An overview of some of the earliest musical technologies we have uncovered so far, as well as the structural ideas of music developed by the ancient Greeks.

1. Ancient Music, Machines,
& Philosophies
MU3100: Unit 2

2. The Oldest Known
Instrument
´ Found with fragments of
mammoth-ivory flutes, the
40,000-year-old artifact . . .
adds to evidence that music
may have given the first
European modern humans a
strategic advantage over
Neanderthals, researchers say .
. . [A]n early musical tradition . .
. likely helped modern humans
communicate and form tighter
social bonds”
´ These finds indicate the
development of a rich artistic
culture among early humans
“which indirectly contributed to
demographic expansion of
modern humans to the
detriment of the culturally more
conservative Neanderthals”

3. • Friedrich Seeberger, a
German specialist in ancient
music, reproduced the
smaller, swan radius flute.
Experimenting with the
replica, he found that the
ancient flute produced a
range of notes comparable
in many ways to modern
flutes. “The tones are quite
harmonic,” he said.
• German archaeologists
have suggested that music
in the Stone Age “could
have contributed to the
maintenance of larger social
networks, and thereby
perhaps have helped
facilitate the demographic
and territorial expansion of
modern humans.”

4. Ancient Sumerian Tuning System and
Hymn, c. 1950 BCE

5. The Sumerian Hymn
(1400 BCE)

6. Lyres: Israeli & Sumerian
A replica of the 5000 year old
Sumerian lyres found buried in Ur.
The "lyre of Har Megiddo" is an instrument etched
onto an ivory plaque (pictured at the beginning of
this video) that was discovered by archaeologist
Gordon Loud in the excavations of a royal palace
in the ancient city of Megiddo (aka Armageddon)
in Israel.

7. Structure of Ancient Music
´ You’ll notice in these examples that the voice and the lyre are both
monophonic
´ We can infer from this and the fragments of written hymns that the
ancient music of these regions was melodic (concerned with a single
line) rather than harmonic (concerned with multiple notes sounding at
once to create recognizable frameworks of harmony).
´ From the evidence then, we see that musical theory of the period
focused on the structure of a mode to be used in a given song.
´ It was this pattern of intervals between notes, as made available by the strings
of a lyre, that guided the construction of melody.

8. Brief History of Indian Music
https://yout
u.be/coPWE
45rgCQ

9. Other Ancient Music Traditions
Music from the Han Dynasty
(202 BCE-220 CE)
Sufi Prayer of Supplication

10. Greece
´Early Greek civilization bequeathed
explorations of theory, systems of tunings,
instruments, a range of appropriate
occasions for music and an emphasis on
specialization and technique. In Greek
mythology, Apollo was supposed to have
played a "civilized" string instrument.
´The earliest surviving "new music
manifesto" was written in 420 BCE by
Timotheus of Miletus:
"I do not sing the old songs: the new ones
are the winners, and a young Zeus is king
today.”

11. Pythagoras (570-495 BCE)

12. Tuning Systems & Musical Temperament
• developed by Pythagoras using
mathematically-precise octaves and
fifths, which lasted until the late 15th
century.
• Pythagoras calculated the
mathematical ratios of intervals using
an instrument called the monochord.
He divided a string into two equal
parts and then compared the sound
produced by the half part with the
sound produced by the whole string.
• Pythagoras discovered that two
notes which make an interval of an
octave always have a ratio of 2:1. A
perfect fifth is made with the ratio of
3:2, and a perfect 4th is 4:3.
Combinations of these intervals then
create the other notes which make
up the major scale.
Interestingly, the major third is a
ratio of 5:4 – not part of the
tetraktys

13. Musica universalis
(“Music of the spheres”)
´ An ancient philosophical concept that regards
proportions in the movements of celestial
bodies—the Sun, Moon, and planets—as a form
of music
´ The Music of the Spheres incorporates the
metaphysical principle that mathematical
relationships express qualities or "tones" of energy
which manifest in numbers, visual angles, shapes
and sounds – all connected within a pattern of
proportion.
´ Pythagoras proposed that the Sun, Moon and
planets all emit their own unique hum based on
their orbital revolution, and that the quality of life
on Earth reflects the tenor of celestial sounds
which are physically imperceptible to the human
ear. Subsequently, Plato described astronomy
and music as "twinned" studies of sensual
recognition: astronomy for the eyes, music for
the ears, and both requiring knowledge of
numerical proportions.
´ Aristotle criticized the notion that celestial bodies
make a sound in moving

14. The Ethos of Modes (Scales)
´ The Greeks had established the ethos of modes: a complex system that
related certain emotional and spiritual characteristics to certain scale
patterns
´ The names for the various modes derived from the names of Greek
tribes and peoples, the temperament and emotions of which were said
to be characterized by the unique sound of each mode.
´ Thus, Dorian modes were "harsh", Phrygian modes "sensual", and so forth.
´ In his Republic, Plato (427-347 BCE) talks about the proper use of various
modes, the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc. (Today, one might look at the
system of scales known as ragas in India for a better comparison, a system
that prescribes certain scales for the morning, others for the evening, and so
on.)
´ The Greeks used the placement of whole-tones, semitones, and even
quarter-tones (or still smaller intervals) to develop a large repertoire of
scales, each with a unique ethos. The Greek concepts of scales
(including the names) found its way into later Roman music and then
the European Middle Ages

15. Ancient Music Preserved
´ A few dozen ancient documents inscribed with a
vocal notation devised around 450 BCE, consist of
alphabetical letters and signs placed above the
vowels of the Greek words.
´ The notation gives an accurate indication of
relative pitch: letter A at the top of the scale, for
instance, represents a musical note a fifth higher
than N halfway down the alphabet.
´ Absolute pitch can be worked out from the vocal
ranges required to sing the surviving tunes.
´ It is important to realize that ancient rhythmical
and melodic norms were different from our own. A
better parallel is non-Western folk traditions, such
as those of India and the Middle East.
Homer (800-701 BCE) tells us that bards
of his period sang to a four-stringed
lyre, called a "phorminx". Those strings
will probably have been tuned to the
four notes that survived at the core of
the later Greek scale systems.

16. How was Ancient Greek
Typically Sung?
• In speaking ancient Greek, the voice
went up in pitch on certain syllables
and fell on others (the accents of
ancient Greek indicate pitch, not
stress)
• The contours of the melody follow
those pitches fairly consistently in all
the documents, including the Epitaph
of Seikilos
• Music of this period used subtle
intervals such as quarter-tones.
• The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest
surviving complete musical
composition, including musical
notation, from anywhere in the world.
• The notation is unequivocal. It marks a
regular rhythmic beat, and indicates a
very important principle of ancient
composition, that of word-pitch
melody.

17. Euripides, the Rebel
´ The earliest musical fragment that survives preserves a
few bars of sung music from a play, Orestes, by the 5th-
century BCE tragedian Euripides. It may even be music
Euripides himself wrote.
´ Here we find that the melody doesn't conform to the
word pitches at all.
´ The words "I lament" and "I beseech" are set to a
falling, mournful-sounding cadence; and when the
singer says "my heart leaps wildly", the melody
leaps as well. This was ancient Greek "soundtrack
music.”
´ Euripides was a notoriously avant-garde composer, and
this indicates one of the ways in which his music was
heard to be wildly modern: it violated the long-held
norms of Greek folk singing by neglecting word-pitch.
´ The historian Plutarch tells a moving story about
thousands of Athenian soldiers held prisoner in
Syracusan quarries after a disastrous campaign in
413 BCE. Those few who were able to sing Euripides'
latest songs were able to earn some food and
drink.

18. Monophony, or Early Polyphony?
´ From the descriptions that have come down to us through the writings of
Plato, Aristoxenus, and Boethius, we can say with some caution that the
ancient Greeks, at least before Plato, heard music that was primarily
monophonic — built on the concept that notes should be placed between
consonant intervals.
´ Harmony, in the sense of a developed system of composition or theory (in
which simultaneous tones contribute to the listener's expectation of
resolution) was invented in the European Middle Ages.
´ BUT — Plato's Republic notes that Greek musicians sometimes played more
than one note at a time, although this was apparently considered an
advanced technique. The Orestes fragment of Euripides seems to clearly
call for more than one note to be sounded at once.
´ All we can say from the available evidence is that, while Greek musicians
clearly employed the technique of sounding more than one note at the
same time, the most basic, common texture of Greek music was
monophonic.

19. “
”
...The lyre should be used together with the
voices...the player and the pupil producing note
for note in unison, Heterophony and embroidery by
the lyre — the strings throwing out melodic lines
different from the melodia which the poet
composed; crowded notes where his are sparse,
quick time to his slow...and similarly all sorts of
rhythmic complications against the voices —
none of this should be imposed upon pupils...
Plato
"Laws" (c.347 BCE)

20. Those Darn Kids & Their Music
´ At a certain point, Plato complained about the new music in his work Laws:
“Our music was once divided into its proper forms...It was not permitted to
exchange the melodic styles of these established forms and others.
Knowledge and informed judgment penalized disobedience. There were no
whistles, unmusical mob-noises, or clapping for applause. The rule was to listen
silently and learn; boys, teachers, and the crowd were kept in order by threat
of the stick. . . . But later, an unmusical anarchy was led by poets who had
natural talent, but were ignorant of the laws of music...Through foolishness they
deceived themselves into thinking that there was no right or wrong way in
music, that it was to be judged good or bad by the pleasure it gave. By their
works and their theories they infected the masses with the presumption to think
themselves adequate judges. So our theatres, once silent, grew vocal, and
aristocracy of music gave way to a pernicious theatrocracy...the criterion was
not music, but a reputation for promiscuous cleverness and a spirit of law-
breaking.”

21. Ancient
Music
Machines

22. The First Keyboard Instrument: Hydraulis
´ Invented in the 3rd century BCE by Ctesibius of
Alexandria, culminating prior attempts to apply a
mechanical wind supply to a large set of panpipes.
´ Its pipes stood on top of a wind chest that was
connected to a conical wind reservoir. The reservoir was
supplied with air by one or two pumps.
´ For the pipes to sound evenly, the wind chest needed
steady air pressure. The open bottom of the cone was set
in a tall outer container half filled with water. When air
pressure in the cone was low, the water level rose inside
it, compressing the air and restoring the former air
pressure.
´ The player operated keys or, on some instruments, sliders
that let air into the pipes.
(see pg. 36 in Braun)
Interview with Dr. Richard Pettigrew

23. The Ancient
Hydraulis
´In 1992 Greek archaeologists recovered
a fragmentary hydraulis dating from the
1st Century BCE at the Greek city of Dion,
at the foot of Mt. Olympus.
´Based on this example and
documentary evidence, the European
Cultural Centre of Delphi finished
reconstructing the instrument in 1999.
´It was used in theaters, state
ceremonials, weddings, and the Roman
circus accompanying gladiatorial
combats
´Never meant to be an expressive
instrument (that was saved for the lyre and
voice); was in use even into the 4th
century as a part of imperial ceremony…
eventually finding its way into the western
Church by the 8th century CE…

24. Heron of Alexandria
´ Heron (aka Hero) was a Greek mathematician.
He flourished in 62 CE.
´ Unlike Socrates and Plato, Heron (like
Archimedes) used practical experimentation to
uncover the laws of the universe, rather than
deduction and reasoning alone.
´ One of his inventions included a windwheel-
operated organ, marking the first instance in
history of wind powering a machine.
´ Heron's organ included a small windwheel,
which powered a piston and forced air
through the organ pipes, creating sounds
and tweets 'like the sound of a flute'.

25. The Earliest Music Box &
Automatic Flute
•Mid-9th century: In Baghdad,
Iraq, the Banū Mūsā brothers, a trio
of Persian inventors, produced
a hydropowered organ which played
interchangeable
cylinders automatically, which
they described in their “Book
of Ingenious Devices.”
•According to Charles B. Fowler, this
"cylinder with raised pins on the
surface remained the basic device to
produce and reproduce music
mechanically until the second half of
the nineteenth century.” (Article)
•The Banu Musa also invented
an automatic flute player which
may have been one of the
first programmable machines.
•The flute sounds were
produced through hot steam, and the
user could adjust the device to
various patterns so that they could get
a variety of sounds from it.

26. Summary
´ Humans create bone flutes, lyres, and more - simple machines that divert
air vibrations in ways that allow us to control & manipulate the sounds.
´ Pythagoras lays out the mathematical relationships of wave frequencies in
the Harmonic Series, allowing us to systematize those sounds into patterns
called modes, which are also each given a purpose and meaning within
his society.
´ Complex music machines like the hydraulis enter society.
Earliest
known
written
music. A
hymn on
a tablet in
Sumeria,
written in
cuneiform
Ancient
Greek
documents
inscribed
with a
vocal
notation,
like Orestes
First use of alternative singing
between the precentor and
community at Roman Church
services, patterned after Jewish
traditions
Hymn singing
first
introduced in
the West by
Ambrose,
Bishop of
Milan
First
trained
papal
choir is
founded
in Rome
Epitaph of
Seikilos;
first
complete
music
piece
known to
survive
Hydraulis
invented
Fall of
Rome
Constantine
adopts
Christianity