Ancient Music Before 500 AD

What and Where Ancient music refers to the various musical systems that were developed across various geographical regions such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, India, China, Greece and Rome Ancient music is designated by the characterization of the basic audible tones and scales. It may have been transmitted through oral or written systems.

Mesopotamia and Egypt

Rome and Greece

The Sound of Ancient Greek http://classics.uc.edu/music/index.html

Discoveries The Harps of Ur Iraq was the birth place of civilization, also known as the cradle of civilization. The very first written words ever known to man evolved and were developed in Iraq, the very first cities throughout human history were built in Iraq. Ideas like dividing time into months, weeks, days and hours, music, schools, trade, religion, law and many other ideas which govern our lives today were all started in Iraq. By the time this harp was first made almost 5000 years ago, Iraq had already enjoyed more than 2000 years of history.

The Harp Of Ur

The Sound of The Lyre of Ur The Oldest Known Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZatnTPhYWc Hurrian Music – Found in the city of Urkesh in Syria http://128.97.6.202/urkeshpublic/music.htm

Greeks and Music Notation Ancient Greek musicians developed their own robust system of musical notation. Much is known about the theories of Pythagoras and Aristoxenus Pythagoras -discovered that musical notes could be translated into mathematical equations was when one day he passed blacksmiths at work, and thought that the sounds emanating from their anvils being hit were beautiful and harmonious and decided that whatever scientific law caused this to happen must be mathematical and could be applied to music. He went to the blacksmiths to learn how this had happened by looking at their tools, he discovered that it was because the anvils were "simple ratios of each other, one was half the size of the first, another was 2/3 the size, and so on.

Continued Aristoxenus - Aristoxenus introduced a radically different model for creating scales. Instead of using discrete ratios to place intervals, he used continuously variable quantities. Hence the structuring of his tetrachords and the resulting scales have other qualities of consonance.[8]

Define Ratio- Relation in degree or number between two similar things Tetrachord- a tetrachord is a series of four tones filling in the interval of a perfect fourth Scale- a series of notes differing in pitch according to a specific scheme

Greek Notation

Modern Musical Notation

Ancient Music Usually Monophonic Having a single melodic line. Involved Lute, flute, harp or vocals Was structured using some sort of order in notes Consonance Agreement; harmony; accord. Close correspondence of sounds Dissonance Lack of agreement, consistency, or harmony