Music

At least from the beginning of the third millennium b. c., and likely considerably earlier, the Sumerians and other Mesopotamian peoples employed music in royal and/or religious festivals. Singers and dancers, both male and female, often accompanied by jesters and other entertainers, performed. Some of the compositions were upbeat and happy, to celebrate the crowning of a ruler or to give thanks to a god. Others consisted of laments, poems, and other literary works recited or sung to music. Archaeological evidence shows that the singers were frequently accompanied by musicians or sometimes played the instruments themselves. The instruments included lyres (small harps) and larger harps, wind instruments such as single and double pipes and small clay whistles, hand drums (tambourines) and larger kettle drums, and cymbals and bells. (Trumpets existed but were used to signal in battle rather than for music.) More evidence indicates the instruments were played both solo and in big orchestral ensembles. Musicians also marched with and played for soldiers during military campaigns.

Most ancient Mesopotamian music was not sung and played impromptu but rather followed written scores (collections of musical notes and symbols) by composers who understood music theory. Babylonian and Assyrian tablets dating from the second millennium b. c. name the harp’s strings and depict scales of musical notes. The score of a hymn dedicated to the moon goddess, complete with lyrics for the singers, was found in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit. Much later, in the Seleu-cid and Parthian periods, Greek-style wandering bards (minstrels who recited or sang heroic tales to the accompaniment of lyres and other instruments) became popular across Mesopotamia.

See Also: literature; religion; Ugarit