Discover

'Ancient music' is music that developed in literate cultures, replacing prehistoric music.
The development of writing took place in different time periods in different geographic areas. A number of inscriptions (collectively termed "Old European Script") appearing on portable artifacts recovered from the lower Danube Valley dated to ca. 5000 BCE have been claimed as examples of early linear writing; however, it is far from clear whether these marks constitute proto-writing at all. The first uncontested examples of a writing system are attributed to the Sumerian culture in Mesopotamia, and date from around 4000 BCE. So this is when the era of ancient music began. In Europe it ended in 476 CE , and was followed by the Early music era of European classical music. For Arab music, ancient history ended in 622 CE.
Samaveda, one of the four vedas describes music at length.
Anne Draffkorn Kilmer from the University of California at Berkeley published in 1986 her decipherment of cuneiform tablet from Nippur dated to about 2000 B.C., demonstrating that it represents fragmentary instructions for performing music and that the music was composed in harmonies of thirds, and that it was also written using a diatonic scale (Kilmer 1986) The notation in that tablet was not as developed as the notation in the later cuneiform tablet dated to about 1250 B.C. (Kilmer 1965) Although the interpretation of the notation system is still controversial, it is clear that the notation indicates the names of strings on a lyre, the tuning of which is described in other tablets (West 1994). These tablets represent the earliest recorded melodies, though fragmentary, from anywhere in the world. (West 1994)
Ancient Greek musicians developed their own robust system of musical notation. The system was not widely used among Greek musicians, but nonetheless a modest corpus of notated music remains from Ancient Greece and Rome. The epics of Homer were originally sung with instrumental accompaniment, but no notated melodies from Homer are known. Several complete songs exist in ancient Greek musical notation. The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving complete musical composition from the Greek tradition or from any tradition. Three complete hymns by Mesomedes of Crete (2nd century CE) exist in manuscript. In addition, many fragments of Greek music are extant, including fragments from tragedy, among them a choral song by Euripides for his ''Orestes'' and an instrumental intermezzo from Sophocles' ''Ajax''. Romans did not have their own system of musical notation, but a few Romans apparently learned the Greek system. A line from Terence's ''Hecyra'' was set to music and possibly notated by his composer Flaccus.
It has always been known that some ancient music was not strictly monophonic. Some fragments of Greek music, such as the ''Orestes'' fragment, clearly call for more than one note to be sounded at the same time. Greek sources occasionally refer to the technique of playing more than one note at the same time. In addition, double pipes, such as used by the Greeks and Persians, and ancient bagpipes, as well as a review of ancient drawings on vases and walls, etc., and ancient writings (such as in Aristotle, ''Problems,'' Book XIX.12) which described musical techniques of the time, all indicate harmony existed. One pipe in the aulos pairs (double flutes) may have served as a drone or "keynote," while the other played melodic passages. Kilmer's decipherment of the cuneiform tablets indicate that the simultaneous sounding of different pitches was practiced very early, perhaps by 2000 B.C.
The term "ancient music" may also refer to contemporary, but traditional or folk, music which is considered to continue its "ancient" style and includes much Persian music, Asian music, Jewish music, Greek music, Roman music, the music of Mesopotamia, the music of Egypt, and Muslim music. See also: authentic performance.

Contents

The Harps of Ur

Harps from Syria and Egypt

Hurrian Music

See also

References

External links

The Harps of Ur

In 1929 Leonard Woolley discovered pieces of at least three harps while excavating in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur located in what was Ancient Mesopotamia and is contemporary Iraq. Some fragments are in Pennsylvania, some in the British Museum in London, and some in Baghdad. They have been dated to 2,750 BCE. Various reconstructions have been attempted, but none were totally satisfactory. Depending on various definitions, they could be classed as lyres rather than harps. The most famous is the bull-headed harp, held in Baghdad. It survived both Iraqi wars, and attempts are being made to play a replica of it as part of a touring orchestra.

Harps from Syria and Egypt

Assurbanipal (705 - 681 BCE) was king of Assyria. At his capital at Nineveh is a bas-relief showing the fall of the Judean city of Lachish. In the procession is the Elamite court orchestra, containing seven lyre-players and possibly a hammer-dulcimer player. The lyres appear to have seven strings. True harps are shown in murals from the time Ramesses III of Egypt, about 1200 BCE. "The Tomb of the Harpists" contains a bas-relief with two blind musicians. James Bruce described it in 1768 and it sometimes known as Bruce's Tomb.

Hurrian Music

Among the Hurrian texts from Ugarit are the oldest known instances of written music, dating from c.1800 BC. A reconstructed hymn is replayed at the Urkesh webpage.

See also

★ History of music

★ Persian music

References

★ Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn, 'The Strings of Musical Instruments: their Names, Numbers, and Significance', ''Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger = Assyriological Studies, xvi (1965), 261-8

★ Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn, ''Journal of Cuneiform Studies'', xxxviii (1986), 94-98

★ West, M. L., 'The Babylonian Musical Notation and the Hurrian Melodic Texts', Music & Letters, Vol. 75, No. 2. (May, 1994), pp. 161-179

External links

★ Nay-Nava the encyclopedia of persian music instruments

★ Reconstructed bone flutes, sound sample and playing instructions.

★ International Study Group on Music Archaeology

★ Musica Romana: Ensemble for ancient music

★ Ancient Greek music on original instruments : Daimonia Nymphe