Music a Long Time Ago

What was music like a long time ago? We know that instrumental music has been around for thousands of years. In the book of Genesis in the Bible is a record of a man named Jubal being the originator of pipe and lyre playing. The book of Psalms mentions instrumental music numerous times. Archaeologists have found animal bones with finger holes bored into them to make pipes and flutes. There are ancient cave and wall paintings with people playing musical instruments. We have writings and pottery from ancient Greece (before Christ) picturing instruments and giving instructions about how to play them. Three instruments from ancient Greece were the aulos, lyre, and kithara. The aulos was a pipe while the lyre and kithara were stringed instruments. The New Testament of the Bible records Jesus and his disciples singing hymns and the Apostle Paul mentions singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In the early centuries of the Christian Church, chant was developed. It is a single musical line sung by soloists or choirs. This chant became central in the development of Western art music, with additional harmonizing lines being added starting around the ninth century. A monk named Guido of Arezzo developed the five-lined staff for notating music in the early eleventh century. More on this in another post!