Music in the Ancient Near East

Music has always been a part of the human experience. The ancient Near East was no exception. Across the region and its varied cultures and civilizations, evidence of singing and instrument playing can be found in writings, artifacts, and artistic depictions.

What did the music sound like?

The earliest known cuneiform musical notation, uncovered at the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur (in today’s southeastern Iraq), dates to around 1900–1600 BCE. A collection of cuneiform notations known as the Hurrian Hymns, from the Amorite-Canaanite city of Ugarit (in today’s northern Syria), date to around 1400 BCE. Egyptian reliefs depicting chironomy, the use of hand gestures to direct musical performance, are even older.

Despite these and other discoveries, attempts at reconstructing the music itself—while often sophisticated—remain speculative and controversial. In the absence of audio recordings or continuous oral traditions reaching back to ancient times, the sounds are almost completely lost.

The only instrument that has persisted since biblical times is the shofar, a hollowed-out ram’s horn, which is mentioned roughly seventy times in the Hebrew Bible. Originating as a shepherd’s horn, other functions came to be associated with the instrument, such as announcing the divine presence (Exod 19:16), accompanying sacred ceremonies (Lev 23:24), proclaiming kingship (1 Kgs 1:34), and signaling on the battlefield (Judg 3:27). The shofar continues to be blown in Jewish ritual, most prominently during the new year festival of Rosh Hashanah. Because the instrument is biologically rather than culturally determined, its shape and sound have stayed more or less stable over the millennia.

The same cannot be said for other biblical instruments. The Hebrew Bible names over a dozen musical instruments and instrument families that we would recognize as winds, strings, and percussion. Some, like the shofar and kinnor (lyre), occur numerous times. Others, like the ugav (pipe or flute), are not as widely attested, but they are similar to instrument types found elsewhere in the region (e.g., Gen 4:21; Ps 150:4). Still others, like mena’anim (possibly a clay rattle), occur only once or twice and have attracted a range of interpretations (2 Sam 6:5). Retrieving the materials, shapes, and components of any of these instruments relies on comparing texts and graphic evidence from paintings, reliefs, engravings, mosaics, figurines, coins, and, in some cases, instrument remnants scattered throughout the region. However, the evidence varies widely, and deciphering the tuning systems and musical conventions is difficult.

In addition to musical instruments, songs and singing are referenced hundreds of times in the Hebrew Bible. Poetic passages, such as those in prophetic books, the Song of Songs, Lamentations, and especially Psalms, were likely sung or chanted. While it may be impossible to know exactly how these performances sounded, their presence in the Hebrew Bible suggests the importance and abundance of singing in the biblical world—a feature shared across the ancient Near East.

How was music used?

Although the Hebrew Bible divulges little about the sound or construction of instruments and songs, there are ample clues as to how music functioned in both special and everyday situations. As alluded to with the shofar, music-making was a feature of sacred encounters, religious rituals, official ceremonies, and warfare. Songs also accompany manual labor (Num 21:17–18). The book of Psalms, which contains devotional texts and references to musical instruments and performance instructions, shows the relationship between music and prayer. David plays the lyre to soothe the ailing King Saul (1 Sam 16:14–23), resembling music therapy. In other texts, singing and instrument playing are explicitly connected to feasts and assemblies (Gen 31:27; Isa 5:12). Celebratory songs occur at narrative high points, such as the Song of the Sea the Israelites sing after crossing the Sea of Reeds (Exod 15).

Archaeological and extrabiblical studies of the ancient Near East reveal similar uses of music. Several ancient Near Eastern figurines depict women dancing, singing, and playing frame drums, as Miriam and the women do after the Sea of Reeds crossing. The Hurrian Hymns mentioned above are also prayer-songs. A detail from the Standard of Ur (ca. 2500 BCE), a decorated wooden box with scenes from Sumerian life, shows a singer and lyre player entertaining at a banquet. Verses from the Song of Songs resemble Egyptian love poetry. Egyptian frescoes depict music therapist interventions.

These types of musical functions are still with us today, deepening connections between ancient times and our own.