By Mitchell Field
Imagine the world before music existed. Think about that for a moment. Early man had not yet developed a need for entertainment. He was busy hunting, looking for a mate, and trying not to be eaten. Time passed until one day, either through boredom or inspiration, the world’s first musician found that banging a stick on a log produced tones and rhythms. Different length logs made different sounds. What might happen with solid logs versus hollow ones? How would an animal skin stretched over a piece of wood sound? The answer is it would sound like a drum. And so a long creative journey began…music without the clothing of lyrics and melody…the birth of music in its most organic and primal form. I am old enough to remember going to Steve’s music store to buy a piece of calf skin to cover my base drum. Today’s drummers use plastic drum heads (and cow’s are grateful).
The log concept evolved into the marimba (an instrument that combines melody and rhythm by striking pieces of wood of different lengths with mallets). Steel drums and the xylophone all used the same basic principles of the log.
Meanwhile a few caves over one of the first stringed instruments had a much more practical use – the hunting bow. Einstein once said “creativity is the residue of wasted time”. Once again, either by accident or by design, another turning point occurred when our ancient ancestor “plunked” on the bow string and created different sounds by tightening or loosening the string. Even today aboriginal people around the world use the hunting bow to make music.
In 500 B.C., Greek mathematician, Pythagoras was obsessively exploring sounds by applying ratios to his musical experiments. Much of western civilizations’ music is still based on his twelve note division called the chromatic scale. However, it wasn’t until 1700 A.D. that the vibrational nature of sound was discovered.
Fast forward to 2013 through mass media and ever changing technology we are now surrounded by music. It’s available 24/7 at the click of a button. Anyone can create it in today’s world of affordable digital home studio and software. IPods, Smart Phones, CD/MP3 Players, and other devices allow us to take our music with us – it’s portable which is light years away from the 30’s and 40’s when families would gather together to listen to the radio.
Indie artists now have platforms like CD Baby to sell their music without selling their souls to major music labels run by multinational corporations. Satellite radio allows us a larger selection of musical formats and choices than traditional radio without commercial interruption. Which brings me to my question: Do we take music for granted? When we download songs without payment what are the ripple affects? Is copyright legislation (and its enforcement) so far behind technology that the genie is out of the bottle? Has it become a “free for all”? That’s a debate that I am incapable of being objective about since I derive part of my income from song writing royalties. Let’s save that for another day. But, ask yourself this question: What would your world be like without music? No favourite song to remind you of the first time you fell in love. No way to track the passing of time without the musical landmarks that guide us through life. No breakthrough moments like Hendrix at Woodstock or the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show. No Elvis or Sinatra. What would you dance to at your wedding or sing around the camp fire? A world without karaoke bars, televised singing competitions, and pop star posters on your bedroom wall. No Christmas carols or gospel choirs. No national anthems. Broadway plays without songs (imagine the “Sound of Music” without music). No Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, or Mozart. No movie soundtrack to tug at your heart strings or create tension. No music radio…just talk all the time. No music related fashion: mop top hair cuts and granny glasses. No punk, disco, metal, or grunge clothing trends. No “Sex Pistols” or “NWA”. No “Rhapsody in Blue” or “She Loves You”. Nothing to hum in the shower. And, for me saddest of all: no need for musicians! There are many other examples that I will leave to your imagination. Think about ring tones, elevator muzak, etc. Of course we would still have the ambient sound of the city breathing. Birds tweeting, traffic, machinery, sirens, and skate boarders (without ear buds)…all the signals in the noise produced when tones vibrate at different frequencies. Now ask yourself this: Would our lives be as rich and full without the emotional, melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic context that music provides us? I know mine wouldn’t. Until next time.
