Even the tragic fate of Dr. Robert Ball, who died while making sounds from a metal horn of the Bronze Age, did not discourage archaeologists from trying to sound prehistoric and ancient musical instruments. And so from some of the original instruments, after hundreds, thousands and even tens of thousands of years, sounds began to flow again. Numerous replicas and copies of these instruments were also used. But how can we be sure that the sounds produced today are at least partially similar to those heard by people of the distant past? Frankly, it seems to us that the results of experimental archeology in this area will always be problematic. However, we have no other way yet. The most ancient musical instruments that have reached us are bone pipes and flutes. They were found at many Late Paleolithic sites scattered throughout the then inhabited territory. The sounds extracted from them were reflected from the white limestone massifs of the Pavlovsk hills in South Moravia and were heard in the vicinity of present-day Petřkovice. One such tool, originating from the Istalloskö cave in Hungary, is made from the femur of a cave bear. It has two holes on the front and one on the back wall. If this instrument is played like a transverse flute, it produces the tones “A”, “B flat”, “B” and “E”.

The most ancient musical instruments that have come down to us are bone pipes and flutes. They were found at many Late Paleolithic sites scattered throughout the then inhabited territory. The sounds extracted from them were reflected from the white limestone massifs of the Pavlovsk hills in South Moravia and were heard in the vicinity of present-day Petřkovice. One such tool, originating from the Istalloskö cave in Hungary, is made from the femur of a cave bear. It has two holes on the front and one on the back wall. If this instrument is played like a transverse flute, it produces the tones “A”, “B flat”, “B” and “E”.

Archaeologists discovered on the banks of the Desna near Chernigov a whole set of bone musical instruments, which made it possible to form a very decent orchestra 20 thousand years ago. Six musicians could choose to their taste a pipe or syrinx (Pan's flute), a xylophone from the two lower jaws of a mammoth or a drum from a piece of skull, a timpani from the shoulder blade and pelvic bones with a stick from a mammoth tusk, or a rattle from several bone plates. Along with them, a percussionist from Mezin in Ukraine could take part in the concert, for whom a set of carved bones allowed him to play a six-tone scale by striking a stick. Finally, to complete our understanding of the Paleolithic orchestra, let us recall the long-known fresco in the French cave of the Three Brothers (Trois Freres): a hunter dressed in animal skin plays a kind of musical bow, reminiscent of instruments that are still used by some African tribes .

Pan flutes (consisting of several pipes of different lengths) have existed since the Late Paleolithic, but only a few examples have survived. Pipes dating back to the 5th century BC. e., have from four to seven trunks. And a three-thousand-year-old artifact from Poland, found in the burial of an elderly man, consists of nine pipes that make the sounds “do, re, mi, sol, la, do, re, mi, sol.” It is a two-octave pentatonic scale, and if consciously realized as a musical formation, its existence in prehistoric Poland makes a striking impression. In Malhelm Tarn in Yorkshire, English archaeologists discovered a recorder dating back to the last centuries before the change of chronology. They managed to extract the tones “C, C sharp and F” from the instrument.

The oldest ocarina, which also belongs to the class of pipes, comes from Austria and was made at the end of the third millennium BC. e. It has a single injection hole and a characteristic oval resonator chamber. She plays “A, B flat, B, C.”

These and similar instruments have a fortunately limited potential sound range. Therefore, based on experiments, we can say with a certain degree of plausibility that it was these sounds or some of them that people listened to in prehistoric times.

The next group of wind instruments consists of horns and trumpets of various types. Researchers are generally unanimous that the prototype for musical horns was the horns of animals, and the prototype for musical trumpets were tubular bones.

Probably the best known of these instruments are the Late Bronze Age luras. They are made of bronze, their length is from one to two meters. Usually they are paired, and of the same size, but curved in opposite directions. Both instruments were tuned to the same key, and playing two luras at the same time either led to heterophony ("dissonance") or caused accidental harmony (consonance). The first experiments with lurs were carried out by the creator of three centuries of archaeological periodization, Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. Recent research in Denmark has shown that most lurs can produce between seven and nine tones, which is likely to be within the capabilities of Bronze Age musicians. Professional trumpeters, using all sorts of tricks, even played sixteen tones. Mouthpieces on lurs come in a variety of varieties and are not very convenient for playing music. Equally, deficiencies in the processing of the internal parts of instruments lead to an opinion about the relative indifference of ancient musicians to the purity of musical expression - we judge this, of course, from a modern point of view.

The next large musical instrument is the Celtic Iron Age horn, which originated from Ardbrean in Ireland. Its height is almost two and a half meters. It narrows approximately to the middle like a bell, and then takes the shape of a cylinder, ending abruptly without any mouthpiece rounding. The instrument was voiced using a simple metal mouthpiece; it produced three tones: B flat, F, B flat. It is curious that without a mouthpiece the experimenter was able to extract as many as seven tones. The sounds of this horn are like two peas in a pod to the sounds extracted from the paired Danish lur from Brudevelte.

The largest "family" of metal horns survives in Ireland. They date back to approximately 900-600 BC. e. We know almost a hundred instruments, of which twenty-five can be voiced. There are two types of horns. In some, air is blown in at the end, in others - from the side. Archaeologists have not yet discovered a single mouthpiece from instruments with a hole in the side. Therefore, it is not certain that mouthpieces were even used in this embodiment. Each of these horns can produce a single tone, but their overall range extends from G to D sharp. The lowest tone (produced by an eighty-centimeter horn) is salt. This is followed by a group of horns sounding A and A sharp. Finally, half-meter horns gave C sharp, D, D sharp. Horns in which air is blown from the end turned out to be much more musical. The experimenter was able to extract four tones from some of them.

The low quality and stability of the tones extracted from Irish horns suggest that the main thing for both listeners and performers was, first of all, the very existence of these huge, majestic instruments, and not the specific sounds they produced.

John Coles notes that the total noise that would have been produced if all twenty-four horns and twice as many rattles had sounded simultaneously at the Dauris site in Central Ireland would undoubtedly have awakened the living and the dead.

The next group of prehistoric instruments consists of clay and metal rattles.

How easy it is to make them sound, and how little they contribute to the understanding of ancient music! Clay rattles have existed since the Neolithic. The Neolithic also adds ceramic drums. Replicas of two of them, made by experimenters based on finds in the Czech Republic (the heads were covered with cowhide), produced such loud, piercing sounds that they were undoubtedly used only in open space. At the same time, the height of the drums did not exceed 20 and 26 cm, respectively.

Ancient musicians made other types of percussion instruments from bones, turtle shells and shells, which they struck with their hands or sticks. A model of such an instrument, based on Mayan frescoes, produced three different tones depending on which parts of the shell were struck.

God Pan created the shepherd's pipe, Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, invented the flute, and the Indian God Narada invented and gave man a harp-shaped musical instrument - the veena. But these are just myths, because we all understand that musical instruments were invented by man himself. And there is nothing surprising here, because it is the first musical instrument. And the sound that comes from him is his voice.

Primitive man transmitted information with his voice and informed his fellow tribesmen about his emotions: joy, fear and love. To make the “song” sound much more interesting, he clapped his hands and stomped his feet, knocked stone against stone and hit the stretched mammoth skin. Just like that, the objects that surrounded a person slowly began to transform into musical instruments.

Musical instruments are divided into three groups, that is, according to the method of extracting sound from them: wind, percussion and strings. So let's now figure out why primitive man pulled, why did he knock, and what did he hit? We do not know for sure what kind of musical instruments there were at that time, but we can guess.

The first group is wind instruments. We don’t know why the ancient man blew into a reed reed, a piece of bamboo or a horn, but we know for sure that it became an instrument when the holes appeared.

The second group is percussion instruments, which were made from all sorts of objects, namely from the shells of large fruits, wooden blocks, and from dried skins. They were beaten with a stick, fingers or palms, and were used for ritual ceremonies and military operations.

And the last, third group is stringed musical instruments. It is generally accepted that the first stringed musical instrument was a hunting bow. An ancient hunter, pulling his bowstring, noticed that the string was “singing” from the splinter. But the stretched vein of the animal “sings” even better. And it “sings” even better when you rub an animal’s hair against it. This is exactly how the bow was born, that is, at that time, it was a stick with a tuft of horsehair stretched over it, which was moved along a string made from twisted animal sinews. After some time, the bow began to be made from silk threads. This divided stringed musical instruments into bowed and twisted.

The most ancient musical string instruments are the harp and the lyre. All ancient peoples have similar instruments. Ur harps are the oldest stringed instruments that have been found by archaeologists. They are approximately four and a half thousand years old.

The truth is that it is impossible to say exactly what the first musical instrument looked like, but we can say with complete confidence that music, at least in a primitive form, was part of the life of primitive man.

An ancient Greek legend says that the first musical instrument was created by the god Pan, who was walking in the forest near a river, picked a reed and began to blow into it. It turned out that the reed tube was capable of producing enchanting sounds that formed beautiful melodies. Pan cut several branches of reeds and connected them together, creating the first instrument - the prototype of the flute.

Thus, the ancient Greeks believed that the first musical instrument was the flute. Perhaps this is so - at least it is the oldest tool recorded by researchers. Its oldest specimen was found in southern Germany, in the Holy Fels cave, where excavations of a prehistoric human settlement are being carried out. In total, three flutes were found in this place, carved from tusk and having several holes. Archaeologists also discovered fragments that apparently belonged to the same flutes. Radiocarbon dating helped determine the age of these instruments, and the oldest was dated to the 40th millennium BC. So far this is the oldest instrument that has been found on Earth, but it is possible that other specimens simply have not survived to this day.

Similar flutes and pipes were found in Hungary and Moldova, but they were made in the 25-22 thousand years BC.

Candidates for the title of the most ancient musical instruments

Although the flute is still considered the most ancient musical instrument, it is possible that in fact the first to be made was a drum or any other device. For example, Australian aborigines are confident that their national instrument called the didgeridoo is the oldest; its history goes back to the depths of the history of the indigenous population of this continent, which, according to scientists, dates back from 40 to 70 thousand years. Thus, it is quite possible that the didgeridoo is indeed an ancient instrument. It is an impressive piece of eucalyptus trunk, in some cases reaching three meters in length, with a hollow core eaten away by termites.

Since didgeridoos are always cut from different trunks with different shapes, their sounds are never the same.

The oldest drums found date back to just the fifth millennium BC, but scientists believe it is one of the most likely candidates for the title of the first musical instrument. Its long history is evidenced by both the wide variety of types of modern drums and their almost ubiquitous distribution, as well as the simple and uncomplicated design that would have allowed even the most ancient ancestors of people to play melodies with the help of simple devices. In addition, it has been proven that in many cultures, drum music was a very important part of life: it accompanied all holidays, weddings, funerals, and wars.

People have discovered the enchanting sounds of music since ancient times. In ancient Greek myths, both gods and mortals mastered the art of playing various musical instruments. Not a single feast was complete without pipes, timbrels and flutes, which brightened up the celebrations of kings and simple peasants. But what instrument is the most ancient on Earth?

The first musical instruments

Archaeologists were the first to talk about the existence of musical instruments in ancient times, finding pipes, tweeters and other objects for playing music in almost all excavations. Moreover, similar finds were discovered in those territories where archaeologists managed to excavate sites of primitive people.

Archaeologists attribute some of the found musical instruments to the Upper Paleolithic era - in other words, these instruments appeared 22-25 thousand years BC.

In addition, ancient people knew how to not only make musical instruments, but also music for them, writing down musical notes on clay tablets. The oldest musical notation to date was written in the 18th century BC. Archaeologists found it in the Sumerian city of Nippur they excavated, which was once located in the territory of modern Iraq. University of California scientists who deciphered the music tablet in 1974 said it contained the words and music of an Assyrian love ballad for string lyre.

The most ancient musical instrument

In 2009, archaeologists discovered in one of the caves located in southwestern Germany the remains of a tool that strongly resembles a modern one. Analyzes and studies have shown that the age of the ancient flute is more than 35 thousand years. Five perfectly round holes were made in the body of the flute, which should be closed with the fingers when playing, and at its ends there were two deep V-shaped cuts.

The length of the musical instrument was 21.8 centimeters, and the thickness was only 8 millimeters.

The material from which the flute was made turned out to be not wood, but a bird's wing. This instrument is by far the oldest, but not the first in the history of archaeological finds - bone pipes, hollow animal horns, shell pipes, stone and wooden rattles, as well as drums made from animal skins have also been repeatedly found at excavations.

There are many legends about the origin of music. The ancient Greeks believed that the great gods of Olympus gave it to them, but modern scientists have conducted a number of ethnographic and archaeological studies. As a result of these studies, it was established that the first music appeared in primitive society and was used as a lullaby for lulling.

No one can say exactly when music began, but it is known that it has accompanied humanity since ancient times. Even at the dawn of civilization, three methods of musical sound production were identified: striking a sounding object, vibrating a stretched string, and blowing air into a hollow tube. This was the beginning of three types of musical instruments - percussion, strings and wind.

The very first wind instruments were hollow bones of various animals. For example, the most ancient one known to scientists - the Neanderthal pipe - is made from the bone of a cave bear. In their development, wind instruments took different forms, but different peoples observed common patterns in this process.

Pan Flute

Having learned to extract sound from a pipe (first bone, then wooden), a person wanted to diversify this sound. He noticed that pipes of different lengths produce sounds of different pitches. The simplest (and therefore most ancient) solution was to tie together several different tubes and move this structure along the mouth.

Thus was born the instrument, best known by the Greek name syrinx, or the flute of Pan (according to Greek myth, it was created by the god Pan). But you should not think that only the Greeks had such a flute - among other peoples it existed under other names: ekuduchai in Lithuania, nai in Moldova, kugikly in Russia.

A distant descendant of this flute is such a complex and majestic instrument as the organ.

Pipe and flute

To produce sounds of different heights, it is not necessary to take several tubes; you can change the length of one by making holes on it and blocking them with your fingers in certain combinations. This is how an instrument was born, which among the Russians was called the flute, among the Belarusians - the pipe, among the Belarusians - the sopilka, among the Moldovans - the fluer.

All these instruments are held across the face, this is called a “longitudinal flute,” but there was another design: the hole into which air is blown is located in the same plane as the finger holes. This kind of flute - transverse - was developed in academic music, and the modern flute goes back to it. And the “descendant” of the pipe – the recorder – is not part of the symphony orchestra, although it is used in academic music.

Zhaleika

The instruments discussed above are among the whistling ones, but there is also a more complex design: the instrument is equipped with a bell into which a reed is inserted - a thin plate (originally made of birch bark), the vibration of which makes the sound louder and changes its timbre.

This design is typical for the Russian pity, the Chinese sheng. Similar instruments existed in Western Europe; modern classical oboe and clarinet go back to them.

Horn

Another design option for a wind instrument is an additional part that comes into contact with the musician’s lips, the mouthpiece. This is typical for a horn.

The horn is usually associated with the work of a shepherd. Indeed, the shepherds used horns, because the sound of this instrument is quite strong and can be heard at a great distance. This is facilitated by the conical shape.

This is only a small part of the diversity that wind instruments of different nations represent.

Video on the topic

Sources:

• Vasiliev Yu., Shirokov A. Stories about Russian folk instruments

Tip 4: Which musical instruments are considered folk instruments

Folk instruments are an integral part of the traditional culture of a particular country, but in order to understand which instruments can be considered folk, it is necessary to turn to history and folk music.

The abundance of wind, string and percussion instruments speaks of the cultural wealth of the ancient Russians. Absorbing the sounds of nature, people created simple rattles and whistles from scrap materials. Every child in Rus' had the skills to make and play simple musical instruments. This has been an integral part of folk culture and life since the times of Ancient Rus'. Many of them are used to this day unchanged - others have been improved and formed the basis of folk orchestras.

Russian folk music (instruments):

Balalaika

The balalaika has become a symbol of Russian culture. This is a three-string plucked instrument with a triangular soundboard. The first mentions of the instrument date back to the 17th century. but the instrument became widespread only a hundred years later. The classical balalaika originated from the East Slavic domra with two strings and a round soundboard.

It was given the status of a folk instrument for a reason. The root of the word balalaika is the same as in the words balakat or balabolit, which mean meaningless, unobtrusive conversation. So the instrument most often served as an accompaniment for the leisure of Russian peasants.

Gusli

Another stringed folk instrument, but much older than the balalaika. The first historical evidence of the use of gusli dates back to the 5th century. The ancestor of the instrument has not been precisely established, but, according to the most common hypothesis, they originated from the ancient Greek cithara. There were several types of gusli with a resonator of various shapes and a number of strings from 5 to 30.

Gusli of all types (wing-shaped, helmet-shaped, lyre-shaped) were used to accompany the voice of the soloist, and the musicians were called guslars.

Horn

A small mouthpiece wind instrument with a bell at the end of the barrel and six playing holes (at the same time the name of a group of wind instruments). The traditional horn was carved from juniper, birch or maple. The ensemble and dance variety of the instrument originated from the signal horns of shepherds and warriors, who accompanied both leisure and work.

The first information about horns recorded on paper dates back to the 17th century, but in fact they began to be used much earlier. Since the 18th century, references to horn ensembles have appeared.

Domra

The traditional Slavic plucked string instrument is the ancestor of the balalaika. The fundamental differences from the first to the last lie in the configuration of the deck (oval and triangular, respectively). It became widespread in the 16th century, presumably evolving from Mongolian two-stringed plucked instruments.

There are three- and four-string versions of the instrument. Domra was considered an instrument of traveling buffoons (domra player - domrachey).

Accordion

Bayan is a Russian folk musical instrument with Bavarian roots. The constructive basis for it was the harmonica. The first instrument was created by master Mirwald in 1891, and the very next year button accordions appeared in Russia. However, the name of the instrument was first mentioned in 1903 (before that it was called chromatic harmony).

This is a solo concert or ensemble instrument. However, he often accompanies people's leisure time at public celebrations or family holidays.

Russian accordion

The hand accordion came to Russian musical culture along with the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars. Its ancestor was the Chinese instrument shen. The Chinese ancestor went a long way from Asia to Russia and Europe, but the harmonica received mass popular love after the 1830s, after the opening of the first production. But even with established production, most of the instruments were made by folk craftsmen, which contributed to a wide variety of designs.

Tambourine

It is almost impossible to establish the time and place of the appearance of the tambourine as a musical instrument - it was used in various rituals of many peoples. Ritual tambourines most often consist of a leather membrane on a round wooden frame - a shell. Bells or round metal plates were often suspended from the shell of Russian musical tambourines.

In Rus', any percussion musical instrument was called a tambourine. The military and ritual tambourine clearly stands out. They served as the basis for musical tambourines used during buffoon performances and other entertainment events.

Firewood

The percussion instrument with the self-explanatory name “drova” “grew” from an ordinary bundle of firewood. Its operating principle is similar to a xylophone. The sound is extracted with a special beater made of wooden plates. A recess is selected at the bottom of each plate, the depth of which determines the pitch of the sound. After adjustment, the plates are varnished and bundled. Dried birch, spruce and maple are used to make firewood. Maple firewood is considered the most euphonious.

Whistle

A small ceramic wind instrument, the whistle, was often equipped with decorative elements. Bird whistles with decorative paintings were especially popular. Preferred creatures and designs often indicate the region where the tool was made.

The whistles make high trills. Some types of whistles are filled with water and then the trills are produced with a shimmer. Whistles were created as children's toys.

Ratchet

A series of wooden plates fastened with cord is the Slavic ratchet. Shaking such a bunch creates sharp popping sounds. Ratchets are made from durable wood - oak, for example. To increase the volume, spacers about five millimeters thick are inserted between the plates. The instrument was used at fairs and folk festivals to attract attention to a particular performance.

Wooden spoons

Another symbol of Russian culture is wooden spoons. This is the only percussion instrument that can be eaten. Ancient Russians used spoons to make rhythmic sounds as much as they used them to eat. Spoons made of different types of wood with characteristic paintings are used in sets of two to five. The most common option is with three - two are clamped in the spooner’s left hand, and with the third he hits the lower sides of the scoops.

The first convincing evidence of musical experiments dates back to the Paleolithic era, when man learned to make instruments from stone, bone and wood in order to produce various sounds. Later, sounds were extracted using a faceted rib from bone, and the sound produced resembled the gnashing of teeth. Rattles were also made from skulls, which were filled with seeds or dried berries. This sound often accompanied the funeral procession.

The most ancient musical instruments were drums. The idnophone, an ancient percussion instrument, arose during the period of speech formation in ancient man. The duration of the sound and its repeated repetition were associated with the rhythm of the heartbeat. In general, for ancient people, music was primarily rhythm.

Following the drums, wind instruments were invented. The ancient prototype of the flute discovered in Asturis (20,000 BC) is striking in its perfection. The side holes were knocked out in it, and the principle of sound production was the same as that of modern flutes.

Stringed instruments were also invented in ancient times. Images of ancient strings are preserved in numerous rock paintings, most of which are located in the Pyrenees. Thus, in the Cogul cave nearby there are “dancing” figures “carrying bows.” The “lyre player” struck the strings with the edge of bone or wood, producing sound. It is curious that in the chronology of development the invention of string instruments and dance occupy the same time space.
At this time, an aerophone appears - an instrument made of bone or stone, the appearance of which resembles a diamond or the tip of a spear.

Threads were threaded and secured through holes in the wood, after which the musician ran his hand along these threads, twisting them. The result was a sound resembling a hum. Most often they played the aerophone in the evenings. The sound emanating from this instrument was reminiscent of the voice of spirits. This instrument was improved during the Mesolithic era (3000 BC). It became possible to play two or three sounds simultaneously. This was achieved by cutting vertical holes. Despite the primitiveness of the method of making such instruments, this technique was preserved for a long time in some parts of Oceania, Africa and Europe.

Among the musical instruments used by ancient civilizations we find wind instruments: flutes (tigtigi) and oboe (abub). We know that the Mesopotamian population, like the Egyptians, had a high technique for making wind instruments from reeds. They modified tools throughout the existence of their civilization. Soon, along with the flute, the pishik was invented, which contributed to the appearance of the oboe. In this instrument, sound was produced by rapid vibration of air in the pike, and not by blowing air streams on the mouthpiece, as happens in flutes. Of the strings, lyres (algar) and harps (zagsal), which were still very small in size, were widely used

Often the body of a musical instrument was painted. We see confirmation of this in exhibits found in the tombs of the state of Ur (2500 BC). One of them is in the British Museum. A variety of percussion instruments are also striking. This is often evidenced by iconography, bas-reliefs, dishes, vases, and steles. As a rule, the painting on them indicates the use of large drums and small timpani, as well as castanets and sistrums. Later exhibits also feature cymbals and bells.

The instruments and repertoire were handed down to subsequent generations living in Mesopotamia. By 2000 B.C. The Assyrians improved the harp and created the prototype of the first lute (pantur).