Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Global Economy Music

    Uploaded by

    Sly Moonbeast
    4 views11 pages

    Original Title

    GlobalEconomyMusic Copy

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    4 views11 pages

    Global Economy Music

    Uploaded by

    Sly Moonbeast

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 11
    The Global Economy of Music in the Ancient Near East John Curtis Franklin ‘The present exhibit ar che Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem bears eloquent witness to the rich body of archeological evidence for music and musicians in the ancient Near East. The inherent artistic value of such material, which includes not only representations but the remains of actual instruments, is often very high in its own right, Yer i is equally precious asa supplement to— and sometimes corrective of —cextual evidence, extending the limits of knowledge into areas not well illaminated by seribaleradtion, For ancient Israel, where the weieten sources relating to masical practice in the Bronze and Early Iron ages are relatively meager in comparison to ‘Mesopotamia or even Hittite Anatolia, the archeological finds are especially important. At the same time they do not enjoy the same degree of contexcual illumination that comes from contemporary records, In this essay I shall borrow light from the wider ‘Bible Lands'to help bring aspects of early Israelite music into sharper focus. I hope that this will enhance the reader's perception of some ofthe relics on display, Allusions to masiemalking in che Bible, of which there are indeed many, are usually al oo passing ‘The magnificent exception relates to theofficial organization of sacred musiomaking dusing the United Monarchy, for which we have abundane detail by any standard, even ifits absolute historical accuracy is open to question (I Chronicles 6:1-32, and 2511-31; Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 894, 176), Yet iis in precisely cis period that ealy Jewish socity—at leas the higher tee which is most visible fiom the biblical narrative —reveals some ofits clearest cultural sympathies with ocher Near Bastern states. Indeed the matter is put expressly thus when the Israelites are made co imporcune Samuel fora king, “That we also may be like all the nations (1 Samuel 8:20, cf.5).A king who aspired to bea respected player in che international scene required a royal apparatus equal to that of his rivals, complete with palace, emple and all the specialized artisans and functionaries needed to build and staf them. Ie is of firs importance chat this debut was managed in collaboration with Hiram of Tyre (L Kings 5) who gave both materials and labor for construction ofthe First ‘Temple, The musical dimension ofthis project emerges most vividly from Josephus, according to \whom Solomon commissioned forty thousands chordophones (kur and nl) made of precious woods, ones and electrum, so the Levites could sing the Lore’ praises (Antiquities ofthe Jews 894,176, 7305), All of this makes i imperative to consider the music of erly royal Israel and Judah within a sore glabal economy, since aleady fortwo millennia musicians had ranked among the most skilled workers of Near Bastern society, serving in both sacred and secular context as one ofthe most powerful currencies of cultural exchange, a EER ee | “To what degree one feels justified in applying an equally wide lens to che easier centuries depends partly on one’ view of pre-Davidie socal history and its relationship to a larger ‘Canaanite’ milieu. Te ‘sof course certain thatthe states of North Syria and the Levant were important interstices in the elite incernacional networks of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, Certain too that greater West Semitic eis like ‘Baal’ and Astarte Astaroth) enjoyed considerable currency in Isael and judah well inco the first millennium BCE (eg, 1 Samuel, 73-4). It isnot surprising chen co find musical sympathies bbeeween the Pentareuch and documents from other Near Bastern centers; most notable perhaps is the innate discussed below. Such fats urge one to view Jewish musical tradit ‘within larger musical environment characterized from the earliest times, by regular exchange and mutual influence, need not negate the axiom cht alloca’ traditions are basically unique and independently priceless. Indeed ie will enhance our appreciation of the tradition by revealing greater historical depth and cultural breadth than even she Bible would lead us cobdieve, “The cosmopolitan standards of royal ideology and culeural attainment which David, Solomon and their successors strove to emulate cam be traced backin part tuimately to che Middle Bronze Age in Mesopotamia when, in the last centuries of he third millennium BCE, the dymastis of Akkad and Ur I established perennial models of kingship and empire. These powers in eheir cur stood a the pinnacle ofan ancient cultural tradition whose magnificence i clear from the Royal Cemetery of Urand ts finds (ea 2600). It is very telling that Hebrew borrowed words for boch ‘palace’ and ‘throne from Mesopotamia, As regards music, all of these stares, and their contemporaries and successors of any standing had sophisticated systems forthe traning and management of palace and temple musicians. Here asin other areas the Sumerian long maintained a prestigious culeual eclge, Mos evaling is the adoption of alaand nar— respectively lamentation priest and the more versatile ‘Singer musicians or Singer priest’—into Alkadian as ‘eal and nr; hese persisted thoughout second and first millennium Mesopotamia in both Babylonia and Assyria, as standard professional tices. One may conclude that, despite considerable differences of pantheon and lienrgy, by the late third millenniana the offices of rituabamusic came tobe exeeuted and managed bureaucratially ina very similar manner among both Sumerian-and Akkadian-speaking populations. ‘The early sophistication of Sumerian are music evident from the remains of richly-decorated lyees and harps with up to fourteen strings from the graves of Ur as well za number of Early Dynastic musical representations which show the same instruments in various royal and sacral contexts (ct. no. 70). That the tonal conceptions ofthis tradition eventually crystallized into a Sumero-Akkadian Ideillas is clear from che small corpus of cuneiform musical tablets which have permitted the reconstruction ofa system of diatonic tuning whose form of expression is diinctively Mesoporarnian—even ifthe undedying acoustical fats are those with which we still work in cour own music (ee the essay by A. Kilmer) Te was. a comple and abstract schema to which any tone- producing instrument could be eeecred, and so could uphold and unify the music ofthe great temple orchestras with theie very divecse insteomentariam, By the Old Babylonian period (¢2, 2000-1600), che date ofthe eaves tablets, chis syscem could be expressed and deployed in both the Sumerian and ‘Akkadian languages, Buc aleeady ca, 2100 the ‘Sumerian terminology is attested in one of he royal praise-hymns of Shulg, che great light of the Ur If dynasty who asaliving god, was presented by the oust poets and doubtless hinself/—these songs ae in the fseperson—as the embodiment ofall evilizing arts, More than this he was che self proclaimed cescodian of ancient musical tradition, forthe preservation and revitalization of which he vigorously campaigned: Tam no fool as regards the knowledge acquited since the time that mankind was, 28 Sounds of Ancient Music r from heaven above, secon its paths when I hhave discovered tighlyre and zarmzam hymns from past days, old ones from ancient cimes, have never declared them to be false, and have never contradicted their contents, Ihave conserved these antiquities, never abandoning them to oblivion, Wherever the tgi-lyre and the zamzam sounded, Ihave recovered all tha knowledge, and I have had those firgda songs baillianely performed in my own good hous So that they should neve fal into disuse, [ have alded them coche singers repertoire, and thereby I have ser the heat of the Land on fire and aflame, (Shulgi 270-80, ETCSL. 242.02), This poreait is probably accurate: the Neo- Sumerian period was a clssicizing revival in which poets elaborated the Eady Dynastic eligious and artistic heritage, sometimes into novel forms, like the royal praise hymn itself An active cultural program long the lines trumpeted here helps expain the ‘mass oiterary documents produced a this time, the fruit of an official antiquarian initiative carried cour within the corps of state scribes, for whose tcaining Shulgi apparently established royal schools. “The muscological requirements of this movernent may well have seen the development of system of harmonic transcription for religious songs—a Sumerian archetype for the Akkadian notation that is attested for the second millennium (ee especially Shulgi 240-57, ETCSL 2.4.2.05). ‘This leads to the matter ofthe Mesopotamian systems diffusion beyond the evo rivers. Ihave argued elsewhere thatthe Tuning Cycle, much like equal temperament in modern times, came to serve a8..sortof international standard, ot musical metric system providing raw tonal material forthe eat of lcal, syncretic—as it were‘tempered’—areforms, This is che natural inference from che Famous Hurrian hymns found at Late Bronze Age Ugarit, in which some ofthe systems harmon under their Akkadian names—are used to map the intervals— «essential tonal progeesson of each song, That these texts are relatively late (ca. 1400) and come from a complee Hurro-Canaanite linguistic and cultural environment, and as far west as the Mediterranean coast, in itself strong evidence for the exportablicy and universality ofthe system. Ache same time itleaves unanswered the question cof how carl the process of diffusion began, and ‘where eset was operative, An instructive parallel should be the spread of the Mesopotamian scribal education, which is attested in the Levant by ca, 2100, and three centuries earlier in North Syria. Yer che range of srbal learning need not have been strictly coterminous with chat ofthe diatonic tuning eye itself For while the former included training in the terminology and procedures by which che cycle is expressed inthe cuneiform tablets, song traditions themselves—and hence knowledge ofthe ronal/harmonic conceptions on ‘which they were built—must have remained largely coral and aural in most environments In other words, musical ieracy was not a prerequisite for knowledge and use of che euning system, Ie vas rather symptomatic ofcereain culeual settings in which the euning teadtion was eurcent, a function ofthe scibal apparatus in those temples and palaces chat were concerned to archive chet sacred repertoire, This can represent only a fraction of. ancient Near Eastern musical life, though admittedly an important one. “These distinctions are crucial for understanding how Mesopotamian musical conceptions may have been teansmitted in time tothe Aegean, despite the face that in later Greek sources there are no traces ofthe elaborate Akkadian terminology for intervals and tunings. This thesis should not seem especially radical given the well-known phenomenon of East- West culture dif, which took place within akoine cof palatial culture. Ihave argued elsewhere that mmusictechnical vestiges of non linguistic nace, deriving from the oral/aural rather chan scribal reper ray indeed be detected ince ease 29 layers ofthe Greek musicographical material. The very fact tha ditonic tuning was known at al the Greeks is more remarkable than it may seem ae fist, steeped as we ate in diatony ourselves. Decisive for euling out independent developments the systems conceptual and practical emphasis ona central string, Both characteristics are attested for the eatly Greek tradition, Bvidence for such ‘epicenttic tonality’ is restricted co the conceptual Jeve in the cuneiform eablets, which give us no information about the systems practical applications, But in che one complete Hurrian yy the systems central tring, and the intervals to hich it belongs, do indeed feature prominently. Diacony and ‘epicentri tonality are inthe Greek tradition closely bound tothe seven-stringed lyres which were standard equipment forthe aristocratic song-dance cultute of the Atchaic period. But such instruments were already known in the Minoan and Mycenaean palaces, which I now sees the most likely envionment, both culcurally and temporally, for che adoption ofa Mesopotamian, or rather pan- ‘Near Eastern, musical ethné It probably survived in cectain areas of Mycenaean continuity and diaspora, Important for instance is thatthe Homeric Hymn to Hermes, which recounts the sever-stringed lyre invention is set in ‘Arcadia, that stronghold of Achaean’ culture, Lesbos, epicenter of Acoe migration from Bocoti, ‘was home to’Terpander and an ancient ‘txibe (genos of citharodes who, with pan-Hellenization inthe seventh and sixth centuries, came to symbolize the norms of Archaic Greek art music (t {s worth nocing that Iyre-players ate now attested in the administrative records of Mycenaean Thebes) “The large-scale arcival of migrants to Cyprus, Cilicia and Philista is echoed inthe material record ofthe Barly Iron Age by che appearance of lyees with round bases—a conspicuous sign of Aegean tradition (cat. nos, 23, 121, 123,126, 127). Returning the Near Eastern Bronze Age, less technical evidence may be adduced to strengchen this pctute of Sumero-Akkadian musical knowledge indifusion, Late Barly Dynastic Mari (then) Jacgely Akkadian-speaking city onthe mide Euphrates, has produced che famous statue of Ur Nanshe who bore in addition to the tile nar, boch 2 Sumerian professional name and priestly garb very nuh like that worn by singers on the ‘Standard of Ue and elsewhere, Sumerian musical terminology was als current at cis time (ca. 2400) inthe important North Syrian st of bla (Tell Mardikh), acity whose wide-ranging political and commercial interests extended into both the Levant and Mesopotamia, and which housed shrines to Akkadian and even Sumetian gods alongside those of West Semitic powers, Publiation of the many thousand tablets from a royal archive, spanning forty years and ehree kings, sf fom complete. But already wwe glimpse vibrant, cosmopolitan musical world, subject of recent stimulating survey by M. G. Bigs. ‘Numerous singer musicians (nar, dancers (ned) and acrobats o cule-dancers (bub) —even performing cdvafs and animals—-came from palaces and temples near and fatto perform for royal occasions and religions festivals, Nia, Mari, Kish, Ema, Naga, and Aleppo areal arrested as sources of musical exchange, and others may be assumed, Is here that the kinnaru, ancestor to the Kinny, isis attested — fifteen hundred yeas before David (sce below). Local Bblaite musicians ae revealed by repeated appearances inthe dstibucion lists, That they are named individually shows the relative prestige that members ofthis profession might achieve when steadily visible tothe woed of kings and nocables. ‘Some ofthese must have traveled in their eurn to foreign centers, but such movements remain invisible, not involving palace disbursements on the home ‘end, Indeed the apparentabsence of regular monthly distributions to male Eblate singers has suggested to Biga that most were noc directly supported by, and didnot tesde in the palace. Some may have ‘been maintained by local remples, a custom well documented in Sumer where the management of smusie may be reconstructed in considerable detail, as H. Hartmann showed in 1960, There may also 30. Soundsof Ancient Music have been independent houses and neighborhoods cof musicians like those are attested for Mesopotamia and later in postcile Israel (Nehemiah 1228-9). Cleatly the inzernational musical network was variously articulated by the autonomous economies cofpalaceand temple, which however did nor prevent free cireulation within the whole system, Tes aso evidence for some specialization of sacred and secular music, chough ic would be rash to suppose any complete segregation, How much all ofthis ceflects the influence of Sumerian music per seis uncertain since those tained in che Mesopotamian scribal ar used Sumerian terms as. matter of orthographic convention, In particular the absence ofthe tile gaa in practical (es. lexical) application suggests that we are ina distinct musical universe even if lamentation singing itself was practiced there (gee below). Yet while the Sumerian words for singe, “dancer, and ‘acrobat are too general to proveany musical influencs, the regular distinction in che palace archives beeween senior and junior singers (nar-vab and nartar respectively) reveals a stratified and regulated profesional envionment vey similar to thacof| Mari and the Mesopotamian centers. Ta be sure, the terminology used in Bbla and Mari was not identical wo chat ofthe documented Sumerian institutions, Yet itis obviously cognate: an important inissing piece heres Bblas known connections with the scibal schoo! of Kish, the internal development of whichis obscure compared to chat of Nippus, ‘which dominates inthe extant Mesopotamian records. I seems clear at least chat a sort of incemnationally tecognized system of accreditation’ was operative across all these areas, with cleaely defined transitions fom Junior to Senior to Chief Singer, would have been very useful in a world where regular allocations had to be made to visiting artists, and there was frequent relocation and integration of ‘harem’ musicinnes through conquest or giftexchange. Indeed it is sometimes possible in the records of Ebla, and still more at Old Babylonian Mari ie belo}, to fellow the prometions, demotion, te-promotions, arrivals, departures, transfers and deaths of various singers over many years. In a few cases these processes seem suficienly independent of palace polities, with singers maintaining their career in the face of dynastic changes, eo suggest a stable and at least partially self-sustaining system— cven fits individual members were ever vulnerable co royal whim, Icis not surprising to find equaly far-flung musical transactions in the Neo-Sumerian texts. A 'Mai- lyre (mirieum) was known to Sumerian poets no later chan ca, 2175, when it appears in one ofthe templechymns, inscribed on monumental elindes, dedicated by Gudea of Lagash. Of he many instrument names which sil resist translation or identification, some were probably of exotic origin. One lexical ist itemizes yee from Mathashan areaof the Iranian plateau; this eype was still known at Mari three centuries later, No fever than fout instrument of foreign provenance or associations are found in the same royal hymn in which Shalg boasts his mastery of musical ats (ShulgiB 15474, ETCSI.2.4.2,02): these are the Marilyre, the Sabutlyze (situ), the ‘king of Kish instrament (orzsbabicum), and the Anatolian lyre’ Ganaru), Clearly as Th. Krispjn has observed, che whole passage eeflects che range of professional singer- musicians, especially che nar, Elsewhere in Neo- Sumerian hymns the Sabu-ie and Marilyte occur side-by-side within the larger insteumentacium, suggesting thac the contemporary temple orchestra was deliberately cosmopolitan body. Shulgi’s words hete rea lke a state ofthe union addtess by an ats minister, with the inclusion of foreign instruments drawing the musical horizons ofthe ‘Thite Dynasty of Us Indeed al boundaries dissolve when the king extends his claim of mastery to any ctlir type’ have not heard before. One imagines exotic instruments sent. as gift or tribute or cartied by visting musicians, from varios parts of Urs wide periphery ‘The richest evidence now availabe for a global 3 ‘economy of music comes from the archives of ewo cightcenth-century kings of Mari, the inteloper Yasmah-Adda (erowned ea. 1790) and the restored ‘ZimneicLim (ca. 1775). This material has recently been surveyed by N. Ziegler, drawing especially on the administrative records of Ziei-Linls ‘harem’ (ber more detailed monograph on musicis eagerly awaited), This was the so-called Amorite age, when ynasts of West Semitic exzraction held power in many Mesopotamian cites, where however Sumero- ‘Akkadian cultural traditions continued unbroken, Maris known international connections at this time were as farceaching as those of Bla, and the abundant evidence for artisan mobility includes many cases of musical contact and exchange with such other states as Carchemish, Babylon, Aleppo, Qatna and Hazor. The vets are equally valuable, however, fr illuminating he offical management of ‘musical afin, often firmly embedded in che palace economy. These were under the management ofa chief musician, whose duties included sensitive diplomatic missions like the arrangement of royal marriages; che recruitment of harem muscines from among war capcives and ther subsequent taining; and supervising the construction and repair of sacred instruments (compare the musical provisioning ofthe eemple n Jerusalem), The chief ‘musician was typically a foremose confidant of the King ceall young David position in the court of ‘Saul his musical cathatses of che evil spirit which regularly beset Saul have a distinctly Mesopotamian avo). Ikis lea chat an “international styl’ of music was deliberately cultivated at Mari Tn an age without sound-recording, a craving for musical vaiety was satisfied cheough the familiar mechanism of royal sifcexchange—in practice the buying, selling and trading of players. As Ziegler points ous, twas prectely the need to havea ready stockpile of musical commodicies which accounts for the surprisingly Jarge numbers of musciennes who received formal training and maintenance by the palace. Music ‘emerges as another ofthe household industries which Justify our thinking of Bronze Age palace society as an imernational economy (Gretk=oitonamia, “household management). The harem fluid incernl organization and the heratchical movements of ts musical members may be deduced from series of distribution and ocher lists which, though noc completly continuous, span many years, Here, a at Ebla, anything foreign or exotic is carefilly recorded as though essential roan accurate inventory. A number of Blamite and Amorite inusicienses are atested; te later suggest that an ancestral West Semitic repertoire was probably cultivated alongside Sumero-Aikkadian cule classics, Interestingly, Amorite musicians were imported to. Mari from the west, as though well qualified singers were notabundant in the ‘colonies: One tablet relates che arrival ofa caravan from Hazot ‘which included ehree Amorize musicians in exchange for whom Zimni-Lim gave three of his own nasiciennes, This datum is of especial importance for our purposes, because it offers proof that early LLevancine centers were well integrated into the larger Near Eastern scene, Girls might also be trained lcaly ina specific foreign style; Zim-Lim commiteed captives from Ashlakka toa ‘Subarian’ (probably Hurrian) musical education. Here the “ineernatonal style’ reveal a furcher dimension— the circulation of echnic repertoire not only beyond ins native context, bu independently of native performers (cept peshaps a trainer), Local snusiciewnes might take on an exotic character of thei own when entertaining foreign guests, another immportant service thac was expected of then While Mais ofccucial importance for the many texts ithas produced ts complex politica and economic situation isentcely typical of the petiod, Withous insisting chat its musical workings were identical to those of other states, hey were certainly comparable, and forall practical purposes compatible, Marican therfore help arify eg, the situation at Harvian Nazi, where the importation of Kassie musicians is attested ca, 1400, Startlingly lange nurnbers offal singers, appearing in distbaton 32 Sounds of Ancient Musle liats there, have been branded by G. Wilhelm as ‘laves—doing pethaps insufficient justice to che complexity and richness of female palatal society ‘We might well infra similar situation for the vast hharem attributed to Solomon (1 Kings 113), the numbers of which—seven hundred wives and three fhundved concubines—if somewhat exaggerated, ate not unthinkably so, Some ofthese women apparently exerted considerable cultural influence, fr instance inthe worship oftheir own ancestral deities: one recalls che famous controversy of Solomons involvemencin the cult of Asrare (1 Kings 115). ‘This accords entirely with the cosmopolitanism of che harem chat emerges from the Mari texts, and with the wholesale adoption by che Hittite kings of Hurvian and other gods, whether adopeed from foreign wives or conquered peoples, en bloc with the appropriate ritual repertory. We may bring this suevey toa close by briefly cxamining the linguistic evidence for the eaely and wide distribution of lyre names built on the West ‘Semitic radical ka for these are obviously ancestors of the Hebrew kinndr the most esteemed instrament ofthe Bible, We may begin from an outer extreme, the zanaru which is listed among the inseeuments mastered by Shulgi Sumerian lexical texts define this instrument asthe lyre of divine Inara chis in earn lees ie be connected wich the zinar of Hittite texts, which is fequendly rendered in Sumerograms asthe instrument of the goddess Inanna (giZnana)- eis certain that the Hictice word was borrowed from Hattie, one of the pre-Hictte Anatolian languages which, though extinct by the second millennium, survived in liturgical fragments in certain celigious contexts. ‘The Hlatti legacy is especially cleat from the Hittite use of zinar to mean ‘music! generally, and the ritual preeminence of he lyre which this implies i confirmed by the Hietce musical tepresentations, most obviously the Famous Inandik vase But behind ths fossilized Hattie cult masiea sill eelee phase of development may be inferred from the phonology of zinar. The form is attractively explained asa derivative of West ‘Semitic nr via a language in which intial h- was palatalized before the front vowel i Whether this was Hattic itself or some intermediary remains ‘open, But the change must have eccurved very carly on: elated forms occur in several northivesteen Caucasian languages, a family with which Hattie has certain affinities, so thatthe word's transmission should go back to an eaely stage of the language (proto-Hlattic)—ie. comfortably deep in the chird millennium if noc before. One might also allow time forthe form zanaru, which could be a secondary development (ki > st > 20), ifrot simply 2 Sumerized version of nas, ‘The wide chronological and geographical spread indicated by these facts is paralleled, indeed extended, by the antiquity and range ofthe original West Semitic word, eis First atested at Ebla 2.2400 in the form kimarun,fllowed by examples from Old Babylonian Mari and Late Bronze Age Alalalch, Hattasha, Ugart, Bmar and Egypt In the Tron Age th instruments bese represented by the kinndr ofthe Bible and the Phoenician kn, but later Arabic and Pablavi forms ate also attested. B. Lawergren has convincingly correlated this lexical distcibution witha fail of mosey asymnmettcal Iyres types which occur within roughly che same invernational ambitus, In the Levan cel hese Jyees are the only chordophone known from the Bronze Age, with more than thirty representations collected by J. Braun, Most ofthe linguistic examples exhibie interesting cxoss-clraral dimensions. One text from Mari records the commission of ive such instruments for use in the court of ZimeieLimy another shows that hey coal be played by the msc gies ofthe harem. Here then isa West Semitic inseeument cultivated ina city which was ruled by an Amorie dynasty in the eighteenth century, yet sill maintained its heritage of Sumerian ritual music, At Alalakh, where roughly half of the population bore Hureian aa names atthe time, the form i*kinnaruua with the Hlureian agent suffix bulla ‘kings a player (or pethaps makes) ofthe kimari. Hiurtian mediation probably also underlies the suffix in “kinrtlla, a Hitsce hapax whose scrtbal collocation with Sumerian nar shows sh effective meanings ‘yee-snger. Both forms, taken in thet geographical contexts, are material” reflections of the hybrid ritual music traditions ‘which are known from othe indications: such a ‘West Semiti-lutian fasion is exemplified for instance by the hyrans from Ugarit ee above), ‘while numerous ritual texts from Hoattusha reveal a floutishing Hureo-Hiteite amalgam there. The Bgyptian version of the hinnarwn occurs alongside two other instruments known only fom the same text a satirical portrait of sere given to wild ‘women and song, This vignette, dated ro ca 1200, reflects the exotic influences to which Egypt was exposed under the imperial endeavors ofthe New Kinglom, especialy inthe Levant Ie recalls an ‘equally cosmopolitan musiemaking scene in a grave- painting from the reign of Amenophis If (a, 1438. 1412), which farherinchudes an angl-harp of ‘Mesopotamian type, also current in Cyprus and Alalakh at roughly this ime. Material from Cyprus and the Mycenaean world tstally overlooked, opens important theatres to che west, Kinyras, priest king of Aphrodite and ythological eponym of the Kinyradai,offcants at her temple in Paphos during the Classical period, again eecalls the sacred marviage rial in a revealing vatiane Kinyras was the love of Aphrodite and father of Adonis, Bven inthe Classical period Aphrodite Outania was stil correctly known by the Greeks to be a hypostasis of Phoenician Astarte This goddess is, of couse, closely linked to Mesopotamia via Babylonian Ishear and Sumerian Tanna, Several Phoenician kings ae known to hrave doubled as priests of Astarte, and the same is likely o have been true in Ugarit, Kinyrasis of considerable further importance as a probable descendant ofthe deified yr (a) of the West Semitic world, attested in the famous Ugaritie pantheon text. The deification of harps and ies, along with other tual apparatus, may wel have ‘originated in Sue, where the balag was commonly so treated during the Ur HII period. Sumerian records atest further chat in contemporary Anatolia the zinar could be treated as an hypostass of Tnanna/Ishtar, More remarkable stil ‘Kinyrais twice attested asa personal name in Linear B tablets from the Mycenaean palace of Pyos risa long-standing ‘conundrum that the heroes of Greek mythology often beat names which were commonplace in Mycenaean society chee sno general agreement as to whether these were ordinary names chat survived inheroie contexts, or whether Mycenaeans tended to take names thar were already established in astll older heroic tradtion—-thereby further eroding any ptative historical dimension of the Homeric poems. Inthe case of Kingras, however, we have an unusual advantage. Both examples ae found in contexts — ship building and priesthood —televan ro the dossier of the Kinyras, whose profile emerges not only from ‘Greco-Cypriote sources but is further accessible through compatison with Phoenician tradition (as represented by Philo of Byblos eli), since there is considerable mythological overlap between Kinyras and Kothat, the West Semitic craftsman-god. One edges towards the remarkable conclusion that already in the Late Bronze Age Kinyras was an established mythological figure on Cyprus, and not ‘unknown even in the Aegean, with his attributa substantially in place. Yer this doesnot seem so improbable ater all fone considers the antiquity of che or itself ite divinization at Ugait; the probable role of Kothar asthe patron of musical ars (he was equated by native scribe with Babylonian Ea and zinar in connection with the cult of Inanna and/or some local avatar. Kinyras emerges a an important reservoir of Bronze Age royal ideology a distant echo of such rites as hierogamy and divine ancestor veneration, executed by the king himself the ‘34 Sounds of Ancient Musto | accompaniment of sacred music for which chordophones lke the kimvarum were indispensable ritual instruments—hence their divinization. Here the idealized portrait of Shulgt is crucial; as the petfect exponent ofall the arts, he is both master lamenter (gala) and the master royab-singer (na). ln effec he isthe slésuffciencexecuranc ofall kingship tices, the most conspicuous of which for the Ur IT kings was the saceed marriage to Inanna, Ifa kinura vas familiar to the Mycenaeans, 28 Kinyras might imply, it didnot survive into the Acgean mainstream of ater Greek vocabulary (ie teappeats only in connection with the Sepruagin) ‘Thecase was otherwise on Cyprus, however, judging fom a local cue tele of Apollo kenuriss, which appeats in an oath-texe found in che sanctuary of Aphrodite in Paphos (from the time of Tiberius, bu showing traditional formulation). This epilss presupposes the verbal form kinurizein lament), a ‘word known to Zenodotus, the Hellenistic criti of Homes who cea it for che common and synonymous akheucn in one passage ofthe Iliad ichol, Hom. I 9,612), The sense of lamentation also appears in the lated forms knarestba (= kinurizein) and kinaros (plaintive), found in ith century drama and learned Alexandrian poetry Teis noc clear whether these fora were borrowed from the Cyprice branch of epic or descended directly from Mycenaean usage independently of a kina (I suspect the latter). The dominant note of lamentation is remarkable, however, and may be readily connected with the rcual lamentations performed by Near asa lamenting god, is known also from the cult of Hyacinthus in ‘Archaic Sparca, which has roots in the Bronze Age. Ache same time henarsts and its association with Apollo surely puts as much emphasis only (kn) 2s lament, Ie seems to mack the same syncretism of Hellenic and Cypriote-West Semitic musical form that undedles eg. two Samatitan coins of the Hellenistic period on which Apolo is depicted playing a lyre of the kinndr type (at no. 78). stern temple singers, Apollo not his most familiar role, ‘The Kinyradai as lamentation singers, at least in ddue season, would accord wall with the status and function of chordophones in Near Eastern temple music, The Sumerian gala sang his lamentations to the balag, and while che identity ofthis instcument has long been conteoversial, it now seems firmly established as a form of stringed instrurnen, a least for the third millennium, by 2 lexical exe from Bla which equates ie withthe kimvaruan, Though the title gala was not used at Bbla, one sil finds lamentation singer; the scribes called these by che Sumerian balagai, which they defined in theie own tongue as ‘he who makes lament, ‘There was for instance a grand royal ritual enacted by king and queen to secure the prosperity of the realm: a dificult text mentions a group of lamentation singets who were to soothe the divine heart, This seems not altogether disimilay a eas in scio- cosmological function, to the Sumerian sacred rmatriage tual, Atany eate itis clear tha this lamentation singing could involve the Kimara, Important confirmation comes from an isolated passage ofthe Bible in which the kinndr appears, alongside pipes, as an instrument of lamentation (Job 30:31). The divine kris attested in an Ugatitic ritual related to the royal ancestor cul, for which there is an antecedent a millennium ealier at Bola, Lucian describes the mourning of women for ‘Adonis in Byblos, where Kinyras was said to have founded x temple of Aphrodite. This connection with Adonis, which was particulaelyfruiful in fater Greek and Latin accounts of Kinyras (most memorably in Ovid's Metamoyphose) i teadily explained asa syncretism of distinct, but in some sense cognate, traditions of royal lamentation. A third exemplar isthe figure of Linus. Herodotus hhasa brief digression on the so-called Linas song which, he reports, was sung in Cyprus, Phoenicia, Epyptand elsewhere; he describes ita very ancient, an explicitly states that it followed the dying god’ pattern, Homer specifies that the Linus song was accompanied by the lye (on the shield of Actilles), and in mythology Linus himselfis portrayed asa eer Iyrse, Buripides adds the extzordinary detail that Linas was lamented by barbarians, in Asian voice. ‘when the blood of kings is poured over the ground by the iron swords of Hades’ (Orestes 1395-8). One recalls the myth that Linus was killed by his lyre pupil Heracles, who brained him with the instrument, One need not ry co connect these disparate sources too closely; Hi, Frankfort rightly insisted about the vatious forms of near Eastern hierogamy thatthe specifically diferent’ is as seriking as the generically alike’ Yer the cumulative ‘weigh of the material stongly suggests thac reflecs a regal tradition of temple music on Bronze ‘Age Cyprus (ie. Alashia) closely allied to those of the West Semitic and larger Near Eastern worlds, “The kimnarum and is elations constitute iyre- macrofamily of astonishing geographical and chronological dimensions. Linguistic considerations requir the instruments morphological history to seretch back well beyond the fcanographical record, which for ee ci millenium is quite meager. cis vempeing dav into the discussion the famous erching from Megiddo, dated toca, 3350-3050, which shows a musician witha somewhat amorphous chordophone,J.Braun has made strong case for calling this aarp rather than alee, But whatever ts intended shape itis nat impossible that this was a contemporary karan, and that the instrument underwent considerable Laer evolution, Atany rate it is noc surprising to find the kinndrrerojected to the remote legendary past of Genesis, where Jubal the “father ofall such as handle ce lee (ku) and pipes’ (Genesis: 4:20-2)- This passage evokes the existence of ancient professional societies lke che cymbalis- and singer guilds known from Bronze Age Ugarit, the Kinyradai of Paphos, and of couse the Levies. hope to have mace clear that important elements of David and Solomon's musieal program accord ch a conscious emulation of royal standards traditional in che Near Bast. Yee while an enduting Mesopotamian influence on musicmaking insticuions is evident throughout the region, ts equally clear that stcong mulilateraliam was always operative, with more or less continuous ” exchange of musicians, instruments and repertoire within a network of palaces and temples which, by at lease the mid-

    You might also like