CHAPTER THIRTEEN THE RELEVANCE OF MUSIC IN HISTORY Alexander Walsh Erhiegueke Abstract According to George Santayana, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. History is, therefore, a very important aspect of human life which should form a reference point at every sphere of human existence. The human race and its activities are preserved only in history. History contains the life and activities alongside the major events of society. In time, history has been transmitted through various means, ranging from oral, written and artistic means. Artistically, we would be interested in Visual arts and the performing arts. This work takes a look at the performing arts, specifically, music. As part of arts, music plays a very important role in the transmission and preservation of history. In this work, we shall examine the relevance of music in history. This work shall see how music has been used through the ages to preserve the events and happenings of man in the past. It shall narrowly expose music and history respectively while highlighting their point of convergence. Keywords: Music, history, preservation and transmission of art. Introduction To be ignorant of history is to be ignorant of one's existence; therefore, every human is a composition of history. After one's death, the only thing left of the individual is his history. Denial of history is the denial of the existence of a source from which the human race emerged. Denial of history is also a denial of process, time and the now because every now ceases to be “now” as soon as the “now” is identified. After this identification, the “now” melts into the past. An argument against history is an argument against the tenses; past, present and future tenses especially the past tense. This is so as a mention of history is a mention of the past. To this effect, the concept of history and its existence alongside its components are not and cannot be in contention. Having established the undeniable and ever-present presence of history as a part of man's existence, it would be important to note that if history is never talked about, there would be no such concept as history. It is from the constant reference of man to past events that bring the concept of history into consideration. It is also important to note that history can be lost. It is in light of that, the Igbos insist that when an elder dies, a library is lost. Till today, there are still debates concerning the great works of ancient philosophers, because after the invasion of the Alexandrian library, only fragments of these books where left. Those that were gutted by the flame were tagged to have been lost history because what were left of them were mere speculations. Furthermore, it was the knowledge that history could be lost that necessitated the search for a means to preserve events and happenings of the past. From the beginning, humans have unconsciously and consciously transmitted history through the oral medium, but as the 92 The Pedagogue: Festschrift in Honour of Professor Chukwuemeka Eleazar Mbanugo mortality and uncertainty of the human life dawned on the human race, better means were sort for the preservation of history, with the writing medium been one of the media which has proven to stand the test of time. Amongst the oral medium, alongside storytelling, music is still one of the most effective means of historic preservation. Music has played several roles in history, and it is these roles that music has played, and is playing in history that would form the focus in this work, as the relevance of music in history would not also be over sighted. What is Music? Music like any other concept has been subjected to definitions from various scholars. Music, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is said to be, sound combined in such a way as to archive beauty of form, harmony and expression of emotion. From this definition, we can classify music into the arts, because it involves beauty. Blacking (1973) in Okafor (2005: 270), defines music as a humanly organized sound. Odunuga (2009: 1) views it as the combination of sounds that are pleasant to hear. Ekwueme (2008: 1) defines it as a phenomenon using the medium of sound which is organized and manipulated into socially accepted and manfully, verbally, ideals, feeling, emotions and event to people. From the above definitions, we can conclude that music is made up of an organized set of sounds, to pass across an idea. These points to the fact that music is never empty, it always has a mission. Either it is there to entertain or pass across a message or emotion. Music always has a part of the human existence which it transmits along with its melody. To this, Chuma-Udeh (2014) in Okpala (2016) posits that: Music is the universal language of the soul and the music of oral literature flows from the essence of a people's existence. Here it becomes a way of expression intricately tied to their social, cultural, and to a great extent becomes the determinant of the peaceful co-existence of the society of the people that spawns it (p. 15). By this definition, Chuma-Udeh exposes the indispensability of music in the life of man. It also goes a long way to showcase how man has unconsciously infused music as an intrinsic part of his being. One can easily conclude that music is an instrument of living. What is History? Just like music, history has also received vast attention in its definitive aspect because of its importance to man. According to Ronald (2013), History is the chronological study of a subject. It involves tracing ideas back to their origin and undertaking a study of the evolution of ideas and events. For Kopanic (2019), History is the story of the human experience, although he insists that history does not constitute all fact there is. According to him, history is made up of only what the historian wants us to know. From the definition of Roland, we can deduce that history has to do with a retracing of steps. It involves going back to the past in search of facts and not just information. What makes history is the involvement of facts. The facts have to be epistemic and not doxastic. These facts are studied chronologically, often from the origin to the time of interest or now. On the 93 The Relevance of Music in History – A.W. Erhiegueke other hand, Kopanic brings in a very important feature of history which is the human being. By defining history as the story of the human experience, he opens up the value of the human person to history. He leads us to the conclusion that man is the pinnacle of history. Although natural events occur, these natural events are greatly dependent on the human experience. It is the observation of the human being that brings these events to life through committing them to memory and reproducing them as history. In light of that, he insists that history does not contain all facts. This conclusion must be based on the finitude of the human mind and the fallibility of his memory. Furthermore, in all these, amidst the culmination of facts, a very important question is always asked for there to be a complete arrival at the aim of history. This important question is; why? The inclusion of a why into the study of history pressures' Roland (2013) to insist that; history is not really an academic subject like Mathematics or physics, rather a method of understanding the evolution of ideas. By this he means that it is not enough for the historian to gather these facts, it matters more to have an understanding of these events and facts. The Importance of History We can't undertake an expose of history without x-raying its importance. History just as any discipline is very important in its own sphere. Firstly, when George Santayana said, that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, he by this statement pointed out the fact that history repeats itself. According to research, it has been discovered that some events of the past still reoccur in our everyday life. These events include the good the bad and the ugly, alongside natural disasters. The study of history becomes pertinent because an understanding of these events and how they were managed in time past, together with the flaws of those in that time would equip one with the necessary knowledge needed to tackle such situation in case they occur again. It also aids in the development of preventive measures to curb certain disasters which are prone to repeat itself. Secondly, history can be used as a great source of inspiration. In history is recorded the life and achievements of great men like Alexander the Great, Socrates, etc. a critical study of the life and achievements of these men can be a motivational factor for the one studying. One can decide to pick a role model not from the people of the present generation, but the heroes of history. Thirdly, the identity of a group of people or a nation largely depends on their history. In fact, it would be plausible to say that history is the identity of the people. That explains why pupils are advised to learn their local and international history, as it helps them to better understand the place of origin and their place generally in the world view. Also, the values of a society can always be understood better in history.