From Primitive to Ancient, from Medieval to Renaissance, and Colonial to Contemporary musical; instruments have changed and transformed along with the civilizations and musicians who play and enjoy them. Some intresting examples of past instruments are lyres and pan pipes in Greece, Egyptian harps made out of tortoise shell, exotic Indian sitars, didgeridoos in aboriginal Australia and handmade banjos made by hands of African American slaves from garden gourds. People were inventive to create new and fresh sound.
Three instruments which especially permeate American music today are important to consider their pasts. The piano, guitar and drum.
Piano - The first piano, or stringed keyboard instrument as we know it today, first appeared in the early 18th century in Italy and was created by Bartolomeo Cristofori.
Guitar- The guitar has Spanish origins, although to begin it only had four strings. The five string guitar with the standard tuning of A D G B E is not seen until the Italian Renaissance.
Drums- Drums are ancient instruments which had varying uses other than creating music, c
ommunication and ceremonial. Primitively they were made out of hollow logs with animal hides and sinew stretched across. West Africans used “talking drums”, waisted drums that could be beaten for communication between tribes. Drums were used in war, like seen here a Civil War drum and fife band.
http://www.guyguitars.com/eng/handbook/BriefHistory.html
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/music/musicimages/egypt.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/cwfifedrum/
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/music/musicimages/egypt.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/cwfifedrum/
I wonder exactly how long instruments have been around. They had uses in entertaining and communication. How far back does this go? I wonder if the "cave men" banged on sticks or stumps as a way to communicate or entertain themselves. It’s pretty neat to see how the ancient Egyptians could create instruments with strings or other such designs. Music is such an important part of society from way in the past to the present.
ReplyDeleteThis article explains the development in instruments. Well no one knows that how old instruments have been? They were present in Chinese and Egyptian era. It could go further and could have been used by cavemen to communicate or entertain them. It shows a picture of ancient time’s people with very old instruments. The sizes of instruments have been getting smaller and smaller with technology. Guitars were made out of wood, now they are made out of metal and different material. Now you can hook any music instrument with computer and have a better quality of sound. The technology has changed the way we hear music. The computer can even make their own music by copying the sounds of different music instruments. The music instruments have also evolved with technology.
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