Dating
Antiquities as an era in Music begins with the oldest recorded artifact of written music, and ends at the fall of the roman empire when Medieval times begins. This means that the dating for this era is variable and likely to change as more archaeological digs uncover older manuscripts, or when already uncovered artifacts are carbonated to an earlier time period than previously thought.
Oldest Recorded Manuscript: Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal
In the 1950, a series of tablets with musical transcripts was discovered near the city of Ras Shamra, Syria, in a royal palace of what was then known as Ugarit. Most tablets were fragments too small to decipher, but among them was a hymn dedicated to the moon god's wife Nikkal. The piece comes with tuning instructions for a 7 string lyre (harp), as well as manuscripts for the harp as well as a singer.
The Hurrian Hymn seems to have been studied extensively as there are several interpretations of the piece. Listed bellow are the names and dates of the different interpretations, and when possible a sample of the music:
- 1971 David Wulstan
- 1974 A. D. Kilmer
- 1977 M. Duchesne-Guillemin
- 1977, 1978 Thiel
- 1982 Raoul Vitale
- 1988 Cerny
- 1993 M. L. West
- 1998 R. J. Dumbrill
- 2000 Monzo
- 2000 Krispijn
The information I found related to the Hurrian Hymn comes from the University of Toronto, as well as Michael Levy who published a CD with this Hymn, and other ancient songs.
