Ancient Musical Discoveries in Slovakia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the musical artefacts discovered on the territory of Slovakia. During the remotest ancient periods of time music served chiefly as a means for ceremonies, cults and magic rituals, and accompanied the process of work. Present-day perceptions about music in prehistorical times are formed from various types of evidence: archeological artifacts, pictures, carved figures and musical instruments. The most ancient of the latter are various rattles and pipes. An inherent part of musical activities was formed by dances and singing. Although there is an absence of direct evidence of the sound of the instruments, it may be presumed that during the first stages of the development of music one of its most important aspects was rhythm. Melodies were simple and consisted of few pitches with small intervals in between them, which comprised a basic motive, subsequently repeated numerous times.