When was the first song written and what was the name of the song?

cobb367

Music and singing are many millennia old. This is not a question that can be answered. Who knows what was on the Cro-Magnon Hit Parade 40,000 years ago? May 16 05, 9:18 PM

McGruff

I doubt if this was the first song ever composed, but it may be the oldest one that has been found written down. For fifteen years Prof. Anne Draffkorn Kilmer puzzled over clay tablets relating to music including some excavated in Syria by French archaeologists in the early '50s. The tablets from the Syrian city of ancient Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra) were about 3400 years old, had markings called cuneiform signs in the hurrian language (with borrowed akkadian terms) that provided a form of musical notation. One of the texts formed a complete cult hymn and is the oldest preserved song with notation in the world. http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/evidence.htm May 17 05, 1:25 AM

Arpeggionist

I've also heard one of the prizewinning songs from the Ancient Greek olympic competitions (they competed in music as well as running). Generally the first song that was said to have been composed by anyone in particular was a hymn to St. John called "Ut Queant Laxis" (correct my spelling if I'm wrong). From this song Europeans have also gotten the names of their notes. Since this was more of a guide to student composers than a hymn (St. John was at the time the patron saint of singers), it is probable that plenty of other not-so-well-known hymns were written before. One of the oldest songs still sung today that can be tracked and traced is a synagogue tune which is generally known as "Yah Eli" ("Lord my God"). This melody is used in several liturgical settings in Jewish services and remains with little difference to the way it was sung in the second Temple in Jerusalem (2,000-2,400 years ago). It was also preserved as a Gregorian chant melody, and J. S. Bach wrote a chorale-prelude whose main melody bears a remarkable resemblence to it (though the title of that prelude unfortunately escapes me now). May 17 05, 2:26 AM

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