Developing the Art of Music 



of four and one-half octaves — more than one-half of our 

 full orchestra of today. 



If we shall examine any stringed instrument of today, 

 we will find that it is only an evoluted form of the vibration 

 of the bowstring. When primitive man discovered that there 

 was the harmony of sound in his bowstring, it is only reason- 

 able to suppose that he tied on another string and then 

 another; that he bent the bow still more and added other 

 strings until he produced the harp as is evidenced by the 

 ancient drawings of the harp. The wind instruments of 

 today are evoluted forms of the first primitive horn used by 

 primitive man which he had taken from some beast. The 

 principle of blowing through a horn or hollow tube to pro- 

 duce sound has not changed but the forms have changed a 

 thousand times. The drum is the simplest of all instruments 

 and at the same time the oldest. Every savage tribe on 

 earth today makes use of the drum in their religious or 

 social rites. Rowbotham in "History of Music," p. 2, says: 

 "Never in the musical history of mankind is the lyre stage 

 found to precede the pipe stage, nor the pipe stage to pre- 

 cede the drum stage. That this should be the order of 

 development seems natural if we consider the mechanical 

 complexity of the instruments themselves. The drum is 

 evidently the simplest of all; the pipe is more complex than 

 the drum; but the lyre, which consists of strings bound 

 around pegs and strung on a frame, is the most complex of 

 all." We must therefore conclude that the drum is the least 

 evoluted of all instruments and that with a few changes, it 



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