Global Arab Network | Syria: Scholar Composes Music from Archaeological Ugaritic Cuneiform Tablet

Translate this article to your language:

GANPublications

e-Publications

Add Site to Favorites

Add Page to Favorites

Make Homepage

Share This Page

RSS Feed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |

Syria: Scholar Composes Music from Archaeological Ugaritic Cuneiform Tablet

- Talal Abdullah

Wednesday, 07 July 2010 23:30

Syrian_Scholar_Composes_Music_from_Ugarit_Cuneiform_Tablet

Syria (Lattakia) – Musical scholar Ziad Ajjan composed eight poetry and musical pieces from the musical archaeological cuneiform tablet known as "Hymn of Supplication" H6 discovered in Ugarit in the early 20th century.

Ajjan composed three musical pieces based on the musical notes in the tablet which dates back to 1400 BC, naming the pieces "Sunrise," "Sunset" and "Holiday in Ugarit."

This marks the recording of the oldest music notation in the history of the world.

Ajjan said he is still working on the tablet based on information he reached after extensive study and previous experiment, making use of previous research by fellow Syrian scholars Mohammad Ahmad Soso and Sajii Kurkmaz and analyzing the phrases of the tablet's text.

The tablet contains a complete hymn, both words and music, in addition to detailed performance instructions for a singer accompanied by a harpist as well as instructions on how to tune the harp.

This tablet is one of several clay tablets were excavated in the early 1950s at the Syrian city of ancient Ugarit in what is now modern Ras Shamra, 12 kilometers north of the city of Lattakia in the Syrian Coast region, and around 260 kilometers north of Damascus.

Ugarit was an ancient cosmopolitan port city built around 6000 BC, reaching the height of its prosperity from 1450 BC until 1200 BC when it was abandoned.

The first written alphabet, the Ugaritic alphabet, was invented around 1400 BC. It consisted of 30 cuneiform letters, and shared similarities with the Arabic language in terms of meanings and grammar.

Earlier in June, Syrian Soprano Noma Omran performed a song from tablet at Daitoku-Ji, a Zen-Buddhist temple in Kyoto, accompanied by the temple's monks and Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta. (SANA)

For More Archaeological News click HERE

Global Arab Network

Add comment

The opinions of the authors in articles published are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Global Arab Network
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published comments are the opinions of private individuals and do not reflect the views of Global Arab Network