Who wrote the first music in history?

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We all love music. And from time to time, we ask ourselves what was the first music ever written in human history. The question is not easy to answer: let’s see why.

Perhaps you have never asked yourself such a question. And to be honest, even if we want to suppose a “point zero” of music, it would be difficult to prove. The only thing we can investigate is: how, when, and why did primitive man, feel the need to invent and adopt a new language that no longer spoke with words and gestures, but with sound?

It is difficult to find documentable answers and testimonies. Probably the first sound was born trying to imitate the sounds of nature. But what prompted man in this pursuit?

According to Herbert Spencer, who tackles the issue in an essay from 1858, entitled The Origin and Function of Music, everything stems from an emotional need. Men have thought of expressing their emotions using a language other than words; a language that could communicate strong feelings which words would be unable to express with the same poignancy. According to this vision, music is born, therefore, as an emotive vent.

Darwin never accepted this thesis. In his 1871 masterpiece, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, he underlines how the ability to create a musical language is not the prerogative of man. One must only observe the animal world to realize how this ability is inherent in all living beings. Most often it is functionally linked to sexual competition, to the individual’s possibility of being chosen by the partner. Unlike Spencer, Darwin states that music is not a cultural elaboration which arrived with the maturity of the human being, but a much more ancient practice, rooted and distributed in the world of living beings. In fact, if we observe birds singing without possessing language, then it is plausible to think that even the progenitors of men, before acquiring the power to express mutual love in an articulated language, tried to engage each other through rhythm and sound.

Do you support Darwin or Spencer?

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Let Me Tell You About Music
History, genres, characters, curiosities, legends and secrets of musical theory and harmony

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Who wrote the first music? What was the musical contribution brought by the ancient civilizations?

With the first ancient civilizations, music ceased to be a strictly sensorial experience to become a specific language. It became an art form. I could investigate the many examples scattered around the globe, but I will limit myself. For simplicity and so as not to bore you, I will stick to those that have had a direct cultural and geographic impact on our society and its musical system.

For the Egyptians, music played an important role in religious ceremonies. They possessed tools of their own creation such as their unique hydraulic organ activated by a bellows functioning with a waterfall, already described in the texts of Ctesibius of Alexandria (3rd century BC).

From the Egyptians to the Hebrews the step is short. The Jewish civilization introduced true musical styles which were then adopted by Gregorian chant and therefore were present in the music of the first Christians. The Jews, like the Egyptians, built special instruments such as the shofar, a small ram’s horn used to call the faithful to gather in the synagogues, a sort of early church bell.

Next, we arrive in Greece. The Greeks lived music in a profound way. For them, it was not a simple art, but something capable of calming passions. Aristotle said music had a cathartic, liberating power and a very useful outlet. Without music, certain repressed instincts and certain passions could have created stressful situations that were difficult to manage. Music was everywhere in Greece. It accompanied the declamation of poems or the intonation of choral songs. There was the Parthenos (the song of the virgins) or the Epinikion, a victory song derived from the Greek terms epi (above) and nike (victory). An interesting fact related to Nike, a figure from Greek mythology depicted as a woman with wings, from whom the term “winged victory” comes. Even today, the famous “Nike” brand’s name and symbol of a stylised wing are derived from the goddess Nike. Let’s go back to the Greeks. This civilization based music on a scale of notes made up of only four sounds. This, coincidentally, recalled the four strings of the lyre, which was a mythical and legendary instrument, with a story worth telling you.

According to Greek mythology, the inventor of this instrument was Hermes. One day the god found a turtle in a cave. After killing it, he took the carapace and stretched strings of sheep’s gut inside it. He then gave the instrument to Apollo, and the latter to his son Orpheus, the most famous poet and musician in history. He became so adept at playing it that Seneca himself narrated:

“To sweet music of Orpheus, the bang of the express stopped torrent, and the transient water, obliged to continue the way, lost his sudden start.”

You can buy the book
Let Me Tell You About Music
History, genres, characters, curiosities, legends and secrets of musical theory and harmony

on Amazon

Every creature loved Orpheus and was enchanted by his music and his poetry, but Orpheus had eyes only for one woman: Eurydice, who became his wife. Fate, however, had not foreseen a lasting love for them. One day, Eurydice’s beauty made Aristeo’s heart burn. He fell madly in love with her and tried to seduce her. To escape his insistence, the girl started running but she had the misfortune of stepping on a snake hidden in the grass that bit her, killing her instantly. Orpheus, maddened by pain and unable to conceive his life without his wife, decided to descend into the kingdom of the dead. First, he convinced Charon with his music to ferry him to the other bank of the river Styx. Then the dog Cerberus and the judges of the dead were convinced to let him pass and, despite being surrounded by damned souls who tried in every way to seize him, Orpheus managed to reach the presence of Hades and Persephone. Once in front of them, Orpheus began to play and sing his despair and loneliness and his melodies were so full of pain that the lords of the underworld themselves were moved. Thus, Orpheus was allowed to bring Eurydice back to the kingdom of the living on condition that during the journey he preceded her and did not turn to look at her until they reached the sunlight. Orpheus, thus taking his bride by the hand, began his journey towards the light. During the journey, the suspicion of leading a shadow and not Eurydice by the hand began to make its way into his mind. Forgetting his promise, he turned to look at her, helplessly witnessing her death for the second time. In vain, for seven days, he tried to persuade Charon to lead him again to the presence of the lords of the underworld. In response, he sent him back to the land of the living.

The next step in the history of the first music ever appeared on earth continues in the Roman empire, where also music notation was invented. But that’s already another story: stay tuned.

Read more about the history of music in the dedicated Auralcrave book