Tracing Music’s Origin-part 1

Tracing Music’s Origin-part 1

            Music theorists and historians have stubbornly resisted the fact that the ancient Hebrew Scripture helps us to identify the beginnings of music.  Scholarly sources like The New Oxford History of Music report, “It is very difficult to say anything definite about the origin of music, because the phenomenon is quite outside the range of our observation.  Even in those primitive civilizations that still exist there is no race so primitive that it can be considered a relic of the beginning of human culture.”   The New Oxford History of Music, Vol. I Egon Wellesz p.5   It is a mistake to look for the origin of music in any existing remnant of early civilization but rather in the Old Testament Scriptures.  It is true that the Pentateuch is relatively silent as to the specifics of the beginnings of music.  However, we do know that God imparted musical knowledge to man before the flood.  Genesis 4:21 states that Lamech’s son Jubal “was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.”