The Origin of Musical Instruments and Sounds

Author(s): Bo Lawergren
Source: Anthropos, Bd. 83, H. 1./3. (1988), pp. 31-45
Published by: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40461485
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Anthropos 83.1988: 31-45

The Origin of Musical Instruments and Sounds

Bo Lawergren

Abstract. - The earliest musical instruments are found to Merriam (1964: 285) asserted that "anthropolo-
derive from a common source: hunting implements. Loud
gists have long eschewed the search for origins."
instruments (percussion instruments, reeds, trumpets) were
used to call or repulse the prey and to signal between hunters.
Of course, there will always be some degree
Quiet instruments (flutes, musical bows, bullroarers) had of uncertainty in dealing with these distant events
alternate uses as hunting tools (dagger edges, hunting bows and processes, but the universality of the subject
and bolas, respectively). It is argued that "hand-song" was would seem to outweigh some procedural difficul-
another, previously overlooked, early instrument used for
ties. In this connection it is worth recalling the
signalling. Some literary sources from ancient Greece and
China as well as iconographie material from Egypt and view of the social anthropologist Rodney Need-
Mexico provide late descriptions of the music/hunt associ-ham (1967: 609): "By rigidly confining oneself to
ation. [Music Archaeology, Musical Instruments, Hand-song, empirically testable propositions one will never
Parietal Art, Ancient Greek Sources on Music and Hunt]
get very far in understanding man and his works."
Some ethnomusicologists now advocate réévalu-
Bo Lawergren, Ph. D. in Nuclear Physics (Canberra 1964); ation of this traditional attitude;2 Bruno Netti, for
Professor of Physics at Hunter College of CUNY, New York; example, recently (1983: 168) concluded that "the
his research interests are now principally in the acoustics andstudy of origins of music is a legitimate part of
archaeology of ancient musical instruments. - Publications:
ethnomusicological enquiry."
Many articles; cf. also References Cited.
My 'origin of music' will be limited to the
earliest phase: the genesis of musical instruments.
Of course, it constitutes only the preface to the
history of music, for it corresponds to cave
Legitimacy of Origin Research in Music painters discovering paint. I shall describe an
environment which maximizes the probability3 for
"The study of music demands that we go back to the conception of musical instruments. When
its beginnings since one cannot hope to fully man actually discovered how to make and use the
comprehend the nature of music without under- instruments depended on other things too, such
standing its origin," Georg Knepler (1982: 20)as his mental capacity.
recently stated. It is a radical proposition in a This paper does not deal with the subsequent
field where historiography usually starts at the stage when sounds of these instruments were
European Middle Ages, perhaps after a brief
preamble on ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and
Greece. There can be little doubt that awareness 1 Summaries of some older origin theories may be found in
Allen 1962, Nadel 1930, Netti 1983, Sachs 1965, 1977,
of sounds has existed in man since his emergence Schneider 1957, Wachsmann 1962.
and that it developed into musicality at some 2 Particularly strong statements in this vain were made by
stage. Unfortunately, the lengthy formation pro- Blacking (1973: 56-58): "The origins of music that con-
cess lies inaccessible to conventional research cern me are those which are to be found in the psycholo-
gy and in the cultural and social environment of its
methods in history. creators, in the assembly of processes that generate the
The concern with the genesis of music is not patterns of sound." His unconcern with the kind of
new1 but the topic has been of little interest to origins revealed by archaeological methods, substituting
musicologists recently. Older origin theories were for it an origin no older than living memory, seems
arbitrary and restricting. On this statement Netti
unduly speculative and could neither be refuted
(1983: 167) observed: "Blacking seems to suggest substi-
nor confirmed and with the stress on scientific
tuting one kind of speculation for another which he
methodologies, scholars turned elsewhere. For criticizes."

example, in 1964, the ethnomusicologist Alan 3 Admittedly, a rather qualitative concept here.

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 32 Bo Lawergren

fashioned may
into be irr
mus
haps couldorigin
be the(seesu
ary yond
efforts the
including s
ancient
bioacoustics, psych lit
ogy, fined body
psycholinguist
- as veloped
Knepler (1982: in
projects 1 Definitio
will lead to
be seen. gin
So of
far, mus
litt
been done4 along
Sound pr
suc
taken in 5 Music rec
several an
pologists. the huntin
Their aim
in intent for
but the
their ear
reach alternative
universal mec
be extrapolated to p
Needham (1967) di
between 1. Definition of Instruments
percussion
terns associated w
Gennep Since
1960); we shall consider conditions Alan
very different
from ours, musical
bullroarer from instruments ought to bea de- p
Donald Tuzin (1984
fined in a general way without reference to con-
derous temporary instruments. But in (also
sounds practice one can
ers) in not even avoid percepti
the using some kind of culturally de-
Kneplertermined is distinction between music and non-mu-
unspecif
prehistory sic; so, we simplyof adopt the workable
music approach
in of Sachs (1977: 63)7 who identified
behavioral develo ancestors
they are not
of the main types of contemporary assoc instruments:
jects. Onwood-winds,
the brass, percussion,
other and strings. Per-
with cussion instruments are, of course, not confined
instruments m
dated. However,
to those using inanimate objects but may involve the
here is not
the limbs of the body: connect
clapping hands, stamping
conjecture feet, smacking thatlips, etc. On the other hand,the song
that epoch
involves only the human of respiratoryhum
system. Be-
principallycause of its lack of ansupplied
external agent, it will not be
was a considered a musical
very instrument.
early pe
(Leakey and Lewin
There is an important intermediate form be-
first. Thetween song earliest
and manipulated limbs not considered h
ago) were scaveng
by Sachs: hand-song. In articulated hand-song
lacking a steady pitch is emitted with a fixed,
hunting open, lip
impl
ing tacticposition while
may the open hand waves back and
hav
considerable time
forth in front of the mouth, the palm periodically (
On the closing
wholeand opening the passage of air. con The
logical data
tension in the vocal (e.g.,
cords, and the pitch, remains m
eties) is unchanged.
shunned. The sound is modulated8 because the T
resonant properties of the oral cavity is changed

4 A convenient definition of music is difficult at this level; it

is not sufficient to look for an organized, repeatable, and
inventive treatment of pitches and rhythms since bird7 His "early" and "middle stratum"; in 1928 Sachs (1965:
song also possesses such qualities (Marier and Peters 7-125) had used ethnographic data to identify a great
1982: 44). Yet, birds lack many of the mental functions many instruments as belonging to the "Steinzeit" but
used in language, reasoning, and other tasks which, many of his assignments are doubtful to have existed in
presumably, have comparative status to music. the ancient paleolithic considered here.
5 Aesthetics has been put into a prehistoric context by
8 Similar modulating effects can be obtained in ordinary
Stockmann 1983. vowel production by means of complex and precise
6 Discussions have been published by a number of East positioning and shaping of the tongue, mouth cavity, and
German scholars; for references see Stockmann 1983 and lips. The theory of hand-song is similar to that of the
1985. Gourd Bow (Lawergren 1982).

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The Origin of Musical Instruments and Sounds 33

by the proximity of the hand. Because of the use

of an external agent, I include it among the
musical instruments.9
One cannot expect paleolithic documentation
for the use of hand-song but later evidence is
abundant.10 Figure la shows a musical group on
an Egyptian boat model (Hickmann 1956:
PI. LXXXVIII) from about 2000 BC (Manniche
1987: 124). The singer (on the left) holds his right
hand in front of the mouth. The musical group on
figure lb is a product of the Colima culture,
Western Mexico (200 BC to 900 AD). The singer
cups both hands before his mouth.
About 100 AD Tacitus (1914: 269) related
that Germanic peoples possessed a battle song
called barritus where "the shields being brought
up to their lips, that the voice may swell to a
fuller and deeper note by means of the echo."
From Central Australia we have the following
description of an aborigine initiation ceremony
(Spencer and Gillen 1938: 285, 413n): "This
calling out always takes the form of shouting
'pau-au-au' at the top of the voice, while the hand
with the palm turned to the face, and the fingers
loosely opened out is rapidly moved backwards
and forwards on the wrist just in front of the
mouth, giving a very peculiar vibratory effect to
the voice. The call is said to induce fright and
carry a great distance." One may, perhaps, see
a survival of the custom in Sachs' frequent obser-
vations that "primitive" peoples on occasion dis-
guise their voices by external means. About a
trumpet shell held before a speaking mouth in
New Guinea he wrote (1977: 48): "Once more a
musical instrument was first used for the pur-Figure 1:
a) Music group on Ancient Egyptian boat model (dynasty
pose of masking the voice."
XVIII) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The singer (to
Finally, the existence of hand-song is impliedthe left) shields his mouth with his hand, probably, engaged in
by current models of language origins (Hewes hand-song.
1973, Krantz 1980, Falk 1980). Briefly stated,b) Two musicians, one covering his mouth (for hand-song?)
in The Mexican National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico
City (Bernal 1980: Fig. 133).

9 Some might, arguably, label it song, meta-speech, etc.,

interpersonal communication in early man is con-
but (1) it involves an external tool (the hand, or any oth-
er object with sufficient surface area to cover the lips),sidered to have taken place in two distinct modes:
(2) it is physiologically simpler than song since it does not (1) by means of hand gestures and (2) by means
involve a tuning ability of the vocal tract and cords. of the vocal delivery system. The manufacture of
10 Musicologists have not observed hand-song among Am-
stone tool led to considerable dexterity which
erindians. However, such experts on North American
Indian music as D. McAllester and T. Vennum, Jr. permitted the early employment of the first
mode.
(private communications) consider it likely that it has The latter developed later because of its
larger complexity. All existing vocal languages
indeed been practiced by some tribes. Another effect
(called ululation) is used by 30-40 Plains Indian tribes;
consist of words composed of a limited number
the tongue is moved rapidly and repeatedly inside the
mouth cavity while a sustained pitch is sounded. The
(less than 100) of phonemes. Combined according
sound, and vocal tract acoustics, is similar to that of to vocabulary rules, the words form extensive
hand-song. léxica. In order to handle the phoneme/word

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 34 Bo Lawergren
complex man needed
hunting. Sound producers (musical instruments) t
symbolic, abstract thinki
can be viewed as hunting tools in several ways:
cally, absent in
1) As being similar toprimate
weapons.
arisen in 2) As providing the capability to imitate wi
connection
brain volume
animal sounds, usefulthat occ
for calling quarry. Such
sapiens sapiens
tools could be thought of(Krantz
as extending the human
consider the phonemi
voice which has a large range of articulation12 not
about 40,000 BC).
employed in the repertoire of speech and Ther
conven-
about the timing
tional song; the voice seems only of incapablethe
of
that spoken language
producing very high pitches and "reedy" timbres. ev
if the (Under what may
timing condition wild13 animals
have will, in b
combines fact, approach the sound source has not
gestural langubeen
and neurologically simp
much explored in the scientific literature.)
highly likely to
3) As providing means to have
frighten animals to co
intermediary between,
run towards traps. t
4) As being signal tools enabling communi-
cation between distant hunters.
2. Model ofIn the next section all known
the instruments are
Origin
examined and found to fit the conjecture. This
To have been able to conceive of music and furnishes a necessary condition for the hypothesis
musical instruments, man is often assumed to hold.toOf course, some may still like to imagine
have used them initially for utilitarian completely
purposes. spontaneous creations without any
One recalls Darwin's (1899) proposition: common "... motivation,
it but the present theory is
appears probable that the progenitors of man,
preferable on the basis of the principle of scientif-
either the males or females or both sexes, before
ic parsimony, i.e., Occam's razor. Whether one
acquiring the power of expressing their canmutual
claim this to be a scientific theory depends on
love in articulate language, endeavored its to falsifiability
charm (Popper 1965: 37). Refutation is
each other with musical notes and rhythm." possible: the model falls with the discovery of an
Typical utilitarian approaches are exemplified instrumentbywhich could not have had a function in
Livingstone (1973) who argues that early homi- is another possible test of the model
hunt. There
nids developed song as a signaling system, - at leastand
in principle: some parameters might be
Sachs who often alluded ambivalently tovaried the util-
to generate new predictions which may be
itarian mechanism: e.g., "hunters of paleolithic compared to observations. For example, instead
type evidently did not make their instruments of looking
for at instruments that grew out of land-
musical purposes, but as life-giving based charms"
hunt, one might examine instruments of a
(1977: 42-43). fishing society. Would their instruments incorpo-
I shall adopt a parsimonious utilitarian ap- rate some aspects of boats, water, nets, hooks,
proach and propose one model for the rise of all etc.? Unfortunately, the ethnographic data are
instruments. Earlier theories have not aimed at insufficient. To take an example, Japan has a
universal applicability but consider each instru-large consumption of sea-produce. Unfortunately
ment type to have its own history not necessarilyfor our test, the Japanese are descendants of
related to that of other types. Each instrument mammal-hunting Asian people. Their instru-
might have had its own specific roots and, fur- ments either stem from pre-immigration times or
thermore, it might have arisen in many different are more recent imports.
places, every time under different circumstances If the model was falsified, it would still
but it seems more attractive to have a universal remain partially valid. Universality would be lost
and abstract model accounting for all observ- but the hypothesis would apply in the (narrow)
ables. This model of the earliest instrument is: All context of the instruments discussed here. Until
this happens this theory remains in effect.
paleolithic musical instruments were closely relat-
ed to hunting implements or were by-products of

12 To facilitate imitation of animal sounds the hands are

often used to extend the vocal tract; they may be shaped
11 Lieberman (1984: 323) doubts if there was ever an exclu- like trumpet-bells outside the mouth, etc.
13 Domesticated animals which can, of course, be trained to
sively gestural phase for syntactically complex communi-
cations. respond to a variety of sounds.

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The Origin of Musical Instruments and Sounds 35

Figure 2: Hunting sce

na, about 1700 AD (Säl
Fig. 18) showing guns
and bolas as weapons an
as noise-makers.

3. Test of the Model nographic evidence. They are similar to hunting

traps where a large hole in the ground - along the
Percussion
animal's path - is covered by some membrane-
like material (bark, skin, etc.). The middle of the
membrane is attached to a string suspended from
Bone instruments (e.g., scrapers) have been a branch. When the structure is a trap this string
found but there is little doubt that anything
functions as a structural reinforcement, when it is
(wood, fibers, stone, skin, bone, etc.) capable ofan instrument the string is played.
producing loud or unusual sounds when struck
(shaken, stamped on, etc.) also could have been
used like percussion instruments. Bullroarer
An ancient14 hunting method requires one
party to drive the animals out of their lairsThe bullroarer (Dundes 1976) consists of a thin,
towards another party which does the actualoblong, plate (of wood, stone, etc.) tied to a
killing or the first party simply drive the prey overstring. When whirled around, it gives a buzzing
a cliff. The drivers use noise-makers. A late, sound. The device is similar to a hunting tool, the
formalized use of drums in China is shown in bola, common15 in paleolithic time (Forde
Fig. 2. 1965: 166, Clark 1977: 35) and still used, particu-
Clearly, hunters strive for the loudest noise- larly, in South America. The bola consists of a
makers, which (presumably) have the strongest massive object (stone, etc.) attached to long
fright-inducing effect on game. Likewise, maxi- strings. It is swung around and hurled towards the
mal loudness would be desirable in musical situa- prey with the aim of entrapping its legs in the
tions - whatever their nature - since these would strings (Fig. 2).
have occurred out-of-doors or in caves (see sec- In some areas where bullroarers today are
tion 5). popular and important, such as New Guinea and
Melanesia, no bolas are to be found. Here, al-
ternatively, the bullroarer may derive from
Ground-harp/Ground-zither slings, an ancient hunting device, found in some
parts of this area (Blumer 1968: 307).
These are not attested in the archaeological re-
cords but Sachs infers their early use from eth-
15 Whether certain ball-shaped prehistoric stones were bolas
14 Documented in Egypt 1400 BC (Frankfort 1956: 38) and or not has been questioned by Giedion 1961.
in India 1200-900 BC (O'Flaherty 1983: 242). 16 H. Nickel, private communication.

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 36 Bo Lawergren

Hand-song

It could be used as a call signal among hunters, as

a means of frightening prey, or as animal imita-
tion. Because it is more modulated than a call on
a single pitch, it has more information content
and carrying power.

Chordophones

Many consider the musical bow (Lawergren 1982)

to be the earliest chordophone on the basis of a
picture drawn on a mud wall in the Trois Frères
cave (13,000-11,000 BC; Leroi-Gourhan 1967:
494). However, the picture is problematic. To
suggest the musical bow interpretation, the scene
of a man in animal clothing with a small bow near
his mouth is often (Marshack 1972: 273) shown.
This is a re-drawing of the actual cave wall which
is crowded with a myriad of drawings (Sandars
1968: plate 74, Pfeiffer 1984: 178) possibly done
at different times and seemingly in random juxta-
positions. The bow-like object may not have
anything to do with the man, nor is it unambigu-
Figure 3: Use of (musical?) bows in (top) El Cingle cave at
ously a bow (e.g., the animal/man is not holding
Gasilla, Spain; (bottom) a cave at Tassili, Algeria (Mazono-
the bow).
wicz 1975: 130).
Less ambiguous evidence can be found at
later dates: mesolithic cave paintings at the El Flutes
Cingle cave, Spain, and at the Tassili plateau,
Central Sahara (Mazonowicz 1975: 130) show The invention of flutes and whistles may have
(Fig. 3) hunters running or dancing with their proceeded in two steps, namely the discovery of
bows, probably tapping the strings with arrows. the flue mechanism and the resonating properties
Later, in the 3rd millennium BC bows are com-
of pipes: (1) a jet of air, of suitable speed and
mon and the composite bow is invented (Rausing
shape, directed against any sharp edge can pro-
1967, Moorey 1986: 208). In antiquity there are
duce a tone (an adequate edge can be obtained
many literary references to the sound of bows. when a bone is broken or if a piece of flint is
Plutarch (1928: 269) writes:
chipped)18; (2) when a resonating pipe (cavity,
Does not the Scythian, while he is drinking, ofttimes put his duct, etc.) is attached to the edge, the usual flute
hand to his bow, and twang the string, thus summoning back configuration is obtained.19
his senses which are being unstrung17 by the liquor.

In both the Iliad (Homer 1968: 80: "he bent the 18 Only low wind pressures can be used and such edge tones
great bow to a circle, it gave a twang, the string are faint. The pitch of the sound depends sensitively on
sang out") and the Odyssey (Homer 1919: 333: the wind pressure: increasing pressure produces rising
pitch; at sorte critical pressure values the pitch jumps up
"he tried the string, which sang sweetly beneath
in steps which are not necessarily intervals related to
his touch, like to a swallow in tone") the weapon common musical scales (Brown 1938: Fig. 22).
is alternatively used as a sound source. All in all, 19 The tone becomes stabilized so that higher wind pressures
this suggests that the musical bow has, indeed, can be used. The pitch remains fairly constant over a wide
ancient roots. pressure range until overblowing causes a quantized pitch
change; at this higher wind pressure the pitch is, again,
fairly insensitive to pressure changes until further over-
17 H . Nickel was told of an opposite effect by H. J. blowing causes another quantized pitch change, etc.
Nevermann (for a documentation of the latter, see van Sounds from short duct flutes tend to be more pene-
Baal et al. 1984: 129-130, 137). Nevermann asserted that trating, since their frequency is closer to the resonance
bushmen of the Kalahari put the bow in the mouth in (about 4 kHz) of the ear canal with its length of about
order to attain a dreamlike mood. 2.5 cm, i.e., the length of typical phalange whistles.

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The Origin of Musical Instruments and Sounds 37

The hypothesis is confirmedMost incommonly,

several reedsways:
are used in hunt to
imitatefor
(1) Daggers need sharp edges animal meat
calls. It is carv-
successful on many
species but perhaps
ing. They were made from broken bone most easily
pipes on theor
European
from chipped stones. roe deer (family Cervidae) as abundant document-
(2) With a resonating ductedthe
in contemporary
flute popular becomes hunting literature.
During rut
louder, and the pitch can easily be(usually
changedin autumn) the female deer
(e.g.,
by partially closing the end) (thethus
doe) sounds short, plaintive,
enabling mating calls.22
bird
The sound is
imitation. High-pitched phalange easily mimicked by blowing on a
whistles/flutes
likewise mimic bird calls are grass
stillleaf used
stretchedin between the thumbs before
hunting,
the hunter's
e.g., for calling dogs and birds (such lips. It
as actsthe
as an effective
black call on the
male deer (the buck). Inand
guillemot, black grouse, capercaillie, anotherjay;
method used
Lund 1984: track 11, 12 comments).
during this season, the hunter imitates the mating
call of attached
(3) Whistles were sometimes the buck by blowingto on ar- a leaf inserted
rows. As the arrow flies, the stream
between of challenges
his lips. This air causesthe local bucks
a whistling sound. This device
and get themwas used
into shooting for
distance.
signaling in hunt or war.20

Trumpets/Horns
Reed Instruments
These were made of animal horns and sea shells23
Oboe and clarinet type instruments probably also blown in holes knocked out of the surfaces, and
could be used as signaling tools in hunt, as is still
arose in two steps: (1) the use of freely vibrating
reed and (2) the discovery that the coupling ofthe a custom.
pipe to the reed facilitates pitch control. Leaves
of grass can easily be made to sound (e.g., held
4. Sound Properties of the Earliest Instruments
between the lips or between fingers). Its medium-
pitched tone has considerably more "carrying
From an acoustic point of view the sound of the
power" than a medium-pitched flute. It makes an
excellent communication system: blown out- pitched instruments consists of several superpos-
doors, blades of grass (blown between fingers)
ed air vibrations: a fundamental of frequency f0
can be heard over distances of one or two and harmonics with frequencies that are multiples
miles.21 of fQ. This sound differs markedly from that of

20 An account of ancient use of whistling arrows is given by

Schreiber (1976: 64-67): The Hunnish king Tumun (ca.22 The author is grateful to The British Library of Wildlife
200 BC) in his old age took a young wife, whose son he Sounds (British Institute of Recorded Sounds, 29 Exhibi-
wanted to become his successor. For this reason he had to tion Road, London, SW7) which supplied excellent tapes
eliminate his firstborn, Motun (from a presumably long- of Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and Fallow deer
deceased earlier wife). He sent Motun to a neighboring (Dama dama). The former was the "bleeping" of a doe
tribe, the Goatsi, as a hostage, and then attacked the and the latter the call of a young doe. Both consisted of
Goatsi in the hope that they would kill the hostage, similar calls
Motun. Motun, however, managed to escape and his
father was so impressed that he made him commander of
his army. Motun made it known that if he shot at any
target with a whistling arrow, everyone of his warband T y*
had to shoot at the same target instantly, under penalty of
death. After he had decapitated a few of his followers, P" m
who had hesitated to shoot a hunting prey, and once
again at one of Motun's own horses, his warband was frequently repeated. These s
disciplined enough to follow him instantly when he shot a "chirruping of Capreolus by T
whistling arrow at one of his favorite wives, and finally - sounds could easily be mistaken
crowning glory - at his father Tumun. In this way Motun leaves of grass) especially un
became supreme chief of the Huns and led them on the out-of-door acoustic environment.
way that wound up with Attila. 23 These naturally occurring objects form pipes with conical
21 This was tested by the author on a hot, windless day, with bore, a property that facilitates production of tones
fairly low humidity, over open country. The sound was belonging to the normal harmonic series. In the case of
faint but it could, of course, be made more conspicuous shells, the cone is folded. This results in a logarithmic
by the use of a signaling code. (= equiangular) spiral (Thompson 1948: 755).

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 38 Bo Lawergren

inanimate ed nature by intermediate consonants (e.g., the

surro
pronun-
noise-sounds from
ciation of diphtongs), different overtone wind
struc-
from falling tures are emphasized
stones, because different formants
etc.
sounds of the animate world have the same are brought into play24 as one vowel changes into
characteristics as that of the pitched instruments
the other. Vowel recognition is an important part
because both have resonating acoustic of
struc-
the speech perception mechanism (Miller
tures. 1981: 67) and the early instruments considered
here could have played a part in the development
Table 1: Pitch changing mechanism
of that mechanism since they provided sources of
Instrument Mechanism Probability*
vowel-like sounds possibly available before the
Bow Changing string length
or tension Fairly low?
vocal tract was fully developed.
Flutes (partially) blocking
holes (**) Fairly high
Reeds Changing tension in leaf Very high 5. Music and Upper Paleolithic Art
Trumpet (partially) blocking
opening (**) Fairly high
Hand-song Changing tension in vocal The earliest documented artistic products (carv-
cords ed objects and painting) span the period
35,000-11,000 BC (cave paintings occured only in
the last 7 millennia) when a warming climate
Instruments could, in principle, change
created their
abundant sea- and land-based food sup-
plies capable of
pitch fQ; for some it would have been fairly easy to sustaining enlarged populations.
discover the means to do so (see Table
Current 1). For
theories on the art (Leroi-Gourhan 1967,
hand-held reeds pitch changes are nearly
1975, Pfeifferinevi-
1982, White 1986, Halvorsen 1987),
table; for other instruments it is particularly
more difficult. on European cave paintings, does
On some of these instruments there is a (concep-
not support the old interpretation of it as hunt-
ing magic
tually simpler?) mechanism to produce an (Frazer
impres- 1964:35, Sandars 1968:65).
Whereasthe
sion of pitch change without changing linesfunda-
piercing animal bodies were for-
mental pitch fQ: merly seen as "arrows," Leroi-Gourhan (1967:
136, 146;to
1) The mouth bow allows the player 1975: 62) read them as male signs and
select
one of these overtones (or a cluster of them)
"wounds" as femalebysigns. This interpretation, in
turn,
selective amplification of the vocal has been
tract questioned and the interpretation
(Lawer-
gren 1982). Maybe "timbre pitches"of parietal
wouldart is be
in flux.
a But some observations
are beyond
more appropriate terminology since all dispute,
soundsfor example, there is no
have the same fundamental tone (faintly) doubt that animals
present;are the main subject of illus-
one merely emphasizes a selected region tration. of over-
tones which gives the sense of pitch. On cave walls
Tunes can animals
be were effectively repre-
played (as on the Jew's harp) using sented
theasperceived
painted objects; by extension one sus-
pitches. pects that musical instruments were present since
2) Hand-song gives a similar "timbre-music" they are capable of representing animals equally
but there is less control in the selection of the effectively as sounding objects. The two modes
harmonics. complement each other and the only inferior
3) Vowel-production in speech: if a person aspect of the aural image is its impermanence.
speaks in "monotone" he, too, keeps the same When animal parts were incorporated into the
fixed pitch; if he, furthermore, enunciates differ- instruments (bones in flutes,25 guts in strings)
ent vowel-sounds without the discontinuities caus- they acquired a doubly representative function.

24 Equivalent vowel sound (diphtongs) can be produced by

* Estimated probability of discovering the pitch changing
mechanism.
** It is not necessary to drill special holes in flutes or conch
shells (besides the mouth-holes); it suffices to partially
close any hole on the flute or the opening of the conch
shell to slide the pitch. ¿5
*** Depends on the state of physiological development (see
section 1).
ordinary speech and in hand-song: e.g., sound an [a]-
sound (as in "father") and move the hand towards the
lips in the manner of hand-song; this procedure gives an
[u]-sound (as in "loose"); in the same way [i] (as in "lip")
becomes [ü] (as in German "Müller").
More recently, at least, times nave oeen maae irom Dira
bones (Mead 1924: 335, Izikowitz 1935: 340-344, Picken
1957: 89, Lund 1984: track 9, 11).

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The Origin of Musical Instruments and Sounds 39

Sounds can play variouswell-known

roles vis-à-vis an-
that certain mythico-ritual scenarios
imals: (1) portrayal or (2)still
attractor.
current amongThe reedof central and
the peasants
southeastern
instrument calls already discussed Europe at the
illustrate thebeginning of the
latter role. However, consider calls of cranes twentieth century preserved mythological frag-
simulated on a conch shell trumpet: ments and rituals that had disappeared in ancient
Greece even before Homer." But the fact that a
common world vocabulary does not exist has
suggested (Krantz 1980: 789) that no trace has

/J =-
survived of the earliest language from its incep-
tion 40,000 years ago. However, language may
have arisen in many independent places in which
case no common world vocabulary should be
Human listeners may judge it to be an exact repli- expected. Furthermore, one would expect lan-
ca, yet the crane may be unattracted by the call. guage to be quite flexible judging from its well-
The sound is then merely a portrait of the bird attested changes in historical times. By contrast,
aimed at a human audience. With this displace- hunting methods seem to have changed compara-
ment of its function, music has moved a step clos- tively little since the earliest records (disregarding
er to its present role as an abstract, non-utilitarianthe introduction of fire arms). Survival cannot be
communication. proven but it seems rash to reject the possibility
It should be noted, though, that the time of very ancient roots.
the cave paintings is a late period on the time The interpretation of the hunt/music associ-
scale of this paper. In fact, flutes with several ation is ambiguous. Cave art reveals a pervasive
finger holes26 appeared (Fages et Mourer-Chauvi- influence of the animal world on the mind of
ré 1983: 101) already in Aurignacian deposits (af- paleolithic man. As a result, the animal world
ter about 30,000 BC). could have permeated music through associations
different from hunt. Shamanistic ritual, for exam-
ple, often combine animal masks with music. This
6. Vestiges of the Hunting/Music Concept in practice may have arisen without any explicit
Antiquity thought of the animal as an object of hunt.
With these reservations in mind I first quote
Literary and iconographie sources provide much Greek sources. In some cases the ancient authors
evidence that musical instruments were used in may have facetious intentions but it is unimpor-
hunting at the much later date of the Old Worldtant for the present argument which only con-
empires. Both types of evidence can be found cernsin the ancient preoccupation with the power of
music over animals. (It is tempting to include
the ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Chinese civili-
warfare27 with hunt but the profuse latter-day
zations. Was there a survival of paleolithic behav-
evidence of war/music makes the issue too dif-
ior? On the one hand, it is a long time interval
between 40,000 and 1,500 BC (i.e., 92 % of the
fuse.)
time elapsed since the beginning of man's lan- Reed instruments were used then, as now, in
guage ability). On the other, it was also a time of hunting:
mammal
comparatively slow changes although it spanned The Etruscans set the nets and other hunting gear that ensnare
such major societal changes as the introduction of in a circle, and a man proficient on the aulos
the animals
agriculture. Some guidelines are offered by[Michaelides
re- 1978] stands there and tries his utmost to play a
rather soft tune, avoiding any shriller note, but playing the
searchers in other disciplines. Mircea Eliade
sweetest melodies possible. The quiet and the stillness easily
(1972: vii) argues that long-term survivals may
carry the sound abroad; and the music streams up to the
have occurred in some instance because "it is
heights and into ravines and thickets - in a word into every
lair and resting-place of these animals [wild boars and stags].
Now at first when the sound penetrates to their ears it strikes

26 Both Pfeiffer (1982: 181 ff.) and White (1986: 113) relate
that flautists have experimented with replicas of a Gra-
vettian flute. But this will, at best, only give an informed
guess about the sound since we do not know if the origi- 27 Loud music is used to impress the enemy, for keeping up
nal players used folk-fingering, partially covered the morale, gait, etc. War dance was important in ancient
holes, overblew the instrument, or what embouchure they Greece (i.e., the Pyrrhic) and still exists in many "primi-
preferred. tive" societies.

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 40 Bo Lawergren

Figure
frieze
round
on the
from a
lyn Mu

them with terror and fills them with dread, and then an Other examples of the hunt/music combination
unalloyed and irresistible delight in the music takes hold of may be found in Greek mythology: (1) Orpheus
them, and they are so beguiled as to forget about their
offspring and their homes. [And yet wild beasts do not care to
charming the beasts;28 (2) The brother/sister pair of
wander away from their native haunts.] But little by little Apollo (the musician) and Artemis (the hunt-
these creatures in Etruria are attracted as though by some er). In ancient Egypt, too, musical instruments
persuasive spell, and beneath the wizardry of the music they were played to animals: a relief (Cooney 1965:
come and fall into the snares, overpowered by the melody
(Aelian 1959/3: 73).
78-79) from about 1400 BC shows percussion
used to chase birds (Fig. 4). The following tale
Reed and mammals: (van Gulik 1969: 143-144) is said to occur in
China 500 BC:
There is a story that Pythochares the piper repelled an attack
of wolves by playing a loud and noble strain on his aulos
When he had played [the pipa] once, there appeared sixteen
(Aelian 1959/2: 395). dark cranes that alighted on the gate of the hall. When he
played the second time, they stretched their necks and cried,
Reed and fish:
they spread out their wings and started to dance.
Once, he said, there was an aulos player who saw fishes in the
At later times there is, of course, vast amounts of
sea and played upon his aulos, thinking that so they would evidence for the use of musical instruments in the
come out on to the land. Being disappointed of his hope, he
took a net and gathered in and drew out a great multitude ofpursuit of hunt but I shall not delve further into
these customs other than note that, even at the
the fishes; and seeing them leaping, "You had best,1' said he,
"cease from your dancing now; you would not come out and late date of Tudor England, hunters were keenly
dance then, when I played to you'* (Herodotus 1920: 181). aware of the acoustical environment at the hunt.

Reed and shell fish: Hunters would sometimes follow the progress of
the venery entirely by listening. When the quarry
Those who hunt crabs have hit upon the device of luring them
was finally brought to bay the huntsman would be
with music. At any rate they catch them by means of the
sent to despatch it (Brander 1971: 58-59).
photinx [transverse aulos, see Michaelides 1978] ... at the
sound, as though by spell, the crabs . . . emerge from the sea
... and are caught (Aelian 1959/2: 49).

String instrument and large mammal:

In India . . . they introduce native music and charm the
Elephants with a musical instrument . . . called scindapsus
28 This myth seems to be widespread. Moortgat (1969: 106)
(Aelian 1959/3: 69). gives a Mesopotamian example from 7th century BC.

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The Origin of Musical Instruments and Sounds 41

7. Dates for the Earliest Instruments 8. Cultic Ritual as an Alternative Origin of

Music?
Musical instruments have been coupled to the
We have argued that musical instruments were
developments of hunting implements, thus linked
to survival pressures. This argues for an earlier
used as hunting tools in the paleolithic. Does it
date of invention than one would expect had necessarily
in- mean that their earliest use was in
struments merely been tools for aesthetic, plea-
hunt? There is archaeological evidence (Gowlett
sureable, or magic purposes. 1984: 106-110, Coles and Higgs 1969) that cere-
Because the instruments were often made of monial burials32 were practices 30,000-50,000
perishable materials, the archaeological finds areyears ago: flowers were buried with the corps,
probably of much later date than the first ap-perhaps as offerings; the cranial base of skulls was
pearance of the instruments, e.g., only bone flutes broken, perhaps to permit ritual eating of the
appear and not those made of straw, bark, or brain, etc. One may suspect the presence of musi-
wood which are easier to make and, therefore, cal instruments at ceremonies and rituals. Later,
probably earlier. such settings often required music. For example,
shamans give a prominent role to the drum
The earliest known instrument, a pierced
reindeer toe-bone flute excavated at Haua Fteah,(Eliade 1964: chap. 5); musical instruments came
Libya, is more than 60,000 years old (Gowl-to occupy a large ceremonial role in religious set-
ett 1984: 115). As previously mentioned, bone tings of which ethnography provides many exam-
flutes29 start to appear around 30,000 BC (Fagesples. It suffices to mention only a few instances:
et Mourer-Chauviré 1983: 100-102). Bullroarers in Central America and in traditional Japan bow
have been found in Denmark (from about strings were plucked in order to communicate
6,500 BC; Rud 1979: 167) and in France (slightly with, or to avert, spirits,33 bullroarers have a mul-
earlier; Masset et Perlés 1978: Fig. 2). It has been tipurpose religious role in Australia (Dundes
suggested that a set of 20,000 years old mam- 1976); sub-sonics may serve through direct psy-
moth bones is a percussion ensemble (Bibikov chological channels to trigger religious experi-
1975, 1981) although others remain skeptical (Law- ences (Tuzin 1984).
ergren 1985, Soff er 1985: 420). The hunting-bow In spite of these early dates for rituals with
is thought to have been invented (Forde 1965: possible music, hunt must claim precedence with
161, Rausing 1967) between 30,000 and 15,000 regard to the discovery of musical instruments.
BC based on the age of extant stone arrow heads. Unlike the hunting environment, the cultic envi-
But fire-hardened wooden arrow-heads may have ronment was not rich in objects that could be
been used earlier without leaving any archaeo- used as instruments but it may have provided a
logical evidence. The sound properties of the bows stage for complex rituals and as such possibly
were, no doubt, discovered without delay.30 acted as a stimulus for the development of music.
Conceivably, the ancestors of all main types Finally, Brecht's (1967) dictum "Erst kommt das
of our modern instruments had arisen by the time Fressen, dann kommt die Moral" seems intuitive-
of the emergence of Homo sapiens sapiens 40,000 ly applicable.
years ago. There was no need to wait for the
development of speech or song. A common
view31 that speech led to song which, in turn, led 9. Discussion
to instruments seems dubitable. On the other
hand, music would probably have to await theAll evidence reviewed here support the simple
emergence of the higher mental functions whichthesis that the earliest musical instruments would
gave rise to language, art, and the cognitive initially have been used in prehistoric hunt. Being
processes indicated by awareness of natural calen-useful in the procurement of food, they were
drical events (Marshack 1972). powerful incentives for the early invention of the
instruments. There would have been no need to
await the formation of complex musical/artistic
faculties in man.
29 Brade (1975, 1982) has questioned flute identifications in
older articles (e.g., Megaw 1968).
30 The Balfour/Montandon argument about the primacy of
the hunting bow or the musical bow (Sadie 1980, s.v.32 However, there is some doubt about the validity of the
Musical bow) now seems pointless. pollen analysis of the offering of flowers (Freeman
31 Impassioned speech -> song (Allen 1962: 111); song -> 1980: 85).
instruments (Sachs 1943: 21, 47). 33 R. Needham, private communication.

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 42 Bo Lawergren

This ments and cited

type of - from the ethnographic
parsim litera-
in natural sciences
ture - their use in birth, initiation, marriage, ac-
context. cession In to office, fact,
sacrifice, lunar rites, calendrical
som
expressed feasts, declaration
doubts of war, the return of head- on
model and hunters, the- reception of strangers, the inaugura-
perhaps
complexity tion of a house
of or a communal
humanbuilding, market
ed that "there must have been more than one days, sowing, harvest, fishing expeditions, epi-
origin." But that view misses the point thatdemics,
the eclipses, Shamanistic rituals, and so on.
model deals exclusively with the "earliest" According
origin to him, each occasion constitutes a rite
operating during the time when Homo was de passage (van Gennep 1960), i.e., a transition.
preoc-
cupied with hunting and food procurement Searching
and for the nature of the connection be-
tween percussion and transition (a category
that it distinguishes between musical instruments
and their product, music. The many "origins"change), he finds that "the remarkably wide dis-
proposed by previous scholars deal withtribution
later of percussive noise-makers, employed in
phenomena and often describe only limited communication
as- with the other world, indicates
that an historical or sociological interpretation
pects of music. For example, André Schaeffner
wouldin
(1968) considered dance as the origin of music be quite inappropriate." Later this percus-
1936. His "origin" would, at the most, account
sion/transition complex was successfully invoked
by Vogt
for the introduction of percussion instruments at (1977) in the analysis of Zinacanteco
a relatively late date for dance cannot be Indian
docu-rituals.
mented before the time of the Upper Paleolithic Clearly, the features of the present percus-
in painted European caves as indicated by sion model (ancient origin, association with food
sur-
procurement, high audibility) does not predict
viving foot prints (Pfeiffer 1982: 179). Of course,
once the instruments were invented and more Needham's category connection as an inevitable
outcome. However, the universality of our origin
complex societies had formed, many influences
would tend to shape music after its true origin-
model suggests that it might be able to yield a
stage. connection. For example, as hunting societies
The sounds of these early pitched instru- waned, percussion may have come to signify
ments are known in principle and the model important events in general; religious institutions
suggests situations in which it would have been may have held the power to decide which event
employed. As a result the prehistoric sonic land- had sufficient importance and devised appropri-
scape now appears somewhat better mapped than ate rituals.
in Nettl's (1956: 136)34 pioneering description:
"... an undifferentiated method of communica- This manuscript was circulated in draft and I am most
tion, one which was neither speech nor musicgrateful
but for the informed comments I have received
which possessed the three features that theyfrom
holdmany scholars, in particular Drs. Cajsa Lund,
Rodney
in common: pitch, stress, and duration." The Needham, Helmut Nickel, Anton Ploeg, Do-
nald Tuzin, and Hans-Olov Zetterström. The research
percussion instruments were, generally, the loud-
was partly supported by PSC grant 11493 from the City
est instruments and they stood out because of
University of New York.
their startling effect. (Trumpets made of shell and
short horns have considerably softer tone and at-
tack than modern brass instruments.) In this sense
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 The Origin of Musical Instruments and Sounds 43

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