Through the Ages
To understand the role that music has played throughout
the ages it is important to explore the full spectrum of 
origin,
development and proliferation of music and instruments. Music can been
seen as audio expression existing along side visual art as a means to communicate
and collaborate in entertainment, media, war and spiritualism. The oldest
instruments, usually bone flutes, recovered from deep caves in France and Germany
have their origins at the same time and in close proximity to the first examples
of cave art some 37 to 40,000 years ago. Structured sounds and pictures
have interwoven ever since. The most immediate example that comes to
mind is the remarkable success of the music video in recent years. Many
cultures have music in their legends of origin. A Particular ancient
example that survives is that of Aboriginal people in North Australia who tell
that a didgeridoo was played by a god and a man came out the end.
Music has a long association with war and conquest. Some of the oldest
visual images depicting war include horns, pipes and drums. Instruments
that were made specifically for this purpose have been evolved to a high degree.
From Persian mouth pipes in the centuries BC to Celtic war trumpas in
the middle Iron Age to Highland war pipes which were deployed in battle in the
great war of the early twentieth century AD, music has been used to embolden
friends and terrify enemies. Yet the greatest role of 
music
is as a means of communication and emotional stimulation. A song may
tell a story of life in another time: it may contain a lesson to be learnt:
it might draw tears of love or loss. Music can induce feelings of spiritual
awareness and communion or life the spirits into happiness or ecstasy.
Music traditions and instruments have evolved to
great heights of perfection and specialisation resulting in the 
huge
diversity of sound and song that we have today. By tracing back into
music through the ages we can find the progression of steps which allowed a
bow and arrow to evolve into a grand piano or a kudu horn to lead to a brass
band. Central to this story is the way instruments emerged in different
parts of the world and then moved and interchanged through travel, trade and
conquest. These musical movements could help to verify existing knowledge
of otherwise unrelated events or legends. Continuing research reveals
a far greater degree of movement and communication than previously thought.
A lute may begin its evolvement in China playing Chinese music and then
be carried west all the way to Europe and though the music is different and
the instrument may have been altered to suit another tradition yet it is still
a lute. A fascinating aspect of music through the ages is the re-emerging
of an ancient instrument into the present day musical traditions. A sound
that has been asleep for three thousand years is awakened and immersed in a
living music so that it is altered and enriched by the experience. The
instrument is acting as an audio time capsule which can bring back a flavour
of an era long gone but can also function as a ‘new’ sound which
will enable a music form to evolve in a different way. Thus the past
really does become the future.
Prehistoric Music Ireland,
Crimlin, Corrnamona,
Co. Galway, Ireland
Phone: +353(0) 949 548 396
bronzeagehorns@eircom.net
©2005,PREHISTORIC MUSIC IRELAND