Early Musical Cultures
How music was made, taught and passed on
Prehistory
- When
- Before written records
- Where
- Global
Bone and ivory flutes from caves in southern Germany, about 40,000 years old, are among the oldest known instruments. How they were used cannot be known.
Ancient Mesopotamia
- When
- 3rd–1st millennia BCE
- Where
- West Asia
Texts and images document musicians, instruments, and developing ideas about tuning.
Ancient Egypt
- When
- 3rd–1st millennia BCE
- Where
- North Africa
Harps, flutes, percussion and ceremonial performance appear in surviving visual and archaeological sources.
Ancient Greek theory
- When
- c. 6th century BCE onward
- Where
- Europe
Writers examined intervals, scales, ethos and relationships between musical sound and number.
South Asian Vedic chant
- When
- 2nd millennium BCE onward
- Where
- South Asia
Precise oral recitation passed sacred Vedic texts down the generations through regulated pitch accents and rhythm.
Chinese musical thought
- When
- 1st millennium BCE onward
- Where
- East Asia
Court and scholarly traditions developed systems of pitch, ritual music and instrumental classification.
Ancient Mediterranean theater
- When
- 5th century BCE onward
- Where
- Europe
Drama combined speech, song and movement; surviving evidence is fragmentary.
Early Christian chant
- When
- Late antiquity onward
- Where
- Europe and West Asia
Diverse liturgical singing traditions developed long before modern staff notation.
Gagaku
- When
- 8th century onward
- Where
- East Asia
A Japanese court repertory shaped by music from China, Korea and elsewhere in Asia, alongside native ritual song.
Arabic-language music scholarship
- When
- 9th–13th centuries
- Where
- West Asia and North Africa
Writers including al-Kindī, al-Fārābī and Ṣafī al-Dīn al-Urmawī studied instruments, intervals and modal practice.
Other chapters: Medieval and Renaissance Worlds · Baroque and Classical · The Nineteenth Century · Traditions Around the World · The Twentieth Century · Recording and Technology
Dates mark documented developments or approximate periods, not the beginnings of traditions. Many histories run side by side. Dates are given as the timeline records them. Where a date is approximate, the entry says so.
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