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| Year |
Event |
| -4000 |
Harps and Flutes played in Egypt |
| -3500 |
Lyres and Double Clarinets played in Egypt |
| -3000 |
The Chinese court musician cuts first bamboo pipe |
| -2500 |
Chinese music moves to a five tone scale |
| -2000 |
Trumpets are reportedly played in Denmark |
| -2000 |
Percussion instruments added to Egyptian orchestral music |
| -1500 |
Hittites use guitar, lyre, trumpet, tamborine to make music |
| -1500 |
Harps used to accompany dances in Egypt |
| -1000 |
Professional musicians provide background for religous ceremonies in Israel |
| -800 |
Five tone and Seven tone scales appear in Babylon |
| -800 |
Earliest known written music. A hymn on a tablet in Sumeria, written in cuniform |
| -800 |
In Greece, music is part of daily life; choral and dramatic music develops; intinerant musicians called Rhapsodes travel from city to city. |
| -700 |
New art forms for songs appear. Flute and lyre become popular as accompanying instruments. |
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| -700 |
Seven string lyre introduced |
| -700 |
Terpander writes for solo voice with instruments. |
| -700 |
Arion, Greek composer and poet introduces strophe and antistrophe |
| -600 |
Pythagoras introduces octave to music. (semi legendary) |
| -600 |
Modes appear in music |
| -600 |
Indian Vina appears, two hollow gourds connected by strings and bamboo reed. Considered the precurser to all hollow instruments. |
| -520 |
Pindar, Greek Composer and Poet born. |
| -500 |
Pindar begins to write his odes. |
| -500 |
Greek Choral music reaches its zenith. |
| -500 |
Typical greek instruments aulos, cithara, lyre. |
| -500 |
Pythgoras further explores musical theory |
| -447 |
Pindar dies. |
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| -400 |
Trumpet playing competitions become popular in Greece. |
| -340 |
Aristotle lays the foundations of musical theory. |
| -320 |
Aristoxenes defines rhythm as tripartite. |
| -50 |
Earliest form of the oboe used in Rome. |
| -38 |
Chinese octave is subdivided into 60 notes.
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Music History Timeline - Early Music
