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Ancient Music
Before 500 AD
What and Where
 Ancient music refers to the various musical
systems that were developed across
various geographical regions such as
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, India, China,
Greece and Rome
 Ancient music is designated by the
characterization of the basic audible tones
and scales. It may have been transmitted
through oral or written systems.
Mesopotamia and Egypt
Rome and Greece
The Sound of Ancient Greek
 http://classics.uc.edu/music/index.html
Discoveries
 The Harps of Ur
 Iraq was the birth place of civilization, also known as
the cradle of civilization. The very first written words
ever known to man evolved and were developed in Iraq,
the very first cities throughout human history were built
in Iraq. Ideas like dividing time into months, weeks,
days and hours, music, schools, trade, religion, law and
many other ideas which govern our lives today were all
started in Iraq. By the time this harp was first made
almost 5000 years ago, Iraq had already enjoyed more
than 2000 years of history.
The Harp Of Ur
The Sound of The Lyre of Ur
The Oldest Known Song
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZatnTPhYWc
 Hurrian Music – Found in the city of Urkesh in Syria
 http://128.97.6.202/urkeshpublic/music.htm
Greeks and Music Notation
 Ancient Greek musicians developed their own robust
system of musical notation.
 Much is known about the theories of Pythagoras and
Aristoxenus
 Pythagoras -discovered that musical notes could be
translated into mathematical equations was when one day
he passed blacksmiths at work, and thought that the sounds
emanating from their anvils being hit were beautiful and
harmonious and decided that whatever scientific law caused
this to happen must be mathematical and could be applied to
music. He went to the blacksmiths to learn how this had
happened by looking at their tools, he discovered that it was
because the anvils were "simple ratios of each other, one was
half the size of the first, another was 2/3 the size, and so on.
Continued
 Aristoxenus - Aristoxenus introduced a radically different
model for creating scales. Instead of using discrete ratios
to place intervals, he used continuously variable
quantities. Hence the structuring of his tetrachords and
the resulting scales have other qualities of consonance.[8]
Define
 Ratio Relation in degree or number between
two similar things
Tetrachorda tetrachord is a series of four tones filling in
the interval of a perfect fourth
Scalea series of notes differing in pitch according
to a specific scheme
Greek Notation
Modern Musical Notation
Ancient Music
 Usually Monophonic
 Having a single melodic line.
 Involved Lute, flute, harp or vocals
 Was structured using some sort of order in notes
 Consonance
 Agreement; harmony; accord. Close correspondence of sounds
 Dissonance
 Lack of agreement, consistency, or harmony