The article "The History and Evolution of the Music Symbol" states that in early history and up "[u]ntil very recently," the sharing and passing down of the vast majority of music occurred primarily through ___________________.

Notice: This question and its associated answer set are protected under copyright, and may not be reproduced without the author's consent.

Question

The article "The History and Evolution of the Music Symbol" states that in early history and up "[u]ntil very recently," the sharing and passing down of the vast majority of music occurred primarily through ___________________.

Notice: This question and its associated answer set are protected under copyright, and may not be reproduced without the author's consent.

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Oral tradition — memorization and repetition of performances — and a system of written signs and symbols together accounted for how most music was shared and preserved until very recently.

1) Relevant knowledge points:
- Oral tradition: many cultures relied on memory, apprenticeship, and live transmission; songs, melodies, rhythms, and performance practices were learned by listening and repeating across generations.
- Notation systems: various forms of written musical notation (neumes, medieval staff notation, mensural notation, tablature, etc.) allowed composers and performers to record and transmit music across time and place.
- Audio recordings: mechanical/electrical sound recording (Edison’s phonograph 1877, commercial gramophone, later magnetic and digital recording) are historically recent relative to the long arc of musical history.

2) Step-by-step reasoning:
- The phrase “until very recently” rules out technologies that appeared only in the late 19th century and later. Audio recordings first became available in the late 1800s, so they could not have been the primary transmission method for most of music history.
- For the vast majority of human history, music was transmitted either orally or through some written notation. Oral transmission was primary in many traditions; notation developed and supplemented oral transmission where literacy and musical writing systems existed.
- Therefore the correct characterization is a combination of oral tradition and systems of signs/symbols.

3) Intermediate facts supporting the conclusion:
- Notation systems appear in Western music by the medieval period and evolved thereafter, but were absent or different in many non-Western cultures, where oral transmission dominated.
- Recording technology’s historical appearance (post-1877) marks it as “very recent” relative to millennia of musical practice.

4) Why the correct answer is correct:
- It captures both dominant historical channels (oral and written) while excluding the modern invention of audio recordings.

5) Why other options are incorrect:
- “Audio Recordings” alone is incorrect because recordings are recent.
- “Only Oral tradition” or “Only a system of signs” are incomplete because both methods operated historically.
- “Answers 1, 2 & 3 above” is wrong because it includes recordings.

Conclusion: The correct choice is “Answers 1 & 3 above,” which matches the provided answer.

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