This article treats the music of Ancient Mesopotamia (see music and Ancient Mesopotamia). Ancient Mesopotamian culture was influenced by the Sumerians, about whom far less is known. The cultures from Ancient Mesopotamia were among the first that developed writing, the first known Sumerian writing dating from 4000 BCE. Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves organized and audible sound, though definitions vary. ... This is an article about the ancient middle eastern region. ... Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. ...

Melodically Ancient Mesopotamian music was organized with complex modes and modal types, including pentatonic, diatonic, and chromatic scales, similar to contemporary Arab and Indian music such as in a current raga or maqamat. Ancient Mesopotamian harmony was most likely limited to fourth and fifth chords (dyads), as in African and archaic Italian folk music, and the systematic use of drones which the Ancient Mesopotamians originated. Rhythmically, the music was intricate and complex, as witnessed by the rhythmic complexity of Mesopotamian influenced Syriac, Arab, Indian, and medieval European musics, all of which share 2 against 3 (as hemiola or cross-rhythm). (ibid, p.11) Raga (rāg /राग (Hindi), raga (Anglicised from rāgaḥ/रागः (Sanskrit)) or rāgam /ராகம் (Tamil)) are the melodic modes used in Indian classical music. ... In music, a maqam [sic] (plural maqamat) is a technique of improvisation that defines the pitches, patterns, and development of a piece of music. ... Etymology: Late Latin dyad-, dyas, from Greek, from dyo The word dyad has a number of uses: A dyad (general) pair, consisting of two parts. ... In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout much or all of a piece, sustained or repeated, and most often establishing a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built. ...

Instrumentation

Instruments which originated in Ancient Mesopotamia include the bow harp, lyre or lute, and the reed pipe. These instruments spread north into Egypt, then Greece, through Greece to Rome, and through Rome to Europe. From Egypt they spread south and westward further into Africa. Contemporary East African lyres and West African lutes preserve many features of Mesopotamian instruments. (van der Merwe 1989, p.10)

The vocal tone or timbre was probably similar to the pungently nasal sound of the narrow-bor reed pipes, and most likely shared the contemporary "typically" Asian vocal quality and techniques, including little dynamic changes and more graces, shakes, mordents, glides and microtonal inflections. Singers probably expressed intense and withdrawn emotion, as if listening to onself, as shown by the practice of cupping a hand to the ear (as is still current in many Arab and folk musics). (ibid, p.11)

Religious music

Ea, ruler of the deep, was the patron god of music. The sound quality of the drum (Babylonian: balag), made from a bull hide, and pipe, made from reed, were also metaphorically compared to their material's stength, the bull being strong and the reed weak. Instruments were often decorated with images of Ea or bulls, while Ea wrote his name with the sign for a drum, it serving as a personification of his essence. Ramman, god of thunder and winds, was associated with the singing voice and the reed-pipe (hallhallatu). One of the names of Ishtar translates as "the soft reed-pipe". Her partner Tammuz was the "god of the tender voice". (Wellesz 1957, p.230-231) EA, Ea, or ea can signify several things. ... Michelangelos depiction of God in the painting Creation of the Sun and Moon in the Sistine Chapel This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and derived henotheistic forms. ... Sound quality generally is the quality of the audio output from various electronic devices. ... Drum carried by John Unger, Company B, 40th Regiment New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry Mozart Regiment, December 20, 1863 Several American Indian-style drums for sale at the National Museum of the American Indian. ... Adad in Akkadian and Ishkur in Sumerian are the names of the storm-god in the Babylonian-Assyrian pantheon, both usually written by the logogram dIM. The Akkadian god Adad is cognate in name and functions with northwest Semitic god Hadad. ... Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, often constrasted with speech. ... The word voice can be used to refer to: Sound: The human voice. ... Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. ... Tammuz or Tamuz Arabic تمّوز Tammūz; Hebrew תַּמּוּז, Standard Hebrew Tammuz, Tiberian Hebrew Tammûz; Akkadian Duʾzu, Dūzu; Sumerian Dumuzi was the name of a Babylonian deity. ...

Temples, which existed in all large cities employed liturgists, most importantly the precentor (Sumerian: gala, Akkadian: kalu) who intoned the cantillation, the chief precentor (Sumerian: galamah, Akkadian: kalamahhu) being the highest position in the city. Many were part time employees and all where unconsecrated, though they were well educated, especially in cantillation (kalutu), formed guilds and were housed in the temple college. They also employed a choir of temple musicians (Sumerian: nar, Akkadian: naru), who where both instrumentalists and vocalists who started providing the response during liturgy and eventually became increasingly associated with private penitential events, including funerals and magic, and dissociated from sacred public service and seen in secular culture. Another sacred musical occupation was called ilukaka (Sumerian, Akkadian: zammeru), which probably meant generic musician or instrumentalist, though the zammeru also sang in services. (ibid, p.231-232) From the Greek word λειτουργια, which can be transliterated as leitourgia, meaning the work of the people, a liturgy comprises a prescribed religious ceremony, according to the traditions of a particular religion; it may be refer to, or include, an elaborate formal ritual (such as the Catholic Mass), a daily... A Precentor is a person, usually a clergy member, who is in charge of preparing worship services. ... Cantillation (Hebrew: ta`amei ha-mikra or just te`amim; Yiddish trope is also commonly used in English) comprises special signs or marks in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh) which complement the letters and vowel points. ... A guild is an association of people of the same trade or pursuits (with a similar skill or craft), formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards of morality or conduct. ...

Sources

• van der Merwe, Peter (1989). Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0193161214.
• Wellesz, Egon, ed. (1957) New Oxford History of Music Volume I: Ancient and Oriental Music. Oxford University Press.
• Fink, Bob (2005) On the Origin of Music Section I, "Role of the Drone in Evolution of Harmony" Greenwich.