6 2000 BCE • Drum Battle In Greenland, the Inuit qilaat is used to make music, to tell stories and to fight! If two people fall out, they play this drum while throwing insults at each other. It is like a 21st-century BCE rap battle.
ANCIENT MUSIC
Even in prehistoric times, music is part of everyday life. People dance, sing and play musical instruments to worship their gods, protect their livelihoods, entertain and show love. Can you hear its distant voice? Can you find it in the temples, tombs and caves on this map of the ancient world? Its melodies are locked in wall paintings, in fragments of instruments, on tablets of clay and in the ghosts of the people who created its incredible sound.
6 7 41,000 BCE • Early Flute In a cave in what will become Germany, a flute is played. It is made from a griffin vulture’s bone or a woolly mammoth’s tusk.
5 1400 BCE • Greek Myth Music In Greek mythology, the gods give Orpheus the gift of music. He plays his lyre, or harp, so beautifully that he can charm the trees, the mountains and the wild beasts with his music. 7
3 4 1323 BCE • King Tut’s Trumpets of War Tutankhamun, the Egyptian boy king, is buried with his treasures, including two trumpets. They will be played on the radio 3,000 years later. Five months after that, the Second World War will break out. Legend has it these trumpets summon war.
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1 5000 BCE • Magic Turtle Shells Dancers shake out a steady rhythm with turtle-shell rattles attached to their ankles. They dance in what will become southeastern USA.
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8 3 1000 BCE • The Power of Music Across North America, instruments and songs are thought to have supernatural powers. Music is used to summon good weather, cure illnesses and win wars. Instruments are made from gourds, reeds, hooves and bone.
8 10,000 BCE • Music in Art In the Tassili-n-Ajjer caves in the Sahara desert, people paint hunters with bows and arrows, dancers with masks and musicians playing instruments.
2 2 1000 BCE • Call to the Gods Conch shells are blown during religious rituals. Their unnerving roar echoes around the sharply twisting corridors of Chavín de Huántar. This stone labyrinth in the South American Andes mountains is used for important religious ceremonies.
9 2500 BCE • Music to Keep Safe The molimo trumpet’s haunting wail pierces the night’s darkness. The Mbuti people of Congo play it to ‘wake up’ the forest and ward off famine and evil.
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21 300 CE • Mouth Harps In the Altai mountains in what will be Russia, nomadic Huns people whittle mouth harps out of cow or horse bone. Performers place the top of the harp in their mouth and pluck it to create a sound.
14 100 CE • Oldest Piece of Music A man called Seikilos engraves musical symbols on his wife’s tombstone. Almost 2,000 years later, it will be discovered in Turkey and celebrated as the oldest surviving piece of complete music.
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20 500 BCE • Guitar-like Qin The ten- or seven-stringed qin is Confucius’s favourite instrument. This Chinese philosopher plays it until he ‘can feel the spirit of the melody’.
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12 2000 BCE • Earliest Composer Enheduanna writes hymns for the 19 gods on stone tablets. She is the high priestess in the Mesopotamian city of Ur.
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19 4000 BCE • Ceremonial Beat In China, alligator skins are stretched over wooden frames to create drums. Important ceremonies are accompanied by their solemn beat.
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17 2000 BCE • Stone Sounds In what will be Vietnam, slabs of stone are lined up in a scale and struck with a beater, just like a xylophone. These stone-slab instruments will come to be called lithophones.
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18 17,000 BCE • Long-distance Roar In New Zealand a spinning bullroarer fills the air with an eerie, vibrating sound. It is used all over the ancient world for communication. On a still night, it can be heard several kilometres away.
13 1400 BCE • Oldest Song The Hymn to Nikkal is created for the Hurrians’ goddess of orchards. It is probably played on a lyre. The music is written on a stone tablet in the city of Ugarit, Syria, and will be the oldestsurviving song in the world.
11 3000 BCE • Reed Flute The mystical hollow sound of a ney floats across the desert sands. This Persian instrument is made from a bamboo-like reed.
10 1400 BCE • Rumbling in the Mountains The Hebrew Bible describes thunder, smoke and the sound of a musical horn as Moses receives the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The sound is from a curved trumpet called a shofar, which is made from a ram’s horn and used by shepherds to call their sheep.
15 30,000 BCE • Music in Central India Stone Age peoples shelter in the Bhimbetka caves and paint their life stories on the walls. Among the pictures are figures dancing and playing musical instruments.
16 500 CE • Drone of the Didgeridoo The low-pitched rumble of the didgeridoo booms across the outback of Australia. It is played to mimic the sounds of nature, such as the laugh of a kookaburra bird, the wail of a dingo and the creaking of an old tree.
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1639 • Yatsuhashi Kengyō Yatsuhashi receives an honorary title for talented blind musicians – ‘Kengyō’ – and is employed at the Japanese court. He writes music and invents a tuning system for the koto, a thirteenstringed instrument. Later, he sets up the Yatsuhashi school of koto.
1607 • Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Monteverdi’s opera, L’Orfeo, is performed for the first time in Italy. It is a story in music and one of the first operas. The Ancient Greek hero, Orpheus, tries to save his beloved, Eurydice. The music is a vital part of the dramatic story.
1614 • Francesca Caccini At the court of the powerful Medici family in Florence, Italy, Francesca Caccini is the highest-paid musician. She excels as a composer, performer and teacher, and writes comic ballets and operas. Her style combines emotion, drama and playful wit.
1644 • Barbara Strozzi Barbara Strozzi, a virtuoso poet, singer and composer, publishes her first book of madrigals. In Venice, she studies with one of the first composers of opera, Francesco Cavalli.
1600s • Mixed Cultures The Spanish control Peru’s cities, and Inca people have been forced to reject their own religion and convert to Christianity. But the Spanish haven’t destroyed their culture completely. Hanacpachap cussicuinin is written in Quechuan and Spanish. It is a choral hymn describing both Christian and Inca traditions.
1700s • Māori Music In New Zealand, Māori Masters begin to set poetry to music. Their chants are passed from generation to generation and are used to display love and affection, to reply to lies, to curse and to predict the future. This traditional Māori music is called Mōteatea.
1606 • Mi’kmaq Music Henri Membertou, Grand Chief of the Mi’kmaq Nation, meets French explorer Marc Lescarbot in what will become Nova Scotia, Canada. The chief sings three traditional songs and Lescarbot writes them down.
1650s • Popular Opera In Europe, opera is an extravagant mixture of theatre and music. It is full of dramatic contrasts. The music is loud then soft, fast then slow. On stage, there is a large chorus, then just a soloist. Public opera houses are built and many opera singers become celebrities.
1600s • Professional Musicians West African villagers ask professional musicians and singers to perform music at ceremonies, such as a coronation, or when a case is put before a judge. These important musicians sit with the king or chief.
About 1600 • Follow the Bass Composers start to use basso continuo, or figured bass. It shows the keyboard player a bass line to follow, which is the lowest part of the piece. Numbers also show the chords to play. Chords are short groups of notes. Composers can now think of chords, rather than lines of music.
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1685 • Handel and Bach George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach are born in the same year in Germany. They are to become the most important composers of Europe’s baroque period. Handel’s operas and oratorios will astound audiences. Bach will transform the sound of church music. The two of them will never meet.
About 1700 • The Pianoforte Italy is the centre of musical innovation. Bartolomeo Cristofori invents gravicembalo col piano e forte, or ‘the harpsichord that plays soft and loud’. He replaces the plucking mechanism of the harpsichord with a hammer action that can strike the strings with a greater or lesser force. Eventually, his invention becomes known as the pianoforte, or piano for short.
1680s • Expression and Style Violinist and composer Arcangelo Corelli makes the concerto grosso popular. This is a composition for solo instruments and an orchestra. Corelli’s trills and other ways of playing allow performers to express themselves. 1650
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About 1800 • Shyama Shastri King Sarabhoji of Thanjavur in India hosts a contest for two musicians to play head to head. The great Kesavvaya sings a raga, a collection of melodies that conjure up strong images and moods. But he is beaten by Shyama Shastri, who performs his own unique compositions. Shastri is one of the ‘Three Jewels’ of Carnatic, or South Indian, music. This trio of musicians helps change the traditional music of South India.
1830 • Hector Berlioz French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz conducts the first performance of his masterpiece, Symphonie Fantastique. It is played by a huge orchestra and is full of long melodies and clear harmonies. It tells Berlioz’s own story of how he is madly in love with the actress Harriet Smithson.
1846 • Fanny Mendelssohn German pianist Fanny Mendelssohn publishes her first songs. As a young girl, Fanny has been told that music will only be an ‘ornament’ in her life. Her brother, Felix, is a professional musician. Many of Fanny’s almost 500 wonderful works are credited to him until years later.
1762 • Mozart A six-year-old Austrian boy mesmerises the Emperor and Empress of Vienna with his piano playing and original compositions. This child prodigy is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Later, he will write operas, including The Magic Flute, symphonies, masses, concertos and an oratorio. Mozart will die at just thirty-five years old. 1787 • Australian Bush Music The British send the first prison ship of convicts to Western Australia. The crew sing sea shanties and play fiddles and harmonicas. The convicts sing Irish, Scottish and English folk songs. Each influences the other, and Australian bush music is born.
1837 • Clara Wieck Since the age of eleven, Clara Wieck has toured Europe, thrilling audiences with her piano recitals. The mid 1800s is the age of the touring virtuoso pianist, and Clara is now the toast of Vienna in Austria. She even has a cake named after her, torte à la Wieck.
1792 • Palm Wine Music A new town called Freetown is founded on the coast of Sierra Leone. Freed African Americans live here. In bars, musicians mix African rhythms with Caribbean sounds, and play guitar. This is the start of Palm Wine music, named after a favourite drink.
1804 • Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven writes Symphony No. 3 in honour of Napoleon, hero of the French Revolution. But when Napoleon declares himself Emperor, Beethoven is angry. Beethoven believes that all people should be equal and renames the work Heroic Symphony. 1821 • Faster and Faster Frenchman Sébastien Érard introduces the double-escapement action, which makes it possible to play notes on the piano much more quickly than before. Hammers now touch the strings for about one-thousandth of a second. Composers and pianists experiment with this state-of-the-art mechanism.
1730 • Ramkie The Khoikhoi people of southern Africa strum chords on a popular stringed instrument called a ramkie. The guitar-like body is made from sheepskin stretched over half a gourd. The strings are made from sheep gut.
1840 • Saxophone Adolphe Sax invents an instrument with a brass body and woodwind reed. He calls it the saxophone. Berlioz, the composer, describes the sound as ‘beautiful’. He includes it in a chamber arrangement of the choral work, Chant sacré.
1750s • Answer Me... On plantations in the southern United States, enslaved people sing ‘call-andresponse’ songs as they work. When one person sings a phrase or a question, another sings an answer. Later, jazz will also answer one musical phrase with another. 1730 1730
1860 • Recorded Music Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, from France, records ten seconds of a singer performing Au Clair De La Lune on his phonautograph. This is the first time any sound has ever been recorded.
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MUSIC TODAY
Today, anyone with an internet connection can watch and listen to music online. But there is nothing like going to a gig or a concert to see music performed live. There are many music venues across the world. This illustration shows a selection of today’s musicians gathered above an orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall, London, one of the most famous venues. Each of them has played at this concert hall before. Can you see anyone you like listening to?
Spice Girls
Jimi Hendrix
Jay-Z
David Bowie
CLARINET TIMPANI FRENCH HORNS
FLUTE
THE ORCHESTRA
An orchestra is made up of a collection of players and instruments, from violins and violas to bassoons, trumpets and timpani. The loudest instruments are usually positioned towards the back, while the strings are at the front. Sometimes orchestras need to include more unusual instruments such as a harp or wind machine!
PERCUSSION
WOODWIND
STRINGS BRASS
BRASS
SECOND VIOLINS FIRST VIOLINS
MUSIC
Beyoncé Adele
Yo-Yo Ma
Eric Clapton
Björk
Ravi Shankar
TROMBONES
BASSOON
The Royal Albert Hall opened in 1871. Over 1.7 million people enjoy live experiences here every year. Home to the world’s largest classical festival, the BBC Proms, it also hosts some of the biggest names in all other musical genres, too. With around 400 shows a year it is one of the busiest venues in the world.
TUBA
DOUBLE BASSES OBOE
TRUMPETS
THE CONDUCTOR’S ROLE
The conductor is the person who directs an orchestra, deciding how the music should be played and communicating this by moving their hands through the air to indicate what should happen. Conductors use different patterns of hand movements to show the tempo – how many beats there are in a bar of the piece. They also use their face and the movement of their body to let players know what mood the music should have.
VIOLAS
CONDUCTOR
CELLOS
2 beats
TODAY
3 beats
4 beats
6 beats
A Fold-Out Graphic History Authors: Nicholas O’Neill and Susan Hayes Illustrator: Ruby Taylor Ages: 9+ years Price: £14.99 Format: Hardback Extent: 22 pages Trim size: 294 x 249 mm Pub date: 14th May 2020 ISBN: 978-1-9999679-3-2
Description Learn about how different genres started – including classical, folk, jazz, gospel, rock ‘n’ roll, country, punk, hip hop and pop. Discover the stories of maestros including Beethoven, Wei Liangfu, Django Reinhardt, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Maria Callas, Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong and Beyonce. Marvel at the orchestra with a huge illustration set in the Royal Albert Hall, and find out about ancient instruments from all over the world. Experience amazing musical moments from the first ever saxophone and early sound recording to the invention of the record and artificial intelligence. All this and more features in this richly illustrated timeline of music from 60,000 years ago to the present day.
Selling points › Published to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the opening of London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2021 › Can be read as a book or folded out into an 2-sided, 2.5 metre timeline › Covers music from prehistoric flutes, through Mozart and Louis Armstrong to BTS and Beyoncé
Author information Composer Nicholas O’Neill has written, arranged and performed in almost every style of music, from classical to metal, from plainchant to funk. He is the recipient of multiple composition awards, Composer in Residence to the UK Parliament Choir, keyboardist for rock band JEBO, and a board game reviewer for various magazines and websites. Susan Hayes is in awe of children’s limitless imagination and thirst for knowledge – she strives to enjoy the world through their fresh, curious eyes. Susan lives in the East Sussex countryside of the UK with her own children, her partner Neil and two gorgeous but slightly silly ducks, Dolly and Izzy. She has written dozens of children’s books.
Illustrator information Ruby Taylor collects inspiration from everything around her and is especially drawn to old printed ephemera, vintage illustration and hand painted signage. Ruby graduated from Bristol UWE in 2012 with a first class degree in Illustration. Ruby lives in Bristol.
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