Modern scientists believe that the first representatives of Homo sapiens, Homo Sapiens, appeared in Africa approximately 160 thousand years ago. About a 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. From different tribes musical forms differed, 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 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
First musical sounds- This is a person’s imitation of the voices of animals and birds during a hunt. And the first in history musical instrument- this is a 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 not only the voice was produced prehistoric music. 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 grinding grain 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.
Today, guys, we will plunge into the world of music and musical instruments. Do you know what musical instruments are?
Musical instruments are objects with which a person can produce various sounds. The range of musical instruments is very wide: these are well-known pianos, grand pianos, wind instruments, organ, guitar, button accordion, accordion, and even spoons and more modern electronic synthesizers.
The first musical instrument appeared in this world simultaneously with man himself. And this instrument was the man himself. Yes, yes, don’t be surprised, everything is correct, a person has a voice that can produce melodious sounds of different pitches. And the first melody in the world was played, of course, by a human voice. And in order for the melody to sound rhythmically, the person either clapped his hands or stomped his feet rhythmically. Claps of hands, stomping - what are not percussive sounds?
For ancient dance, rhythm was of great importance, so the dances were accompanied by clapping hands, tapping on various objects, and stamping. Therefore, rattles and drums became the most ancient musical instruments, with the help of which the rhythm of the dance can be conveyed very clearly.
Initially, music was only church music and was performed in churches. Despite the prohibitions of the church, along with church rituals, church music, singing, there were ritual folk performances, accompanied by songs, dances, and playing folk musical instruments.
The first professional actors in Rus' were buffoons. They also performed as singers, musicians, storytellers, skit performers, trainers, and acrobats back in the 11th century. Representatives of the clergy and authorities expelled buffoons in every possible way, so in 1648, the year of the wedding of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a prohibitory letter was issued stating that buffoons with domras, harps and bagpipes should not be invited into their home. And in 1649, Alexei Mikhailovich issued a decree to the Verkhoturye governor, which ordered that buffoons be punished and their instruments destroyed.
IN Ancient Rus', there are references not only to buffoons, but also to musical instruments such as the trumpet and harp. During numerous wars, trumpets and tambourines were used by Russian troops as signaling instruments.
The first musical instruments were made from animal bones - holes were hollowed out in them to allow air to be blown in. Various percussion instruments were also widespread (mallet, rattle, rattle made of dried fruits with seeds or pebbles inside, drum).
The appearance of the drum indicated that people had discovered the property of resonating empty objects. They began to use the dried skin, stretching it over an empty vessel.
During excavations in Ukraine, scientists were able to discover two bone mallets and a noisy set bracelet of five bone plates, which were presented as musical instruments of that time.
Wind musical instruments used the production of sounds by blowing air. The materials for them were stems of reeds, reeds, even shells, and later wood and metal. Such folk wind musical instruments as the whistle and pipe became the prototypes of modern flutes.
It is believed that primitive people invented all types of musical instruments: percussion instruments were made from wood or bone, which were then covered with leather, strings were made from a stretched bow string, wind instruments were made from hollow wood, tubular bone, and even from thick bird feathers.
Later, man invented wind instruments made from animal horns. From these primitive wind instruments, modern brass instruments evolved. As man developed his musical feeling, he began to use reeds and thus produced more natural and gentle sounds
First keyboard instrument there was a clavichord, which is the ancient ancestor of the piano.
The first image of a guitar was depicted in ancient times on stones Egyptian pyramids, the ancient Egyptians called this instrument nabla. Guitar is a stringed plucked musical instrument of Spanish origin, which is a flat body with deep cutouts on the sides and soundboards, of which the top has a resonator hole, necks with a neck equipped with metal frets, as well as heads with pegs that regulate the tension of the strings, most often metal or nylon guitars. Guitars come in six and seven strings. A bass guitar is an electric guitar that has a board instead of an acoustic body and a neck with a thin neck on which 20 frets are located. This model was developed in the early fifties, the most common is a four-string, but there are five-, six- and eight-strings.
Gusli is an ancient musical instrument. The Slavs played the gusli back in the 11th century. There are three types of gusli: ringed, plucked and keyboard.
Domra is the prototype of the Russian balalaika. The domra family includes: piccolo domra, small 3-string domra, 4-string small domra, alto domra, bass domra and double bass domra (extremely rare).
The first mention of the balalaika dates back to the end of the 17th century. The modern balalaika, or rather the entire family of balalaikas, was made by Andreev together with Paserbsky and Nalimov. The balalaika is a true symbol of the Russian people.
The violin is a stringed musical instrument. The history of music believes that the violin in its most perfect form arose in XVI century. In the 16th century, two main types of bowed instruments clearly emerged: the viol and the violin.
The very first Italian masters Violin makers were Gasparo Bertolotti (or "da Salo" (1542-1609) and Giovanni Paolo Magini (1580-1632), both from Brescia, in northern Italy. But very soon Cremona became the world center of violin production. And, of course, the most outstanding and unsurpassed masters violin making are considered members of the Amati family (Andrea Amati - founder of the Cremona school) and Antonio Stradivari (student Nicolo Amati, who improved the look and sound of the violin). And the Guarneri family (Giuseppe del Gesù is the most famous of the family; his best violins surpass Stradivarius instruments in their warmth and sonority of tone) complete this great triumvirate. The first violins in their fully completed form appeared in Moscow, apparently, only at the beginning of the 18th century.
The simplest accordion is separated from the modern accordion by only a few decades. The name comes from the name of the legendary ancient Russian singer, the first mention of which was discovered in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” The button accordion belongs to a large group of instruments - harmonics. The chromatic harmonica was made at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, which was called the button accordion.
The accordion is one of the most advanced varieties of chromatic harmonica with a right-hand piano-type keyboard. In many countries, the accordion has gained particular popularity among folk music performers. In some countries, it is customary to call accordions all hand-held harmonicas - both with keys and reed musical instruments with buttons. It has two keyboards: the right one is a piano keyboard and the left one is a push-button keyboard (with a system of basses and chords) for accompaniment.
The first mention of playing horns dates back to XVII century. The horn has different names: shepherd's, Russian, song.
The first mention of pity dates back to the end of the 18th century. There are two types of zhaleika - single and double.
Svirel is a Russian instrument of a type of double-barreled longitudinal flute. Chroniclers use three names for instruments of this type: flute, nozzle and foregrip. The mention of the pipe dates back to the end of the 11th century.
Clarinet is a woodwind musical instrument.
Kuvikly (kugikly, kuvichki) is a Russian type of multi-barrel flute (Pan flute). In Russian kuvikla, each pipe has its own name: guden, podguden, medium, and the smallest one - pyaushka. A set of five pipes in the hands of one performer is called a pair.
Ocarina is a type of whistle-shaped vessel-shaped flute, mainly ceramic whistles.
The bambula is a percussion musical instrument, a musical instrument of African-American origin, widespread among black residents of New Orleans in the first half of the 19th century. It is a drum in the form of a bamboo barrel, with cowhide stretched over it, from the membranophone family.
Banjo is a plucked string musical instrument, exported to late XVI V. from West Africa to the southern states of the United States, is a small flat drum with an elongated neck attached to it, on which strings are stretched.
The number of strings can be from 4 to 9.
A musical percussion drum has the appearance of a cylinder, covered on one or both sides with leather or plastic film with the help of metal hoops on which there are screws that regulate the pitch of the sound. Bass saxophone - first used in the twenties by Adrian Rollini. A clapperboard is a wooden percussion musical instrument that consists of two narrow planks, one of which has a handle, and the second, pressed against the first by a spring, is fixed at the lower end above the handle on a hinge. Bongos are a percussion musical instrument of Latin American origin.
consists of two one-sided small drums tightly connected to each other with a wooden block of different diameters, but the same in height, which determines the different pitch of their sound.
Bells - a percussion metal musical instrument, are hollow round metal bells made of thin brass up to 8 cm in circumference, attached to a wire ring or handle.
Inside each bell there is some kind of freely rolling object (a pea, a lead pellet, a round pebble). When shaken, the bells produce a high, light tinkling sound. Horn is a brass musical instrument.
Vibraphone - a percussion metal musical instrument consists of two rows of metal plates mounted on a special high table according to the principle of a piano keyboard with a chromatic scale.
Under each plate there is a metal cylinder-resonator, inside of which there is an impeller driven by an electric motor. The sound is produced by hitting reed sticks 35-40 centimeters long with rubber, felt or felt heads. Cello is a stringed musical instrument. The oboe is a woodwind reed musical instrument.
A gong is a percussion metal musical instrument from a family of Asian origin; it is a convex, large-diameter disk made of a special alloy with edges bent at right angles, freely suspended on a cord from a stand or frame. The oboe is played with a special mallet with a felt tip.
Horn is the general name for brass instruments. The harmonica is a wind reed musical instrument designed in 1821 by Berlin musical instrument maker Franz Buschmann. Guiro is a percussion wooden musical instrument of Latin American origin, it is a dried fruit of an oblong pumpkin with transverse notches cut on top and a hole at the bottom for sound resonance, also made from animal horns, dense varieties of wood or other hard material. The sound is produced using a thin faceted wooden stick. A wooden box is a wooden percussion musical instrument of Chinese origin; it is a small rectangular block made of ringing varieties of well-dried wood with a recess in the form of a longitudinal slit on the long side wall. They play on a wooden box with a snare drum stick. The jug is a primitive Negro musical instrument; it is a clay jug with a narrow neck, which is used as a resonator when singing, held in the hands and placed to the mouth. Kabatsa is a percussion wooden musical instrument of Afro-Brazilian origin, it is twice the size of a maracas and is a dried pumpkin fruit or a hollow ball wrapped in a net with beads strung on it.
They play only one instrument, holding it by the handle in the left hand and hitting it with a half-open right palm, or they scroll a grid of beads with a tangential movement of the palm. In Brazil it is used instead of maracas. Castanets are a percussion wooden musical instrument of Moorish-Andalusian origin, consisting of two shell-shaped plates made of hard wood, loosely connected by a cord... passed through holes in the upper part.
A loop is made from the same lace, into which the thumb is inserted, and with the remaining fingers the performer alternately taps one of the pieces of wood, causing it to click against the other. Cow Bell is a percussion metal musical instrument from a family of Latin American origin, it is a regular cow bell, it looks like an oblong, slightly flattened bell without a tongue, 10-15 centimeters long, made of brass or sheet copper.
Bells - a percussion metal musical instrument of Asian origin, is a two-row set of duralumin or steel plates different lengths, tuned like a piano keyboard and loosely mounted on a wooden frame, which is placed in a small flat box, most often trapezoidal in shape. Bells are played with two wooden, metal or plastic mallets. Conga is a percussion musical instrument of indefinite pitch of the family of membranophones of African origin, has the shape of either an elongated barrel, slightly narrowed downwards, or a cylinder gradually tapering downwards with skin stretched on top.
The height of the conga is 70-80 centimeters, the diameter is 22-26 centimeters. This instrument is played with fingers or palms, suspended over the shoulder using a belt. The double bass is a bowed string musical instrument; it is an accompanying instrument and performs the function of a bass voice.
The xylophone is a wooden percussion musical instrument, which is a set of rosewood plates of various lengths, located along the contour of a trapezoid and tuned according to the principle of a piano keyboard. The records are connected to each other by a vein or silk cord and are placed on a special table when playing.
They play the xylophone by hitting the records with special light sticks. Timpani - a percussion musical instrument of a certain pitch from the membranophone family, is an aluminum, brass or copper body in the shape of a cauldron, over which leather is stretched using a hoop. The instrument is adjusted using 6 screws located on the hoop. The timpani are played with light sticks that end in heads made of cotton wool, sponge or cork.
Maracas - a paired percussion musical instrument of Latin American origin, is a dried fruit of a coconut, pumpkin or small melon with a handle and filled with pebbles, dry olive grains or sand. Modern maracas are made from thin-walled wooden, metal or plastic balls and filled with peas or shot. The sound is produced by shaking and is characterized by a sharp rustling sound.
Marimba is a wooden percussion instrument of African origin, which is a type of xylophone and has metal resonator tubes. It is played with rosewood sticks with hard, medium and soft heads. An organ is a keyboard and wind musical instrument. It is believed that the organ (hydraulo - “water organ”) was invented by the Greek Ctesibius, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt in 296 - 228. BC e. An image of a similar instrument appears on one coin or token from the time of Nero. Large organs appeared in the 4th century, more or less improved organs - in the 7th and 8th centuries. Pope Vitalian (666) introduced the organ into the Catholic Church. In the 8th century, Byzantium was famous for its organs.
The art of building organs also developed in Italy, from where they were exported to France in the 9th century. This art later developed in Germany. The organ began to receive its greatest and most widespread use in the 14th century. In the 14th century, a pedal appeared in the organ, that is, a keyboard for the feet. Medieval organs, in comparison with later ones, were of crude workmanship; a manual keyboard, for example, consisted of keys with a width of 5 to 7 cm, the distance between the keys reached one and a half cm. They struck the keys not with their fingers, as now, but with their fists. In the 15th century, the keys were reduced and the number of pipes increased. The pandeira is a percussion musical instrument that consists of a rectangular wooden frame with a strip in the middle that turns into a handle. Between the sides of the frame and the rail are inserted 4-8 pairs of brass plates with a diameter of 4-5 cm, mounted on metal rods.
Plectrum (mediator) is a wooden, bone, metal or plastic plate with which sound is produced on plucked instruments. A whistle is a musical instrument consisting of a metal tube, at one end of which there is a mouthpiece, and at the other end a piston with a handle is inserted. As the piston moves, the pitch of the sound produced changes. A synthesizer is a universal electronic musical instrument; it is a complex combination of many functional units that the performer controls using a special electronic device, generating signals and consisting of a keyboard and remote control. It allows you to simulate the sound of various instruments.
Saxophone - the first saxophone was created by the Belgian music master Adolphe Sax in Paris in 1842. This first instrument had all the characteristics of the modern saxophone: it had a metal conical body, a mouthpiece that was borrowed from the clarinet, a single reed and a Theobald Boehm ring valve system. The saxophone had a “snake-like” shape.
A tambourine is a percussion musical instrument consisting of a narrow wooden shell in the form of a hoop about 5 centimeters wide, covered on one side with leather, and small, freely dangling plates (rarely bells or bells), arranged in pairs, which are mounted on metal rods and secured in the slots of the hoop. When playing the tambourine, the cymbals hit each other, ringing rhythmically.
Tam-tam is a percussion metal musical instrument, a type of gong, of Asian origin. Cymbals - a percussion metal musical instrument, are monolithic rounded discs made of a special alloy, with a cup-shaped convexity in the middle, in the center of which there is a small round hole. The secret of making real Turkish cymbals has been held for more than 350 years by a Turkish family that founded a music company. The cymbals are installed in a freely suspended state on special brackets attached to the bass drum, or on stands. They play the cymbals with sticks from a snare drum, as well as timpani or brooms.
Temple block is a wooden percussion musical instrument, made of hard wood, has a round, pear-shaped shape, is hollow inside, with a deep characteristic slit-like cut in the middle.
Timbales - a percussion musical instrument, consists of two small, bong-like, single-sided drums, equal in height and different in size, with a brass or copper body. The drums are connected to each other by a small block and mounted on a vertical holder. The timbales is played with snare drum sticks and fingers. The tom-tom is a percussion musical instrument from the family of membranophones of Chinese origin; it looks like a cylinder covered on one or both sides with leather or plastic film using metal hoops with screws on them that adjust the pitch of the sound. Unlike a snare drum, a tom-tom is always without springs, but most often has a muffler. The tom-tom is played with snare drum sticks, sticks with soft mallets or brooms.
A triangle is a percussion metal musical instrument, it is a rod made of iron or chrome-plated steel with a cross-section of about 1 centimeter, bent in the form of an open equilateral triangle. The triangles are hung freely by a hook on a fishing line or held in the left hand. The triangle is played with a steel stick without a handle, 22 centimeters long, held in the right hand.
A ratchet is a percussion musical instrument that consists of a wooden gear mounted on a wooden or metal rod (connected to a handle on one side) and placed in a small wooden box.
The sound is produced by rotating. Jumping from one tooth to another, the record produces a characteristic dry crackling sound. Trombone is a brass musical instrument. The appearance of the trombone dates back to the 15th century. It is generally accepted that the immediate predecessors of this instrument were rocker trumpets, when playing which the musician had the opportunity to move the instrument tube, obtaining a chromatic scale. In 1839, the Leipzig musician Christan Zatler invented the quart valve, which made it possible to lower trombone sounds by a quart, which made it possible to extract sounds from the so-called “dead zone”. The main principle of playing the trombone is to obtain harmonic consonances by changing the position of the lips and changing the length of the air column in the instrument, achieved with the help of a slide.
The trumpet is one of the oldest musical instruments. Mentions of the oldest instruments of this type date back to approximately 3600 BC. e. Pipes have existed in many civilizations - in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient China and were used as signaling instruments. The trumpet played this role for many centuries until the 17th century. In the Middle Ages, trumpeters were obligatory members of the army; only they could, using a signal, quickly convey the order of the commander to other parts of the army located at a distance. The art of playing the trumpet was considered “elite”; it was taught only to specially selected people. In peacetime, trumpets were sounded at festive processions, knightly tournaments, in large cities there was a position of “tower” trumpeters, who announced the arrival of a high-ranking person, the change of time of day (thus acting as a kind of clock), the approach of an enemy army to the city and other events .
Tubular bells are a percussion metal musical instrument of a certain pitch, consisting of two rows of brass, copper or steel of small diameter and different lengths, freely suspended on a special frame and arranged in chromatic sequence. The sound is produced by striking the upper edge of the corresponding pipe with a wooden mallet with a barrel-shaped head, covered with leather or rubber bands. Tuba is a brass musical instrument that performs the function of a bass. The first attempts to create a low register brass instrument date back to the second quarter of the 19th century. Previously, this function was performed by serpent (serpent means “snake”). The first instrument similar to a tuba was made in Berlin in 1835 by Moritz, according to the instructions of the court musician W. Wiprecht. Modern look tuba owes Belgian music master Adolf Sachs. A few years after its creation, the “German imperfection” came to him. He experimentally selected the necessary scale ratios for the instrument, the length of the sounding column of the instrument and achieved excellent sonority.
The tubafon is a percussion musical instrument, similar in design to bells, but instead of plates, the sound source is metal tubes of different sizes located on straw rollers and connected to each other by a vein, strings or silk cord. a certain pitch. Appeared almost simultaneously with the vibraphone.
The ukulele is a plucked string musical instrument that first appeared in the Hawaiian Islands. It is a small four-string guitar.
A washboard is a percussion instrument that is a regular washboard. The washboard is played with fingers wearing thimbles.
The flute is one of the oldest musical instruments; official sources date its appearance to 35 - 40 thousand years BC. But perhaps this amazing musical instrument is much earlier. The prototype of the modern flute is an ordinary whistle, the sound in which appears when an air stream of air oscillates, which is cut by the sharp edge of a tree or other material; they were made of clay, stone, wood. They existed among most peoples as various signaling devices, children's toys and as musical instruments.
Later, holes were cut in the whistle tube, by clamping which it was possible to adjust the pitch of the sound. Chromatic frets were formed using finger combinations and closing the holes halfway or one-quarterway. An increase in sound by an octave occurred by increasing the strength and/or direction of breathing. Gradually, the whistle tube became longer, and there were more holes. Modern flutes are divided into several main types. The transverse flute was known in Egypt more than five thousand years ago and still remains the main wind instrument throughout the Middle East. In China, the transverse flute has been known for more than three thousand years, in India and Japan for more than two thousand years. In Rus', a type of longitudinal flute was the flute, but it is not possible to date its appearance. Flexatone is a percussion metal musical instrument.
Appeared in the early twenties of the twentieth century in France. It is a small steel plate, tapered towards the end, on a wire frame. The narrow end of the plate is bent, and flat steel rods are attached to it on both sides, at the end of which two solid wooden or metal balls oscillate freely.
Flugelhorn is a brass musical instrument. Piano is a stringed, percussion-keyboard musical instrument that performs melodic, harmonic and rhythmic functions.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries piano music becomes very popular in barel houses, where many talented pianists, later famous, played jazz musicians. Piano art reached its most intense flowering in the second half of the twenties. And in our time, the piano is the most common musical instrument.
A cylindrical box is a percussion wooden musical instrument that is a hollow wooden tube with slots along the edges. In the middle, the tube is covered with a metal coupling with a clamp, with which the instrument is attached to the bass drum, and is played with snare drum sticks.
The Charleston is a percussion metal musical instrument invented
drummer Vic Burton and designed by Kaiser Marshall in the second half of the twenties. The Charleston is a special device mounted on a tripod device, on top of which plates (about 35 centimeters in diameter) are attached horizontally, one below the other, with their inner sides facing each other. The lower plate is fixedly attached to a metal rod passed through a pipe 70 centimeters long and connected at the bottom to the pedal. Celesta is a percussion-keyboard musical instrument, which is a wooden body (similar to a small piano) in which a piano mechanism with felt-covered hammers is mounted.
Chocalo is a percussion metal musical instrument of indefinite pitch from the family, which is a cylinder filled with some kind of bulk material - shot or grains.
When playing, the chokala is held with both hands in a vertical or horizontal position and shaken, rotated or tapped on the body with the fingers. Electric instruments are musical instruments in which sound vibrations produced mechanically are amplified and then transmitted to an acoustic system. The idea of creating power tools belongs to the Soviet scientist Lev Theremin, who designed such a tool back in 1920. The first power tool to receive practical application, was an organ designed by the American Lawrence Hammond in 1929, and mass production of cutters began in 1935.
In the second half of the thirties, the electric guitar appeared, and then the violin, bass guitar and piano, piano, and with the development of electronics, more and more new musical instruments appeared with stereo effects and surround sound and a huge range of reproduced sounds.
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 evolved. 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 evolved.
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 2015The 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, 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 between them is that they are made from various materials and slightly different in shape.
In music different nations percussion instruments play different roles. They played a particularly important role in music 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 the short reed made more high sounds, and long - lower. 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 sound inanimate object, 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 group tools . And the very first string instrument was simple hunting 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 it is inconvenient to play on several bows 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 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 evolved. 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 evolved.
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.
