Thursday 25 June 2009

The roots of music are deep

No, this is not a 'Caption This' contest but an ancient flute.

35,000 years ago one of our ancestors took a hollow wing bone from a vulture, cut holes in it, made a notch at one end and produced the earliest hand-made musical instrument ever found.

At first I wondered what it sounded like, but the BBC has some audio of it being played.

Then I had to think when and why was it played. Was it used in religious rituals or for entertainment, or both? Or for some other reason, and what was the status in society of the musician/craftsman?

I don't know; but it gives me a warm feeling to think that, maybe, our forebears enjoyed a right good knees-up now and again.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is a very intersting post, thank you. it was also nice of you to put up an audio site to go hear it played. it'a amazing when you think of it. theuniversal language isnt love, its music!

Mark said...

The sound of that is quite stirring

Joey Polanski said...

It aint exackly Jethro Tull, is it?

yorksnbeans said...

At first I thought this was going to be a Michael Jackson post, due to the title and the white gloves.

Very interesting!

Duncanr said...

Thought it was going to be a prehistoric version of 'Three blind mice' at first

Andy Holroyd said...

Thanks all.

I find it hard to comment again on this. Do not think of the flute as a solo instrument, there would be more. Plus the beat of a hollow log, and some guys just bashing the rocks together.