heads.