cover letter
Prehistoric Music All music produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory) are commonly known as Prehistoric or Primitive music. Music occurred prior to recorded history, therefore the source is unknown. Some people believe that music derived from organic rhythms and sounds. Human music may echo these phenomena using patterns, repetition and tonality. In some cultures music is intended to mimic natural sounds, some of these reasons may relate religious practices and beliefs. It may also be used as a form of entertainment or more practical functions such as luring animal in while hunting.
It is presumed that the first musical instrument was the human voice itself, which can produce a vast array of sounds, from yawning and coughing and whistling through to clicking, humming and singing. In 2008 archaeologists unearthed a bone flute in the Hohle Fels cave in close proximity of Ulm, Germany. The five-holed flute has a V-shaped mouthpiece and is made from a vulture wing bone.
Nicholas J. Conard of the University of Tübingen, in Germany, showed a thin bird-bone flute carved some 35,000 years ago.
Ancient Music
The prehistoric is believed to have concluded with the development of writing, and with it, by definition, prehistoric music. All other music that followed was given the name “Ancient Music”. The "oldest known song" was written in cuneiform, dating to 4,000 years ago from Ugarit. It was deciphered by Prof. Anne Draffkorn Kilmer (University of Calif. at Berkeley), and was demonstrated to be composed in harmonies of thirds, like ancient gymel, and also was written using a Pythagorean tuning of the diatonic scale. The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest extant example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world.
A review of ancient drawings on vases and walls, etc., and ancient writings (such as in Aristotle, Problems, Book XIX.12) which described musical techniques of the time, as well as Double pipes, such as those
It is presumed that the first musical instrument was the human voice itself, which can produce a vast array of sounds, from yawning and coughing and whistling through to clicking, humming and singing. In 2008 archaeologists unearthed a bone flute in the Hohle Fels cave in close proximity of Ulm, Germany. The five-holed flute has a V-shaped mouthpiece and is made from a vulture wing bone.
Nicholas J. Conard of the University of Tübingen, in Germany, showed a thin bird-bone flute carved some 35,000 years ago.
Ancient Music
The prehistoric is believed to have concluded with the development of writing, and with it, by definition, prehistoric music. All other music that followed was given the name “Ancient Music”. The "oldest known song" was written in cuneiform, dating to 4,000 years ago from Ugarit. It was deciphered by Prof. Anne Draffkorn Kilmer (University of Calif. at Berkeley), and was demonstrated to be composed in harmonies of thirds, like ancient gymel, and also was written using a Pythagorean tuning of the diatonic scale. The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest extant example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world.
A review of ancient drawings on vases and walls, etc., and ancient writings (such as in Aristotle, Problems, Book XIX.12) which described musical techniques of the time, as well as Double pipes, such as those