I wouldn't dismiss Goodall quite like that, but I do think he looks too much to the Church's and establishment's music and forgets that there will almost certainly have been other, much older music taking place for thousands of years before the Christian Church began to write it down.

He referred in passing to how some Lutheran hymns were based on folk songs, without bothering to examine how the folk melodies got there in the first place, what lyrics they used before the religious ones were grafted on, or what happened to those songs that didn't get adopted by the Church.

His comparison of The Archers' theme tune with a religious piece in 6/8 time failed to pick up on the fact that jig-time is a very natural rhythm for dance, and that most rhythmic music has a close link with human movement (marching, dancing, baby-rocking, etc).

Just because music wasn't written down, it's wrong to assume that it was insignificant or non-existent before written notation. Surely a musicologist can piece together something of the music of bygone centuries, even when no written record of it remains.

Having said all that, I found quite a lot of interest in the programme, and will carry on watching.

Marje