MusicMusic History
The oldest written melody we can still play is about 3,400 years old.
It was scratched onto a clay tablet in what is now Syria, complete with tuning instructions for a nine-string lyre.
Source
This fact is written from the English Wikipedia article it links to, so you can check every word in one tap. Fact Drop rates that source 4 out of 5 for credibility, and the rating travels with the fact on the back of its card in the app.
More music facts
Music facts from the studio, the stage and the bell tower. A six-second drum break from 1969 became the backbone of hip-hop, a lyrebird can imitate a chainsaw, and we know what a castrato sounded like because one lived long enough to be recorded. Every fact links to its source.
- A six-second drum break from a 1969 B-side became the backbone of hip-hop, jungle and drum and bass.
- Bell-ringers were killed trying to stop lightning.
- One musical interval was called the devil in music.
- Happy Birthday to You was under copyright claim until 2016, earning around two million dollars a year.
- Mozart did not write the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
- The man who invented the theremin later built a listening device with no batteries or wires.