Solomon's Temple, a Hebrew temple built around 950 B.C.E. in Jerusalem, may be one of the earliest influences on Western classical music. Isaac Newton described the physical proportions of the nave of the temple as a length of six, a width of two, and a height of three.

 

Solomon's Temple in ancient times. North Wind Picture Archives

 

 

Roots of Music

 

Solomon's Temple, a Hebrew temple built around 950 B.C.E. in Jerusalem, may be one of the earliest influences on Western classical music. Isaac Newton described the physical proportions of the nave of the temple as a length of six, a width of two, and a height of three. Scholars believe those dimensions optimized the flow of voices and sound inside the space. Temples and religious buildings that followed used similar dimensions, as well as architectural features like towers and columns to control sound waves.

Why this matters: The acoustic features of these structures shaped early music composition. Musicologist Denis Stevens observed that even simple doubling of sung intervals on the scale of notes in fourths, fifths and octaves in a large building such as an abbey or cathedral is "magnificently sonorous." The buildings spurred the creation of harmonies and polyphony (the layering of simultaneous voices), which evolved into Western classical music. And the dimensions of ancient temples, churches and cathedrals inspired the concert halls of today.

What the experts say: "Early music composers chose pitches, silence (rests), rhythms and simple harmonies that sounded well throughout the physical building," writes Lynn Whidden, ethnomusicologist and professor emerita at Brandon University in Manitoba. "When ornamentation was added inside, limiting reverberation, the basic dynamics of classical music were set, even as it spread among different societies and religions."