Follow the link and listen below:
What did ancient Babylonian songs sound like? Something like this
All of the songs are here
Stef Conner recording, wearing a reconstructed Babylonian gold and lapis lazuli choker necklace.
"What really lasts in this world? What dies, what can be revived? Are humans basically the same now as in ancient times?
I was left pondering these questions after listening to singer and composer Stef Conner’s album The Flood. It’s probably the first ever to be sung in ancient Sumerian and Babylonian, and it’s hauntingly beautiful.
One concrete answer to the first question: clay. Clay lasts
That’s a good thing for Conner, who after completing a degree in music composition got deeply interested in Babylonian literature and poetry—which was originally recorded in cuneiform, wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets.
But the words on the paper, the modern
incarnations of these mineral etchings, were not enough for Conner. She
wanted to know what these languages sounded like, to summon
life from stone. Many of these poems and snatches of writings were sung
and chanted, according to historians. The tunes played an important part
in rituals in Mesopotamian societies, from funerals to lullabies,
Conner says."
- Douglas Main, Newsweek
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