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Mesopantamia Easy Sheet Music for Flute and the Song Name

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The Hurrian songs, a collection of music inscribed in cuneiform on clay tablets excavated from the ancient city of Ugarit, dating to approximately 1400 BCE. The "Hymn to Nikkal" (pictured) is considered to be the oldest surviving substantially complete written music in the world.[1] [2] [3] [4] The song's words are written above the double line and the music notation is below.[5]

Music was ubiquitous throughout Mesopotamian history, playing important roles in both religious and secular contexts. Mesopotamia is of particular interest to scholars because evidence from the region—which includes artifacts, artistic depictions and written records—is among the earliest well-documented cultures in the history of music. The discovery of a bone wind instrument dating to the 5th millennium BCE provides the earliest evidence of music culture in Mesopotamia; depictions of music and musicians appear in the 4th millennium BCE; and later, in the city of Uruk, the pictograms for 'harp' and 'musician' are present among the earliest known examples of writing.

Music played a central role in Mesopotamian religion and some instruments themselves were regarded as minor deities and given proper names, such as the Ninigizibara. Its use in secular occasions included festivals, warfare and funerals—among all classes of society. Mesopotamians sang and played percussion, wind, and string instruments. Instructions for playing instruments have been discovered on clay tablets, while surviving artifacts include the oldest known string instruments, the Lyres of Ur, which includes the Bull Headed Lyre of Ur.

There are several surviving works of written music; the Hurrian songs, particularly the "Hymn to Nikkal", represent the oldest known substantially complete notated music. Modern scholars have attempted to recreate the melodies from these works, although there is no consensus on exactly how the music would have sounded. The Mesopotamians had an elaborate system of music theory, and some level of music education. Music in Mesopotamia influenced, and was influenced by, music in neighboring cultures of antiquity based in Egypt, East and West Africa, and the Mediterranean coast.

Background [edit]

Context [edit]

Mesopotamia is a historical region situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Fertile Crescent, modern day Iraq.[6] It was one of the cradles of civilization,[6] first developing settlements around 10,000 BCE.[7] Two distinct peoples, the Sumerians and the Akkadians, were the dominant cultures in the region,[7] extending from the earliest examples of writing (c. 3100 BCE) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE. Mesopotamians are credited with many firsts, including writing, agriculture, and the invention of the wheel.[8]

Mesopotamia is bordered to the north and east by mountains, to the west by the Syrian desert, and to the south by the Persian Gulf.[6] Northern Mesopotamia included the ancient cities of Assur, Nimrud, Khorsabad and Nineveh.[9] The Tigris and Euphrates rivers come close together near Baghdad, where several great cities emerged, including Babylon, Agade, Sippar, Ktesiphon, and Seleucia-on-the-Tigris.[10] This region was called Akkad, and would later be known as Babylonia.[10] To the south, where the two rivers diverged again, lie the land of Sumer.[10] Major cities of Sumer included Ur, Uruk, Larsa and Lagash.[11] Mesopotamia was rich in clay and fibrous date palms, but lacked other raw materials such as stone and metal, which encouraged trade.[12] The island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf was a hub of trading activity connecting Mesopotamia to the ancient cultures of Arabia, Iran, and the Indus Valley.[10]

Mesopotamian culture was rich in the arts. The first pottery was found at Mureybet (c. 8000 BCE)[13] and by the 7th millennium BCE it was decorated with simple geometric designs.[14] Bracelets appear in 7200 BCE,[15] and the Ubaid period saw the emergence of baked clay figurines, painted and adorned.[16] Cylinder seals depicted animal scenes, ritual scenes, and images of naked and bound soldiers.[16] Achievements in architecture included the Ziggurat of Ur[17] and the Ishtar Gate.[18] From texts we know the Mesopotamians had lavish objects such as gold statues, lapis lazuli jewelry, and rich textiles.[19] Vibrant wall paintings illustrate dancing, and several genres of dance can be distinguished on wall reliefs, cylinder seals, and painted pottery.[20] Depictions of musical instruments accompany them,[20] and thousands of clay tablets reveal the names of instruments, their parts, their tuning, and instructions for playing them.

The Sumerian and Akkadian pantheons, mythologies and rituals intertwined over their history. Individual cities had patron deities,[21] who needed to be placated, lest they abandon the city.[22] This was accomplished through lamentation prayers, somber expressions of the grief that would come if the god departed.[22] Music played a central role in this process-hymns accompanied the ritual singing of these prayers,[22] and some rituals involved an interaction with the instrument itself.[23] Instruments were regarded as intermediaries, minor gods that held sway over major deities.[22]

Much of what we know about Mesopotamian music comes from clay tablets. Scribes would use a reed stylus to make wedge-shaped impressions in wet clay, and the tablets would be baked.[24] This cuneiform script would evolve over time, starting from pictograms and logograms, and then to the development of a syllabary and alphabet.[25] Texts about music and musicians are present throughout all stages of the development of writing; they focused on listing instruments, genres, and songs, and articulating their music theory. Piecing together thousands of surviving tablets, researchers have been able to give us a detailed picture of Mesopotamian music culture.

Surviving works [edit]

The most famous surviving works of music are the Hurrian Hymns, a collection of music inscribed in cuneiform on clay tablets excavated from the ancient city of Ugarit, modern day Syria, dating to approximately 1400 BCE. Hurrian Hymn No. 6, the "Hymn to Nikkal", is considered to be the oldest surviving substantially complete written music in the world.[1] [2] [3] [4] At least five interpretations of this tablet have been made in an attempt to reconstruct the music,[4] notably by Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, Marcelle Duchesne-Guillemin, Raoul Vitale, and others. Experts agree on some points, for example, the name of each string of the instrument, its intervals, and its tuning.[26] Nevertheless, each interpretation yields different music.[4] In 2009 Syrian composer Malek Jandali released an album, Echoes from Ugarit, which contains an interpretation of Hurrian Hymn No. 6 on piano accompanied by a full orchestra.

Although the music for most hymns is lost, their surviving texts provide insight as to how the compositions were organized.[27] These compositions, according to Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer, show "a rich variety in both content and structure",[27] and fall into two groups, hymns for the king, and hymns for gods. Kramer details some elements of hymnal organization:

As to structure, the hymns are frequently divided into songs of varying length separated from each other by brief antiphonal responses; others consist of a number of four-line strophes. Not a few of the hymns weave a repeated refrain into their contents; still others break up into sections separated by liturgic rubrics of varying types. The hymns were divided by the ancient Sumerian scribes themselves into different groups and categories. At times, not unlike the hymns in the Book of Psalms, these varied with the type of musical instrument which accompanied them.[27]

Among the earliest known composers in the history of music was an Akkadian priestess, Enheduanna.[28] Active around 2300 BCE, she composed devotional hymns for the gods Sin and Inanna, the texts for which survive.[28] Furthermore, an Akkadian language tablet contains a catalogue of song titles organized by genre,[29] including love songs,[30] although the melodies are lost. Nevertheless, Mesopotamian views of love, sex, and marriage can be inferred from some love songs.[31] In two surviving examples, love songs related to a wedding between a priestess and a king "ring out with passionate love and sexual ecstacy".[31] Kramer infers from the surviving words that some marriages were motivated by sex and love, not just practical considerations, and relates this fact to a Sumerian proverb: "Marry a wife according to your choice!"[31]

Surviving instruments [edit]

Although musicians and musical instruments were depicted in Mesopotamian art in various forms over a 3,000 year period, very few instruments have survived.[33] Only eleven stringed instruments have been recovered, nine lyres and two harps, all from the Royal Cemetery of Ur.[34] The most famous are the four Lyres of Ur:

  • "Golden Lyre of Ur" (Iraq Museum)
  • "Queen's Lyre" (British Museum)
  • "Bull Headed Lyre" (Penn Museum)
  • "Silver Lyre" (British Museum)

One of the two harps discovered at Ur is Puabi's harp.[35] Whereas the largest of the lyres had a register similar to a modern bass viol, and the smaller silver lyre had a register like a cello, Puabi's harp fell in the register of a small guitar.[35] UC Berkeley professor Robert R. Brown made three playable replica's of Puabi's harp,[35] one of which is held in the British Museum.[36] Other instruments discovered at the cemetery include the aforementioned silver pipes,[34] as well as drums, sistra, and cymbals.[37]

The Golden Lyre of Ur now held in the Iraq Museum is a reconstruction; the original was destroyed in the looting that followed the US invasion of Baghdad during the second Iraq War.[38] Musicologist Samuel Dorf details the event:[38]

In early April of 2003, the museum was looted. The lyre went missing, only to be found in pieces. The irreparably damaged gold and mother-of-pearl bull's head was subsequently discovered in the flooded basement vaults of Iraq's Central Bank. Looters stripped parts of the body of much of its gold and left the remains in a parking lot.[38]

The destruction of these antiquities during the war sparked widespread international condemnation.[39] In a 2016 event held in London's Trafalgar Square meant to condemn ISIS and the looting, singer/composer Stef Conner and harpist Mark Hamer performed with a replica of the lyre, recreated by harpist Andy Lowings.[40] The lyre was built of authentic wood, and adorned with lapis lazuli, other precious stones, and $13,000 worth of 24k gold.[41] They played a musical interpretation of The Epic of Gilgamesh from their 2014 album The Flood.[38]

In earlier findings dating to the 5th millennium BCE, two bone wind instruments have been recovered, one complete and the other in fragments.[42] Also recovered is a fragment of a clay whistle from Uruk dating to c. 3200 BCE.[42] Two pairs of copper clappers from Kish are in the Oriental Institute, and there are two scraper instruments dating to 1500 BCE in the Teheran Archaeological Museum.[43] There is a large, elaborately decorated Assyrian bell in the Berlin Museum.[44]

Overview [edit]

Uses of music [edit]

Religious [edit]

Music played a central role in ancient Mesopotamian religion. In the Old Babylonian period, when music was performed as part of a religious ceremony, the practitioners, known as Gala priests, sang in a dialect of Sumerian called Emesal.[45] There were two types of Emesal prayers, the Balag and the Ershemma, named after the instruments used in their performance (the Balag and Shem, respectively).[46] Other musical instruments associated with the Gala priests include the Ub, Lilis, and Meze, although not much is known about what these instruments were.[47]

Evidence from the city of Mari offers a picture of how the musicians were situated within the temple. An instrument called the Ninigizibara was placed opposite a statue of that city's deity, Eštar. Singers sat to the right of the instrument, an orchestra sat to its left, and female musicians stood behind the instrument. Ritual acts were performed during these sung lamentation prayers, whose purpose was to persuade the local deity not to abandon the city.[48] [49] Moreover, some laments included grief over the loss of music itself during the destruction of a city and its temple.[50] In one such work, the "weeping goddess" Ninisinna laments the destruction of her city, Isin, not only bemoaning the loss of food, drink, and luxury, but also because there was "no sweet-sounding musical instruments such as the lyre, drum, tambourine, and reed pipe; no comforting songs and soothing words from the temple singers and priests."[50]

Some rituals involved the instruments themselves. In a ritual closely associated with a drum described in an Akkadian text,[51] a bull was brought to the temple and offerings were made to Ea, god of music and wisdom.[23] [52] The bull was then singed. Twelve linens were placed on the ground, and a bronze image of a god was placed on top of each linen. Sacrifices were made and a drum was put into place. The bronze images were then put inside the drum, incantations were whispered into the bull's ears, a hymn was sung accompanied by an oboe, and the bull was sacrificed.[53]

Secular [edit]

Music was also used in many secular contexts, such as at funerals,[54] in the military,[55] [56] at banquets,[56] among royalty,[57] and at festivals, where musicians were often accompanied by dancers, jugglers, and acrobats.[58] Music was also depicted in relation to sports and sex.[59] Mesopotamian love songs, which represented a distinct genre of music, nevertheless shared features in common with religious music.[60] Inana and Dumuzi, often featured in laments, are also prominent as the divine lovers in romantic songs,[60] and they both use Emesal, a dialect associated with women.[60] The use of Emesal by women singers extended into wedding songs as well, but over time these singing roles were taken over by male performers, at least among the elite.[61] Musicologist J. Peter Burkholder demonstrates that music was universal, with other genres of secular music including "work songs, nursery songs, dance music, tavern music, music for entertaining at feasts, and epics sung with instrumental accompaniment."[28]

Music education [edit]

Professional musicians would be trained as apprentices, being eligible for employment in numerous settings.[62] Sumerian texts indicate that choral training occurred by 3000 BCE in the temple of Ningarsu in Lagash, which developed into highly complex responsorial chanting with instrumental parts, which the musicologist Charles Plummeridge notes "must have required expert tuition and direction."[62] Some religious practices were highly specific in teaching music.[62] Instructions on surviving clay tablets include information on how to play musical instruments.[63] It is debated whether these texts applied to a mainstream musical tradition or a smaller and more theoretical discipline.[64]

With ancient Egypt, Mesopotamian society included the earliest known schools to teach music.[62] Active by the 3rd millennium BCE, these schools—known as edubas—were chiefly for educating scribes and priests.[62] [65] Extant clay tablets often record information on student activities in edubas, and indicate that their examinations included questions on differentiating and identifying instruments, singing technique, and analyzing compositions.[66] Knowledge of music was essential in these roles, as the students would later become important cultural and religious figures.[62] Outside of edubbas, the children of the elite received a comprehensive education in reading, writing, religion, the sciences, law and medicine, among other topics; whether music was included is largely uncertain.[62] A nascent music school existed in Mari, where young musicians may have been purposefully blinded for unknown reasons.[67] Some evidence suggests that Mesopotamians had toy instruments.[68]

Musicians [edit]

Plaque with male musician playing a harp, Ischali, baked clay

Sumerian and Akkadian language texts provide insight into the role of musicians in society.[69] Two distinct types of musicians are known, the gala and the nar.[49] Both classes of musician were regarded highly, and associated with religion and royalty, but their roles differed.[70] The gala musician was closely associated with temple rituals, and their job may have been considered less glamorous and temporary.[70] There are hundreds of individual named musicians, such as the Gala musician Ur-Utu, who are known from administrative documents.[67] In some cases, archaeological findings have identified the homes and family histories of these musicians, revealing their high status in society.[67] Gala musicians were associated with the god Enki.[70]

The nar musician, who had a close association with royalty, was known to play and transport musical instruments and to have close correspondence with the king. The chief musician of the palace directed musical performances and also taught apprentice musicians. In the royal harem, where the king kept wives, concubines, children, and servants, the king also kept young apprentice musicians.[70] The possession of musicians was a sign of status, and musicians were traded over long distances, including as diplomatic gifts and in war.[71] An epic tale called "The Death of Gilgamesh" details how Gilgamesh offered gifts to the gods on behalf of his wives and children, but also on behalf of his musicians.[72] Musicians, alongside the royal family, sometimes accompanied the king to his grave.[73]

Shulgi of Ur, who ruled c. 2094 – c. 2046 BCE during the Third Dynasty of Ur, was a generous patron of the arts, especially music.[74] In self-laudatory texts, he professed to be an expert musician, claiming that it came easy to him.[74] He listed numerous instruments he claimed to have mastered: the algar, the sabitum, the miritum, the urzababitum, the harhar, the "Great Lion," the dim, and the magur;[75] he also claimed to have mastered the art of composition of genres such as the tigi and the adab.[74] Shulgi seemed to enjoy playing all instruments except the reed pipe, which he believed brought sadness to the spirit, whereas music should bring joy and cheer.[76] Shulgi generously funded Sumer's two major edubbas, those of Ur and Nippur; in return, Sumerian poets composed hymns of glorification in his honor.[77]

The best known musician of the Ur III period, Dada, was a wealthy individual who held the title of gala (or gala-mah).[78] His career began in during the reign of Shulgi, and it seems that he was a special kind of gala who acted as the gala of the royal court or even of the state, and was in charge of other galas.[79] Dada organized musical events, looking after both the instruments and related entertainment,[70] including handling a bear cub.[79] He and his family owned residences in both Girsu and Ur,[79] and two of Dada's children, Hedut-Amar-Sin and Šu-Sin-migir-Eštar, entertained the king with their own music.[79] Dada's main assistant, or perhaps star performer, was a nar musician named Ur-Ningublaga.[79] While Dada's story offers a glimpse into the life of a Mesopotamian musician, it is likely that he was an exceptional example, and that most gala musicians would have held more mundane roles.[79]

The gender of ancient Mesopotamian musicians is debated.[70] Some sources indicate that Gala priests, for example, were either genderfluid or regarded as a third gender.[80] Gabbay writes, "The term Gala/kalû should be understood as a general concept, relating to a third gender which shares features of both female and male, but which is an independent gender category."[80] Other sources suggest they may have been homosexual or intersex.[70] Still other texts, including music instruction texts, differentiate between male and female apprentice musicians.[70]

Instruments [edit]

Clay tablet recording the names of 23 types of musical instruments. Sumer, 26th C. BCE.

Instruments of ancient Mesopotamia include harps, lyres, lutes, reed pipes, and drums. They were central to religion; some rituals centered around the instrument itself.[53] Some musical instruments were deified by the ancient Mesopotamian people,[47] [51] and every balag, a type of instrument whose identity is disputed,[81] had a proper name.[82] Known examples include a balag named nin-an-da-gal-ki and another named ushumgal-kalam-ma.[82] Gudea commissioned balags, including 'Great Dragon of the Land' and 'Lady as Exalted as Heaven'.[42]

Voice [edit]

Researchers may never be sure about the exact nature of the musical performance.[35] Nevertheless, musicologist Peter van der Merwe speculates that the vocal tone or timbre was probably similar to the "pungently nasal sound" of the narrow-bore reed pipes.[83] He suggests that ancient Mesopotamian singing shared characteristics with contemporary vocal quality and techniques, including dynamic changes and graces, shakes, mordents, glides and microtonal inflections associated with a nasal timbre.[83] We also know that choral singing was sometimes done in unison and at other times in parts.[67] Geshtinanna was the muse of signing in unison.[67]

Percussion [edit]

Example of the santur instrument carried horizontally and struck with two sticks, known from ancient Babylon (1600–911 BCE) and Neo-Assyria (911–612 BCE).

Percussive instruments in ancient Mesopotamia included clappers, scrapers, rattles, sistra, cymbals, bells and drums.[84] A scraper consisted of a stick and an object with notches cut in it.[43] Rattles were made of gourds or other materials and contained pebbles or clay objects to produce the rattling sound when shook.[85] A Mesopotamian sistrum consisted of a handle, a frame, and cross bars that jingled.[85] Cymbals were small and massive, and some were made of bronze.[85]

Mesopotamian art depicts at least 4 types of drums: a shallow drum, which a Sumerian relief dating to 2100 BCE depicts as an estimated 1.7 meters across, and which required two men to play;[44] [86] a small cylindrical drum held horizontally; a large footed drum; and a small drum with one head, carried vertically.[86] Sumerian drums were made of metal rather than wood[87] and were played with the hands rather than sticks.[44]

Wind [edit]

Wind instruments included flutes, oboes, horns, and pan-pipes.[88] They were made of wood, animal horn, bone, metal, and reed.[67] A short horn instrument used by the Hittites was a precursor to the Jewish shofar.[89] The reed pipe was an instrument played on sad occasions, such as funerals.[90]

Two silver pipes dating to 2800 BCE were discovered in Ur.[91] Both pipes are 24 cm in length. One has four finger holes and the other has three; when placed next to each other, three of the finger holes from each pipe are aligned.[92] While we know this was a reeded instrument, it's unclear whether it was a single or double reed,[92] although some scholars claim that ancient Mesopotamians did not have a single-reeded instrument such as a clarinet.[89] The silver pipes represent the oldest known wind instrument, predating a set of Egyptian reed pipes by 500 years.[93] Similar pipes made of gold, silver, and bronze are described in texts from the same city.[92]

The word "flute" appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the earliest surviving literary work from Mesopotamia. The text describes "A flute of carnelian" (Tablet VIII, line 148, translation by Andrew R. George).[94] There are numerous depictions of flutes in visual art throughout Mesopotamian history, including a woman playing a flute on a Sumerian shell ornament from Nippur dating to 2600-2500 BCE,[95] a flutist on an Akkadian cylinder seal dating to 2400-2200 BCE,[96] an ivory box from Nimrud dating to 900-700 BCE,[97] and in a bas-relief from Nineveh dating to 645 BCE.[98]

String [edit]

String instruments included harps, lyres, lutes, and psalteries.[99] They were adorned with precious metals and stones, such as gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and mother of pearl.[34] Plucked instruments came in many varieties, most differing in the manner in which they were intended to be held.[43] As to their adornment, archaeologist Leonard Woolley suggested that the animal head depicted on the front of the lyre indicated the instrument's register.[100] For example, a bull-headed lyre is in the bass register, a cow-headed lyre is a tenor, and a calf-headed lyre is an alto.[101]

Researchers have discovered tablets that deal with the tuning of stringed instruments. David Wulstan offers an excerpt from a small fragment of a tuning text:[102]

If the harp is in išartum tuning,

You have played the qablitum interval

You adjust strings II and IX

And the harp is now in kitmum tuning

By piecing together such fragments, researchers have been able to come up with what Leon Crickmore called "credible reconstructions"[64] of the Mesopotamian tuning systems for string instruments. A text composed by Shulgi around 2070 BCE gives us technical terms such as 'tuning up' (ZI.ZI), 'tuning down' (ŠÚ.ŠÚ), 'tightening' (GÍD.I), 'loosening' (TU.LU), and the term 'adjust the frets' (SI.AK).[103]

Music theory [edit]

Ancient Mesopotamian art has led to some inferences about music theory. For example, musicologist Curt Sachs[104] describes a relief that depicts the Elamite court orchestra as it welcomes the Assyrian conqueror in 650 BCE:

Its seven harpists are identically depicted, except that they are plucking different strings. As the style is realistic, indeed almost photographic, this cannot be accidental; that variety in that one point cannot be explained by any consideration for design. Each harpist plucks two strings, but the only strings plucked are the fifth, eighth, tenth, fifteenth, and eighteenth of the set. If the instruments, as it is likely to suppose, were tuned to a pentatonic scale – say on C, without half-tones – the plucked notes were A, e, a, e', a', e, that is, a fifth chord orchestrated in the modern way, the two notes being distributed among the seven players in different combinations, as double octave, octave, unison, and fifth.[104]

Example of the F-Lydian scale

From this relief, Sachs draws three conclusions: (1) that musicians used the pentatonic scale, (2) that different orchestra members played different parts, and (3) that musicians knew how to use chords.[105] We also know that the Mesopotamians used a heptatonic,[106] [57] diatonic,[107] Lydian[108] [109] scale. They had the concept of musical intervals, including the octave.[110] [111] The seven heptatonic scales (and their Greek equivalents) were: išartu (Dorian), kitmu (Hypodorian), embūbu (Phrygian), pūtu (Hypophrygian), nīd qabli (Lydian), nīš gabarî (Hypolydian), qablītu (Mixolydian).[112] The ancient Mesopotamians used a cyclic theory of music;[113] on a nine-stringed harp, the strings were numbered from one to five, then back down to one.[113] We also know the names of the nine strings: '1st', '2nd', '3rd-thin', 'God-Ea-made-it', '5th', '4th-behind', '3rd-behind', '2nd-behind', '1st-behind'.[114]

A corpus of thousands of surviving clay tablets provide additional details about ancient Mesopotamian music theory.[115] Some clay tablets contain instructions on how to tune and play instruments, [116] and others relate to musical scales.[106] An Akkadian language mathematical text contains references to musical strings.[29]

Influence [edit]

Mesopotamia-Egypt trade routes

Mesopotamia-Indus trade routes

Ancient Mesopotamian music had a lasting and widespread influence on music history. Trade routes allowed for the free flow of musical instruments and ideas. For much of ancient history, Egypt, Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, Babylonia, Asia Minor, Italy, and Greece all formed what musicologist Claire Polin called a "musical province in which free intercourse created understanding in musical exchange".[117] Bahrain, home to an independent culture of its own, had connections with both the Indus Valley Civilization to the southeast, and also with Mesopotamia to the north.[118] Musicologist Peter van der Merwe writes:

The harps, lyres, lutes, and pipes of Mesopotamia spread into Egypt, and later into Greece, and, mainly through the Greek influence, to Rome. Via the Roman empire they then made their way into Northern Europe. From Egypt the same instruments spread south and westward into black Africa, where some of them survive to this day.[119]

The spread of some instruments can be traced. The lute, or sinnitu, appeared in Mesopotamia about the same time as similar instrument in Egypt, the nefer. This instrument became well known throughout the Near East as the tambour, and has parallels to the Sumerian pan-tur, the Greek pandoura, the Russian balalaika, and the Georgian tar.[120] The Hebrew flute (halil) is derived from the Akkadian hal-hallatu.[100] Egypt in the New Kingdom borrowed instruments from Mesopotamia, such as an angular vertical harp and a square drum.[121] A seal from Ur dated to 2,800 BCE depicts a small animal playing a pair of clappers; similar clappers appear in ancient Egypt centuries later.[122] Contemporary East African lyres and West African lutes preserve many features of Mesopotamian instruments.[119] Mesopotamian harps diffused as far west as the Mediterranean and as far east as Asia.[123]

Trade also spread Mesopotamian musical theory and ideas, which were adapted to fit their new cultures. The influence of their music theory extended as far as the Mediterranean coast[106] - the seven Babylonian diatonic scales have seven corresponding scales in ancient Greece.[107] The Sumerian logogram for 'gala' (kalû in Akkadian) appeared in Hatti, where the word also designated a musician-priest - a type of drummer - and was pronounced as in Hittite as šahtarili.[124] While the gala and šahtarili were both musicians and priests, the Sumerian gala priests were often associated with a third gender category, whereas the šahtarili were typically men;[124] furthermore, the two types of priests were involved in the worship of two distinct pantheons, and there was no Hatti counterpart to Ištar.[124]

Glossary of Sumerian musical terms [edit]

giš-al-gar [101]
lyre
nâ [86]
reed pipe
si-im [100]
horn
sinnitu [120]
lute
ti-gi [86]
vertical flute
ub [125]
drum

References [edit]

Citations [edit]

  1. ^ a b Kilmer 1974, p. 69.
  2. ^ a b Nettl 2015, p. 295.
  3. ^ a b Wulstan 1971, p. 365.
  4. ^ a b c d West 1994, p. 161.
  5. ^ Burkholder, Grout & Palisca 2014, p. 10.
  6. ^ a b c Collon et al. 2003, abstract.
  7. ^ a b Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 1, (ii).
  8. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 2, (b), Ubaid, 4.
  9. ^ Collon et al. 2003, §I, 1, pp. 2.
  10. ^ a b c d Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 1, pp. 1.
  11. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 1, pp. 4.
  12. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 1, pp. 3-4.
  13. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 2, (i), (a), pp. 1.
  14. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 2, (i), (b), pp. 2.
  15. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 2, (i), (b), pp. 1.
  16. ^ a b Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 2, (i), (b), pp. 8.
  17. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 2, (ii), (a), pp. 5.
  18. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 2, (ii), (c), pp. 4.
  19. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 2, (ii), (b), pp. 4.
  20. ^ a b Collon 2003, pp. 96–102.
  21. ^ Collon et al. 2003, p. §I, 3, pp. 1.
  22. ^ a b c d Bowen 2020, p. 68-73.
  23. ^ a b Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, section on drums, paragraphs 18-19.
  24. ^ Robinson 2009, p. 8.
  25. ^ Jean 1987, Chapter 1.
  26. ^ West 1994, p. 162.
  27. ^ a b c Kramer 1946b, p. 321.
  28. ^ a b c Burkholder, Grout & Palisca 2014, p. 7.
  29. ^ a b Kilmer 1971, p. 132.
  30. ^ Kilmer 1971, p. 138.
  31. ^ a b c Kramer 1958, p. 68.
  32. ^ Michael Chanan (1994). Musica Practica: The Social Practice of Western Music from Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism. Verso. p. 170. ISBN978-1-85984-005-4.
  33. ^ Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, paragraph 4.
  34. ^ a b c Kilmer 1998, p. 12.
  35. ^ a b c d Kilmer 1998, p. 15.
  36. ^ Kilmer 1998, p. 16.
  37. ^ Aruz & Wallenfels 2003, p. 33.
  38. ^ a b c d Dorf 2020, p. 34.
  39. ^ Dorf 2020, p. 38.
  40. ^ Dorf 2020, p. 32-34.
  41. ^ Dorf 2020, p. 39.
  42. ^ a b c Kilmer & Mirelman 2013, §2 "Pre- and Proto-literate periods".
  43. ^ a b c Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 288.
  44. ^ a b c Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 290.
  45. ^ Bowen 2020, p. 68.
  46. ^ Bowen 2020, p. 73.
  47. ^ a b Bowen 2020, p. 70.
  48. ^ Bowen 2020, p. 70–72.
  49. ^ a b Mirelman 2009, p. 14.
  50. ^ a b Kramer 1983, p. 73.
  51. ^ a b Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, section on drums, paragraph 18.
  52. ^ Kilmer 1971, p. 137.
  53. ^ a b Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, section on drums, paragraphs 19-20.
  54. ^ Martens 1925, p. 198.
  55. ^ Martens 1925, p. 200.
  56. ^ a b Cheng 2009, p. 165.
  57. ^ a b Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 295.
  58. ^ Collon 2003, p. 99.
  59. ^ Mirelman 2009, p. 12.
  60. ^ a b c Cooper 2006, p. 44.
  61. ^ Cooper 2006, p. 45.
  62. ^ a b c d e f g Plummeridge 2001, §I "Ancient Traditions".
  63. ^ Kilmer & Tinney 1996, p. 54.
  64. ^ a b Crickmore 2012, p. 57.
  65. ^ Bowen 2020, p. 20.
  66. ^ Lucas 1979, p. 317.
  67. ^ a b c d e f Kilmer & Mirelman 2013, §5 "Old Babylonian period".
  68. ^ Sachs 2012, p. 71.
  69. ^ Mirelman 2009, p. 13.
  70. ^ a b c d e f g h Mirelman 2009, p. 15.
  71. ^ Mirelman 2009, p. 16.
  72. ^ Kramer 1946.
  73. ^ Kramer 1960.
  74. ^ a b c Kramer 1967, p. 375.
  75. ^ Kramer 1967, p. 375-376.
  76. ^ Kramer 1967, p. 376.
  77. ^ Kramer 1967, pp. 372–373.
  78. ^ Michalowski 2006, p. 49.
  79. ^ a b c d e f Michalowski 2006, p. 50.
  80. ^ a b Bowen 2020, p. 68-69.
  81. ^ Gabbay 2014, abstract.
  82. ^ a b Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, section on drums, paragraph 11.
  83. ^ a b van der Merwe 1989, p. 11.
  84. ^ Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 288–290.
  85. ^ a b c Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 289.
  86. ^ a b c d Polin 1954, p. 16.
  87. ^ Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, section on drums, paragraph 17.
  88. ^ Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 290–291.
  89. ^ a b Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 291.
  90. ^ Kramer 1969, p. 5.
  91. ^ Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, 9th paragraph after Figure 28.
  92. ^ a b c Lawergren 2000, p. 122.
  93. ^ Lawergren 2000, p. 123.
  94. ^ George 1999, p. 68.
  95. ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  96. ^ British Museum a.
  97. ^ British Museum b.
  98. ^ British Museum c.
  99. ^ Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 292–295.
  100. ^ a b c Polin 1954, p. 17.
  101. ^ a b Polin 1954, p. 18.
  102. ^ Wulstan 1968, p. 220.
  103. ^ Kilmer & Mirelman 2013, §4 "Neo-Sumerian period".
  104. ^ a b Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, section on harps, paragraphs 15-16.
  105. ^ Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, section on harps, paragraph 17.
  106. ^ a b c Kilmer 1998, p. 14.
  107. ^ a b Burkholder, Grout & Palisca 2014, p. 8.
  108. ^ van der Woude 2022, p. 96.
  109. ^ Crickmore 2008, p. 11.
  110. ^ Kilmer & Tinney 1996, p. 56.
  111. ^ Gurney 1968, p. 233.
  112. ^ Kilmer & Mirelman 2013, §8 "Theory and practice", table.
  113. ^ a b Kilmer 1971, p. 134.
  114. ^ Kilmer 1971, p. 133.
  115. ^ Kilmer & Mirelman 2013, § "Introduction".
  116. ^ Kilmer 1998, p. 13.
  117. ^ Polin 1954, p. 36.
  118. ^ Thomas 1970, p. 337.
  119. ^ a b van der Merwe 1989, p. 10.
  120. ^ a b Polin 1954, p. 20.
  121. ^ Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 297.
  122. ^ Sachs 2012, Chapter 3, section on idiophonic instruments, paragraph 4.
  123. ^ Duchesne-Guillemin 1981, p. 299.
  124. ^ a b c Peled 1970, pp. 109–111. sfn error: no target: CITEREFPeled1970 (help)
  125. ^ Polin 1954, p. 15.

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Further reading [edit]

  • Civil, Miguel (2010). The lexical texts in the Schøyen Collection. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL Press. pp. 203–214. ISBN978-1-934309-11-7.
  • Collon, Dominique (2010). "Playing in Concert in the Ancient Near East". In Dumbrill, Richard; Finkel, Irving (eds.). Proceedings of the International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology (ICONEA 2008), The British Museum, London, December 4–6, 2008. London: Iconea Publications. pp. 47–65.
  • de Schauensee, Maude (2002). Two lyres from Ur (1st ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. ISBN978-0-924171-88-8.
  • Duchesne-Guillemin, Marcelle (1980). "Sur la restitution de la musique hourrite". Revue de Musicologie. 66 (1): 5–26. doi:10.2307/928544. JSTOR 928544.
  • Duchesne-Guillemin, Marcelle (1984), "A Hurrian Musical Score from Ugarit: The Discovery of Mesopotamian Music", Sources from the Ancient Near East, Malibu, California: Undena Publications, vol. 2, no. 2, ISBN978-0-89003-158-2
  • Dumbrill, Richard J. (2005). The archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing. ISBN978-1412055383.
  • Dumbrill, Richard J. (2010). "Evidence and Inference in Texts of Theory in the Ancient Near East". In Dumbrill, Richard; Finkel, Irving (eds.). Proceedings of the International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology (ICONEA 2008), The British Museum, London, December 4–6, 2008. London: Iconea Publications. pp. 105–116.
  • Ellermeier, Friedrich (1970). Sibyllen, Musikanten, Haremsfrauen. Aufsätze. Herzberg am Harz: Jungfer. ISBN978-3-921747-05-6.
  • Engel, Carl (1864). The Music of the Most Ancient Nations, Particularly of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Hebrews: With Special Reference to Recent Discoveries in Western Asia and in Egypt. London: J. Murray.
  • Franklin, John Curtis (2006). "Lyre Gods of the Bronze Age Musical Koine". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. 6 (1): 39–70. doi:10.1163/156921206780602636. ISSN 1569-2116.
  • Franklin, John (2015). Kinyras: the divine lyre. Washington, D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University. ISBN9780674088306.
  • Gütterbock, Hans (1970). "Musical Notation in Ugarit". Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale. 64 (1): 45–52.
  • Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn, Richard L. Crocker, and Robert R. Brown (1976). Sounds from Silence: Recent Discoveries in Ancient Near Eastern Music. Berkeley: Bit Enki Publications, 1976. Includes LP record, Bit Enki Records BTNK 101, reissued [s.d.] as CD.
  • Krispijn, Theo J. H. (1990). "Beiträge zur altorientalischen Musikforschung. 1. Šulgi und die Musik". Akkadica. 70: 1–27.
  • Krispijn, Theo J. H. (2008). "Music and Healing for Someone Far Away from Home HS 1556, A Remarkable Ur III Incantation, Revisited". In Van der Spek, Bert (ed.). Studies in ancient Near Eastern world view and society : presented to Marten Stol on the occasion of his 65th birthday,10 November 2005, and his retirement from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Bethesda, Maryland: CDL Press. pp. 173–194. ISBN9781934309186.
  • Krispijn, Theo J. H. (2010). "Musical Ensembles in Ancient Mesopotamia". In Dumbrill, Richard; Finkel, Irving (eds.). Proceedings of the International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology (ICONEA 2008), The British Museum, London, December 4–6, 2008. London: Iconea Publications. pp. 125–150.
  • Michalowski, Piotr (2010). "Learning Music: Schooling, Apprenticeship, and Gender in Early Mesopotamia". In Pruzsinszky, Regine; Shehata, Dahlia (eds.). Musiker und Tradierung: Studien zur Rolle von Musikern bei der Verschriftlichung und Tradierung von literarischen Werken. Wien: LIT Verlag. pp. 199–240. ISBN978-3-643-50131-8.
  • Mirelman, Sam; Krispijn, Theo J. H. (2009). "The Old Babylonian tuning text UET VI/3 899". Iraq. 71: 43–52. doi:10.1017/S0021088900000735.
  • Mitchell, T. C. (1992). "The Music of the Old Testament Reconsidered". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 124 (2): 124–143. doi:10.1179/peq.1992.124.2.124. ISSN 0031-0328.
  • Rimmer, Joan (1969). Ancient musical instruments of Western Asia in the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities, the British Museum. London. ISBN978-0-7141-1045-5.
  • Vitale, Raoul (1982). "La Musique suméro-accadienne: gamme et notation musicale". Ugarit-Forschungen 14 (1982): 241–263.
  • Wellesz, Egon, ed. (1957). New Oxford History of Music Volume I: Ancient and Oriental Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

External links [edit]

  • Media related to Music of Mesopotamia at Wikimedia Commons
  • Goss, Clint (2012). "Flutes of Gilgamesh and Ancient Mesopotamia". Flutopedia . Retrieved 18 August 2022.

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