Music: An Eternal Melody
...that everybody speaks. Music is a universal language to all people and nations. Be it vocal or pure instrumental, music is used for weddings, graduations, religious events, or as a nation's anthem. It can change people's moods, feelings, or actions. It's easy to say that almost everyone enjoys listening to a tune on the radio. It's been around for a long time, but the question is how long has music really been around for?
For the believers of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, Darwin suggested that singing originated from man's imitation of animal cries and the sounds of nature surrounding him. Singing may have also originally been a form of communication, almost speech-like which arose from the need to give signals using sound. "Man's first songs ranged from celebratory aspects and prayers to godlike divinities to chants used as a form of magic to induce the listener into a trance-like concentration" (Digital Daydreams). Because there is no type of documentation or dates, the exact origins of music are unknown. Music far in the past was usually passed down from teacher to pupil, so it was never written down. Samaria, Egypt and China all have a history of not transcribing music. The Greeks gave us some of the first and most significant theoretical discoveries regarding music. "The purpose of music was therapeutic, to purify the mind and harmonize the soul through dancing or song" (Digital Daydreams). Some of the big names that come up in Greek history related to music in one way or another.
Pythagoras (c.585-c.479) had many musical theories; he stretched a string to calculate the length ratios of every conceivable musical interval. He developed music and numbers into a cosmology and evolved and defined a precise mathematical relationship for the notes on a scale. Pythagoras was probably also responsible for the principle of the octave. 3000...
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