Where does music come from?

When did music start? It’s an idle question, and in 1866 the Société de linguistique de Paris got so fed up with empty speculations about the origin of language and music that they banned the subject. There are a series of exhibits, though, which can help us answer the question. The first is the ‘Seikolos song’, the world’s oldest surviving piece of music, discovered inscribed on a second-century grave stele in present-day Turkey. The second is ‘Hurrian Hymn No. 6’, written on clay tablets, excavated from the Royal Palace of Ugarit, and dated 1400 BC. It is our oldest notated scrap of music, although oceans of ink have been spilt trying to decipher it (performing versions are as far apart as, say, Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ is from Beethoven’s Fifth).

Then there are the Vedic hymns of the Rigveda, around 1700 BC, although some would argue that vocal recitation, wobbling around three notes, isn’t really music.