Very old music

Subject: RE: Very old music
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 01:53 PM

The works of Hildegarde von Bingen from about 1000 AD and other religious composers are the earliest we have from Europe- mostly chant. The Inuit had no written records. Some Chinese works, or at least the traditions associated with them, go back to 2000 BC- I know little about their music.
The earliest recorded secular works also seem to be medieval (Spanish, German, Sephardic, Arabic).
We have older lyrical poetry, of course, but the tunes are lost.
A number of secular tunes from the British Isles are claimed to be ancient, but there is no factual evidence from before late 1400s for any of them that I have heard of.

Subject: RE: Very old music
From: Gary T
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 01:48 PM

I imagine there's some church music that goes back further than the 16th century. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the cultures you mention maintain some music that's even older. Whether people who are a product of modern sensibilites and Western culture would consider them good tunes is perhaps questionable--by which I mean that most folks have a fondness for what they're familiar with. I could appreciate some of the art of say, American Indian chants or Chinese songs, but I don't think I'd prefer them to songs in English that I can understand, and tunes that don't sound odd to my ear.

Subject: RE: Very old music
From: greg stephens
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 01:48 PM

People have attempted to deduce things from justwhere the holes were drilled in a very very early bone flute....caveman stuff.Gives some indication of the sort of scales they might have used, but not much more really. Spike Milligan had a very good "invention of music" sketch on TV a long time ago. There were a bunch of cavemen sitting morosely round a campfire.Then one of them starts wailing away, not very melodically. The other guys listen for a bit, then ceremoniously stand up, pick the singer up enthrone him on their shoulders and carry him off screen. There is a loud splash. The guys reappear (minus the singer) and sit morosely round the fire.

Subject: Very old music
From: Les Jones
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 01:35 PM

What are the earliest tunes or songs? Most early stuff seems to be 16C, I think.

Was no music passed on in written or symbolic form from Africa, Greece, Rome, Viking, Chinese, Indian, pre-columbian American people. What about the Inuit, did they have any stories, tunes or songs?

Surely good tunes must go back as far as speech, even if we can't retrieve them.