November 22, 2004

The Oldest Song in the World? - Clay tablets found by archaeologists in the early '50s at Ugarit remained untranslated for nearly 20 years, but researchers knew they somehow related to music. Finally, the 3,400 year-old cuneiform texts were deciphered in 1972. They were musical notation for a hymn, utilising harmony, & were in the equivalent of the diatonic major scale, suggesting that the diatonic scale existed in ancient times & is probably based upon natural influences.

There's a midi version of the little ditty on this site, too.

posted by Nostrildamus 20 years ago
  • I'd give it an 82 - nice melody but tough to dance to.
  • I love this sort of stuff. It would be great if someone took this tune and tried to incorporate it into a modern pop song to have Brittany Spears sing (unknowingly, of course) a chant from Ugarit.
  • they tried to do a googlebomb seed by dropping "origin of music" 40 times in the bottom right corner the website. sort of makes me want to diuscount the authenticity... as does the crappy web design. but then again, i might just be a code snob. in fact, i think i am! i know just enough to know what sucks, but not enough to do it all perfectly myself. the perfect recipe for a code snob! sweet. and no midi for me. didja have to click it, or have i saved myself by not allowing sounds? 'cause as far as i can tell, midi is about as useful as a blink tag, which is to say never.
  • Needs more cowbell.
  • "they tried to do a googlebomb seed by dropping "origin of music" 40 times in the bottom right corner the website." This internet thing is new to you, isn't it? ...what is a googlebomb 'seed'? WTF? "..crappy web design" Clearly the internet is new to you. "and no midi for me. didja have to click it, or have i saved myself by not allowing sounds?" There's this thing they call downloading a file. It's a cool idea, I think it will catch on. If one were to discount the authenticity of every site by judging the aesthetics of coding, then 99% of all scholarly sites would be down the gurgler. These people spend their time learning ancient Assyrian, not Dreamweaver MX. Dance, froggy.
  • I couldn't find the midi either - I found "click here" but that was not a link, and the other link led to a page yet to be constructed.
  • It's no greensleeves, but it's kinda catchy. I'd like to see a slightly more interpretive version where it's not so "dunk-dunk-dunk-dunk-DUNK-dunk" sounding. Also, I can't tell what, if any, time signature this is. Anyone?
  • thanks!
  • I might jazz it up a bit in Cubase.
  • Haven't read it yet but it looks great - thanks for the post. I don't know what they say about tempo, but just listening to the midi, i'd say it's too fast. The "dunk-dunk-dunk" stuff just sounds like instrumentation to me, replace it with a flute and see if that works better. *waits for Nosey's jazz version*
  • [banana for nostrildamus] Also, I can't tell what, if any, time signature this is. Anyone? There is no regular time signature, and the phrase lengths were probably governed by the text (if any), much like the plainchant of the medieval Catholic church. Of course, the idea of "meter" as we understand it is a pretty Western thing anyway, and wouldn't apply to music composed a few thousand years ago. I would love to hear a good early music ensemble, like Boston Camerata or one of Paul Hillier's groups, recreate this. (an aside: when I first listened, the very beginning almost sounded like a mashup between "Yankee Doodle" and the principal theme from the last movement of Bethoven's Ninth in a minor key)