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To: blam

I think the music is beautiful. Very stately.

A couple of years ago I read an article about a Grecian vessel, or urn, that was discovered that the musicologists claimed was carved with a musical score, or notation. They were going to be working on it to try to determine the tune that it represented. That set me to thinking about how old our music really is.

Our oldest writings mention music — the Bible, Torah, and Greek mythology. We have no reason to doubt that early people sang just as we do. But do we have any record of what those tunes really were?

Every time we sing a hymn at church I check the dates of the author. Seldom do I ever find anything older 1800. A few hymns date from the 1700s, with fewer still from the 1600s — mostly Christmas carols.

What did the earliest Christians sing? What did their predecessors, the Jews, sing? What did the Romans sing? Persians? Aztecs? Mayans?

I suppose we’ll never know.


54 posted on 05/01/2007 10:39:20 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic
We actually know more than you would think, it's not all irretrievably lost. Of course everybody wishes we knew more!

There are few scraps of Classical Greek music that have come down to us, quite a bit from the early Church (although notation was scanty). You can read all about it in Donald Grout's History of Western Music. That is considered the leading authority.

55 posted on 05/01/2007 10:42:07 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: afraidfortherepublic

The Chinese have had stringed music instruments going WAY back.


58 posted on 05/01/2007 11:59:04 AM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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