The World's Earliest Music by Hermann Smith

Read now or download (free!)

Choose how to read this book Url Size
Read online (web) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53039.html.images 705 kB
EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53039.epub3.images 2.3 MB
EPUB (older E-readers) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53039.epub.images 2.3 MB
EPUB (no images, older E-readers) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53039.epub.noimages 332 kB
Kindle https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53039.kf8.images 2.5 MB
older Kindles https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53039.kindle.images 2.4 MB
Plain Text UTF-8 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53039.txt.utf-8 559 kB
Download HTML (zip) https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/53039/pg53039-h.zip 2.1 MB
There may be more files related to this item.

About this eBook

Author Smith, Hermann, 1824-1910
LoC No. 04031598
Title The World's Earliest Music
Traced to Its Beginnings in Ancient Lands by Collected Evidence of Relics, Records, History, and Musical Instruments from Greece, Etruria, Egypt, China, Through Asyria and Babylonia, to the Primitive Home, the Land of Akkad and Sumer
Note Reading ease score: 59.0 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read.
Credits E-text prepared by deaurider, turgut, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
Summary "The World's Earliest Music" by Hermann Smith is a historical account written in the early 20th century. This work explores the origins and evolution of music across ancient civilizations, particularly focusing on the evidence of musical instruments from regions like Greece, Egypt, China, Assyria, and Babylonia. The author aims to shed light on how these early cultures shaped the development of musical expression and the significance of music in their daily lives. At the start of the book, Smith introduces the idea of a "music-trail" that leads us through the remnants of ancient civilizations and their musical instruments. He contemplates the challenges in understanding ancient music due to the scarcity of intact artifacts and emphasizes the value of rock carvings, paintings, and archaeological findings in reconstructing musical history. The author also highlights the interconnectedness of music, culture, geography, and history, indicating that our current understanding of music is derived from the evolution and transmission of musical ideas over millennia, particularly from ancient Egypt and Greece. Smith invites readers to engage in this journey to explore how the nuances of ancient music continue to resonate through time. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Language English
LoC Class ML: Music: Literature of music
Subject Music -- To 500 -- History and criticism
Category Text
EBook-No. 53039
Release Date
Most Recently Updated Jun 13, 2020
Copyright Status Public domain in the USA.
Downloads 100 downloads in the last 30 days.
Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free!