Ancient Mesopotamian Music - A Beginner's Introduction 

homo sapiens dressed in mesopotamian garb over cheap greenscreen talks about sounds.png This video will be a very general, introductory look at the basic of what we do know of Mesopotamian music from around the 1st millennia B.C and perhaps older. Background artwork by Endegor: www.deviantart.com/endegor/art/Babylon-Processional-Way-741022134 Plausible reconstructions of what Mesopotamian music may have sounded like (keep in mind that even these are still conjectural to many degrees, there's simply no way as of now to know what their music sounded like beyond the generalities I talk about in this video): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2H8_13x3JaI.html Sources: Music in the Texts from Ugarit, Matahisa Koitabasi: www.academia.edu/38789419/Music_in_the_Texts_from_Ugarit A Musical and Mathematical Context for CBS 1766, Leon Crickmore: www.academia.edu/1618638/A_Musical_and_Mathematical_Context_for_CBS_1766 Musical Ensembles, Krispjin: www.academia.edu/37109059/Krispijn_iconea2008_Musical_Ensembles_pdf The Babylonian Musical Notation and the Hurrian Melodic Texts, M. L. West: musicircle.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Babylonian-Notatin-and-the-Hurrian-Melodic-Texts_Music-and-Letters-1994-WEST-161-79.pdf Is Nid Qabli Dorian ? Tuning and modality in Greek and Hurrian music, Stefan Hagel: www.academia.edu/47502712/Is_nid_qabli_dorian_Tuning_and_modality_in_greek_and_hurrian_music The Musical Instruments from Ur and Ancient Mesopotamian Music: Anne Draffkorn Kilmer: www.penn.museum/people/person/999 New Light on the Babylonian Tonal System, Leon Crickmore: www.academia.edu/278555/NEW_LIGHT_ON_THE_BABYLONIAN_TONAL_SYSTEM_ICONEA_2008_11_22 Was Mesopotamian Tuning Diatonic? A Parsimonious Answer, Jay Rahn: www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.22.28.1/mto.22.28.1.rahn.php Mesopotamian Music Theory Since 1977, Anne Draffkorn Kilmer: www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110340297.92/html Mesopotamian Music (pre-Islamic), Bo Lawergren: www.academia.edu/11728399/Mesopotamian_Music_Pre_Islamic_in_English A Hurrian Musical Score from Ugarit, The Discovery of Mesopotamian Music, Marcelle Duchesne-Guillemin: urkesh.org/attach/duchesne-guillermin%201984%20the%20discovery%20of%20mesopotamian%20music.pdf Interview with Anne Kilmer: archive.ph/ewHL7 The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East, Richard Dumbrill The earliest evidence of heptatonism in a late Old Babylonian text: CBS 1766 www.academia.edu/243915/Earliest_Evidence_of_Heptatonism 00:00 Intro 00:54 Some historical music can’t be heard, only talked about 3:13 What Mesopotamian music was *not* 6:23 The instruments 11:11 The sound of melodies 20:52 The “orientality” of Mesopotamian music 31:04 The legacy of Mesopotamian music 33:46 A plausible demonstration

It actually feels normal to me to have someone dressed in the height of Babylonian fashion addressing me and explaining complex ideas.

OK, so let me sum up: The middle easterners invented european music, then the Greeks invented middle eastern music, and then they swapped it.

Aristoxenos snorting pimento-stuffed olives is such an anachronism. Ancient Greeks only snorted olives without peppers because they wouldn't have had access to peppers until the late 15th century.

Bilbamesh needs to be a regular character on this channel lmao

"I didn't cry for my boyfriend Enkidu" under a minute in and I already love this so much

But Farya forgot what ancient Mesopotamia was most famous for! The land of the most glorious beards!

Very nice to meet Bilbamesh and witness the return of our favourite olive adict, Aristoxenos, in an eBic collaboration to explain mesopotamian music, from the land of top tier beards and big lyres.

The intro with the Age of Mythology Egyptian theme playing in the background absolutely killed me

Thanks for the mention of Peter Pringles. First time hearing of him but for a while I was looking for something similar

Mesopotamian Farya added to collection. I can’t sleep let’s learn something new

Mesopotamia had the first orchestras in known history AND a diatonic system?? I'm too drunk right now to comprehend this

Make a collab Sumerian song with Peter Pringle🔥

I just discovered that Farya Faraji is the true reincarnation of Cyrus the Great, the ruler of the Medes and Persians and the conqueror of Babylon.

One of your best videos, sir. The bit with Aristoxenus SNIFFING AN OLIVE and giving his opinion was completely f@#*€g hilarious.

Aristoxenus sounds exactly how my Greek co-workers sound like in English... you are extremely talented Greek impersonator in addition to your field of expertise.

It is a firmly established fact that all ancient people wore bracers.

Dude, if I wasn't already subscribed, snorting the olive and "Completely fucking unscientific" would have done it 😀 Re the Greeks vs (apparently) everyone else: people don't realise what a melting pot the ancient Mediterranean was. Yes kingdoms went to war all of the time, but peoples till moved about pretty freely, resulting in the cross-pollination of knowledge. It wasn't "the Greeks" or "the Persians", it was a constant back and forth of ideas.

Dear Farya, I love your videos and learn a lot from them, but as an Assyriologist, specialized on the Early Dynastic Period and Sumerian, let me assure you: Balag is the Sumerian term for "lyre". In the lexical lists from Ebla it is paired with the term "ki-nu-ru" the standard Semitic term (e.g. Hebrew "kinor"). And the cuneiform sign looks like a lyre too😂

This kinda videos about "how ancient music works" are great. Keep going

Khosrow I cosplaying a Mesopotamian man from days of yore and talking about Mesopotamian music is just the video I absolutely would watch for Easter Sunday

It seems to me that something similar happens with ancient Egyptian music and what it was supposed to sound like. Many of the "reconstructions" simply sound like Perso-Arabic music that emerged in the 9th century, as noted in the video, Hijaz Maqam system is used. Since I was a little boy, I've always found this strange, as a people from 6000 years ago and who had been separated from the Arabs for 800 years (separation between the emergence of the Arabs and when the end of Ancient Egypt is declared), would they have music that would sound the same as Arabic music from Arab Egypt (and which has Ottoman influence)? Isn't it that people simply confuse modern Egyptian with Ancient Egyptian?

That outfit is causing my brain to read your beard as purple.

Dude, while you're in that timeline, start a copper selling business. They say there's good coin to be had. The customer service be really bad tho.

I'm convinced you're 3000 years old and were born in ancient Mesopotamia sometimes before the bronze age collapse.

YES! I was waiting for the day this would eventually come out! Mesopotamia is seriously underrated. I also wonder, what we refer to as Mesopotamia stretches from the Ubaid period, to the end of the Neo-Babylonian empire, 5500 BC to 539 BC. It makes me wonder how much the music changed in those times. What instruments became popular and which faded. I guess that's a question we really cannot fully answer

As an Assyrian , I have to say that your video's and Song are absolutely Amazing ! Love to Iranian ❤💙💚❤️ En tant qu'Assyrien , vos vidéos sont absolument incroyable et un véritable délice pour nos oreilles , il m'arrive d'être triste ou nostalgique en pensant à mes ancêtres , mais j'essaie de me rassurer le plus possible notamment avec des Musiques, je pense savoir quelle musique seront les suivantes 💙❤️

I have listed to 5 minutes of you speaking, and I already love your channel. Instant sub, you deserve a million.

Your sense of humor with a heavy dose of intellectual information always cheers me up. Greetings from Serbia, man, love your work.

I gotta keep it real with you, homie, you're fucking amazing. The humor, the knowledge, and most importantly, the passion and dedication. You flexed your knowledge and passion for history in the more literal sense, with your clear explanations. But you also flexed such things, and your dedication, with the background, costume, editing, and humor too. Then of course, your genuine humor that betrays a hint of how you feel people should behave (I can't think of a better word) when an important lesson is being taught. You're awesome, man, keep up the great work. Also, God DAMN I'm getting lost in them eyes, for real.

dude I'm so glad I find your channel can't wait to explore this nerdy music videos. Thanks for quality content!

Peter Pringles voice makes me cry, also thank you for your content, it is so exciting to learn all of this and you transfer this knowledge in such an engaging way

I for one appreciate these longer deep dive videos

Farya, I just love your videos and the information that you present on them. I've owned for several years a cd of Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians & Greeks(new expanded edition) by the Esemble De Organographia. Having viewed your video here, I'll have to listen in a different way than I have previously....especially to the Hurrian Hymns. Thank you for your knowledge, humility and humor. Best wishes always.

Love the skits ❤ you are a treasure Farya Keep it up man, great work

I’m still waiting for that song about Julius Caesar with Mongol throat singing 😂 I sure hope it come’s would be absolute gold

I wasn't aware that you not only produced but talked about sounds as well. 10/10 channel. Hajduks of Moesia was absolutely fantastic btw.

That was by turns fascinating, enlightening and absolutely hysterical. I think the eeeeeeh? + shrug needs to become standard performance protocol in any serious minded historical music setting. Amazing work and thanks for such a great & engaging video!

Man, your channel is great!

Love your stuff man! Beautiful!, thank you for this treasure.

I love it when you talk man I love to hear what you say when you teach me your wisdom and knowledge I feel educated in the history of Medieval music in ancient music

third time one of your videos jumped into mu TL. defiantly deserves a sub.

Given the quality of the fantastic commentary before and around the music, I might be clicking just to hear the talk!

The AOM Egyptian music at the begining! :D Aom soundtracks are phenomenal. Top quality content!!

I've always adored Mesopotamian art, and you look so good in the clothes too!

Im Assyrian and this video is cool i hope you do more videos about Mesopotamia

Discovered the channel yesterday. I am definitely having a great time. Also the greek accent.. so fcking on point ahahaha

The brightness setting joke killed me. Epic video as always, it's good to see coverage for even more obscure music like this. PS: Where is music, I need to hear music, less talking, MORE MUSIC!

Great video as always!! Thanks!!

Really well done video. Very informative. Also i believe you nailed the babylonian look. Atleast thats what i would imagine a rich mesopotamian to look like

Age of Mythology as intro, hello? You dont disapoint my many also need this for DnD setting, love your work!

The part with Aristoxenos got me😂😂😂, it would honestly make a great roast out of context. I love listening to your talks. Long ago I noticed the large amount of versions of the Hurrian hymn and wondered why that is the case. Now I know why

Another awesome video my guy! Bilbamesh joins Aristoxenos in the Farya Faraji cinematic universe. All that’s missing is Ibn Fadlan lol. On another note, I wonder what could be said about ancient Egyptian music? They seemed to have lyres or harps according to mural evidence. Though to my knowledge, and I’d love to be proven wrong, but there have been no equivalent of Hurrian hymns in Egypt and no surviving written texts regarding ancient Egyptian music. So, I imagine that it’s a much harder job to determine what ancient Egyptian music actually sounded in terms of music theory. I hope you could make a video on this topic.

Dear Farya...I am amazed for the clarity in your herculean effort to bring sense into the musical world that has lost a bit its origins. Keep up the " inspiration..."

Few seconds in I was like 'waaaiiit a minute, I know that jazzy little tune'. Never get tired of the flashbacks induced by the Age of Mythology soundtrack popping up in random places. Its notes are seared into my soul from many a childhood hour well spent.

Hi Farya! I really appreciate you trying to give a more holistic, grounded interpretation to this ancient music tradition. It was only ever glossed over (using many of the sound clips you used) in my university studies with a kind of thought-terminating "this is how it was done" attitude, not really exploring how they arrived at those interpretations. Also I appreciate you struggling through with the Bilbamesh costume! Would you be able to do a similar video about ancient Egyptian music at all? It's my area of study and there are quite a lot of groups doing reconstructions, but I'd be really interested in hearing your perspectives!

Great video! I really appreciate your willingness to not know specifics on some aspects of the music.

Will you do any Mesopotamian music on the channel? Also, it's good to see someone having their sources in their video description for anyone to go look up

I have foiled your scheme! I am listening to the Sumerian Music playlist WHILE listening to your non-music talking video. You thought we couldn't do both, but I can do both!

New farya variant added to the cinematic universe.

I'm now curious about the history of the music of East Asia, it's facinating hearing about the history of music in Europe and the Middle East but now im curious about how the music traditions developed far from Western Eurasia.

Seeing this got me so excited. I am fascinated by the Sumerians. Thank you!

As an Iraqi I love this! 🤍🎶💙

I was in a very beautiful Babylonian outfit. All love to you and our brothers in Iran ❤🇮🇶🇮🇷❤

We are proud of You. Well done!

I'm happy to finally find a legit talk on historical music rather than a 2 hour mix of something claiming to be historical, but based more on fantasy.

I first came to your channel for the awesome roman legion music you did. Then I listened to more and different cultural songs you have put out. I started to really get interested in all different kinds of cultural history. Long and short of it, thank you for making these videos. It has revitalized my love of history. Keep up the amazing work.

Haha the part when you clash tiktoker is really fun xD (and sad but you really good explain why). Thank you for your awesome work again !!!

very cool and instructive video !!!!!

Thanks for this video my guy!

Excellent work here Sir

Hey Farya, very engaging presentation style and nice props. I especially liked your video about why traditional Greek music doesn't sound "Western"! I was wondering if you ever considered the musical tradition of the Syriac Churches, which historically spanned the area of the Fertile Crescent before their missionaries spread Christianity to India, China, etc. They are today represented in the Middle East largely by ethnic Assyrians who belong to the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Ancient Church of the East, Syriac Catholic Church and, to some extent, the Maronite Catholic Church. Culturally, they represent a continuation of the ancient peoples of the area, since they continue to speak in Aramaic, and their literature is in a dialect of the same language called Syriac. Aramaic had been introduced as an official language by the Assyrians in the 8th century BC, and this was continued under subsequent Persian rulers. So, for the most part, they retained their identity and large parts of their culture, resisting assimilation, and especially continuing to speak their 3,000 year-old language! The bulk of the Syriac musical repetoire belonging to these Churches developed prior to the arrival of Islam, and especially in the fourth and fifth centuries AD, in schools at Antioch, Edessa, Nisibis, Nineveh, Arbela and Seleucia-Ctesiphon. No doubt, they would have had some Hellenistic influence due to Alexander and later the Seleucid Empire, as well as some Persian influence - since the ancestors of those who adhered to these Churches had been ruled by the Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanians. They would also have been in contact with pre-Islamic Arabs and other neighbouring groups. Particularly, their location at the convergence of the Sassanian and Byzantine empires in northern Mesopotamia would have some singificance. You mentioned that we don't really know what ancient Mesopotamian music sounded like, and that the notion of genetical musical memory is preposterous, and I agree with you to a large extent. However, I would tend to believe that some elements of Syriac liturgical music could well go back to ancient secular, folk and temple music from ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant. Don't you think? Unfortunately, there has been no overarching and comprehensive study of the entire musical tradition, but enough has been done to give an idea of what is out there. Looking forward to reading your opinion on this...

Your videos are so good. Interesting, erudite, odd, also funny. But mostly engaging in important re-imagining of history thus far misapprehended in many ways. (A Finn here, a non-indoeuropean language speaker, but western by geography and history.)

Thanks! Absolutely great video and fascinating for me because I'm learning Sumerian

Your videos are so bomb man

You're much sassier than I expected, I like it!

A very wonderful research on the history of music in ancient civilizations, especially in Iraq. Thank you❤🇮🇶

Watching your informative videos, it's really interesting to learn that just because something is deeply associated with a certain area today, doesn't mean it originated there. Crazy how it is the modern consensus not only for the Middle Eastern "sound" but also for Western diatonicism.

I've only had Bilbamesh for 35:29 minutes but if anything were to happen to him I will kill everyone in the tigris and euphrates river valleys and then myself

Thank you for yet another great video. You really make them instructive and enjoyable. How about an epic about a maritime periple between Mesopotamia, Oman and the Harappa civilisation? Or a proto-indo-european epos joining the vedic and homeric traditions for a possibly dactylic hexametric steppe song about the serpent-slaying myth? Anyways, bonnes Pâques et merci pour la qualité des vidéos. Voilà de la médi(ta)ation culturelle de premier ordre

These videos are soo good and enjoying. o7

Do you have Patreon or Kofi or something? Your content is so incredibly high quality, you deserve compensation for it

bro you vids are golden

First time to this channel, thanks for all the good infos! And the genetic memory thing...

This deserves more attention

Peter Pringle, incredible talent.

Thanks for the wonderful information. I love how you are so keen to debunk assumptions. As an Aussie from Celtic ancestry, I have loved Middle Eastern and Balkan music since the early 1980s. I teach English to adult migrants and lead a world music band with students from all over the world so I try to be Authentic when I lead Arabic songs on the oud or Latin American on the congas… I love how you show the evidence and logic for Ancient Mesopotamian music being diatonic. I have also being guilty of overuse of hijab maqam lol. I would love to learn more about the Kurdish and ZaZa music that seems to be in rast maqam but has a tonic note that floats above where it seems it should and feels like it never resolves….

Great video as always I can't tell whether it was on purpose or not, since you are also interested in ancient languages I wonder whether you have studies some Akkadian or Sumerian. The name Gilgamesh is written 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌 in the older form, which is pa-bil-ga-mesh and /b/ and /b/ sometimes exchange in Emesal (probably feminine genderlect of Sumerian), making it possible that Gilgamesh in Emesal is Bilbaŋesh. The possibility that musical instruments were created from weapons sounds very plausible. Perhaps also farm equipment. Reminds me of videos from... I think it was Romanian or Ukrainian, just farmers hitting stuff with certain tool and singing to it. The saŋ-gida "long side" (that's just the translation and the guess of how it looks like, I don't know if it is found archeologically) is some instrument with a single string like a bow (or was it sa-gida ... "sa" means sinew and "saŋ" is front/side, my Sumerian has gotten a bit rusty). It would not be implausible that it is just a modified bow in the end. If you'd adopt Mesopotamian music plus text, would you go for Sumerian or Akkadian (or another culture/language?). There is to my knowledge also a lot of debate on how the texts and cultic "hymns" were actually performed or recited or even read. Apart from letters, which seem obvious, this goes for a lot of cases of Mesopotamian literature, where we don't know who the actual audience was of that "reading culture". Did people fetch a clay tablet to read as evening literature? Some authors like Claus Wilke also argue that certain texts (iirc it was about Lugalbanda and the earlier Gilgamesh stories) were performed as plays.

6:22 bro really said hurrian hymn no.6

I learn much from you. Thank you

Another brilliant video, thank you Farya, love the humour! - Just to follow up on my last question on your previous video, you mentioned that the Dorian (Phrygian) mode was considered by the ancient Greeks as their "C major", do you think that the Mesopotamians had a predominantly used mode? Also, it seems that the diatonic modes were perhaps much older than some of the cuneiform tablets suggest, do you think that the scales came first, and the cycle of 5ths came later as a way of describing them, or perhaps it was the other way around? All the best!

Bro looks majestic and spits facts

Fucking love your representation of Gilgamesh 😂 love your videos dude, great as always

Thank you Bilgamesh very cool

Genuinely, if you get tired of the music business, you could run a great sit com with these characters you come up with.

The jury's in, but they are a rag-tag bunch not given to elegance and such, so ''take it as it resonates'' as they say. ''Absolutely brilliant and out standing in the Royal Road'', even if it is a cheap greenscreen. They were taken by your various discomforts with the sartorial imperatives and bangles no doubt handed down from that older brother of yours. Purple and gold are SO you! The Lyre is exquisite, a marvellous piece of art in itself, and how beautifully you play - even Hades would find solace in such a tender air.💐

On top of that, Peter Pringle is also handsome as hell.

Boss, I have to say that the Mesopotamian garb is on another level! Can you PLEASE tell me where you got it?? I NEED clothes like this in my life

Respects to the camera man for travelling back in time and interviewing Bilbamesh about this interesting topic

"Yeah we have a word for that in ancient Greek, it's uuuh, uuh, oh yes κομπλῆτλυ φάκινγγ ἀνσαϊεντίφικ"