60,000 BCE - 500 CE

Question 1

What was the first source of music?

Answer 1

The human voice/human body

Question 2

What was used as some of the first instruments?

Answer 2

Natural environment - pieces of wood, stone, horn, bone, etc.

Question 3

Finish the quote “Musical notes were first acquired for the sake of…. “ -Charles Darwin

Answer 3

“… charming the opposite sex.”

Question 4

What are Idiophones?

Answer 4

Instruments made from solid resonate materials that vibrate to produce sound

Question 5

What is a didgeridoo?

Answer 5

A hardwood wind instruments made from naturally occurring hollow tree trunk or branch which is then shaped and decorated

Question 6

Did these instruments such as idiophones and the didgeridoo have any significant melodic potential.

Answer 6

Not early on, no. Even the music was rarely made up of complex harmonics

Question 7

What is the spiritual role with music early on?

Answer 7

It was used as a means of commuting with the benign or malevolent spirits that controlled the fate of a society or individual.

Question 8

What is a Shaman?

Answer 8

Someone who acts as an intermediary between the spirit and human worlds. A music specialist in that his “song” could only be performed by him.

Question 9

What was the importance of musical improvisation in social attributes?

Answer 9

It was considered a necessary social skill.

Question 10

What is the oldest existing stringed instrument?

Answer 10

A Sumerian lyre (Lyre of Ur)

Question 11

What instruments did the Sumerians play?

Answer 11

Lyres, harps, flutes, wood flutes, reed pipes, percussion instruments of drums, tambourines, clappers, and metal shakers.

Question 12

How were musicians helpful in the Assyrian Army during its campaigns?

Answer 12

Their drums and trumpets were used to signal simple orders and messages

Question 13

How did Egyptian music compare to Sumerian?

Answer 13

It was more freely enjoyed. Sumerians kept the music for direct purposes such as celebrating a victory or religious purposes. Egyptians would let their peasants dance to pipes and drums, as well as their people more freely in general.

Question 14

What is the Veena?

Answer 14

A group of plucked instruments that are still prominent to Indian classical music today. For example, the sitar and tabla.

Question 15

What is the Sheng?

Answer 15

A form of mouth organ with bamboo pipes that have remained central to Chinese music through history

Question 16

What distinctive aesthetic did the Chinese develop?

Answer 16

The effects of sounds fading into silence

Question 17

How did Chinese imperial rulers perceive the importance of music?

Answer 17

They were convinced that the correct performance of ritual music was essential to upholding the harmony of the state.

Question 18

From what period did a popular music scene flourish in Chinese cities and the strict music escaped official control?

Answer 18

During the Tang Dynasty.

Question 19

Who inherited a musical tradition founded in early Mesopotamia and Pharaonic Egypt?

Answer 19

The Ancient Greeks

Question 20

Was there musical notation in China as far back as the 5th century BCE?

Answer 20

Yes, there is evidence of the use of musical notation.

Question 21

How did some Ancient Greek philosophers perceive music?

Answer 21

As a close connection with astronomy. They believed that studying music was central to gaining an understanding of the nature of the universe.

Question 22

Who is Pythagoras of Samos?

Answer 22

570-493 BCE. The first Greek philosopher to have developed a theory around music and its importance in the universe. He studied the relationship between the pitch and note and the length of a string, then figured out numerical ratios between notes and how they affected the musical harmony.

Question 23

What is the oldest surviving written music?

Answer 23

Written on a clay tablet found at Sumer, Mesopotamia. Dates from around 2000 BCE. The marks only give a rough idea of the pitch

Question 24

What is the oldest completed notation to have survived

Answer 24

Seikilos Epitaph, which has words and melody of a song. It’s likely to date from the 1st century BCE.

Question 25

What did Plato believe about formal music?

Answer 25

That it was essential to the stability of the state. Any musical innovation was described as “unsettling the most fundamental political and social conventions.” He believed the purpose of music was not to give “irrational pleasure” but to introduce harmony and order to the soul.

Question 26

What did Aristotle believe about formal music?

Answer 26

Good music improves human morals and bad music would corrupt them, but he was more sympathetic to the joyous aspect of performing music than Plato.

Question 27

What did Aristoxenous (pupil of Aristotle) believe about formal music?

Answer 27

He felt that the only way to gain knowledge of music was to listen to it and memorize it basing his understanding of music on the truth of the ear.

Question 28

Who said, “Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inner places of the soul” ?

Answer 28

Plato

Question 29

What is the earliest evidence of Greek musical performance?

Answer 29

A marble statuette of a harp player from the Cyclades

Question 30

What instrument was the chosen instrument of the god of music, Apollo?

Answer 30

The Lyre

Question 31

Are there different forms of lyre?

Answer 31

Yes, it ranges from the phorminx: two-stringed lyre to The kithara: seven-stringed lyre

Question 32

What is the aulos?

Answer 32

A twin-piped wind instrument

Question 33

What was the impression the aulos instrument gave the Athens?

Answer 33

It was denounced as an Asiatic rustic instrument suitable only for use by the lower orders

Question 34

What was the impression the aulos instrument gave the Spartans?

Answer 34

The aulos was a favored instrument, for Sparta was Athens’ great rival

Question 35

We’re members of Athens’ elite education expected to play the lyre and sing?

Answer 35

Yes

Question 36

How did most musicians play or sing melodies in Ancient Greece??

Answer 36

By early, lots of improvisation even though written music existed

Question 37

How did music and drama competitions play a role in Ancient Greece?

Answer 37

They were an important part of Ancient Greek life, held annually at the sacred precinct of Dionysus at the foot of Acropolis, judged by a panel of ordinary citizens and done by wealthier Athenian citizens.

Question 38

What was the demand for musicians in Greek society?

Answer 38

High demand to provide solemn melodies for processions and religious rituals, entertainment, festivals, etc.

Question 39

How was the melody of most music structured in Ancient Greece?

Answer 39

Consisting of a single melodic line based on modes which bear no direct relation to scales.