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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...
- 5 min
- 3.5M
- hochelaga
Sep 8, 2023 · A song to help kids learn about the many instruments of the orchestra, and the different sections of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.
- 5 min
- 1.5M
- Hopscotch
Feb 2, 2024 · Explore the intriguing history of music's origins and the fascinating journey of the first song ever created. Join us as we delve into the evolution of music...
- 14 sec
- 848
- PPSC preparation
- 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.
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.
- 2 min
Students will learn to listen to different melodies, rhythms, chords and instruments and learn to analyze and describe what they hear. They will do the main analysis by listening to a song or practicing it.
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Feb 7, 2013 · First, some background: The theremin is an instrument invented by Leon Theremin in 1928. It has two metal antennae, and you play it not by touching it, but by moving your hands in the air between...
