SOME HISTORY...

I found this amazing visualization that was published on the British tour operator Thomson.

This is an interactive map visualizing the evolution of Western music since 1800 and today!

It shows the appearance and the inter-influence of popular genres such as jazz, soul and disco, which were born from multiple sub-movements and musical movements (traditional African music, calypso, Christian hymns, etc.). The map is accompanied with an interactive timeline to see the places and dates of the birth of musical movements; it also gives us the ability to trace some musical genres’ journey.

Music has been around for a very long time, probably even before the time of its first historical traces. In this world, there is no civilization that, sooner or later, has not developed it own music system; many of them adapted some genres from other cultures but modified them for their own needs and tastes.

Did you ever learn about the history of music? Do you know anything about its origin?

At its creation, music had NO rules!

It was in China that the first music theory traces have been found. Experts were able to determine that those traces appeared around 10 centuries before Christ. This music is inseparable from poetry and dance; for sages it expressed some wise balance between heaven and earth. A music scale had been invented, consisting of five notes, which took place every fifth in ascending fifth, starting with fa. Each note had a symbolic value: the first was a prince, the second a minister, etc..

Long after, there appeared another seven-note scale; it is similar to the one we use today. Both scales are still used in China.

For centuries the Chinese only used these 5 notes scales (pentatonic), all based on the 12 notes of the chromatic scale, eg: F sharp, G sharp, A sharp, C sharp and D sharp.

Today, music is most definitely indispensable for anyone!


Photo from http://www.jolidata.com/Le-voyage-de-la-musique-dans-le-monde_a186.html