Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A live performance of "Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal" - track 10, from my 2020 album, "Echoes of Ancient Mesopotamia & Canaan":
open.spotify.com/album/183Znh8Rb2AFtyfwAlxA6a?si=BvURAKNDQlCIIkeaygd_NQ
This track features my new arrangement of Dr Richard Dumrbill's most recent interpretation of Hurrian Hymn (Text H6), circa 1,400 BCE - the oldest notated melody so far discovered...in History!
Further to the original 'viral' version of this piece, both on my own YouTube channel & the audio of which features on countless others, this new arrangement (closely following Dr Richard Dumbrill's recommendation that the original mode of the piece was probably 'Maqamised' in the age-old Middle Eastern tradition), also is much more authentically performed on a replica of an actual surviving Canaanite-form, Bronze Age lyre, discovered in Egypt & miraculously preserved in Leiden. This lyre actually dates to almost the same time period when the original Hurrian Hymn on which I am playing it on, was itself written!
Preserved on a clay tablet discovered in the ruins of the Palace of Ugarit, (in modern day Syria), the words of the Hurrian Hymn text H6 are about a barren woman's invocation to Nikkal, Ugaritic goddess of the orchard, to bestow the goddess's fertility upon her, so that she may bear children. Of the 29 musical texts, only text H6 was in a sufficiently well preserved condition to allow the original 3,400 year old melody, notated below the words of the song, to be interpreted and performed again today.
This video is actually a 'live' practice session - on 23rd January 2023, I have been invited to host a 'musical adventure in time travel', performing a selection of my lyres at a British Museum members event evening - my lyre music has become a 'national treasure'!
"Echoes of Ancient Mesopotamia & Canaan" is available from all the usual major digital music platforms, including Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Pandora, Deezer etc - lossless CD quality audio or 320kbps quality MP3 is also available from Bandcamp:
michaellevy.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-of-ancient-mesopotamia-canaan
Many thanks for watching!
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Official Artist Links:
Official Website:
ancientlyre.com
Digital Music Artist Profiles:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/7Dx2vFEg8DmOJ5YCRm4A5v
iTunes & Apple Music:
itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-levy/id4324920
Amazon:
amzn.to/2zmJph3
Bandcamp:
michaellevy.bandcamp.com
Facebook Page:
facebook.com/beautifullyre
Twitter:
twitter.com/AncientLyre
Instagram:
instagram.com/mlevy1400bce
Patreon:
patreon.com/Michael_Levy_Ancient_Lyre_Music
A live performance of "Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal" - track 10, from my 2020 album, "Echoes of Ancient Mesopotamia & Canaan":
open.spotify.com/album/183Znh8Rb2AFtyfwAlxA6a?si=BvURAKNDQlCIIkeaygd_NQ
This track features my new arrangement of Dr Richard Dumrbill's most recent interpretation of Hurrian Hymn (Text H6), circa 1,400 BCE - the oldest notated melody so far discovered...in History!
Further to the original 'viral' version of this piece, both on my own YouTube channel & the audio of which features on countless others, this new arrangement (closely following Dr Richard Dumbrill's recommendation that the original mode of the piece was probably 'Maqamised' in the age-old Middle Eastern tradition), also is much more authentically performed on a replica of an actual surviving Canaanite-form, Bronze Age lyre, discovered in Egypt & miraculously preserved in Leiden. This lyre actually dates to almost the same time period when the original Hurrian Hymn on which I am playing it on, was itself written!
Preserved on a clay tablet discovered in the ruins of the Palace of Ugarit, (in modern day Syria), the words of the Hurrian Hymn text H6 are about a barren woman's invocation to Nikkal, Ugaritic goddess of the orchard, to bestow the goddess's fertility upon her, so that she may bear children. Of the 29 musical texts, only text H6 was in a sufficiently well preserved condition to allow the original 3,400 year old melody, notated below the words of the song, to be interpreted and performed again today.
This video is actually a 'live' practice session - on 23rd January 2023, I have been invited to host a 'musical adventure in time travel', performing a selection of my lyres at a British Museum members event evening - my lyre music has become a 'national treasure'!
"Echoes of Ancient Mesopotamia & Canaan" is available from all the usual major digital music platforms, including Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, iTunes, Pandora, Deezer etc - lossless CD quality audio or 320kbps quality MP3 is also available from Bandcamp:
michaellevy.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-of-ancient-mesopotamia-canaan
Many thanks for watching!
Subscribe:
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=Klezfiddle1
Official Artist Links:
Official Website:
ancientlyre.com
Digital Music Artist Profiles:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/7Dx2vFEg8DmOJ5YCRm4A5v
iTunes & Apple Music:
itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-levy/id4324920
Amazon:
amzn.to/2zmJph3
Bandcamp:
michaellevy.bandcamp.com
Facebook Page:
facebook.com/beautifullyre
Twitter:
twitter.com/AncientLyre
Instagram:
instagram.com/mlevy1400bce
Patreon:
patreon.com/Michael_Levy_Ancient_Lyre_Music
