The Symphony and the Stars: How the Mysteries of the Universe and the Mysteries of the Muse Shaped our Mind and our Spirit
Part 2
Sunrise of Civilization
The humble beginnings of the Western tonal system extend back at least as far as recorded history. The Sumerian culture dates to the mid-6th millennium B.C.E., and at its core was a priesthood class performing the rites and rituals at the famous ziggurats that kept the Sumerians in good graces with their gods. Early cuneiform manifested in the form of clay tablets inscribed with logograms, and by the time of the Epic of Gilgamesh in 2100 B.C.E. they had given way to the first fully syllabic writing system. An organized system of writing music emerged in tandem. Their literary legacy tells of priests accompanied by hundreds of musicians, and there are dozens of surviving hymns glorifying the gods and goddesses.
Instrumental music had also come into its own. Tablet VIII of Gilgamesh speaks of drums accompanying singing, and a fragmentary verse speaks of a “flute of carnelian” that is offered as a gift to the sun god Dumuzi. Statues and paintings depicting musicians are common. Several well-preserved lyres have been unearthed in the tombs of Sumerian kings, the majority of which feature a bull’s head and its lunar horns in honor of Nanna, the moon god. Although opinions are divided, evidence suggests that Sumerian tonal system was comprised of diatonic scales, which would certainly be in sync with the mechanics of lyres, flutes and pipes.
This new plethora of deities required many more shrines, priests, and of course, music. Therefore it is no surprise that it is to the Sumerians we owe the first example of written music. A cuneiform tablet dating to 1400 B.C.E. has been definitively identified as containing pitch notation. Although there are a handful of claims by archeomusicologists to have unlocked the tonal secrets of the hymn, but like a tree falling in an empty forest, it will always remain in the realm of speculation.
This explosion of gods and music was no mere coincidence. The Sumerians were an agrarian society and therefore at the mercy of the seasons and elements. Knowledge of when to plant and harvest requires an accurate system of measuring time, and the phases of the moon and the movement of the sun through the zodiac were an obvious clock. In fact, it is to the Sumerians that we owe the hexadecimal system for measuring minutes and seconds we still use today. In that sense we also owe them credit for the metronome, for which they will never be forgiven. Mathematics and astronomical observation resulted in the first calendar—lunar of course—and a star chart from 3300 B.C.E. features Orion, Taurus, the Pleiades, and the North Star at the center. Thus, the ancient moon bull is forever being chased by the great hunter as they spiral around the world axis.
It is for this reason that the prehistoric religious icons such as the moon bull were retained with ease, and the roster of gods simply integrated into existing myth. Because of their constant observations of the night sky they quickly became aware of the constellations and the five visible planets. The discovery of these starry images and celestial wanderers in the sky prompted new gods and goddesses associated with them. Although they didn’t recognize the Morning Star and the Evening Staras the same planet—Venus— the new brilliant light became associated with their most revered goddess Inanna, patron of Gilgamesh’s city of Uruk and daughter of Nanna the moon god. As the new science built upon the old, so too is the new pantheon the offspring of the ancients, and myth and legend were embroidered in the very fabric of the universe.