A Slight History of Music

When I think of the origins of music I always think of the opening scene from 2001. The apes pick up the bones and start smashing everything in sight. I always thought that Homo sapiens, our human ancestors, would be more curious. As opposed to smashing things, might they not have hit them and enjoyed the sound. Might they not have picked up another bone and created rhythm. Well, who knows, but music probably started something like that. A rock or a stomp or a vocal chant, probably vocally now that I think about it, but who the hell knows.

Anyway, by the time we have recorded history music had become much more intricate, with different geographic areas creating drastically different music, although still mostly for ostensibly spiritual purposes. The Greeks were probably the closest to having secular music first, at least in the Mediterranean. Although, the epic poems and plays all involved the gods, it may have become more a source of entertainment and amusement in the cities of the city-states, than a truly spiritual encounter. Whether or not this was a healthy trend I couldn’t say, but it seems to have been a mark of an end of many an empire when its art ceases to have spiritual value. of recorded history as well, again with incredibly diverse styles being developed throughout the different countries and continents of the world. In many of the economically undeveloped parts of the modern world, dancing remains an important element in a spiritual system that no doubt helps in some small way to cope with the heavy burden that is life on the edge. In a city, it is no doubt hard to hold on to those systems once they’re devoid of the rituals that sustained there power to energize individuals and give them the strength to continue through hardship. In many ways it is the removal of that very aspect that can lead a community towards secularization. Once you live for this life and not the next, you don’t need to generate as much energy, it is to be provided for you in the form of stimulation.