Tuesday, February 17, 2015

A Bit of Music History for You: The Oldest Instrument and the Oldest Song

So, I ran across this little gem on Facebook (I will admit that social media has its advantages)... here is the link to the full article.  I think this is fascinating!  The flute and drums are allegedly the first instruments, other than the voice, and here is a flute that verifies that flutes have been around for a very, very long time.  The Adam/Eve of instruments.  Yep, I said it.  All the other lesser instruments came from a humble baby cave bear bone flute beginning.  Enjoy this cool piece of history!



And here is a little bonus.  The earliest known, as I understand it, song.  At least the earliest recorded, via writing, song.  It is generally assumed that singing/music was an oral tradition prior to written notation.  The rhythm is an educated guess by the smart people who researched this, but look at the original notation! I am impressed they got anything out of it at all.  But then, that is why I probably wasn't asked to consult on this little project.  Maybe next time...


Sometimes I really think I should have been a music historian anthropologist.  That's a thing, I'm fairly certain.

For more flute history, read this blog post by my friend Katie Smyth.

No comments:

Post a Comment