The Bible and Music

Before we had class this morning, we were told to listen to the Hurrian Colt song. This song is a hymn and dates back to 1400 BC. The Ugarit music is the oldest written in existence and this fact was what first grabbed my attention. I listened to it a few times before class and was trying to depict some of the words. The song itself did not have a lot of harmony, however we took a look at some of the lyrics in class. I found it very interesting to look at the lyrics and see how they differ with modern music today. The ancient song was produced on tablets in a place called Ugarit, which is located in the Ancient East in Syria. There was a large library full of these tablets that the people used to record music and other forms of writing. These tablets had a variety of languages.

The lyre was an instrument that was played in today’s class and I found its noise to be appealing. The lyre is a small stringed instrument that was used a lot in ancient times and is similar to a harp. The difference between a harp and a lyre is a harp has strings that enter directly into the hollow body of an instrument. A lyre has strings that pass over the bridge and transmits vibrations. Although I could not understand much of the Hurrian colt hymn, I enjoyed discussing it in class and looking at the simple instruments that produced the music.