World’s oldest musical instrument ‘played intro to Beat It’

Yes folks, the oldest musical culture known was one of sex-mad, proto-motown tonalists. An early analysis of the oldest known musical instrument (a flute carved from the wing bone of a large vulture, recently discovered in Southern Germany – see full barlines article below), which was found alongside an anatomically intriguing figurine of a female nude, has reportedly revealed that the first three of the five finger holes roughly correspond to a major triad, making the most famous synthesised minor third fall of all time a doddle for even the most cack-handed early human.

So, tens of thousands of years before Pythagoras had his harmonic revelation whilst eyeing up the local blacksmith muscularly beating an anvil, it seems the first humans to settle in Europe had a music culture based on the primary intervals of the harmonic series. There would seem to be ample opportunity here for some critical-theory-booting backlash along the lines of the natural superiority of a now historically-endorsed Western tonal system, especially with this glorious piece in the Times: ‘World’s oldest musical instrument 'played Star Spangled Banner’, and you would be in the distinguished company of many of this country’s best-loved bel canto conductors. But, as the late King of Pop taught us through his immortal flat-seventh/dominant usage, it's not the spacing or the size of your holes that counts, it’s what you do with them that’s important.

Full story from Barlines Classical Music, 4 July

Oldest musical instrument holds key to rise of man

A bone flute, radio carbon dated to be at least 35,000 years old, has been discovered in the Ach Valley in southern Germany. It is the oldest instrument known, dating from the early settlements of modern humans in Europe. Originally carved from the hollow wing bone of a griffon vulture, the five-hole flute was reassembled from 12 pieces found in Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany and is nearly complete, measuring around 8.5 inches long. Precisely carved fine lines alongside the finger holes possibly indicated where they should be cut during construction.

The instrument is one of several important artifacts recently discovered at the site, including a similarly ancient, anatomically-detailed carving of a woman. Two fragments of ivory flutes were also found in the cave, adding to a growing collection of instruments found in the area, including a seven-inch, three-hole flute, made from mammoth ivory, which was uncovered in 2004, and two instruments carved from the wing bones of a mute swan.

‘These finds demonstrate the presence of a well-established musical tradition at the time when modern humans colonised Europe,’ wrote Nicholas J Conard, lead author of the project and a professor at the University of Tübingen, in an article in journal Nature, published online in late June.

As to the nature of the music it would have produced, playable reconstructions of the earlier finds have revealed a propensity for primary intervals, based on the first few modes of the harmonic series, and the recent discovery is expected to conform to this. Conard said of the 2004 discovery, ‘The tones are quite harmonic’.

In terms of music history, a preference for primary intervals at the earliest stages of known music history would seem to endorse the manifesto of the tonalists, but Conard’s team has suggested that the discovery may have significance for the emergence of man itself:

‘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.’