What Is the Oldest Known Piece of Music? | HISTORY (2024)

The history of music is as old as humanity itself. Archaeologists have found primitive flutes made of bone and ivory dating back as far as 43,000 years, and it’s likely that many ancient musical styles have been preserved in oral traditions.

When it comes to specific songs, however, the oldest known examples are relatively more recent.

The earliest fragment of musical notation is found on a 4,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet, which includes instructions and tunings for a hymn honoring the ruler Lipit-Ishtar.

Hurrian Hymn No. 6

But for the title of oldest extant song, most historians point to “Hurrian Hymn No. 6,” an ode to the goddess Nikkal that was composed in cuneiform by the ancient Hurrians sometime around the 14th century B.C.

The clay tablets containing the tune were excavated in the 1950s from the ruins of the city of Ugarit in Syria. Along with a near-complete set of musical notations, they also include specific instructions for how to play the song on a type of nine-stringed lyre.

“Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is considered the world’s earliest melody, but the oldest musical composition to have survived in its entirety is a first century A.D. Greek tune known as the “Seikilos Epitaph.” The song was found engraved on an ancient marble column used to mark a woman’s gravesite in Turkey.

“I am a tombstone, an image,” reads an inscription. “Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance.”

The column also includes musical notation as well as a short set of lyrics that read: “While you live, shine / Have no grief at all / Life exists only for a short while / And time demands its toll.”

Writing

Modern Interpretations of Oldest Song

The well-preserved inscriptions on Seikilos Epitaph have allowed modern musicians and scholars to recreate its plaintive melodies note-for-note. Dr. David Creese of the University of Newcastle performed it using an eight-stringed instrument played with a mallet, and ancient music researcher Michael Levy has recorded a version strummed on a lyre.

There have also been several attempts to decode and play “Hurrian Hymn No. 6,” but because of difficulties in translating its ancient tablets, there is no definitive version. One of the most popular interpretations came in 2009, when Syrian composer Malek Jandali performed the ancient hymn with a full orchestra.

What Is the Oldest Known Piece of Music? | HISTORY (2024)

FAQs

What Is the Oldest Known Piece of Music? | HISTORY? ›

The “Hurrian Hymn” is the earliest known song to be recorded in writing, dating to around the 13th century BCE. The text of this hymn is concerned with the promotion of fertility. It refers to the making of offerings and libations to the moon goddess, Nikkal.

What is the oldest known piece of music? ›

“Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is considered the world's earliest melody, but the oldest musical composition to have survived in its entirety is a first century A.D. Greek tune known as the “Seikilos Epitaph.” The song was found engraved on an ancient marble column used to mark a woman's gravesite in Turkey.

What was the first piece of music ever recorded? ›

The first-ever piece of music to be recorded was the French folk song “Au clair de la lune”, sung by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville . He recorded it on April 9th, 1860, using his invention, the Phonautograph .

What was the very first song ever made? ›

The Hurrian Hymn was discovered in the 1950s on a clay tablet inscribed with Cuneiform text. It's the oldest surviving melody and is over 3,400 years old.

What is the oldest famous music? ›

The oldest surviving written music is the Hurrian songs from Ugarit, Syria. Of these, the oldest is the Hymn to Nikkal (hymn no. 6; h.

What was the 1st instrument? ›

The oldest musical instrument in the world (60,000 years)

The oldest musical instrument in the world, a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal flute is a treasure of global significance. It was discovered in Divje babe cave near Cerkno and has been declared by experts to have been made by Neanderthals.

When was music first written? ›

The earliest form of musical notation can be found in a cuneiform tablet that was created at Nippur, in Babylonia (today's Iraq), in about 1400 BCE. The tablet represents fragmentary instructions for performing music, that the music was composed in harmonies of thirds, and that it was written using a diatonic scale.

Who was the first singer ever? ›

No historical evidence exists to tell us exactly who sang the first song, or whistled the first tune, or made the first rhythmic sounds that resembled what we know today as music. But researchers do know it happened thousands of years ago. The earliest civilizations throughout Africa, Europe and Asia had music.

What is the oldest pop song? ›

The song is called 'After the Ball' by Charles Harris. It was written in 1891 and debuted in 1892. Sheet music was one of the metrics used to determine the popularity of a song.

Who is the first musician in the Bible? ›

The first musician in the Bible was Jubal, the son of Lamech. In Genesis 4:21, he is described as 'the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes'.

What was the first number one song? ›

The first ever Top 12 (which was actually a Top 15 given that sales of the Number 7, Number 8, and Number 11 singles were tied) was published in the New Musical Express on November 14, 1952. American crooner Al Martino took the inaugural Official Singles Chart Number 1 with his track Here In My Heart.

What was the first rap song ever? ›

As with most genres of music you can argue for hours about what "rap" actually is, but the first incontrovertable "rap" record would be "Rappers Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang which came out in about 1979.

What is the oldest music in America? ›

ountry music is America's oldest musical genre and is arguably its most diverse. Its roots lie in such disparate elements as English folk balladry, Mississippi Delta blues, Irish fiddle tunes, French/Cajun music, Vaudeville, Southern gospel, Mexican conjunto, German polkas and Victorian pop songs.

Who is the best singer in the world? ›

The 200 greatest singers of all time according to Rolling Stone as of January 2023
SingerRank
Aretha Franklin1
Whitney Houston2
Sam Cooke3
Billie Holiday4
190 more rows
Jan 22, 2024

What is the oldest composer? ›

The earliest European composer (other than various composers called Anonymous 1, 2, 3, 4 (who is celebrated by the women's quartet called “Anonymous IV”) is the extraordinary Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century German abbess who wrote sacred melodies of great beauty and range, unlike Gregorian chant tradition, which ...

What is the oldest music alive? ›

Ray Anthony is currently the oldest musician in the world! He was a professional trumpeter who learned how to play this instrument from the time he was a young child. He joined Glenn Miller's band and played the trumpet in it for about a year. Anthony went on to form his own musical group after WWII ended.

What is the oldest piece of English music? ›

The earliest surviving piece of composed music in the British Isles, and perhaps the oldest recorded folk song in Europe, is a rota: a setting of 'Sumer Is Icumen In' ('Summer is a-coming in') from the mid-13th century, possibly written by W. de Wycombe, precentor of the priory of Leominster in Herefordshire, and set ...

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