Chords for History's Oldest Song Modernized for 2020

Hello everyone, welcome back.
Have you ever heard people complaining that music these days just
isn't as good as it used to be?
Well, today I'm going to put that sentiment to the ultimate test.
I'm going to be checking out the world's oldest known complete melody and then covering it with
my own spin.
But before we get into it, a quick word from the sponsor of today's video, NordVPN.
Back in the day when the oldest melody was written, you would have had a host of problems
to worry about.
Mysterious sea people invading your land, _ finding sheep to sacrifice to the gods,
your neighbor Ibranu playing his lyre too loud, you know, typical Mesopotamian stuff.
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Anyways, let's go back in time about 3,400 years to the city [C] of
Ugarit in what is now modern-day Syria when some guy carved an absolute bronze age [G] banger into a
clay tablet.
Here's an excerpt from it. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Now here's the thing, it also might have sounded like this. _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] To the trained ear, those two things sound quite a bit [N] different and to the untrained ear, they
would sound completely different too.
We'll discuss this discrepancy shortly.
But for now, I want to
show you this.
This is a picture of a clay tablet discovered in the 1950s on which a piece of music
dubbed Hurrian Hymn number six is inscribed.
It was one of 36 other similar cuneiforms discovered,
but it's the only one in good enough shape for the entire piece to be legible.
It was dated back to
1400 BCE, making it the oldest complete piece of music we've ever discovered.
Now we should talk
about what this actually means.
There has been older music discovered, the oldest of which was
found on a 4,000 year old Sumerian clay tablet.
However, like Hurrian Hymns one through five,
only a fraction of the song was salvageable.
The rest has been lost to time.
We're also only
talking about known musical inscriptions here.
A flute was discovered in a German cave dating back
at least 43,000 years.
However, there is no way of knowing what was played on it.
I think it's safe
to assume that music and humankind evolved together and depending on how you define music,
the art form could very well have predated our species.
I don't think it's that far-fetched to
imagine a three million year old monkey human imitating a bird call in time to the rhythm of
her footsteps as she wandered about doing whatever it was that monkey humans did.
Does this count as music?
If not, where does that line begin?
But back to Hurrian Hymn number six.
Understanding the lyrics that accompanies the melody has proven difficult.
It is likely in a
local dialect that differs from the known sources of the already imperfectly understood Hurrian
language.
What is known is that it's a hymn about offerings to [C] the goddess of orchards, Níkol.
Figuring out how one would play this melody in current times has been even trickier.
Unlike
standard notation which tells us to [Eb] play certain pitches [D] for certain durations of time, this
notation is unlike anything we use today, offering instructions for how to play this on a nine string
harp-like instrument called a lyre.
The problems deciphering this melody are multifold.
First of
all, no one knows how the lyre was tuned.
On top of that, the interval system used here isn't
understood either.
It's unknown if certain [F] things are supposed to be played together one after
another or something entirely different.
Since its discovery, historians and musicians have been
filling in the blanks and making educated guesses, but a definitive answer will likely never be found
for how this is supposed to sound.
Of the numerous theories, the two more common ones are the ones
that I played earlier today.
The first was an interpretation by Dr.
Richard Dumbrill that he
did in 1998, and the second was done in 1974 by Dr.
Ann Kilmer.
_ Which brings us to today.
Old Sammy G, sitting in his studio some 3,400 years after this piece of music was written.
I've arranged the two more popular renditions into something that fits my style.
So, without further ado, I'm going to grab my electric and play you my take on [Bm] Hurrying Hymn number six.
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ [Bm] _ _ [C] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [Bm] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ [C] _
[G] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ _
[B] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [F] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ _ _ _ Hopefully that appeases the goddess Nicole.
Let me quickly walk you through how I came up with
that arrangement.
I focused mostly on the Dumbrill melody, which is this [Em] one here. _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] However, I used the Kilmer melody _ [A] and _ [G] _ [A] _ _ _ _ interspersed that throughout [B] as an interlude of sorts.
The
Dumbrill interpretation is through composed, which means nothing really repeats and there aren't
really sections.
I figured going back to the second melody multiple times throughout would
offer a sense of familiarity to catch the ear.
I tried to keep things dark and eerie, letting the
song dictate what I played.
Along the way, I tried a number of different [N] styles.
I tried a lo-fi hip-hop
thing, a synth wave thing, I even tried a reggae dub thing, _ and let me tell you that was an absolute
disaster.
Ultimately though, it felt like this should be played solo, so that's what I did.
Most of
the other performances that I came across of the Dumbrill melody stayed on the same chord throughout.
I figured that the goddess Nicole has probably gotten sick of hearing the same chord over and
over and over again, so I moved the harmony around, drawing from E minor and B minor modes.
As far as I
can tell, I haven't been cursed by any ancient gods, so I'm going to go ahead and say [Em] that it was quite
well received.
[Am] Ladies and gentlemen, there you have it.
I hope you enjoyed this video and picked up
something you can [E] use next time [Am] you play Trivial Pursuit.
Remember to check [D] out NordVPN.
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[G] And listen, don't get me wrong, [Em] I love my American
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Don't [B] forget to use the link in the [Em] description for 70% off a [Gb] three-year deal.
[Ab] Thank you all for
watching.
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Stay tuned [E] for a wide range of musical
[G] content.
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Until [A] next time, I'm
[Dm] SamuraiGuitarist, and I [E] will see you