Unveiling the Earliest Roots of Music: Prehistoric Origins
The Origins of Music
The origins of music remain unknown. Ethnology and musicology contribute data but are still far from reaching a definitive conclusion. Distinguished thinkers have proposed the following hypotheses:
- Charles Darwin: Darwin relates the origin of music to his theory of species. He discusses animal sounds, arguing that they express moods. Birds make calls to the opposite sex, and females choose the best singer. He considers that primitive humans would have behaved similarly, and the evolution of these calls would today be called love songs. However, an analysis of indigenous cultures did not reveal love songs.
- Karl Stumpf: A psychologist and founder of musical etiology in Germany, Stumpf believed that music arose from the communication that primitive humans performed, especially over long distances. This communication required raising one’s voice, gradually forming musical motifs.
- Karl Bücher: Bücher proposed that music originated with workgroups that needed a rhythm to be more effective. However, this requires a degree of development, and primitive tribes and villages usually do not have collective work.
- Rousseau, Herder, and Spenser: These thinkers believed that music derived from language. Accents and quantities originated singing, and together they formed language. Thus, music and language were originally intertwined.
- Schmidt: Schmidt considered the practice of communal prayer as the first step toward melody.
- Curt Sachs: Sachs noted that some tribes have songs in a style closer to our speech, while others have richer melodies.
- Adolfo Salazar: Salazar thought that the origin of music occurred when humans discovered their bodies as musical instruments.
There is no scientific data that allows us to establish the order of the presentation of music.
Tertiary Period: Pliocene (-20 to -1.5 Million Years)
Anthropoid: During this period, there was a division of primates, and they adopted an upright position. They could produce a rudimentary rhythmic organization through steps, percussion on bodies, etc.
Quaternary Era: Lower Paleolithic (-1.5 to -0.1 Million Years)
Hominid: Racial distinctions emerged, and life was in small groups. Hominids could imitate sounds with their mouths and use cries to express emotions.
Quaternary Era: Middle Paleolithic (-0.1 to -0.035 Million Years)
Homo Sapiens: For unknown reasons, Neanderthal man disappeared, and their traditions were lost. Among the Cro-Magnon and Grimaldi, our musical origins might have appeared with the Chancelade. With the development of the cry, the voice adapted to voluntary vibrations. We cannot yet talk about music because this requires organization and must be put to practical or artistic use.
Paleolithic Superior: (-35,000 to -12,000 Years)
Homo Sapiens Sapiens Fossilis: More complex social organization emerged. Humans were able to make sound objects with minimal artistic ability, expressing themselves and imitating the sounds of nature. There was a slow physical adaptation in humans that enabled them to speak and sing. They could make objects that produced a given pitch (stones, bones, rods, etc.).
In this period, in Europe and the Franco-Cantabrian area, we find the first signs of musical practice (paintings, bones, marrow, flutes, etc.). Until the Neolithic period, it is assumed that the plastic arts and music evolved together. It is believed that dance came first, followed by singing, but the dance would have been accompanied by some kind of rhythm, such as clapping or a rustic instrument. The cry gave rise to song.
Since tribal communities have some minor differences, both physical and spiritual, we can say that the “concept of music” of primitive humans has little to do with ours. The original music is not “artistic,” and there is no “art for art’s sake.”
Neolithic
Music continued to develop. There was an association of the voice with gestures, songs with instruments, and the creation of a system of transmission of music, allowing it to lose its individual character and join in group activities (rituals). There was an important sociological climate change for general and musical evolution: humans were forced to gather in large groups near rivers. They discovered agriculture and became sedentary. The social organization was matriarchal, and over time, socially divided labor led to a musical tradition as a part of life.