Syria: Scholar Composes Music from Archaeological Ugaritic Cuneiform Tablet

Global Arab Network ^ | Thursday, July 8, 2010 | H. Sabbagh

[SunkenCiv]

Musical scholar Ziad Ajjan composed eight poetry and musical pieces from the musical archaeological cuneiform tablet known as "Hymn of Supplication" H6 discovered in Ugarit in the early 20th century.

Ajjan composed three musical pieces based on the musical notes in the tablet which dates back to 1400 BC, naming the pieces "Sunrise," "Sunset" and "Holiday in Ugarit."

This marks the recording of the oldest music notation in the history of the world.

Ajjan said he is still working on the tablet based on information he reached after extensive study and previous experiment, making use of previous research by fellow Syrian scholars Mohammad Ahmad Soso and Sajii Kurkmaz and analyzing the phrases of the tablet's text.

The tablet contains a complete hymn, both words and music, in addition to detailed performance instructions for a singer accompanied by a harpist as well as instructions on how to tune the harp.

This tablet is one of several clay tablets were excavated in the early 1950s at the Syrian city of ancient Ugarit in what is now modern Ras Shamra, 12 kilometers north of the city of Lattakia in the Syrian Coast region, and around 260 kilometers north of Damascus.

Ugarit was an ancient cosmopolitan port city built around 6000 BC, reaching the height of its prosperity from 1450 BC until 1200 BC when it was abandoned.

The first written alphabet, the Ugaritic alphabet, was invented around 1400 BC. It consisted of 30 cuneiform letters, and shared similarities with the Arabic language in terms of meanings and grammar.

Earlier in June, Syrian Soprano Noma Omran performed a song from tablet at Daitoku-Ji, a Zen-Buddhist temple in Kyoto, accompanied by the temple's monks and Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

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• Ugarit (search on varchive)

[thecodont]

Ajjan composed three musical pieces based on the musical notes in the tablet which dates back to 1400 BC, naming the pieces "Sunrise," "Sunset" and "Holiday in Ugarit."

Thank you for posting this! I went back to the article to look for an *.mp3 file, but no luck.

We know the Psalms in the Bible were set to music, but we currently have no idea of which music was used. I wonder if this find from Syria is related to musical notation in the Psalms.

[wku man]

Is it the "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" riff?

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[SunkenCiv]

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[Lazarus Starr]

http://phoenicia.org/imgs/nikhalhymntomoon.mp3

This link is to one of the pieces.

[Textide]

Here's a youtube video. Interesting sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viMbnj_Ei2A

[SunkenCiv]

He should have named the third one “If I Were A Rich Man”.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[thecodont]

Thanks for the links!

The Hymn to the Moon sounds like techno music.

To my ears, the lyre piece in the YouTube link starts out with “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and ends up with The Who.

[Textide]

To my ears, the lyre piece in the YouTube link starts out with “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and ends up with The Who.

Haha, yeah the guy rocks out at the end. Will have to research how they could figure out the tuning and timing of that piece. Even modern, transcribed music is open to a huge amount of interpretation.

[JoeProBono]

[Pecos]

You know how hard it is to translate accurately between two modern languages. Nuance and colloquialisms kill translations all the time. Now someone is telling us that tuning and timing have also been figured out? My guess would be that it's ALL a guess.

[rightwingcrazy]

“The first written alphabet, the Ugaritic alphabet, was invented around 1400 BC.”

I detect a bit of chauvinism here. More likely derived than invented, from what I read, and more likely preceded by the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet, perhaps by several centuries (used by “Semitic slaves in northern Egypt”).

[wildbill]

a-b-c-d-e-f-g
h-i-j-k-lmnop
q-r-s
t-u-v
w-x
y and z
Now I know my “ABCs”,
Next time won’t you sing with me

[colorado tanker]

You want us to play "Holiday in Ugarit"???

[SunkenCiv]

also try the bottommost link I put here (meant that post for the GGG ping msg, oops):

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2549691/posts?page=2#2

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks. :’)

[Sawdring]

That MP3 computer version was good enough to worship a deity with and sacrifice a sheep, but play that music with a Pan flute and three Ocarina’s and it was to die for.

[Sawdring]

On the sidebar of that Youtube link is another cool video:

Oldest known photographs