Origins of Music

Music is found all around us: listening to the rain with a crash of thunder or hearing birds sing their sweet tunes. These factors could have been some motivator for music to start. Music was around before written language. Without written language, music had to be passed on orally before the printing press, and even the alphabet, came around. Music was significant to such civilizations as the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Proof of this is in many early drawings found in caves. Also, there were some Greek philosophers who studied the math behind pitch and scales. This shows that throughout history, music has influenced some of the greatest civilizations. 

Throughout the course of human history, man has continued to develop music. As humans progressed through time, new forms of music were created that needed some kind of notation. The most noticeable and significant is the Gregorian chant. This was performed in Catholic Churches and monasteries throughout the church year. Since the chanting was part of the all the churches, people needed some way of expressing their feelings for God in the same way; notation made this possible. Notation, around 600 AD, was different than it is today. The notations were not any specific pitch but rather an indicator of whether or not the words are sung higher or lower than the previous words. The notes were written on a single line which did not indicate what the actual pitch was supposed to be. Before long, a Benedictine Monk called Guido of Arezzo, introduced a 4-horizontal line stave. Soon this was the standard of all written music. Along with the 4 line stave, Guido of Arezzo used letters to define the starting pitch of the hymn. These letters were ut, re mi, fa, sol, la. This system would later translate into the system used today of Do-Re-Mi. After the founding of pitch, notations indicating different lengths of notes were incorporated around the 13th century. Music continued to evolve outside of the church but usually orally as only highly educated people knew how to read and write. Writing music was also a long, laborious, and sometimes expensive process, especially if multiple copies were needed. With the invention of the printing press, music was able to spread and continued to evolve. Slowly but surely, music evolved but the origins of music is only the beginning of the powers of music.