The Origins of Music

Have you ever wondered whether some of the first humans on earth had music? What instruments they played? And where on earth was the beginning of music? These are some of the questions I hope to answer in this post, while hopefully also teaching you a thing or two in the process. 

          To answer these questions, I am going to be bringing you back to prehistoric times, to before any written records were ever kept. The answer to my first question, did some of the first humans on earth have music, is actually yes. Experts in the field believe that the origins of music probably came from naturally occurring sounds and rhythms. It is likely that mankind subconsciously mimicked the sounds around them, creating the earliest forms of music. We still do this today, with some cultures around the world imitating natural sounds in their songs. 

Some of the earliest paleolithic bone flutes
https://storify.com/WindofEpiphany/paleolithic-flute

          The earliest musical instruments, if you could even call them that, were in the form of simply tapping rocks and stones against each other, and other percussion sounds that could be composed using materials found in the surrounding areas. One of the first instruments that would be recognisable to you or I nowadays, is a paleolithic bone flute made from a cave bear's femur which is estimated to be over 30,000 years old. 

          Now, as for where on earth all of this was happening, the first humans evolved in Africa so it began there, and as time went by and mankind dispersed around the world, different countries began to devise their own cultures and therefore their own music types and genres. It was a slow process but over thousands of years, we now have the thousands of distinctive kinds of music that can be found in every corner of the earth.

          However, one way that music hasn't changed in the past 50,000 years is that even then, it served as a form of entertainment, just as it is today for billions of people all around the world. Another more practical use for music all that time ago would have been to lure animals in hunt, a tactic that would have been crucial to their survival because they were reliant on hunting and gathering as a source of food. In a way, they were almost dependent on music.

A Neanderthal Man
http://geniusofancientman.blogspot.ie

          To put all of this into perspective, just try imagining these people living on earth up to 60,000 years ago, residing in makeshift tents handmade out of animal skins, hunting and gathering all of their food, the English language still tens of thousands of years away from being created, and yet in many ways, mankind hasn't changed at all. We still love music just as much as some of the very first humans on earth, and just as they subconsciously hummed to the rhythms around them, we still mindlessly hum our favourite songs every day.