

The Oldest Song in the World: A Sumerian Hymn Written 3,400 Years Ago - pje
http://www.openculture.com/2014/07/the-oldest-song-in-the-world.html

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dcsommer
Its unlikely musicians used equal temperament 3,400 years ago. This is a
guess, and that fact is reinforced by the other "interpretations" referenced
in the article. It's fun to imagine, but this not a "Rosetta Stone for music"
moment.

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boomlinde
I can't see where the article makes a reference to equal temperament.

The diatonic scale is particularly interesting in that the tones can be re-
arranged into a sequence of very basic harmonic relationships (fifths, which,
depending on the tuning, is very close or equal to a 2/3 frequency ratio) that
are found in music universally.

Based only on what I read in the article I would have to agree with the idea
that it is all a guess, though, but in general I don't think that assumptions
should be made on the basis of lack of evidence.

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adamnemecek
Presumably the reproductions are played on instruments with equal temperament.

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anigbrowl
Lots of professional MIDI instruments provide for alternative temperaments,
which is part of the MIDI 1.0 specification. It's not hard to render things in
just intonation.

Instruments like the lyre (second video) are most easily tuned to themselves,
so I see no basis for the presumption about that either.

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adamnemecek
But you still don't know what it should be tuned to.

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anigbrowl
You can use a tuning fork, but that doesn't matter. Temperament is about the
tuning relationships between notes of the scale. In equal temperament they're
slightly enharmonic, ie adjusted away from ideal harmony in order to allow
transposition into different keys. This doesn't sound as pretty, but it's
'equally bad' across all keys and we're used to it. If you tune strings
against each other then the intervals are consonant. Your starting pitch can
be rather arbitrary as long as you're not trying to match it to any other
instrument. If you are trying to match to another instrument (in ancient
times, a horn was the most likely candidate) then you blow a note on that and
tune one string to it.

Musical key intervals are based on simple mathematical ratios, which haven't
changed in the interim.

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mootothemax
I believe the article may be talking about the Hurrian Songs:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurrian_songs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurrian_songs)

This is an interesting point from the wiki entry:

 _Astonishingly, there are no known terms corresponding to a single note, or
to intervals of a seventh or seventh_

I'd like to hear some other views on how these tablets have been interpreted.

(as an aside: I'm under the impression that it's wrong to describe these as
_Sumarian_ , as they were a quite distinct and separate group)

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bambax
The start of the piece sounds very much like "Ode to Joy".

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tartuffe78
It reminds me of the Ocarina of Time, can imagine this playing in some shop
while the shopkeeper watches my every move.

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neurobro
My gut tells me the first one would get somebody sacrificed, but I did like
the second.

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coldcode
It's very haunting. I never realized the lyre could sound like this.

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microtherion
The lyre was great, but the tune needed more cowbell.

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Bangladesh1
Where is the link to download the music pls?

