The Origin of Musical Instruments

Although there are a range of theories as to the origin of musical instruments, two of the earliest known musical instruments were the Lyre and the "Pipe".

The Lyre was a stringed instrument with commonly ten strings and associated to the Harp with twelve strings, except the Lyre was played by picking a single string at a time with a plectrum, such as a small thin piece of metal, plastic, bone, or similar material and the Harp with its twelve strings were commonly played by whether strumming or picking the strings with the fingers.

Musical Instruments Sounds

An early mention of the Lyre was in Genesis 4:20-21of the Bible, (circa 1450 B.C.) referring to Jubal as the "father of the lyre and pipe". It is recommend the word, Jubal is the root word of "jubilation" referring to a musical celebration.

In today's world, a musical instrument similar to the Lyre is the guitar with the sound produced by the string vibration. Since each string of the guitar displaces a small whole of air, the volume of sound is increased by using a soundboard or resonant cavity of the hollow body of the guitar, from which comes the name, Acoustic Guitar.

The soundboard with its larger surface area displaces a greater volume of air and produces a more robust sound than the strings alone. The Acoustic guitar may be played with a pick such as the Lyre plectrum or with the fingers as with the Harp. Then adding today's electronic technology, to the guitar creates totally new and separate musical sounds and enhanced sound projection.

In the same Bible scripture (Genesis 4:20-21), a second musical instrument is also described as "the pipe", which relates in contemporary times to a woodwind instrument, such as the flute. However as with the Lyre, there has been a vital evolution from maybe originally a grouping of any pipes of varying lengths tied together and blown over the end to furnish a varying sound pitch modified to a single hollow tube with holes opened and terminated with the fingers, more similar to the C flute of today, with its holes at varying lengths and sizes in the instrument opened or terminated by the fingers to furnish a separate musical pitch.

Thus, with human ingenuity at work, modifications to these two original musical instruments have produced an whole family of string and woodwind instruments such as the Bb clarinet to the enjoyment of both the musician and the listener.

The Origin of Musical Instruments