Robert said:
Concerning the takumaji's comment on the conservation of the art, consider this as an example, We have tons of artworks from the oldest civilizations but we are unable to tell what kind of music they listened or what kind of songs they sang. The non-physical issue can be a problem on the very long term.
True, but that's more a question of the available means of preservation than an inherent problem of ancient music. The only way an ancient musician could preserve one of his songs was to repeat it over and over again until a) it became imprinted into the minds of his audience or b), the musician found a scholar willing to carry on the tradition, and consequently add his own interpretations.
This is where I'm getting at - I'm convinced that humans have developed a complex musical sub-consciousness over the past millenia which contains many bits and pieces even of pre-civilization music, and those called artists are the ones who are able to tap into this flow and fuel their inspiration with it. Most parts of this process are hidden deep beneath our pre-human instincts and rarely affect our consciousness, what's why we rather call it inspiration, read, the act of reflecting external influences than a spark of ideas that in reality rests within ourselves.
It's because of this why some unborn babies react to music that comes from outside when they're still in the womb of their mother, the "musical interface" already is in us right from the start while anything connected with visual perception has to be learned over a long period of time.
Now, this subhuman aural memory is non-physical, and it will be there until the end of time, maybe not in technical terms of a sculpture or painting with measureable size and a 100% reproduceable look but as a subtle pulse that echoes through the ages and can be heard by those who have learned to listen.
