History of Singing (Part 1)

       In the web document Antiquity to 1590 by John Koopman is about the history of singing between those times. It starts off by explaining the origins of how singing may have first started. It continues by moving into its history antiquity. Later it transitions into 'sacred music' that goes on for thirteen centuries. Singing, during those times, was mostly used for religion. Three styles of chant melody -syllabic, neumatic, and melismatic- had evolved at that time. Then it moves onto explaining the rise of polyphony. It came out in the ninth century. Because the idea of pitched voices developed in complexity, better educated singers were required. After, the rise of theatrical music arrived. Operas were first used to recreate ancient Greek drama. From this, a capella was later made.

      This is significant to me because it has thoroughly given me information about the earliest history of singing, seeing to that I had trouble with finding a similar topic on it last year. This whole article has enriched my knowledge of the history of singing. I did not think a capella, the singing without accompaniment, was created through the first operas, although originating from the old unaccompanied style.

     What I'm wondering is how much deeper can we go into the details of this history? Were there other unknown uses for singing other than for religion and legends? And, because I did not see what cantillation- "the intoning of sacred texts using ancient melodic formulae"- and ta'amim -symbols written for that- was, how much similar does it look to music sheets used today?