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Aug 14, 2020 · The Hurrian Hymn is History's first Song. Well, the oldest known song. If we're really splitting hairs: the earliest written song that can be reconstructed. We're not even sure what the song...
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Jan 3, 2024 · In the case of ‘Au Clair De La Lune’, the music is unique in being the first song ever recorded and is bound to a technological invention that predates the gramophone by three decades. In March 1857, the French printer, bookseller, and inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville invented the phonautograph.
- Overview
- Hurrian Hymn No. 6
- Modern Interpretations of Oldest Song
Music is likely as old as humanity. But when was the first song recorded in history?
The history of music is as old as humanity itself. Archaeologists have found primitive flutes made of bone and ivory dating back as far as 43,000 years, and it’s likely that many ancient musical styles have been preserved in oral traditions.
When it comes to specific songs, however, the oldest known examples are relatively more recent.
The earliest fragment of musical notation is found on a 4,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet, which includes instructions and tunings for a hymn honoring the ruler Lipit-Ishtar.
But for the title of oldest extant song, most historians point to “Hurrian Hymn No. 6,” an ode to the goddess Nikkal that was composed in cuneiform by the ancient Hurrians sometime around the 14th century B.C.
The clay tablets containing the tune were excavated in the 1950s from the ruins of the city of Ugarit in Syria. Along with a near-complete set of musical notations, they also include specific instructions for how to play the song on a type of nine-stringed lyre.
“Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is considered the world’s earliest melody, but the oldest musical composition to have survived in its entirety is a first century A.D. Greek tune known as the “Seikilos Epitaph.” The song was found engraved on an ancient marble column used to mark a woman’s gravesite in Turkey.
“I am a tombstone, an image,” reads an inscription. “Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance.”
The well-preserved inscriptions on Seikilos Epitaph have allowed modern musicians and scholars to recreate its plaintive melodies note-for-note. Dr. David Creese of the University of Newcastle performed it using an eight-stringed instrument played with a mallet, and ancient music researcher Michael Levy has recorded a version strummed on a lyre.
There have also been several attempts to decode and play “Hurrian Hymn No. 6,” but because of difficulties in translating its ancient tablets, there is no definitive version. One of the most popular interpretations came in 2009, when Syrian composer Malek Jandali performed the ancient hymn with a full orchestra.
- The Neanderthal Flute. Up first on our list of very old musical instruments is the Neanderthal Flute. But this isn’t the modern concert flute we recognize today.
- Bullroarer. Up next is the Bullroarer, an ancient musical instrument that dates back to 18,000 BC. It can be found all over the globe. It’s usually a flat plank of wood in an elliptical shape with a long string attached to it.
- Jiahu Gǔdí. Our next instrument is one that can be traced back to roughly 6000 BCE in China. This makes the Jiahu Gǔdí the oldest musical instrument from this country.
- Tutankhamun’s Trumpets. Another very old instrument is Tutankhamun’s trumpets, which were discovered in Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s burial chamber. They originated around 5000 BC.
Uncovering the First Song: A Musical Journey Through History • The First Song • Explore the origins of music with the discovery of the oldest known musical c...
Oct 10, 2022 · Who invented music? – Rom, age 7, Las Vegas, Nevada. The short answer is: No one knows who invented music. No historical evidence exists to tell us exactly who sang the first song, or whistled...
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Apr 3, 2021 · Listen to the enchanting sound of the world’s oldest song, the Hurrian Hymn. The Hurrian Hymn was discovered in the 1950s on a clay tablet inscribed with Cuneiform text. It’s the oldest surviving melody and is over 3,400 years old.
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