Music was ubiquitous throughout Mesopotamian history, playing important roles in both religious and secular contexts. Mesopotamia is of particular interest to scholars because evidence from the region—which includes artifacts, artistic depictions, and written records—places it among the earliest well-documented cultures in the history of music. The discovery of a bone wind instrument dating to the 5th millennium BCE provides the earliest evidence of music culture in Mesopotamia; depictions of music and musicians appear in the 4th millennium BCE; and later, in the city of Uruk, the pictograms for 'harp' and 'musician' are present among the earliest known examples of writing.
Music played a central role in Mesopotamian religion and some instruments themselves were regarded as minor deities and given proper names, such as Ninigizibara. Its use in secular occasions included festivals, warfare, and funerals—among all classes of society. Mesopotamians sang and played percussion, wind, and string instruments; instructions for playing them were discovered on clay tablets. Surviving artifacts include the oldest known string instruments, the Lyres of Ur, which includes the Bull Headed Lyre of Ur.
There are several surviving works of written music; the Hurrian songs, particularly the "Hymn to Nikkal", represent the oldest known substantially complete notated music. Modern scholars have attempted to recreate the melodies from these works, although there is no consensus on exactly how the music would have sounded. The Mesopotamians had an elaborate system of music theory and some level of music education. Music in Mesopotamia influenced, and was influenced by, music in neighboring cultures of antiquity based in Egypt, East and West Africa, and the Mediterranean coast.
Much of what researchers know about Mesopotamian music comes from clay tablets. Scribes would use a reed stylus to make wedge-shaped impressions in wet clay, and the tablets would be baked. Using this cuneiform script, they recorded texts that listed genres and song titles, included instructions on how to play instruments, and articulated their music theory. By piecing together thousands of surviving tablets, as well as examining surviving artworks and instruments, researchers have been able to offer a detailed picture of Mesopotamian music culture.
Uses of music
Religious
Music played a central role in ancient Mesopotamian religion. In the Old Babylonian period ( BCE – BCE), when music was performed as part of a religious ceremony, the practitioners, known in Sumerian as gala priests, sang in a dialect of Sumerian called Emesal. There were two types of Emesal prayers, the Balag and the Ershemma, named after the instruments used in their performance (the balag and shem, respectively). In some depictions of religious festivals, musicians were accompanied by dancers, jugglers, and acrobats.
Evidence from the city of Mari offers a picture of how the musicians were situated within the temple. An instrument called Ninigizibara was placed opposite a statue of that city's deity, Eštar. Singers sat to the right of the instrument, an orchestra sat to its left, and female musicians stood behind the instrument. Ritual acts were performed during these sung lamentation prayers, whose purpose was to persuade the local deity not to abandon the city. Moreover, some laments included grief over the loss of music itself during the destruction of a city and its temple. In one such work, the "weeping goddess" Ninisinna laments the destruction of her city, Isin, not only bemoaning the loss of food, drink, and luxury, but also because there were "no sweet-sounding musical instruments such as the lyre, drum, tambourine, and reed pipe; no comforting songs and soothing words from the temple singers and priests".
Some rituals involved the instruments themselves, deified, and capable of receiving animal sacrifices as gods. In a ritual closely associated with a drum described in an Akkadian text, a bull was brought to the temple and offerings were made to Ea, god of music and wisdom. Various parts of the bull were burned with a torch during the ritual. Twelve linens were placed on the ground, and a bronze image of a god was placed on top of each linen. Sacrifices were made and a drum was put into place. The bronze images were then put inside the drum, incantations were whispered into the bull's ears, a hymn was sung accompanied by an oboe, and the bull was sacrificed.
Secular
The Akkadian word for music, , also meant 'joy' and 'merriment', well illustrated by a seal in the Louvre showing a peaceful scene of a shepherd playing a flute to his flock. Music was a normal part of social life in Mesopotamia and was used in many secular contexts. Music played important roles at funerals, among royalty, and was also depicted in relation to sports and sex. Mesopotamian love songs, which represented a distinct genre of music, nevertheless shared features in common with religious music. Inana and Dumuzi, often featured in laments, are also prominent as the divine lovers in romantic songs, and both genres used Emesal, a dialect associated with women. The use of Emesal by women singers extended into wedding songs as well, but over time these singing roles were taken over by male performers, at least among the elite. In the Early Dynastic III period, music was depicted at banquets, but the purpose is unclear. The celebration may have been "a regular calendrical event, such as the New Year's festival" or the occasions may have been "extensions of temple practices or celebrations of successful military campaigns".
As in neighboring cultures, Mesopotamian music played an important role in the military. While the musical instruments of war varied from culture to culture, the intention of the music was the same — to "carry terror to the hearts of the foe". Martens writes:
Musicologist J. Peter Burkholder lists genres of secular music including "work songs, nursery songs, dance music, tavern music, music for entertaining at feasts, and epics sung with instrumental accompaniment". Vibrant wall paintings illustrate dancing, and several genres of dance can be distinguished on wall reliefs, cylinder seals, and painted pottery; depictions of musical instruments accompany them. Secular music was comforting to the Mesopotamian people: one incantation tells of a homesick scribe who was stuck and ill in Elam-Anšan; he longed "to be healed by the music of the horizontal harp with seven strings".
Musicians Education As in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamian schools taught music. Active by the 3rd millennium BCE, these schools—known in Sumerian as edubbas—were chiefly for educating scribes and priests. Extant clay tablets often record information on student activities in edubbas, and indicate that their examinations included questions on differentiating and identifying instruments, singing technique, and analyzing compositions. Other tablets include information on how to play musical instruments. Sumerian texts indicate that choral training occurred by 3000 BCE in the temple of Ningarsu in Lagash; choral performances developed into highly complex responsorial chanting with instrumental parts, which the musicologist Charles Plummeridge notes "must have required expert tuition and direction".
In the 18th century BCE, a nascent music school existed in Mari, where young musicians may have been purposefully blinded. The fact that Mesopotamians connected blindness with musicianship is expressed in literature. Gabbay writes: "In the Sumerian myth Enki and Ninmah, the goddess Ninmah creates various human creatures, and their destiny is then fixed by the god Enki. When Ninmah creates a blind person, Enki allots him the "art of the musician"." Texts reveal that a disproportionate number of Mesopotamian musicians were blind.
Outside of the classroom, music was taught through one-on-one apprenticeship. Both male and female musicians were trained, some of whom lived with their teachers. Contracts for training were either official, as among royalty, or in a private agreement between two families; music was also passed down within a family. Among the elite class, children received a comprehensive education in reading, writing, religion, the sciences, law, and medicine, among other topics; whether music was included is largely uncertain. Some evidence suggests that Mesopotamians had toy instruments.
Societal role
Sumerian and Akkadian language texts provide insight into the role of musicians in society. Two distinct types of musicians are known, the gala and the nar. Both classes of musicians were highly regarded, and associated with religion and royalty, but their roles differed. The gala (Akkadian: ) musician was closely associated with temple rituals; it has been suggested by the musicologist Piotr Michalowski that their job was "normally less glamorous and perhaps temporary". Musical instruments associated with the gala priests include a small drum (Sumerian: , Akkadian: ), a timpani (Sumerian: ), and a sistrum or cymbals (Sumerian: ), although not much is known about these instruments. There are hundreds of individual named musicians, such as the gala musician Ur-Utu, who are known from administrative documents. In some cases, archaeological findings have identified the homes and family histories of these musicians, revealing their high status in society. Gala musicians were associated with the god Enki.
The nar (Akkadian: ) musician, who had a close association with royalty, was known to play and transport musical instruments and to have a close correspondence with the king. The chief musician of the palace directed musical performances and also taught apprentice musicians. In the royal harem, which included the king's wives, concubines, children, and servants, the king also kept young apprentice musicians. The possession of musicians was a sign of status, and musicians were traded over long distances, including as diplomatic gifts and in war. When the Assyrian military conquered a city, they would spare the musicians and send them to Nineveh with the spoils. An epic tale called "The Death of Gilgamesh" details how Gilgamesh offered gifts to the gods on behalf of his wives and children, but also on behalf of his musicians. Musicians sometimes accompanied royalty to their graves. In the Royal Cemetery at Ur, archaeologist Leonard Woolley found a girl musician lying down, harp in hand, inside the tomb of Queen Puabi.
The gender of ancient Mesopotamian musicians is debated. Some sources indicate that gala priests, for example, were either genderfluid or regarded as a third gender. Gabbay writes, "The term Gala/kalû should be understood as a general concept, relating to a third gender which shares features of both female and male, but which is an independent gender category." Other sources suggest they may have been homosexual or intersex. Still, other texts, including music instruction texts, differentiate between male and female apprentice musicians. Some of the ambiguity surrounding the gala's gender could be explained by the history of lamentation prayers, which may have originated with the funerary laments of women. The earliest documented gala performance was in the context of a funeral, with women lamenters accompanying the gala in the mourning. These origins may explain why female characteristics, and the dialect associated with women, Emesal, have long been associated with the gala and temple prayers.
Specific personalities