Index

2007-09-23

The human need for music

The great human need for music can be judged from the success of the Sony Walkman recording cassette and today's Apple iPod. Music has ancient traditions that can be documented to the time of the Neanderthals. In 1995, a 43,000-year-old flute fragment made from a bear femur was found in cave in northern Yugoslavia[1]. Music existed in the form of chants, whistles, and rhythmic beats for thousands of years before that.

Music is the most universal and ancient form of human communication, and the human voice is the most ancestral instrument. A lullaby will soothe a crying baby and the lyrics of a song will be remembered with little effort after many years. Music and rhyme provide a regular structure that helps us to organize our thoughts.

Listen to the sitar

[1] Early Music. Editorial sidebar in Science, Vol. 276, 11 April, 1997, pg. 205.

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