How Did Ancient Greek Culture Influence Western Culture

Music was an important aspect of Sumarian life. Instruments were played at marriages, festivals, banquets, ceremonies, funerals, and births. Music was also used as an accompaniment to the recitation of poetry and peace offerings which they did for the gods and goddesses.

In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, much like modern human, there was a passion for music. The Mesopotamians and Egyptians incorporated music into most festivities, celebrations, and even funerals. That being said, there was a vast number of different instruments that were used such as; idiophones, membranophones, aerophones, and chordophones. This showed that even in one of the world’s earliest civilization, music played an important role in people’s everyday lives. One of the most known instrument from this time is the Lyre (Figure 1). Having this knowledge, allows a chance to look at how music intertwines into the lives of the ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians.

The Greek civilization contributed greatly to the development of modern Western culture. Three of the most important contribution that are the foundations of our society are Language, Philosophy, and Government.

Ancient Greek made many advances during their time in many subjects still used today. The ancient Greeks advances in these subjects, influenced and contributed to the Western civilization. The Western civilization’s culture and outlook on life was shaped by ancient Greek. Many things the ancient Greeks created were the basis for what we use today, including, architecture, art, dramas, math, science, and philosophy.

Greece in itself is known as the father of many known and honored teachings and methodology. Whether it was architecture or math and science, the classical Greek period was home to many commonly used techniques in the modern world. Greece most definitely contributed to the influence on western civilization along with the other cultures at the time. Things like Democracy, geometry, and even the hippocratic oath used by doctors are all still relevant in western civilization all these years later. Showing that it is a true contribution to the society

Music had been had played a major role in many cultures throughout the history of humankind. Music has been used for various events and occasions for humans. These events and occasions may have been religious or even war-related.

Music in Ancient Greece was well integrated in their society, it played a large role in various ceremonies from marriages to funerals, as well as entertainment like plays or epic poetry. Although it is believed that music was invented in Africa over 55,000 years ago, music really began and took shape in Ancient Greece. Even the word music came from the Greek word muses who were believed to be the daughters of Zeus and were the patron Goddesses of creativity. There are many references to music in ancient Greece, from drawings on pottery of people playing, as well as literary works that even describe how the instruments sounded. Speaking of instruments, in addition to the voice being used as one, there are several instruments that are known to have existed in Ancient Greece, a few different string instruments including a lyre, a kithara (which is believed to be the ancient equivalent of a guitar), and a barbitos, which is a taller version of a lyre. They also had several wind type instruments including and aulos, pan pipes, a hydraulis (which eventually led to the modern day organ), as well as a salpinx, which was an ancient type of trumpet with a bone mouthpiece that was the origin of the many brass instruments that we know of today. Finally, we also know of several percussion instruments that were used by the ancient Greeks, these include a tympanum, which was like a tambourine, a crotala, and a koudounia. Music was actually one of the main teachings, along with gymnastics

In my opinion, the development of Western civilization is influenced by Greek culture because of Western knowledge, political systems, and procedures such as democracy and lawful equality originated there. The main reason is Greece is introduced as home of many “firsts” in the humanities, especially in Western civilization. Indeed, knowledge foundation of mathematics, medicine, astrology, or linguistics is nearly taken from the ancient Greece. For example, the Greek alphabet was the first alphabet in the Western sense of the word. The Greek alphabet include two letters called alpha and beta. Nowadays, the western alphabet has still created by the two letters, including letters such as A, B, E, and O. In addition, Greece is home of the first

Before we can look at different religions and how they employ music, we must explore why music is used in religion in the first place. Music predates modern religion. In 1997, in northwest Slovenia, archeologists discovered the Divje Babe Flute. This flute is made out of bone and has been radiocarbon dated to be around 43,000 years old (Morley, 2006). Music also was significant in

How did ancient peoples make music? Music is the oldest language in the world and has been used since the dawn of time to give expression to emotions, feelings, and ideas that could not be put into words. The oldest known musical instrument is the flute, which is at least 35,000 years old. The flute has changed over the course of its long history, from century to century, society to society. The flute’s design, the sounds it produces, and its purpose has evolved from ancient flutes, to medieval flutes, to the Baroque and Romantic flutes, and, finally, modern flutes.

In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, much like modern human, had a passion for music. The Mesopotamians and Egyptians incorporated music into most festivities, celebrations, and even funerals. That being said, there was a vast number of different instruments that were used such as; idiophones, membranophones, aerophones, and chordophones. This showed that even in one of the world’s earliest civilization, music played an important role in people’s everyday lives. One of the most known instrument from this time is the Lyre (Figure 1). Having this knowledge, allows a chance to look at how music intertwines into the lives of the ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians.

Music has been around for years, decades, and centuries; as far back as 4000 BCE (before common era) and even earlier was when the first drum-based instruments came around (The Method Behind the Music). No notation or writing of music in any way was done at the time as the sounds made from simple natural sources (sticks and rocks) were used in religious ceremonies (The Method Behind the Music). As time went on, various kinds of people experimented and created new instruments such as the Greeks creating the “natural trumpet” and Egyptians creating flutes and harps (The Method Behind the Music). For many years since then music theory has evolved from era to era and

Music has pervaded human life, for over thousands of years. In its very early stages, music was highly improvised. In fact, much of it was either passed down through generations of practice, and memory. This unfortunately left music unrecorded- meaning there was, and still is, a lack of tangible proof , as well as articulation of how and when it was performed in many ancient cultures. It wasn't until 2000 BC. that the earliest form of musical notation was attempted. Found in cuneiform recorded on a clay tablet in Nippur, a town in the ancient society of Sumer, was the first recorded early musical instruction. The tablet represents vague instructions for performing the music, though they dictate that the music was composed in harmonies of thirds, and written using a diatonic scale (Kilmer). Like Sumerians, many other ancient cultures used ambiguous symbols in representation of melody and rhythm. This unfortunately limits today's understanding of ancient music. Fortunately, many formal contributions to notation and musical pedagogy were slowly implemented in the following centuries by the Roman Catholic church and its followers- especially during the Medieval period.

The history of music has been traced back by researchers to before 2,500 years ago. It was used by the earliest human civilizations known to mankind. Our ancestors used music to worship and practice religious texts. With the use of music in ancient times, it has paved a pathway for artists of all types to express themselves without having to verbally speak. While music was created mainly for religious reasons, it has developed throughout time and there is now over a thousand types of musical genres. New styles of music were not introduced to the public until after The Middle Ages in an era called the Renaissance.

Music has been around for hundreds, even thousands of years, but has only been recently popularized since the 20th century. Music can be traced back to 45,000 years ago when a flute made from bone, was found in a cave in the nation state of Slovenia in 1995. Around 10,000 - 3,000 B.C, more musical instrument were introduced such as that first ever recorded stringed instrument, which was a bow played by placing one end in the mouth, and played by tapping the string and moving the jaw to change the pitch. Continuing around 800 B.C, The first recovered piece of music was a religious hymn and was written in cuneiform, but did not include instruments, only vocals.