If
you would like to locate the ancient Canaanite city called Ugarit it is easy to
find on a Bible map. If you will look at the eastern tip of Cyprus it is pointing
toward Ugarit. This ancient city found in northern Syria, which is now called
Ras Shamra, is of importance for those who study music in the Old Testament.
The music which has been discovered on clay tablets in that ancient city has
helped musicologists to understand the construction and meaning of ancient
music around the 12th century BC. This
music which was written in cuneiform symbols on clay tablets has been valuable
to musicologists in making a connection to ancient Syrian music with the music
of the Bible.
Why
would a student of music in the Bible care about a connection or likeness of
the music of the Old Testament i.e. the psalmodic and prosodic musical scale
systems and the Ugaritic cuneiform notation system? Although a thorough discussion of the
likenesses of the three ancient scale systems is too involved for this tiny
blog post it deserves mention. Although
none of these ancient scale systems function like the tonal music of the
Occident, they were basically heptatonic, diatonic scales. The Ugaritic scale proved to be a seven note
diatonic scale with half-steps between the third and fourth degrees and the
seventh and eighth degrees. Some of the
Ugaritic music also contained a harmony part.
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