Oldest musical instrument found

[harimau]

It is a flute.

Thank God it is not a harmonium or keyboard! #:-s

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8117915.stm


'Oldest musical instrument' found

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News



Scientists in Germany have published details of flutes dating back to the time that modern humans began colonising Europe, 35,000 years ago.

The flutes are the oldest musical instruments found to date.

The researchers say in the Journal Nature that music was widespread in pre-historic times.

Music, they suggest, may have been one of a suite of behaviours displayed by our own species which helped give them an edge over the Neanderthals.

The team from Tubingen University have published details of three flutes found in the Hohle Fels cavern in southwest Germany.

The cavern is already well known as a site for signs of early human efforts; in May, members of the same team unveiled a Hohle Fels find that could be the world's oldest Venus figure.

The most well-preserved of the flutes is made from a vulture's wing bone, measuring 20cm long with five finger holes and two "V"-shaped notches on one end of the instrument into which the researchers assume the player blew.

The archaeologists also found fragments of two other flutes carved from ivory that they believe was taken from the tusks of mammoths.

Creative origins

The find brings the total number of flutes discovered from this era to eight, four made from mammoth ivory and four made from bird bones.

According to Professor Nicholas Conard of Tubingen University, this suggests that the playing of music was common as far back as 40,000 years ago when modern humans spread across Europe.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that music was part of day-to-day life," he said.

"Music was used in many kinds of social contexts: possibly religious, possibly recreational - much like we use music today in many kinds of settings."

These flutes provide yet more evidence of the sophistication of the people that lived at that time

The researchers also suggest that not only was music widespread much earlier than previously thought, but so was humanity's creative spirit.

"The modern humans that came into our area already had a whole range of symbolic artifacts, figurative art, depictions of mythological creatures, many kinds of personal ornaments and also a well-developed musical tradition," Professor Conard explained.

The team argues that the emergence of art and culture so early might explain why early modern humans survived and Neanderthals, with whom they co-existed at the time, became extinct.

"Music could have contributed to the maintenance of larger social networks, and thereby perhaps have helped facilitate the demographic and territorial expansion of modern humans relative to a culturally more conservative and demographically more isolated Neanderthal populations," they wrote.

That is a view supported by Professor Chris Stringer, a human origins researcher at the Natural History Museum in London.

"These flutes provide yet more evidence of the sophistication of the people that lived at that time and the probable behavioural and cognitive gulf between them and Neanderthals," he said.

"I think the occurrence of these flutes and animal and human figurines about 40,000 years ago implies that the traditions that produced them must go back even further in the evolutionary history of modern humans - perhaps even into Africa more than 50,000 years ago.

"But that evidence has still to be discovered."

[varsha]

guess what ?
forget the kssr..kisser predicted on ipad.
my samsung says harmonium every time I want to type harimau

[vasanthakokilam]

OMG, that is so funny

[arasi]

Varsha,


A harmonium as accompaniment for an abhang...

[vasanthakokilam]

Let me guess. Varsha actually tried to write 'harimau's accompaniment for an abhang concert...' and his Samsung auto corrected it.

[rshankar]

A harmonium as accompaniment for an abhang...

More like a harmonium dueling an abhangist, perhaps.

[Rsachi]

Guys, this is no matter to joke about. Further research in Tuebingen has revealed that these flutes were made of the ribs taken from potential harimaunium-makers.

That unique instrument harimaunium was a kind of WMD to be used against all new-fangled musicians.

[Nick H]

)

harimaunium, or harimoanium?

I would have thought, conjectured, theorised, that humans would have been thumping things to some sort of rhythm long before they thought of blowing into things with holes drilled into them to permit different pitch. The things that they thumped (apart from each other) were probably just things, rather than anything labellable as musical instrument

[varsha]

A'tini al-Nay
Give me the flute
Lyrics: Kahlil Gibran

Give me the flute, and sing
immortality lies in a song
and even after we've perished
the flute continues to lament

have you taken refuge in the woods
away from places like me
followed streams on their courses
and climbed up the rocks.

Did you ever bathe in a perfume
and dry yourself with a light
drink the dawn as wine
rarefied in goblets of ether

give me the flute then and sing
the best of prayer is song
and even when life perishes
the flute continues to lament

have you spent an evening
as I have done
among vines
where the golden candelabra
clusters hang down

did you sleep on the grass at night
and let space be your blanket
abstaining from all that will come
forgetful of all that has passed

give the flute then and sing
in singing is Justice for the heart
and even after every guilt
has perished
the flute continues to lament

give the flute and sing
forget illness and its cure
people are nothing but lines
which are scribbled on water.

35000 years !!!!!
And leading to this !!!!
http://mfi.re/listen/eztmr51b8r0bjbm/27 ... ali_-4.mp3

There is something humble about this instrument that is so endearing

[Rsachi]

Amen.
I wrote this some time ago, too, Varsha!

Such is the eternal fascination of the flute. A humble reed that epitomizes surrender at God's lips, whence come all divine vibrations. Perhaps to be a flute-player calls for several births of evolution. It is perhaps the simplest musical instrument, and yet has the maximum impact on a listener. Wordless but vibrant lips that infuse Prana or “Life-breath” into our ears and penetrate the deepest part of our souls. A simple note alone from a flute will suffice. Then what of the majestic melody of a Kharaharapriya or a Thodi, melodies born of millennia of spiritual quest of those residing in their Vishuddhi Chakra?

Parvathi blog, Ramani 1970

[arasi]

And, Sri Krishna the cowherd played the harim au(oa)nium, the most ancient among instruments

I have heard some awful players making thumping sounds playing it, Nick

[rshankar]

There is something humble about this instrument that is so endearing

Absolutely - reminds me of a snatch from a poem we studied way back when - a young boy is describing a banyan tree and tells his mother: 'lE dEti mujhE bAnsuri tum dO paisE vAlI, mein bhi us par baiTh kanhaiyya bantA dhIrE dhIrE'!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

.
'kadamb kA pEd’
by Smt. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
http://www.kavitakosh.org/kk/%E0%A4%AF% ... 0MxX6iSzjg
.

[vasanthakokilam]

There is some Neanderthal bashing going on in that BBC story. Let me come to their defense!

This BBC story from 1999 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/454594.stm refers to a possibly Neanderthal flute from 45000 years back. This wikipedia article has a picture of that Neanderthal flute: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divje_Babe_Flute

[rshankar]

.
'kadamb kA pEd’
by Smt. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
http://www.kavitakosh.org/kk/%E0%A4%AF% ... 0MxX6iSzjg
.

PB - hats off! You are amazing...

[arasi]

As always, (*) mercurial procurer

[Ranganayaki]

Such a nice thread! Ravi, big bells started ringing when I read your lines, and I couldn't remember. Thanks PB, this poem was completely forgotten, and each line went and fell with a clink into a neat mental slot that seemed to get created as I read it.

[rshankar]

Such a nice thread! Ravi, big bells started ringing when I read your lines, and I couldn't remember. Thanks PB, this poem was completely forgotten, and each line went and fell with a clink into a neat mental slot that seemed to get created as I read it.

Ranganayaki: Smt. Subhardra Kumari Chauhan is one of my favorite hindi poets - and of her poems, I love jhAnsi kI rAnI (the refrain - khUb laDI mardAni woh tO jhAnsI vAlI rAnI thI, and the last verse that starts jAO rAni yAd rakhEngE hum kRtagnya bhArat vAsi always bring a lump to my throat), and mErA nayA bacpan (about her daughter - kuch muh mein, kuch liyE hAth mein, mujhE khilAnE AyI thI - the word picture of the little girl bringing some mud for her mother to taste, after having tried it heself first is simply precious)!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

jhAnsi kI rAnI:-
http://www.bundelkhand.in/portal/POEM/k ... i-rani-thi

mErA nayA bacpan:-
http://www.kavitakosh.org/kk/%E0%A4%AE% ... 2J6hoGSzjg

[Ranganayaki]

PB, thanks again!!

Ravi, I too remember those poems, I think it was everyone's favorite!! Still remember the picture of the mother and the baby girl in the 6th grade textbook! Will be back to read them here.. Thanks!

[Pratyaksham Bala]

.
Mother Subhadra Kumari Chauhan's stamp.
Daughter Sudha Chauhan's autograph !