History of Music

What is music? Music is the art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. The first evidence music goes way back to prehistoric times, this is based on findings of flutes carved out of bone. Various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites.

However music really took off in the early The Renaissance era. Music now had themes of love and passion where before it was just sounds without convaying any true emotion. Music in this era really started to develop and became part of a day to day life.  Musicians now worked for churchs, courts and towns. Church choirs were formed. Also music was related to wealth as Kings and princes competed for the finest composers.

It was believed that the first ever music recording was made by Thomas Edison in 1877, when he recored 'Mary had a Little Lamb' on his new invention- the phonograph. However it was actually discovered that 17 years prior to 'mary had a Little Lamb' there was indeed the first ever recored music, which was by a woman singing a french folk song 'Claire de  la lune' in 1860. It was recorded by a “phonautograph”, which etches waveforms onto paper. 

Here are some clips. http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2008/08/earliest-recording-human-voice/

To seen the timeline of modern day music please click the link below http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/interactive/2011/jun/11/history-modern-music-timeline