In the middle ages, a range of myths addressed the invention of music. Many credited Pythagoras. He allegedly noticed the harmony of hammer strikes when blacksmiths worked in unison. Legend has it each hammer had a different weight, and together they created the tuning of basic harmony.

Others believed ideas derived from the Book of Genesis—which named Jubal, a son of Cain, as the “father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes.”

What does science say about prehistoric music? The voice came first. Our throats have had the ability to sing for at least 500,000 years. Language has been around for 100,000 years (estimates range). So it’s possible music, or at least vocalized sound, predates language. This makes sense—the melodic contour of speech helps us to communicate information.

The earliest physical instruments are from at least 40,000 years ago. These were wooden pipes and flutes carved from hollow bird bones. Humans have had the ability to clap for much longer, but it’s impossible to know when rhythm found its way into our hands.

Why were people making music? To accompany dance, rituals, for and even distance communication. Music evolved because it strengthened communities—bringing people together both physically and spiritually. A clan that sings together is more resilient to adversity. Music was an integral facet to the development of culture itself.

We don’t know what prehistoric music sounded like. Lost to the vibrations of time, it wasn’t until cultures became literate around 3,400 BCE that music was written down. Musicians began carving their ideas into stone everywhere that literacy spread. Historians can read some of this music and have made recordings of “ancient music ensembles” (basically historical reenactments). But still, we’re unsure what these musics truly sounded like.

Standardized musical notation was key for the long-term preservation of ideas. But as we moved into the common era, the variety of notation systems around Europe kept music isolated within cultures.

Medieval music (6th-14th centuries) saw the development of sacred and secular traditions. The 15th century exploded with culture—the Renaissance. Music theory and composition traditions became formalized across Europe. Notation was closing in on modern “sheet music.” By the 1600s, the full weight of Western Art Music (aka “classical music”) was ready to unfold. Composers’ works could finally spread across Europe without the threat of misinterpretation.

(I acknowledge I haven’t done justice to the origins of native musical traditions from around the globe. There’s more than one way to notate music.)

It’s taken generations of teamwork, vast cultural and psychological evolution and a heavy dash of the mystic for music to come into existence. A beast of an art form, music refuses to be pinned down. It opens up new dimensions every time the page turns. Hard to say where it comes from. Impossible to say where it’s going. Nothing will stop this sonic river from carving new canyons.

Jack Gaffney is a local musician and piano teacher. He can be reached at JackGaffney.com.