What was the first musical instrument?

There is a legend about this, but it is nothing more than a fantasy. According to Greek mythology, the first musical instrument, the shepherd's pipe, was made by the god Pan. One day on the shore, he exhaled through the reeds and heard his breath, passing along the trunk, produce a sad lamentation. He cut the trunk into unequal parts, tied them together, and now he had his first musical instrument!

The truth is that we cannot name the first musical instrument, since all primitive people throughout the world seem to have created some kind of music. It was usually music with some kind of religious meaning, and the audience became part of it. They danced, drummed, clapped and sang along with her. This wasn't just done for fun. This primitive music was a significant part of people's lives.

The legend of Pan and the reed suggests how man came up with the idea of ​​​​making so many different musical instruments. He may have imitated the sounds of nature or used the objects around him to create his music.

The first musical instruments were percussion instruments (like a drum). Later, man invented wind instruments made from animal horns. From these primitive wind instruments, modern brass instruments developed. As man developed his musical sense, he began to use reeds and thus produced more natural and gentle sounds.

Finally, man invented the simple lyre and harp, from which bowed instruments came.

In the Middle Ages, the crusaders brought many amazing oriental musical instruments from their campaigns. Combined with folk instruments that already existed in Europe at that time, they developed into many instruments that are now used to play music.

21 Nov 2015

The history of musical instruments. Video lesson.

When did musical instruments originate? You can get very different answers to this question (from 100 years to tens of thousands). In reality, no one can answer this question, since it is unknown. But it is known that one of the most ancient instruments found during archaeological excavations is more 40 thousand years(it was a flute made from an animal bone, the femur of a cave bear). But wind instruments were not the first to appear, which means that musical instruments arose even earlier.

What instrument appeared first?

The first prototype of a musical instrument was human hands. At first, people sang, clapping their hands, which were, as it were, his musical instrument. Then people began to pick up two sticks, two stones, two shells, and instead of clapping their hands, they hit each other with these objects, producing different sounds. The tools people used largely depended on the area where they lived. If they lived in a forest area, they took 2 sticks; if they lived by the sea, they took 2 shells, etc.

Thus, instruments appear on which the sound is produced by striking, which is why such instruments are called drums .

The most common percussion instrument is, of course, drum . But the invention of the drum dates back to a much later time. We cannot say now how this happened. We can only guess something. For example, one day, having hit a hollow tree in order to drive bees away from it and take honey from them, a man listened to the unusually booming sound that comes from hitting a hollow tree, and the idea came to him to use this in his orchestra. Then people realized that it was not necessary to look for a hollow tree, but that they could take some kind of stump and hollow out the middle of it. Well, if you cover it on one side with the skin of a killed animal, you will get an instrument very similar to drum. Many nations have instruments of similar design. The only difference is that they are made from different materials and slightly different in shape.

In the music of different nations, percussion instruments play different roles. They played a particularly important role in the music of African peoples. There were various drums, from small ones to huge drums, reaching 3 meters. The sound of these huge drums could be heard several kilometers away.

There was a very sad period in history associated with the slave trade. Europeans or Americans sailed to the African continent to capture and then sell its inhabitants. Sometimes when they arrived in a village, they found no one there; the residents managed to leave there. This happened because the sounds of the drum, which came from the neighboring village, warned them about this, i.e. people understood the “language” of drums.

Thus, the group was the first to arise percussion instruments .

What group of instruments appeared after the drums? These were wind instruments, which are called so because their sound is produced by blowing air. We also don’t know what prompted man to invent these tools, but we can only assume something. For example, one day, while hunting, a man came to the shore of a lake. A strong wind was blowing and suddenly the man heard a sound. At first he was wary, but after listening he realized that it was the sound of broken reeds. Then the man thought: “What if I break the reed myself, and blow air into it, try to make it sound?” Having successfully done this, people learned to produce sounds by blowing air. Then the man realized that short reeds made higher sounds, and long ones made lower sounds. People began to tie reeds of different lengths and, thanks to this, produce sounds of different pitches. This instrument is often called the Pan flute.

This is due to the legend that a long time ago in Ancient Greece there lived a goat-footed god named Pan. One day he was walking through the forest and suddenly saw a beautiful nymph named Syrinx. Pan to her... And the beautiful nymph disliked Pan and began to run away from him. She runs and runs, and Pan is already catching up with her. Syrinx prayed to her father, the river god, to save her. Her father turned her into a reed. Pan cut that reed and made himself a pipe out of it. And let's play on it. No one knows that it is not the flute who sings, but the sweet-voiced nymph Syrinx.

Since then, it has become a tradition that multi-barreled flutes, similar to a fence of shortened reed pipes, are called Pan flutes - on behalf of the ancient Greek god of fields, forests and grasses. And in Greece itself it is still often called syrinx. Many nations have such instruments, but they are called differently. The Russians have kugikly, kuvikly or kuvichki, the Georgians have larchemi (soinari), in Lithuania - skuduchai, in Moldova and Romania - nai or muskal, among the Latin American Indians - samponyo. Some call the Pan flute a pipe.

Even later, people realized that it was not necessary to take several tubes, but that they could make several holes in one tube, and by pressing them in a certain way, they could produce different sounds.

When our distant ancestors made some inanimate object sound, it seemed to them a real miracle: before their eyes, dead objects came to life and found a voice. There are many legends and songs about the singing reed. One of them tells how a reed grew on the grave of a murdered girl, when it was cut and made into a pipe, she sang and spoke in a human voice about the death of the girl, and named the name of the killer. This fairy tale was translated into poetry by the great Russian poet M.Yu. Lermontov.

The fisherman sat cheerfully

On the river bank,

And in front of him in the wind

The reeds swayed.

He cut dry reeds

And drilled the wells

He pinched one end

It blew at the other end.

And as if animated, the reed began to speak -

Thus arose the second group of musical instruments, which are called brass

Well, the third group of musical instruments, as you probably already guessed, is string instrument group . And the very first stringed instrument was a simple one Hunter bow. Many times before a hunt a person checks whether the tension is good bow string. And then one day, having listened to this melodious sound of a bowstring, a man decided to use it in his orchestra. He realized that a short string produces higher sounds, and a longer string produces lower sounds. But playing on several bows is inconvenient and the man pulled not one string on the bow, but several. If you imagine this instrument, you can find in it similarities with harp .

Thus, three groups of musical instruments arise: drums, winds and strings.

What does the term music mean? Music is acoustic vibrations perceived by the hearing organs. Studies have shown that such low-frequency vibrations have a stimulating effect on the hidden forces of the human (and not only) body, healing it.

Scientists suggest that humans appeared about 160 thousand years ago on the African continent. After ethnographic and archaeological research, experts received strong evidence of the existence of musical experiences among primitive people, the beginning of which they attributed to the Paleolithic era; it was during this period that the first musical instruments were made from the simplest materials: stone, bones, wood. And a modern musical instrument store can show the entire history of music.

With their help, our ancestors achieved different sounds. Later, music began to be extracted from a faceted rib specially made from bone (its sound was more like gnashing of teeth). It turns out that even in those days babies had rattles, but they were made from skulls and filled with seeds or dried berries. Such rattles made a peculiar crackling and enticing sound. Such noisy sounds very often accompanied funeral ceremonies. This is how music began to manifest itself.

The inhabitants of Ancient Greece had a special relationship with music; they sacredly considered more than one theatrical performance to be a gift from the gods; the reading of poetry was not complete without accompaniment; scientists of that time declared the relationship between music and mathematical quantities; this includes the theory of the famous Greek Pythagoras about the proportion of sounds, where it acts as a physical quantity . Music was present in everything - women lulled children to sleep - quietly singing, shepherds gathered the scattered herd with sounds from horns, warlike chants terrified the enemy.

What was the first professional human musical instrument in history? Scientists have established that the first instrument of our ancestors was drums; with their help, workers set the rhythm of movements in their work. People used natural materials to create their instruments that produced sounds - flat stones, wood, shells.

The idiophone - the first percussion instrument - arose in the process of the formation of speech among primitive people. The sound produced by the idiophone evoked associations with the rhythm of a beating heart. In general, for primitive people the value of music lay in rhythm, which had a very strong emotional impact on them. The second invention was wind instruments, the most famous being the aerophone. Scientists were amazed by this first prototype of a flute (20 thousand years BC), which had knocked out side holes, the sound of which is in no way compromised by modern analogues.

Stringed instruments are also an invention of our ancient ancestors. Scientists have identified some rock carvings of the first string players; they can be seen on bas-reliefs, as well as in numerous caves in the Pyrenees.

What did the first strings look like?

Fixed threads inserted into wooden holes, through which the musician must pass his hand, specially twisting it, the sound emitted at the same time resembled a hum, these instruments became the prototype of the guitar and other stringed instruments.

A little later, during the Mesolithic era, it was modernized, carved vertical holes were added to the instrument. This allowed sometimes two or even three sounds to sound simultaneously. This method was primitive, but was preserved for a long time in Africa and Europe, as well as on some islands of Oceania.

It is believed that music appeared when the first people appeared. Its oral form, that is, song, was present in the life of our ancient ancestors. Modern scientists suggest that music has been around for about 50,000 years. Now, firmly rooted in human hearts, it has become an integral part of our lives.

The oldest copy of a musical instrument was found during excavations in Germany. It lay next to sculptures that date back to 35,000-40,000 BC. It was a flute. Its thickness does not exceed 8 mm, and its length is 21.8 cm. There are 5 holes punched in the case, which were closed with the fingers when playing.

Archaeologists were lucky enough to find another remains of ancient musical instruments - tweeters and flutes dating back to the Paleolithic era - on the territory of modern Moldova and Hungary.

Music was an integral part of the life of the ancient Greeks. Even its name itself comes from the Greek language. Popular musical instruments here were:

• aulos - a wind instrument consisting of two conical or cylindrical pipes;
• lyre and cithara - plucked string instruments made in the form of a curved frame and strings (the cithara had more strings than the lyre);
• Syringa is a variation of the multi-barrel flute, a wind instrument consisting of a series of connected tubes.

The oldest Chinese instruments are the guqin and the bamboo flute. Traditionally, tools in China are classified according to the material from which they are made. Stone, wooden, leather, silk, bamboo, pumpkin and clay musical instruments still exist there.

In India, music is inextricably linked with dance. This country is the birthplace of musical theater. The oldest musical instrument found in India is the basalt lithophone, which is 3,000 years old.

Ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, India and China made enormous contributions to the development of music and musical instruments. Evidence of the presence of music in Ancient Egypt is the lyrics written in hieroglyphs on papyrus and tomb walls. Popular subjects for them were hymns to the gods and women's songs of lament over the dead. The music was mainly of a religious nature. In Babylon, temple music performed by priests and secular music performed by slave musicians also developed at an intensive pace.

After thousands of years, music is still one of the most popular and beloved arts. It is difficult to meet a person who does not love music - there is a style and instrument for everyone.

If you want not just to listen to music, but also to create it, understand it, learn to express yourself through music - come to Jam`s cool music school. Vocals, guitar, piano, drums, wind instruments, musical literacy, playing in an ensemble, sound engineering - this is just a small part of what you can learn from us. And to learn more about us and personally communicate with teachers, come to a free introductory lesson.

Modern scientists believe that the first representatives of Homo sapiens, Homo Sapiens, appeared in Africa approximately 160 thousand years ago. About one hundred and ten thousand years later, primitive people settled across all continents of our planet. And they have already brought music in its primitive form to new lands. Different tribes had different musical forms, but common primary sources can be clearly traced. It follows that music as a phenomenon originated on the African continent before the settlement of prehistoric people around the world. And this was at least 50 thousand years ago.

Terminology

Prehistoric music manifested itself in an oral musical tradition. Otherwise it is called primitive. The term “prehistoric” is usually applied to the musical tradition of ancient European peoples, and in relation to the music of representatives of other continents, other terms are used - folklore, traditional, popular.

Ancient musical instruments

The first musical sounds are human imitation of the voices of animals and birds during the hunt. And the first musical instrument in history is the human voice. With the strength of the vocal cords, a person could already masterfully reproduce sounds in a wide range: from the singing of exotic birds and the chirping of insects to the roar of a wild animal.

The hyoid bone, which is responsible for the production of sounds, according to anthropologists, was formed approximately 60 thousand years ago. Here is another starting date in the history of music.

But prehistoric music was not produced only by voice. There were others, in particular palms. Clapping hands or knocking stones against each other are the first manifestations of rhythm created by man. And one of the subtypes of primitive music is the sound of grain grinding in the hut of a primitive man.

The first prehistoric musical instrument, the existence of which is officially confirmed by archaeologists, is. In its primitive form it was a whistle. The whistle pipe acquired holes for the fingers and became a full-fledged musical instrument, which was gradually improved to the form of a modern flute. Prototypes of the flute were discovered during excavations in southwestern Germany, dating back to the period 35-40 thousand years BC.

The role of prehistoric music

Many people believe that music can tame the most ferocious animal. And ancient man subconsciously began to use sounds to attract or repel animals. The opposite is also possible: that music pacified man, turning him from a beast into a thinking and feeling creature.

The prehistoric period in the history of music ends at the moment when music passes from oral tradition to written tradition.