The World's Earliest Music. Hermann Smith
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Hermann Smith
The World's Earliest Music
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664619730
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. At the Gates of the Past.
CHAPTER II. In the Land of Myth. THE PURSUIT OF THE GODS.
CHAPTER III. In the Land of Egypt. THE LADY MAKET AND HER FLUTES.
CHAPTER IV. In the Land of Egypt. MORE EGYPTIAN FLUTES: THE EVIDENCES OF THE SCALE.
CHAPTER V. In the Land of Etruria. THE GRECO-ETRUSCAN DOUBLE FLUTES.
CHAPTER VI. In the Land of Greece. FROM ETRURIA TO ATHENS.
CHAPTER VII. In the Land of Greece. THE SILKWORM FLUTES, OR BOMBYX FLUTES.
CHAPTER VIII. In Oscan Land.—Italia. FOUND AT POMPEII.
CHAPTER IX. Back to the Land of the Nile. EGYPT REVEALS THE SECRET.
CHAPTER X. The Isles of Greece. MIDAS THE GLORIOUS.
CHAPTER XI. Near the City of Charites. THE MYSTERY OF THE “SLENDER BRASS.”
CHAPTER XII. At the Delphic Temple. THE MUSIC HEARD BY THE GREEKS.
CHAPTER XIII. In the Land of China. THE OUTSPREAD PHŒNIX.
CHAPTER XIV. The Mongols’ New Home. THE MYTHICAL FINDING OF THE LÜS.
CHAPTER XV. In the Flowery Kingdom. THE BIRD’S NEST.
CHAPTER XVI. By the Yellow River. THE EVOLUTION OF THE SHENG.
CHAPTER XVII. In the Land of Siam. THE SIAMESE “PHAN.”
CHAPTER XVIII. In the Land of Japan. JAPANESE PITCH PIPES AND THE JAPANESE CLARIONET AND THE SHO.
CHAPTER XIX. In Ancient China. CEREMONIAL INSTRUMENTS.
CHAPTER XX. In Ancient China. THE FLUTES OF THE CHINESE.
CHAPTER XXI. In Ancient China. THE FAVOURITE OF CONFUCIUS.
CHAPTER XXII. In Ancient China. THE TRUMPETS OF THE CHINESE.
CHAPTER XXIII. The Music Heard in Far Cathay. THE OLDEST WRITTEN MUSIC.
CHAPTER XXIV. Evolution of the Lyre, Harp, and Lute. THE BOW WITH THE BOAT.
CHAPTER XXV. The Choice of the Greeks. THE DELPHIC LYRE.
CHAPTER XXVI. How the Music Grew. IN THE DAYS OF A THOUSAND YEARS.
CHAPTER XXVII. At Alexandria. THE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE SCALE.
FOREWORD.
A music-trail through many lands, over regions where dwelt the peoples of the earliest civilizations, this I have followed, attracted oftentimes to rambles by the way, gathering evidence on all sides in the course of my journey, picking up whatever seemed to be capable of throwing light upon the early conditions of music; from rock carvings, wall paintings, tablets and vases, marbles and sculpture, papyri and parchments, and records, the treasure-trove and finds of explorers old and new, who seem to have accounted for at least ten thousand years of human experience;—yet withal very few musical instruments of the earlier ages have been recovered, and these for the most part imperfect and unplayable, and we have to depend chiefly upon the ancient representations, drawings or carvings for what we know. Archæologists and antiquarians, unhappily for our quest, have not been very particular in truthfully copying even the drawings and sculptures, often leaving out important details, or supplying some imaginatively; in the absence of insight into the constructive principles of instruments, indifference may be a natural consequence, and that there was anything at all in a musical instrument worth thinking about, might probably never occur to their minds.
Music is not an isolated fact, it is bound up with the lives, with the daily routine of peoples and nations; its courses of development, cannot rightly be judged apart from geography, ethnography, archæology and history. In the early migrations man’s music went with him as his language went, his simple instruments he could fashion by the wayside, and in later eras as men advanced, a craft would organize itself, determining the progress of the instruments from a rude to a refined style of construction; thus a kind of Art would be confirmed and thereout a system of music would arise, which to the people of the time, at whatever stage of attainment considered, would be as mature to them as our present system is to us.
The structure of the instruments defines the possibilities of the music, and my belief is that a true idea of the character of ancient musical display can only be arrived