“the Seikilos Epitaph is not the absolute first or oldest musical piece in human history, but it is the oldest surviving complete song with fully readable musical notation.”
The Oldest Complete Song: Created around the 1st or 2nd century CE in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), it features both lyrics and specific pitch notation written on a stone monument.
Other musical recordings are older, but they are incomplete. For example, the Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal dates back to around 1400 BCE, but it only survives in broken pieces and tuning instructions rather than a fully intact melody. Sumerian cuneiform tablets from around 1900 BCE contain music theory and tuning guides, but they cannot be fully played today like the Seikilos Epitaph. Curse of being a music major.
wy69
🎵 Hey, FR has at least one topic about the Hurrian hymn. 🎶