<<  -- 3 --  Gordon Rumson    FRAGMENTS OF FORGOTTEN SOUNDS

Ancient Ugarit

What then is the most ancient song? It could be this one, almost 4,000 years old from the Syrian city of ancient Ugarit. You can hear a MIDI version (click on the picture of the clay tablet notation) of it. Finally, a sounding fragment!!!

Evidence of Harmony in Ancient Music
by Robert Fink
http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/evidence.htm
(Linked with permission)

Egypt

Remember Egypt is part of Africa. The Egyptians built pyramids, mighty monuments and temples and they left a treasure house of riches. Thankfully, many sources for the instruments exist too, mostly in pictorial representation. And the work on deciphering the ancient music fragments goes on. One K Marie Stolba, Professor Emerita at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) gave a lecture recently entitled 'Unlocking Ancient Egyptian Music Notation.'

Nigel Skinner-Simpson provides a Zip file (which I can't open being a Mac person) that is a recording of a trumpet from the tomb of Tutenkamen.

http://towers-online.co.uk/pages/egypt.htm

Alternative Histories

I hate to be the one to leave out cultures that do not turn up in the standard text books. Besides, who knows what their music might have sounded like. I don¹t believe that much music survives from:

Mu   members.aol.com/theloego
(Linked with permission)

Lemuria   www.lemuria.net
(Linked with permission)

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