Hey! I had a dream that I was a child in a small Mesopotamian city; I drew the layout as soon as I woke up and all was built with blue tiles (resembling the Ishtar gate). We were playing in the mud of a field, but soon returned home. On the door there was a name of a war song and I remember us singing it and marching back to the fields. We stopped for a second and then continued the march with deep adult voices, as if going to war. Can you recommend some reading on music in that period?
I wish I had dreams like that, wow! Unfortunately, though, I’m really out of my depth here, as I’m neither a historian (– even if that period of history in that region interests me a lot, I do not know nearly enough about it to comment on anything) nor a musician… The only thing on the topic I do know about is this article, which I also can’t really assess the quality/reliability of.
Not exactly the same thing, but @sisterofiris has made some really awesome recordings of ancient texts and I’d consider her better equipped to answer this, but she’s on hiatus right now. Someone like @michi-izkur-ereshkigal would also be a better addressee…
@protoindoeuropean thanks for tagging me !
When it comes to music in Mesopotamia, it’s not necessarily just “music,” as we know it. The various musical compositions include: full length stories, hymns, and lamentations, among others.
For example: Here is a nice version of an excerpt from The Epic of Gilgamesh and another on The Flood.
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Music was large part of the Mesopotamian cultures, both inside the temple in a religious setting and outside with the lives of average people. Music was everywhere.
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“Music both instrumental and vocal, played a large role in Sumerian life, and some of the musicians were important figure in temples and court. Beautifully constructed harps and lyres were excavated in the royal tombs of Ur. Percussive instruments such as the drum and tambourine, were also common, as were pipes of reed and metal. Poetry and song flourished in Sumerian schools. Most of the recovered works are hymns to gods and kings for use in the temples and palace; but there is every reason to believe that music, song, and dance were a major source of entertainment in the home and market place.” The Sumerians by Samuel Noah Kramer pg 100
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“…music was an integral part of ancient Mesopotamian life. The images of inlaid plagues, carved seal stones, and sculpted reliefs transport us back to the world of sound. We watch the shepherd playing his flute as his dog sits and attentively listens. We revel with banqueters as a solo vocalist in the background raised here voice to the strains of a lyre . We repose in a palatial garden as a court hapist caresses his strings. We encamp with soldiers weary from a march as musicians play to sooth them. We clap our hands together with other spectators as two lines of dancers rhythmically advance toward one another and retreat. And we hear priests solemnly intone their temple hymns. So great, in fact, was a queen of Ur’s love for music she could not bear the thought of being in the afterworld without it; so, with with the help of a sleeping potion in the tomb she took her royal musicians with her into the beyond.” A Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia by Stephen Bertman pg 294 This book has a music section listed under “everyday life”, the section are pages 294-298, you can read the 295, 296, 298 here
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This book has a lot of imagery with information:
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Music was extremely important in the religion of Mesopotamia; one reason being it was the way they entertained the gods and expressed deep emotions religiously.
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“Music and song were similarly required at those feasts. Thus it is quite likely that the official and ceremonial meals of the gods, especially the most festive ones, were accompanied by music from all sort of instruments: stringed (e.g., lyres and harps), wind (e.g., flutes, horns, and trumpets), and percussion (e.g., large and small drums, tambourines, bells, and rattles) which are rather well documented in our archives, even if it is not always possible to find their modern equivalent or relatives in our own instrumentation, nor to know the true nature of their melodies, or whether the music was accompanied by recited it sung lyrics…” Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia by Jean Bottero translated by Teresa Lavendar Pagan pg 131
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“In the third millennium several instruments gave their name to compositions (tigi and adab, e.g. which were sorts of symbols; balag and zami, which were types lyres), obliquely evoking in this way their regular sonorous accompaniment, but also a certain number of constants in style, imagery, as well as “metric” and “strophic” structure—as so many distinct literary genre. There were also other categories of prayers: “dialogues” (balbale), which were sung or modulate by two people or two choruses, and “ersemma,” who’s name evoked the “plaintive” tonality (er in Sumerian was “tears,” “lamentation”), regularly preformed by female officiants, priestesses, their very test written in so-called feminine dialect (eme.sal) that was reserved for them in literature.” Boretto pg 137
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“[The God] Ningirsu’s shifting moods were humored by two divine musicians, the “singer” Ushumgalkalama, who inspired the harp of that name and provided gaiety, and Lugaligihusham, the spirit of another harp that brought solace in dark moments.” Treasures of Darkness by Throkild Jacobsen pg 82
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Even the Gods played their own music. From a lamentation where Inana is grieving for her husband Dumuzi’s death she cries:
“his reed pipe— the wind will have to play it; my husband’s songs— the north wind will have to sing them.” from The Wild Bull who has Laid Down, in Treasures of Darkness pg 53
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More information:
This is a fantastic answer and I have nothing to add, apart from the fact that if you want to listen to original Mesopotamian music, we currently know of two preserved melodies from the Ancient Near East. One is a scale meant to help tune a lyre, dating back to 18th century BC Isin. The other is from 14th century BC Ugarit and is a fragmentary hymn to the Goddess Nikkal.
Some friends and I performed both melodies in concert last year, and you can listen to them here :)