What is music?
It’s like asking, “What is language?” We know it when we hear it, but definition eludes us.
Both, plainly, are fundamental to humanity. Which came first? Experts disagree; some say one, some say the other, some say neither, they arose together. The earliest known musical artifacts date to around 50,000 B.C., the dawn of our species. In Japan, the prehistoric Jomon Period (c10,000-200 B.C.) has left us clay drums, stone flutes and apparent stringed instruments to muse over. What sounds, rhythms and melodies would they have produced?