ancient music

Ancient music consists of the musical cultures and practices that developed in the literate civilizations of the ancient world prior to the early medieval period (before approximately 500 CE). It follows the music of prehistoric societies and precedes the emergence of medieval music during the post-classical era. Major centers of ancient music developed in China, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran/Persia, the Maya civilization, Mesopotamia, and Rome. Though extremely diverse, the music of ancient civilizations is frequently characterized by monophony, improvisation, and the dominance of text in musical settings.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Ancient music”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

ancient music is music that developed in literate cultures, replacing prehistoric music, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 10 external registers, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶