The oldest song in the world / a mais antiga canção do mundo

São muito numerosas as comunidades étnicas que não possuem mais do que uns rudimentos orais da literatura.

Não há grupo humano sem música — sem uma música muitas vezes elaborada e extremamente complexa.

Os dados sensoriais e emocionais da música são muito mais imediatos do que os da fala (podem remontar à vida intra-uterina).

George Steiner, in A POESIA DO PENSAMENTO

This song to the Hurrian goddess Nikkal, is the oldest piece of music for which we have both the words and the accompanying musical notes. The work was written on clay tablets around 3500 years ago, and was discovered by archaeologists in the 1950’s in the ruins of the ancient city of Ugarit. 

The tablets, which are written in the Hurrian language using Sumerian cuneiform script, have been studied for years by a number of eminent scholars, and several theories have been advanced as to how the music should be interpreted.

In my opinion, the most thorough and convincing interpretation (and by far the most musical), is that offered by archaeomusicologist, Dr. Richard J. Dumbrill, and that is the one which you hear in this video.

Peter Pringle