Welcome to the cradle of civilization. Cue music.
When I was five, my parents and I got together to sing a song about Joseph Smith in sacrament meeting. I sang a part about being a little child and being scared about Joseph leaving me. It really kick-started my love for music. My parents both were avid singers and instrumentalists -my dad sang in several a capella groups, while my mom sang throughout high school. Singing became a hobby of mine that I developed only through my parents love for it. Singing the hymns in church, then progressing to sing alto and tenor and bass was just part of being a Chandler. Music wasn't just something passed down orally or through writing; music was passed down to me through the traditions of my family.
As large of a part of our society as music is, it's no wonder that it dates back all the way to the beginning of early civilization. Mesopotamian musicians are frequently depicted in terracotta plaques, revealing music's role in even ancient society. They generally played lyres like the song you're currently listening to, but other instruments like the "oud" (a sort of precursor to the lute) were also played. The songs that were adapted almost always were dedicated to the cultural religion and their gods. There is evidence though that just like me, these ancient people also grew up in households where music was a prevalent part of their daily lives. The way of the song was not taught in a school or in a dark secluded room, but in the bounds of a family in which music enriched the living experience.
From what I've read, in the 1500s there was like an explosion of song writing which HAPPENED to coincide with the "founding, reorganization, or revitalization of a number of cathedral or priestly chapel choirs." So that almost makes me think that organized religion is what brought music and people together in a lasting way?
ReplyDeletehere's a citation of what I read...
ReplyDeleteThe Mirror of Man's Salvation: Music in Devotional Life about 1500
Howard Mayer Brown
Renaissance Quarterly
Vol. 43, No. 4 (Winter, 1990), pp. 744-773
Interesting post, i liked the background part about how many of the songs were dedicated to religion and God. Definitely feel like that was something that happened more often in the past.
ReplyDeleteI can relate a lot because my family was the same way, we did a lot of music growing up and that became apart of my family life and my own life.
So with the variety instruments that they played and the type of music that it was, What is the evidence that they learned this type of music and style in their homes growing up? As opposed to some sort of institution that could have been set up?
I think it is interesting how many people learned to love music through their families, because my experience was different. My family is musical--we all play some instrument or other--but that is it. We play our instruments, but that was the only music there ever was. No rock music or pop music or 80's music or country, just whatever kind of music a ten year old girl can coax from a half-size violin. So, no, I don't love the kind of music my family does, but I didn't need my family to teach me to love music. I discovered it on my own as a freshman in high school and have loved it ever since. I think some things don't always need to be taught in order to be learned, and a love a music was that way for me.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of a time when I accompmanied my sister on the piano while she sang "I Know that my Redeemer Lives," a couple of years ago. Both of us were able to feel the spirit during that song much more than we would have if one of us said, "I know that my Reedemer lives" and then sat back down. I think there's a reason music has been around for so long-it somehow has the ability to connect people together in ways that words, or speaking can't.
ReplyDeleteThis post and the comments following raise the issue of just where it is that music is transmitted through generations: within the family? the community? within religious organizations? among peer groups independent of these other influences?
ReplyDeleteIt may also be an issue about what types of music we are talking about, and what their function is. Does music of a certain variety get passed down through one method; and that of another type through a differing method?
Alyssa -- great job looking up (and citing) an article relevant to the discussion.
Ryan, you brought up a great issue, but your post needs to be more grounded in specific historical cultures (and you need to supply a reference for what you assert).