The oldest musical notation in the world was found in Ugarit, written in the Hurrian language in cuneiform script and dated to around 1400 BC. A text containing the names of four Hurrian composers was also discovered. In this article, we will discuss the details of this musical notation and how to interpret its symbols, in addition to displaying images of the Hurrian tablet and the musical notation, an image of a female Hurrian drummer, and presenting the aforementioned hymn to be listened to through the two links placed at the end of the article for dear female readers and dear male readers to enjoy listening to this musical piece that is more than 3,400 years old.
The Hurrian hymn is a religious invocation in the Hurrian language, and its content revolves around the story of a marriage that did not produce children, resulting in a song lamenting the state of the goddess Niggal, the wife of the moon god, who was barren and had no children. In the hymn, it is as if the goddess Niggal asks her husband the reason for her infertility and blames him for it, as he is the god who grants children to couples, while leaving his wife barren and childless.
In 1948, a specialized French archaeological expedition excavated at the site of Ugarit, located about nine kilometers north of the city of Latakia. During the fifteenth excavation campaign which took place in 1951, among the ruins of the royal palace at the site of Ugarit, numerous tablets were found, including two broken tablets. In 1953, a piece of a shattered tablet was also found in the royal palace. After a few years, Emmanuel Laroche, a professor at the French University of Strasbourg, identified these three pieces and realized they were parts of a single broken tablet. This researcher was able to put the three pieces together in complete alignment. After joining the parts of this tablet together, its shape was rectangular, about 19 centimeters long and 7.5 centimeters wide. In 1967, this archaeological scientist studied the writings on the clay tablet, translated them, and published them in the fifth volume of the official bulletin of the French excavation expedition named Ugaritica, which is published in French. This study indicated that the tablet is a hymn composed for the Hurrian goddess Niggal, the wife of the moon god Kushukh. After gathering the parts of the tablet together, copying it, and publishing it, the tablet became in a condition that allowed its contents to be studied by researchers.
The Hurrian clay tablet is written in cuneiform script and contains the first known musical notation in the history of human culture, which is the oldest musical piece in history, dating back to 1400 BC. A rare image of a female Hurrian drummer was also discovered.
In the upper section on the first face of the discovered Hurrian tablet, there is a writing consisting of four lines, which wraps around to surround the tablet from the second face. This is followed on the first face by two horizontal dividing lines. Below these two lines in the lower section, there are six lines consisting of symbols and signs that represent the names of musical intervals, and a number comes after each musical interval. In the first line, the number was (10), while in the remaining five lines, the value of each number ranges between 1 and 5. After this tablet was studied by researchers, it became clear that the upper four lines contain an ancient religious hymn written in the Hurrian language. The six lines located below the lines are musical signs. This tablet shows for the first time in history a precise musical detail of a religious hymn called (Nid Qabli). Also, the name of the composer of the hymn is (Urhiya) and the name of the scribe of the hymn is (Amurabi), who are mentioned in the Hurrian tablet.
Musical Notation
Numerous attempts have been made by scholars and specialists to decipher the tablet. The Hittite scholar and American researcher Hans Güterbock was the first to distinguish the musical notation and discovered that the symbols in the lower section are names of musical intervals and that each of these intervals is followed by a number, though he was not able to translate this written music in the form of a musical interval followed by a number.
Later in 1971, the English scholar David Wulstan made the first attempt to decode these symbols, being one of those who studied Mesopotamian tablets. Wulstan stated that the notation Do-Sol means a stepped scale of five degrees: Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol, rather than an interval, but in this case, the number following the interval would have no meaning, since as long as the music is notated, there is no need for a number in it.
The second attempt was made by the American scholar Dr. Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, an Assyriologist, in collaboration with the musician Richard Crocker and the physicist Robert Brown, where Dr. Anne Kilmer stated that (Do-Sol) means (Do) and (Sol), which is an interval followed by the number (3) which means the repetition of (Do-Sol) three times (Do-Sol, Do-Sol, Do-Sol), and she also stated that there was polyphonic music in Ugarit. Kilmer and her assistants recorded their interpretation of the Hurrian hymn on a record that was distributed in the markets in 1975 under the title “Sounds from Silence”, but the record was unconvincing.
The third attempt was made by the Belgian lady Duchesne-Guillemin, who wrote in the Journal of Musicology published in France. Duchesne-Guillemin expressed her support for Wulstan’s interpretation that (Do-Sol) is a melody: (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol) and that the number following (Do-Sol) indicates short notes (Petites notes) added for ornamentation, stating that the Greeks still use them in Byzantine music, but when (Do-Sol) is a musical notation, the presence of short notes has no meaning.
The fourth and successful attempt was made by the Syrian physicist researcher Raoul Vitale, who discovered that the number on the tablet indicates the number of musical time measures (Mesures). All lines matched perfectly, except for the first and last lines, as he found no corresponding poetic verses written above them. Vitale concluded from this that there is an un-sung musical prelude at the beginning and an un-sung musical conclusion at the end, while all the remaining lines matched completely. The Hurrian word (Ustma Ari) was present in the first line, followed by the number (10). According to the translation of the German scholar Thiel, the Hurrian word (Ustma Ari) means (I do not give speech, I give). This phrase clarifies that half of the piece is without words and the other half is with words. Thus, the first line of the notation is a musical introduction without words, the second line of the notation matches the first verse of the hymn, the third line of the notation matches the second verse of the hymn, the fourth line of the notation matches the third verse of the hymn, the fifth line of the notation matches the fourth verse of the hymn, and the sixth (last) line of the notation is a musical conclusion without words. Vitale wrote the musical degrees, white, black, and others, based on the assumption that the numbers are times. Then he wrote the musical text, which was played for him by one of his musician friends on the (Kurd Maqam) similar to the Sumerian and Hurrian (Nid Qabli) maqam, and recorded it. After that, he modified three or four musical notes of this Hurrian hymn to correct some errors that were present in it.
The discovery of this Hurrian hymn proves that the heptatonic musical scale and musical notation are not a Greek invention, but rather among the pioneering innovations of the civilization of the Kurdish ancestors, the Hurrians, because before this historical discovery, the world believed that the first notated musical piece on the heptatonic scale was a piece played in one of the plays of the Greek tragic writer Euripides, which was performed in the mid-fifth century BC. This Hurrian hymn preceded this Greek piece by a thousand years. Thus, this Hurrian musical piece is a thousand years older than the oldest musical piece known to the West based on the musical scale discovered by the Greek Pythagoras around 450 BC.
From here, it becomes clear that Kurdistan is the source of musical scales in the world, and that the seven Greek scales, which in turn form the Western musical scale, were based on the musical scale of the Kurdish ancestors, the Sumerians and the Hurrians.
With this discovery, the age and history of music and musical notation in the Middle East region were determined. Moreover, this Hurrian hymn proves the antiquity and authenticity of Kurdish music on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is material evidence that the Hurrians are ancestors of the Kurds and that the Kurds and their ancestors communicate together through music, as the Hurrian melody is based on the Kurd maqam as a musical maqam. When listening to this Hurrian musical piece, the listener easily discovers the distinctive Kurdish character of this Hurrian melody, which differs from Arab, Persian, and other tunes.
The Kurds and their ancestors draw inspiration from the beautiful mountainous nature of Kurdistan for creativity and genius in various aspects of life, including music, art, poetry, literature, and science. History and Kurdish heritage need great attention from the government of the South Kurdistan Region, Kurdish political organizations, and Kurdish media to highlight the features of Kurdish civilization to the peoples of the world.
Sources
Dr. Ali Al-Qayyim: Music, History and Impact. First Edition, Al-Kindi Printing Press, Damascus, 1988.
Raoul Vitale: The Oldest Known Music in the World. Al-Hayat Al-Mousiqa Magazine, Issue 2, 1993, and Issue 6, 1994.
West, M. L. The Babylonian Musical Nation and the Hurrian Melodic Texts. Music & Letters Vol: 56, No. 2 (May 1994), pp. 161-179, Oxford University Press.
Gurney, O. R. Babylonian Music Again. Iraq Vol. 56 (1994), pp. 101-106. British Institute for the Study of Iraq.
Links
The first link contains the Hurrian hymn alone.
The second link is a program presented by Al Jazeera Satellite Channel about the mentioned hymn, in which the subject is explained, the tablet is displayed, the location of the archaeological Ugarit is shown, in addition to a recording of the Hurrian hymn.
