History of musical instruments. The most ancient musical instrument The first musical instruments of primitive people

What musical instrument was the first?

There is a legend about this, but this is nothing more than a fantasy. According to Greek mythology, the first musical instrument - a shepherd's pipe - was made by the god Pan. Once on the shore, he exhaled through the reeds and heard his breath, passing along the trunk, make a sad lamentation. He cut the barrel into unequal pieces, tied them together, and now he had his first musical instrument!

The truth is that we cannot name the first musical instrument, since all primitive people around the world seem to have created this or that music. It was usually music with some kind of religious meaning, and the audience became its participants. They danced, drummed, clapped and sang with her. It wasn't just for fun. This primitive music made up a significant part of people's lives.

The legend of Pan and the reed suggests how a person came up with the idea to make so many different musical instruments. Perhaps he imitated the sounds of nature or used its objects around him to create his music.

The first musical instruments were percussion (drum type). Later, man invented wind instruments made from animal horns. From these primitive wind instruments, modern brass instruments developed. As man developed his musical sense, he began to use reed and thus produce more natural and gentle sounds.

Finally, man invented the simple lyre and harp, which gave rise to bowed instruments.

In the Middle Ages, the crusaders brought many amazing oriental musical instruments from the campaigns. Combined with the folk that already existed in Europe at that time, they developed into many instruments that are now used to play music.

Did you know that the most ancient musical instrument was found by archaeologists several years ago? Do you think this is some kind of fossilized primitive proto-drum or prehistoric double bass from a mammoth skull? No matter how it is! Rather - under the cut!

It turns out that the most ancient musical instrument is

it's a flute!

In 2009, in one of the caves in southwestern Germany, archaeologists found the remains of an instrument that resembles the familiar flute:

Its age is over 35 thousand years. This flute is 21.8 cm long and only 8 mm thick. Five round holes were punched in the body, which were closed with fingers, and at the ends there were two deep V-shaped cuts.

This flute, as you probably already guessed, was made not of wood, but of bone - here the opinions of scientists differ: some say that it is a bone from a swan's wing, others - a griffon vulture. This is the oldest, although far from the first find of such an instrument. Researchers believe that southwest Germany is the site of one of the first settlements of our European ancestors who came from Africa. They now speculate that our prehistoric ancestors had a well-developed musical culture. ()

In general, flutes are not the only thing archaeologists find. Among the ancient musical instruments at different times were found: bone pipes and flutes, animal horns, shell pipes, drums from animal skins, rattles made of stone and wood, musical [hunting] bows. The oldest musical instruments (flutes and tweeters) were found on the territory of modern Hungary and Moldova, and date back to the Paleolithic era - approximately 2522 thousand years BC, and the oldest musical notation - the 18th century BC, was found during excavations the Sumerian city of Nippur (the territory of modern Iraq).

During the excavation of the site of primitive hunters in Ukraine, interesting discoveries were made. A whole "orchestra" was found at the place of the plague, there were so many ancient musical instruments. Bone tubes were used to make pipes and whistles. Rattles and rattles were carved from mammoth bones. The tambourines were covered with dry skin, which buzzed from the blows of the mallet.

Obviously, the melodies played on such musical instruments were very simple, rhythmic and loud. In one of the caves in Italy, scientists found footprints on petrified clay. The tracks were strange: people either walked on their heels or bounced on tiptoe on both feet at once. It is easy to explain: a hunting dance was performed there. The hunters danced to the formidable and exciting music, imitating the movements of powerful, dexterous and cunning animals. They selected words to the music and in songs they talked about themselves, about their ancestors, about what they saw around.

More advanced musical instruments gradually appeared. It turned out that if you stretch the skin on a hollow wooden or clay object, the sound will become more booming and stronger. This is how the ancestors of drums and timpani were born. (

The first convincing evidence of musical experience dates back to the Paleolithic era, when people learned to make instruments from stone, bone and wood in order to produce various sounds with their help. Later, sounds were extracted using a faceted rib from the bone, and this sound emitted resembled grinding 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. Idnophone - an ancient percussion instrument - originated during the formation of ancient man speech. The duration of the sound and its repeated repetition were associated with the rhythm of the heartbeat. In general, for ancient people, music is, first of all, rhythm.

After the percussion, wind instruments were invented. The ancient prototype of the flute discovered in Asturis (20,000 years 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. The depictions of ancient strings have been preserved on numerous rock paintings, most of which are located in the Pyrenees. Thus, in the Cogul cave, next to it, there are “dancing” figures, “carrying bows”. The "lyre player" struck the strings with the edge of a bone or wood, producing a sound. It is curious that in the chronology of development, the invention of stringed instruments and dance occupy the same time space.
At this time, an aerophone appears - an instrument made of bone or stone, appearance which resembles a diamond or spearhead.

Threads were threaded and fastened into the holes in the tree, after which the musician ran his hand along these threads, twisting them. The result was a hum-like sound. Most often they played the aerophone in the evenings. The sound emanating from this instrument resembled the voice of spirits. This instrument was improved during the Mesolithic era (3000 BC). Now you can sound two and three sounds simultaneously. This was achieved by cutting vertical holes. Despite the primitive method of making such instruments, this technique has long been preserved in parts of Oceania, Africa and Europe.

Among the musical instruments used by ancient civilizations we find winds: flutes (tigtigi) and oboe (abub). We know that the population of Mesopotamia, like the Egyptians, possessed a high technique of making wind instruments from reed. They have modified tools throughout their civilization. Soon, along with the flute, the pisik was invented, which contributed to the emergence of the oboe. In this instrument, the sound was produced by the rapid vibration of the air in the squeak, and not from the blows of air currents on the mouthpiece, as is the case in flutes. Of the strings, lyres (algar) and harps (zagsal) were widely used, which were still very small in size.

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

Instruments and repertoire were inherited by the next generations living in the territory of Mesopotamia. By 2000 BC. the Assyrians improved the harp and coR · the prototype of the first lute (pantur) was given.

Today guys we will plunge into the world of music and musical instruments. Do you know what musical instruments are?
Musical instruments are objects with which a person can make various sounds. The range of musical instruments is very large: well-known pianos, grand pianos, wind instruments, organ, guitar, button accordion, accordion accordion, and even spoons and more modern electronic synthesizers.
The first musical instrument appeared in the world at the same time as man himself. And this instrument was the man himself. Yes, yes, do not be surprised, everything is correct, a person has a voice that can make melodious sounds of different heights. And the world's first melody was reproduced, of course, by a human voice. And in order for the melody to sound rhythmically, the person either clapped his hands, then steadily stamped. Claps, tapping - why not percussive sounds?
For ancient dance, rhythm was of great importance, therefore, dances were accompanied by clapping, tapping on various objects, and stamping. Therefore, ratchets and drums have become the oldest musical instruments, with the help of which the rhythm of the dance can be very clearly conveyed.
Initially, music was only church music and was performed in temples. Despite the prohibitions of the church, along with church rites, church music, and singing, there were ritual folk performances, accompanied by songs, dances, and playing folk musical instruments.
The first professional actors in Russia were buffoons. They also performed as singers, musicians, storytellers, performers of scenes, trainers, acrobats back in the XI. Representatives of the clergy and the authorities expelled the buffoons in every possible way, so in 1648, the year of the wedding of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a prohibitive letter was issued stating that buffoons with domras, harp and bagpipes should not be called into the house. And in 1649, a decree was issued by Alexei Mikhailovich to the Verkhoturye voivode, which ordered to punish the buffoons and destroy their tools.
In Ancient Russia, there are references not only to buffoons, but also to musical instruments such as trumpets and gusli. During numerous wars, trumpets and tambourines were used by Russian troops as signal instruments.
The first musical instruments were made from animal bones - holes were hollowed out in them for blowing air. Various percussion instruments were also widespread (a beater, a rattle, a rattle made from dried fruits with seeds or stones inside, a drum).
The appearance of the drum testified to the fact that people discovered the property of resonance of empty objects. They began using the dried leather by stretching it over an empty vessel.
During excavations in Ukraine, scientists managed to find two bone beaters and a noisy bracelet made of five bone plates, which were presented as musical instruments of that time.
Wind instruments used the extraction of sounds by blowing air. The material for them was the stems of reeds, reeds, even shells, and later - wood and metal. Such folk wind instruments as the whistle and flute became the prototypes of modern flutes.
It is believed that primitive people invented all kinds of musical instruments: drums were made of wood or bone, which were then covered with leather, strings from a stretched bowstring, winds from hollow wood, tubular bone, and even from thick bird feathers.
Later, man invented wind instruments made from animal horns. From these primitive wind instruments, modern brass instruments developed. As man developed his musical sense, he began to use the reed and thus produce more natural and gentle sounds.
The first keyboard instrument was the clavichord, which is the ancient ancestor of the piano.
The first image of a guitar was depicted in ancient times on the stones of the Egyptian pyramids, the ancient Egyptians called this instrument nabla. Guitar is a stringed plucked musical instrument of Spanish origin, which is a flat body with deep cutouts on the sides and decks, of which the upper has a resonator hole, necks with a neck equipped with metal frets, and heads with pegs that regulate the tension of strings, most often metal or nylon guitars. Guitars come in six and seven strings. The bass guitar is an electric guitar that has a board and a neck with a thin neck, on which 20 frets are located instead of an acoustic body. This model was developed in the early fifties, the most common is a four-string, but there are five-, six- and eight-stringed.
Gusli is the oldest musical instrument. The Slavs played the harp back in the 11th century. Gusli are: bell, plucked and keyboard.
Domra is the prototype of the Russian balalaika. The domra family includes: domra piccolo, small 3-string domra, small 4-string domra, alto domra, bass domra and contrabass domra (found extremely rarely).
The first mention of the balalaika dates back to the end of the 17th century. The modern balalaika, or rather the whole family of balalaikas, was made by Andreev together with Paserbsky and Nalimov. The balalaika is a true symbol of the Russian people.
The violin is a stringed bowed musical instrument. The history of music believes that the violin in its most perfect form originated in the 16th century. In the 16th century, two main types of bowed instruments were clearly distinguished: the viola and the violin.
The earliest Italian violin makers were Gasparo Bertolotti (or "da Salo" (1542-1609) and Giovanni Paolo Magini (1580-1632), both from Brescia, in northern Italy. But very soon Cremona became the world center for violin production. And , of course, the most outstanding and unsurpassed violinists are members of the Amati family (Andrea Amati is the founder of the Cremona school) and Antonio Stradivari (a student of Nicolo Amati, who perfected the look and sound of the violin). And the Guarneri family (Giuseppe del Gesu is the most famous of family; his best violins surpass Stradivari's instruments in their warmth and sonority of tone) completes this great triumvirate The first violins in their fully completed form appeared in Moscow, apparently, only at the beginning of the 18th century.
The simplest accordion is separated from the modern button accordion by only a few ten years. The name comes from the name of the legendary Old Russian singer, the first mention of which was found in the "Lay of Igor's Host". The button accordion belongs to a large group of instruments - harmonics. The chromatic harmonica was made at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, which was called the button accordion.
The accordion is one of the most sophisticated types of chromatic harmonica with a piano-type right keyboard. In many countries, the accordion has gained particular popularity among folk music performers. In some countries, it is customary to call accordions all hand harmonics - both with keys and buttons, a reed musical instrument. Has two keyboards: right - piano and left - button (with bass and chord system) for accompaniment.
The first mentions of playing the horns date back to the 17th century. The horn has different names: shepherd's, Russian, song.
The first mention of zhaleika dates back to the end of the 18th century. Zhalejka comes in two varieties - single and double.
Svirel is a Russian instrument of a kind of double-barreled longitudinal flute. Chroniclers use three names for tools of this type: flute, snot and tartar. The mention of the flute dates back to the end of the 11th century.
Clarinet is a woodwind musical instrument.
Kuvikly (kugikly, kuvichki) is a Russian variety of a multi-barrel flute (Pan's flute). In Russian kuvikly, each pipe has its own name: buzz, buzz, medium, and the smallest - pyatushka. A set of five pipes in the hands of one performer is called a pair.
Ocarina is a genus of whistling vessel-shaped flute, mainly ceramic whistles.
Bambula is a percussion musical instrument, a musical instrument of African-American origin, widespread among black residents of New Orleans in the first half of the 19th century, it is a drum, in the form of a bamboo barrel, with cowhide stretched on it, from the family of membranophones.
The banjo is a stringed plucked musical instrument exported at the end of the 16th century. from West Africa to the southern states of the United States, is a small flat drum with an elongated neck attached to it, on which the strings are stretched.
The number of strings can be from 4 to 9.
The drum is a percussion musical drum, it looks like a cylinder covered with leather or plastic film on one or both sides with the help of metal hoops, on which there are screws that adjust the pitch. Bass saxophone - first used in the twenties by Adrian Rollini. The whip-clapper is a percussion wooden musical instrument, consists of two narrow boards, one of which has a handle, and the second, pressed against the first by means of a spring, is fixed with the lower end above the handle on a hinge. Bongas are a percussion musical instrument of Latin American origin,
consists of two one-sided small drums of different diameters, but the same in height, tightly connected to each other by a wooden block, which determines the different pitch of their sound.
Bells - percussion metal musical instrument, is a hollow round metal bells made of thin brass up to 8 cm in circumference, attached to a wire ring or handle.
Inside each bell there is an object that freely rolls there (a pea, a lead pellet, a round pebble). When shaken, the bells emit a high, light tinkling sound. French horn is a brass musical instrument.
Vibraphone - percussion metal musical instrument consists of two rows of metal plates, mounted on a special high table on the principle of a piano keyboard with a chromatic scale.
Under each plate there is a metal resonator cylinder, inside which an impeller is placed, driven by an electric motor. The sound is produced by hitting reed sticks 35-40 centimeters long with rubber, felt or felt heads. The cello is a stringed bowed musical instrument. The oboe is a woodwind reed musical instrument.
The gong is a percussion metal musical instrument from the family of Asian origin, it is a convex, large-diameter disc made of a special alloy with edges bent at right angles, freely suspended by a cord from a stand or frame. The oboe is played with a special beater with a felt tip.
Horn is the general name for brass instruments. The harmonica is a reed wind instrument constructed in 1821 by the Berlin master of musical instruments Franz Buschmann. Guiro - a percussion wooden musical instrument of Latin American origin, is a dried fruit of an oblong pumpkin with transverse notches cut on top and a hole in the bottom for sound resonance; it is also made from animal horns, dense varieties of wood or other solid material. The sound is extracted using a thin, faceted wooden stick. The wooden box is a percussion wooden musical instrument of Chinese origin, it is a small rectangular bar made of sonorous varieties of well-dried wood with a recess in the form of a longitudinal slit on the long side wall. Play on a wooden box with a snare drum stick. Jag - a primitive Negro musical instrument, is a narrow-necked earthenware jug, which is used as a resonator when singing, holding it in the hands and putting it to the mouth. Cabatza is a percussion wooden musical instrument of Afro-Brazilian origin, it is twice the size of maracas and is a dried pumpkin fruit or a hollow ball entwined with a net with beads strung on it.
They play only one instrument, holding it by the handle in their left hand and hitting it with a half-open right palm, or they scroll the net with beads with a tangential motion of the palm. In Brazil, it is used instead of maracas. Castanets - percussion wooden musical instrument of Moor-Andalusian origin, consists of two shell-shaped plates, made of hard wood, loosely connected with a cord ... passed through holes in the upper part.
A loop is made from the same lace, into which the thumb is inserted, and with the rest of the fingers the performer alternately taps one of the pieces of wood, forcing it to click on the other. Cove Bell is a percussion metal musical instrument from the family of Latin American origin, it is an ordinary cow bell, it looks like an oblong, slightly flattened bell without a tongue, 10-15 centimeters long, made of brass or sheet copper.
Bells - a percussion metal musical instrument of Asian origin, is a two-row set of duralumin or steel plates of different lengths, tuned according to the principle of a piano keyboard and loosely fixed on a wooden frame, which is placed in a small flat box, most often trapezoidal. Bells are played with two wooden, metal or plastic hammers. Konga is a percussion musical instrument of an indeterminate pitch of the membranophones family of African origin, it has the shape of either an elongated barrel, slightly narrowed downwards, or a cylinder gradually tapering downwards with skin stretched from above.
The height of the conga is 70-80 centimeters, the diameter is 22-26 centimeters. This instrument is played with fingers or palms, suspended over the shoulder with a belt. Contrabass is a stringed bowed musical instrument, it is an accompanying instrument, it performs the function of a bass voice.
Xylophone - percussion wooden musical instrument, is a set of rosewood records of various lengths located along the contour of a trapezium and tuned according to the principle of a piano keyboard. The plates are interconnected by a vein or silk cord and are placed on a special table when playing.
They play the xylophone, hitting the records with special light sticks. Timpani is a percussion musical instrument of a certain pitch from the family of membranophones, it is an aluminum, brass or copper body in the shape of a cauldron, on which leather is stretched with a hoop. The tool is adjusted with 6 screws on the hoop. Timpani are played with light sticks that end with cotton, sponge or cork heads.
Maracas - a percussion pair musical instrument of Latin American origin, is a dried fruit of a coconut, pumpkin or small melon with a handle and filled with pebbles, dry grains of olives or sand. Modern maracas are made from thin-walled wooden, metal or plastic balls and filled with peas or shot. The sound is produced by shaking and is characterized by sharp rustling.
Marimba is a percussion wooden musical instrument of African origin, it is a type of xylophone and has metal resonator tubes. It is played with rosewood sticks with hard, medium and soft heads. Organ is a keyboard-wind musical instrument. It is believed that the organ (hydraulic - "water organ") was invented by the Greek Ctesibius, who lived in Egyptian Alexandria in 296-228. BC e. There is an image of a similar instrument on one coin or token of the time of Nero. Large organs appeared in the 4th century, more or less improved organs - in the 7th and 8th centuries. Pope Vitalian (666) introduced the organ to the Catholic Church. In the 8th century, Byzantium was famous for its organs.
The art of building organs also developed in Italy, from where they were exported to France in the 9th century. Later this art developed in Germany. The organ begins to receive the greatest and ubiquitous distribution in the XIV century. In the XIV century, a pedal appeared in the organ, that is, a keyboard for the feet. Medieval organs, in comparison with later ones, were of rough work; a manual keyboard, for example, consisted of keys 5 to 7 cm wide, the distance between the keys reached one and a half cm. The keys were struck not with your fingers, as now, but with your fists. In the 15th century, the keys were reduced and the number of pipes increased. Pandeira, a percussion musical instrument, consists of a rectangular wooden frame with a rail in the middle that turns into a handle. Between the sides of the frame and the rail, 4-8 pairs of brass plates with a diameter of 4-5 cm are inserted, mounted on metal rods.
Plectrum (plectrum) is a wooden, bone, metal or plastic plate, with the help of which sound is produced on plucked instruments. A whistle is a musical instrument consisting of a metal tube with a mouthpiece at one end and a piston with a handle on the other. When the piston moves, the height of the extracted sound changes. A synthesizer is a universal electronic musical instrument, which is a complex combination of many functional units, which the performer controls using a special electronic device that generates signals and consists of a keyboard and a remote control. It allows you to simulate the sound of various instruments.
Saxophone - The first saxophone was created by the Belgian music master Adolphe Sachs in Paris in 1842. This first instrument possessed all the characteristics of the modern saxophone: it had a metal conical body, a mouthpiece that was borrowed from the clarinet, a single reed and a ring valve system of Theobald Boehm. The saxophone had a "snakelike" shape.
A tambourine is a percussion musical instrument consisting of a narrow wooden shell in the form of a hoop about 5 centimeters wide covered with leather on one side and small, loosely dangling plates (less often bells or bells), arranged in pairs, which are mounted on metal rods and fixed in the slots of the hoop. When playing the tambourine, the cymbals hit each other, tinkling rhythmically.
There-there is a percussion metal musical instrument, a kind of gong, of Asian origin. Cymbals are a percussion metal musical instrument, they are monolithic rounded discs made of a special alloy, with a cup-shaped bulge in the middle, in the center of which there is a small round hole. The secret of making real Turkish cymbals has been owned by a Turkish family who founded a music company for over 350 years. The cymbals are installed freely suspended on special brackets attached to the big drum, or on stands. Cymbals are played with snare drum sticks, timpani or panicles.
Temple block is a percussion wooden musical instrument, made of hard wood, has a rounded, pear-shaped, hollow inside, with a deep characteristic slot-like cut in the middle.
Timbales - a percussion musical instrument, consists of two small, bongo-like, one-sided drums, the same height and different in size with a brass or copper body. The drums are interconnected by a small block and mounted on a vertical holder. Timbales is played with snare drum sticks and fingers. Tom-tom is a percussion musical instrument from the family of membranophones of Chinese origin, it looks like a cylinder covered on one or two sides with leather or plastic film using metal hoops with screws on them that adjust the pitch. Unlike a snare drum, a tom tom is always without springs, but most often has a muffler. The tom tom is played with snare drum sticks, sticks with soft mallets or panicles.
The triangle is a percussion metal musical instrument, it is a rod made of iron or chrome-plated steel with a section of about 1 centimeter, bent in the form of an open equilateral triangle. Triangles are suspended in a free state by a hook on a fishing line or held in the left hand. Play on a triangle with a 22 cm long steel stick without a handle, which is held in the right hand.
A ratchet is a percussion musical instrument, which is a wooden cogwheel mounted on a wooden or metal rod (connected to the handle on one side) and placed in a small wooden box.
The sound is produced by rotation. Jumping from one tooth to another, the plate emits a characteristic dry crackle. The trombone is a brass musical instrument. The appearance of the trombone dates back to the 15th century. It is generally accepted that the immediate predecessors of this instrument were the rocker pipes, when playing on which the musician had the opportunity to move the pipe of the instrument, obtaining a chromatic scale. In 1839, the Leipzig music master Kristan Zatler invented the quarter-valve, which allowed the trombone to be lowered by a fourth, which made it possible to extract sounds from the so-called "dead zone". The main principle of playing the trombone is to obtain harmonic sounds by changing the position of the lips and changing the length of the air column in the instrument, achieved with the help of the wings.
The trumpet is one of the oldest musical instruments. The oldest instruments of this type are mentioned around 3600 BC. e. Pipes existed in many civilizations - in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient China and were used as signaling instruments. The pipe played this role for many centuries up to the 17th century. In the Middle Ages, trumpeters were obligatory members of the army, only they could, with the help of a signal, quickly convey the command of the commander to other parts of the army that were at a distance. The art of playing the trumpet was considered "elite", it was taught only to specially selected people. In peacetime, trumpets sounded at festive processions, knightly tournaments, in large cities there was a position of "tower" trumpeters who announced the arrival of a high-ranking person, a change in the time of day (thus, acting as a kind of clock), approaching the city of an enemy army and other events ...
Tubular bells are a percussion metal musical instrument of a certain pitch, consisting of two rows of brass, copper or steel small diameter and different lengths, freely suspended on a special frame and arranged in a chromatic sequence. The sound is produced by hitting the top edge of the corresponding pipe with a wooden hammer with a barrel-shaped head covered with leather or rubber bands. The tuba is a brass musical instrument that functions as a bass. The first attempts to create a brass instrument of a low register date back to the second quarter of the 19th century. Prior to that, this function was performed by the serpent (serpent means "snake"). The first instrument, similar to a tuba, was made in Berlin in 1835 by Moritz, at the direction of the court musician W. Wiprecht. Modern look The tuba is indebted to the Belgian music master Adolph Sachs. A few years after its creation, the "German imperfection" came to him. He experimentally selected the necessary scaling ratios for the instrument, the length of the sounding column of the instrument and achieved excellent sonority.
The tubafon is a percussion musical instrument, similar in design to bells, but instead of plates, the sound source is metal tubes of various sizes, located on straw rollers and interconnected by a vein, strings or a silk cord. a certain pitch. It appeared almost simultaneously with the vibraphone.
The ukulele is a stringed plucked musical instrument that first appeared in the Hawaiian Islands. It is a small four-string guitar.
Washboard is a percussion instrument, which is an ordinary washboard. They play the washboard with thimbles on them.
The flute is one of the most ancient musical instruments, official sources date its appearance 35-40 thousand years BC. But perhaps this amazing musical instrument was much earlier. The prototype of the modern flute is an ordinary whistle, the sound in which appears when an air stream of air vibrates, which is cut against the sharp edge of wood or other material, they were made of clay, stone, wood. They existed among most peoples as various signal devices, children's toys and as musical instruments.
Later, holes were cut in the whistle tube, by clamping which it was possible to adjust the pitch. Chromatic frets were formed using finger combinations and by closing the holes in half or quarter. Increasing the sound by an octave occurred with the help of increasing the strength and / or direction of breathing. Gradually, the whistle tube became longer, and the holes became larger. Modern flutes are classified into several basic types. The transverse flute was known in Egypt more than five thousand years ago and is still the main wind instrument in the entire Middle East. In China, the transverse flute has been known for more than three thousand years, in India and Japan for more than two thousand years. In Russia, the pipe was a type of longitudinal flute, but it is not possible to date its appearance. Flexaton is a percussion metal musical instrument.
It appeared in the early twenties of the twentieth century in France. It is a small steel plate, tapered towards the end, on a wire frame. The narrow end of the plate is bent, and flat steel rods are attached to it on both sides, at the end of which two solid wooden or metal balls vibrate freely.
Flugelhorn is a brass musical instrument. Piano is a string, percussion and keyboard musical instrument that performs melodic, harmonic and rhythmic functions.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, piano music became very popular in barrels, where many talented pianists played, later famous jazz musicians... The pianoforte art reached its most intensive flourishing in the second half of the twenties. And in our time, the piano is the most common musical instrument.
A cylindrical box is a wooden percussion musical instrument, which is a hollow wooden tube with slots along the edges. In the middle, the tube is surrounded by a metal sleeve with a clamp, with which the instrument is attached to the big drum, and played with sticks from the snare drum.
Charleston - percussion metal musical instrument invented by
drummer Vic Burton and designed by Kaiser Marshall in the second half of the twenties. Charleston is a special device mounted on a tripod device, on top of which, one under the other, plates are attached in a horizontal position (about 35 centimeters in diameter), facing their inner sides to each other. The bottom plate is fixedly attached to a metal rod passed through a 70 cm pipe and connected to the bottom of the pedal. Celesta is a percussion-keyboard musical instrument, which is a wooden case (similar to a small piano), into which a piano mechanism with hammers covered with a felt is mounted.
Chocalo is a percussion metal musical instrument of an indefinite pitch from the family, which is a cylinder filled with any loose material - shot or grains.
When playing, the chocalo is held with both hands in a vertical or horizontal position and shaken, rotated or tapped on the body with the fingers. Power tools are musical instruments in which mechanically generated sound vibrations are amplified and then fed into an acoustic system. The idea of \u200b\u200bcreating power tools belongs to the Soviet scientist Lev Termen, who designed such a tool back in 1920. The first power tool to find practical use was the organ designed by the American Lawrence Hammond in 1929, and the mass production of cut diamonds began in 1935.
In the second half of the thirties, the electric guitar appeared, and then the violin, bass guitar and piano, grand piano, and with the development of electronics, more and more musical instruments appear with stereo effects and surround sound and a huge spectrum of reproduced sounds.

What does the term music mean? Music is acoustic vibrations perceived by the organs of hearing. Studies have shown that such low-frequency vibrations have a stimulating effect on the hidden forces of the human (and not only) organism, healing it.

Scientists assume that man appeared about 160 thousand years ago on the African continent. After ethnographic and archaeological research, experts received strong evidence of the existence of musical experiments in primitive people, the beginning of which they attributed to the Paleolithic era, it was during this period that the first musical instruments were made from the simplest material: stone, bones, wood. And a modern musical instrument store can show the entire history of music.

With their help, our ancestors have achieved different sounds. Later, music began to be extracted from a faceted rib specially made of bone (its sound was more like grinding teeth). It turns out that babies even in those days had rattles, but they were made from skulls and filled with seeds or dried berries. Such rattles made a kind of crackling and enticing sound. Such noisy sounds very often accompanied funeral ceremonies. This is how music began to manifest itself.

The inhabitants of Ancient Greece had a special relationship to music, they sacredly considered more than one theatrical performance as a gift from the gods, poetry reading was not complete without accompaniment, scientists of that time declared the relationship between music and mathematical quantities, this includes the theory of the famous Greek Pythagoras about the proportion of sounds, where he acts as a physical quantity ... Music was present in everything - women lulled children - humming softly, shepherds gathered a scattered flock with sounds from horns, warlike songs terrified the enemy.

What was the first human professional musical instrument in history? Scientists have established that percussion became the first instrument of our ancestors, with their help the workers were given the rhythm of movements in work. People used to create their instruments that make sounds natural materials - flat stones, wood, shells.

The idiophone - the first with percussion instruments - arose in the process of the formation of speech among primitive people. The sound made by the idiophone suggested associations with the rhythm of a beating heart. In general, for primitive people, the value of music was in the rhythm, which has a very strong emotional impact on them. The second invention is wind instruments, the most famous is the aerophone. Scientists were struck by this first prototype of the flute (20 thousand years BC), which had knocked out side holes, the sound of which does not compromise on modern counterparts.

Stringed instruments are also the invention of our ancient ancestors. Scientists have identified some rock paintings of the first strings, they can be seen on bas-reliefs, as well as in numerous caves in the Pyrenees.

What did the first strings look like?

Fixed threads inserted into wooden holes, through which the musician must pass his hand, specially twisting, the sound emitted at the same time resembled a hum; these instruments became the prototype of the guitar and other stringed instruments.

A little later, in the Mesolithic era, it was modernized, and carved vertical holes were added to the instrument. This made it possible to sound sometimes two or even three sounds at the same time. This method was primitive, but it survived for a long time in Africa and Europe, as well as on some islands of Oceania.