Beginning Of Our Prelude

WHAT IS MUSIC?

With the wonderful ability to hear, it’s no surprise that we humans began to organize sounds into patterns of rhythm and pitch. That’s music.

A question that will remain unanswered forever is what the first instrument was? Some say drum, some say voice, but we’ll never know for sure. Maybe it was something completely different. What do you think? Comment your opinion below and we can have a poll.

POWER OF MUSIC

Music has magical powers. It can transport you into an altered state, heal sickness, purify the body and mind, and work miracles in nature. In the Old Testament, David cures Saul’s madness with a harp, and the walls of Jericho were brought tumbling down by horns.

Music therapy has shown positive results in those undergoing cardiac rehabilitation, and drug rehabilitation. Music has also helped sufferers of asthma, depression, high blood pressure, migraines, and ulcers. Music can help with the production of melatonin, an important chemical in the body. The use of music therapy in healing has gained much credibility and its use is increasing.

You will notice that if you listen to any music let’s say you listen to the Mozart piano sonata in D, and when it’s over your spatial reasoning intelligence will jump up several points. You’re temporarily smarter! Music does affect the brain.

HOW TO WRITE MUSIC?

Just like with language, music existed for a long, long time before it was written down, and some think music existed before spoken language. Music was taught by Rote, which means copying what another has played or sung. No need to read music, just copy the sounds, the fingerings, or whatever. It’s a method that takes a lot of time but works well and many, many people still learn this way. But with a system of writing, a song could be shared with an audience far away, played by a musician who could read the lines and squiggles created by someone she has never met.

You will find it interesting that, our western tradition of written music has only been around a thousand years or so, not very long at all in the grand scheme of things.

Older traditions of writing music:

Ancient Hindus and then the Greeks:- They made use of the letters of their alphabet to write out music
The Persians:- They used numbers and a kind of staff with nine lines between which the numbers were written.
The Chinese:- They used special signs for their pentatonic scales.

But it wasn’t until around 500 AD that we see the first glimmer of written western music.

Around this time lived Boethius, a Roman poet, and philosopher who wrote a famous Latin treatise on music which was studied throughout the Middle Ages. It was the first use of Latin letters to represent musical sounds.

Monks in the monasteries of the Catholic Church studied this treatise by Boethius and improved upon his ideas for their system.

After a few hundred years, in addition to letter names for notes, a System of Neumes was invented. Neumes are signs written above the text of a song which shows note length, pitch, and movement from one note to the next. After a while, neumes began to be written on, above, or below a single line. The line represented a specific pitch. A neume which is written above the line was higher in pitch than a neume written below the line.

An example of traditional neumes

TL;DR:

Rote- Copying what another has played or sung. No need to read music, just copy the sounds, the fingerings, or whatever.

Neumes- (pronounced nooms, from the Greek word for sign) Neumes are signs written above the text of a song which shows note length, pitch, and movement from one note to the next. After a while, Neumes began to be written on, above, or below a single line.

The Line Used With Neumes:- Represent a specific pitch. A neume written above the line was higher in pitch than a neume written below the line.

Prelude