Echoes of Ancient Ugarit

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• published: 15 Feb 2013
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This unique video, features my brand new arrangement for solo lyre, in the beautifully pure just intonation of antiquity, of Dr Richard Dumbrill's magnificant interpretation of the 3400 year old "Hurrian Hymn Text H6" - track 1 from my new compilation album of solo lyre music, "Musical Adventures in Time Travel". The Hurrian Hymn (catalogued as Text H6) was discovered in Ugarit, Syria, in the early 1950s, and was preserved for 3400 years on a clay tablet, written in the Cuniform text of the ancient Hurrian language - except from a few earlier Sumarian fragmentary instructional musical texts from c.1950 BCE (Musical Instructions for Lipit-Ishtar, King of Justice) the Hurrian Hymn it is the oldest written song yet known, in History! Although about 29 musical texts were discovered at Ugarit, only this text, (text H6), was in a sufficient state of preservation to allow for modern academic musical reconstruction. In short, the Cuneiform text clearly indicated specific names for lyre strings, and their respective musical intervals - a sort of "Guitar tablature", for lyre! Although discovered in modern day Syria, the Hurrians were not Syrian -- they came from modern day Anatolia. The Hurrian Hymn actually dates to the very end of the Hurrian civilisation (c.1400BCE) . The Hurrian civilization dates back to at least 3000 BCE. It is an incredible thought, that just maybe, the musical texts found at Ugarit, preserved precious sacred Hurrian music which may have already been thousands of years old, prior to their inscription for posterity, on the clay tablets found at Ugarit! My arrangement here, is based on the that the original transcription of the melody, as interpreted by Prof. Richard Dumbrill. Here is a link to his book, "The Archeomusicology of the Near East": http://bit.ly/d3aovp My new arrangement is played here, on an evocation of the ancient Biblical 10-string "Kinnor" Lyre from neighbouring Israel; an instrument almost tonally identical to the wooden asymmetric-shaped lyres played throughout the Middle East at this amazingly distant time...when the Pharaoh's still ruled ancient Egypt. A photograph of the actual clay tablet on which the Hurrian Hymn was inscribed, can be seen here: http://www.phoenicia.org/music.html The melody is one of several academic interpretations, derived from the ambiguous Cuneiform text of the Hurrian language in which it was written. Although many of the meanings of the Hurrian language are now lost in the mists of time, it can be established that the fragmentary Hurrian Hymn which has been found on these precious clay tablets are dedicated to Nikkal; the wife of the moon god. There are several such interpretations of this melody, but to me, Dr Dumbrill's interpretation just somehow sounds the most "authentic". Below is a link to the sheet music, as arranged by Clint Goss: http://www.flutekey.com/pdf/HurrianTabLtd.pdf In my new arrangement of the Hurrian Hymn, I have use my new hand-made lyre, with natural fibre wound silk strings in the bass - for a more authentic ancient timbre. I also use just intonation - the wonderfully pure tuning of antiquity, where unlike modern equal temperament, (where all the intervals in a scale are artificially made equal, to enable seamless transposition between different keys), in just intonation, the ratio of each specific interval in a scale is slightly different - precisely calculated by dividing the musical scale up into exact musical ratios. The result is wonderfully pure, intense-sounding intervals (unlike the out of tune "woowoowoo" sounding beat waves which can be heard when a triad is played in a piano tuned in equal temperament!) I have attempted to illustrate an interesting diversity of ancient lyre playing techniques, ranging from the use of "block and strum" improvisation at the end, glissando's, trills & tremolos, and alternating between harp-like tones in the left hand produced by finger-plucked strings, and guitar-like tones in the right hand, produced by use of the plectrum. In the repeat, I also use a percussive style of lyre playing - hitting the strings with a small wooden baton instead of using a plectrum. This is an ancient Mesopotamian lyre playing technique, evident from illustrations of musicians in the Bas Reliefs of musicians in the ruins of the Palace of Nineveh, c.700 BCE. There is a wonderful arrangement of the Hymn for piano & orchestra by the Syrian pianist & compsoer, Malek Jandali - however, maybe my new version, is the first time in 3400 years, that the Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal has once more, been performed on an actual lyre with natural fibre strings, in the just intonation of antiquity... For full details about my albums of lyre music, and the fascinating ancient historical background, please visit my official website: http://www.ancientlyre.com