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Babylonian and Hebrew Musical Terms

1921; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 53; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0035869x00063097

2051-2066

S. Langdon,

Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis

In the introduction to my Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms was derived, from early rubrics attached to Sumerian songs, the principle that the Sumerians classified their psalms and liturgical services chiefly by the names of the instruments employed in accompaniments. The Babylonians and the Assyrians adopted the Sumerian chants for their own sacred music, and throughout the history of Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian temple music each psalm and liturgy was usually said to the accompaniment of a single instrument. The early Sumerian psalms usually have the title eršemma or melody to the flute. But the drum, balag , Syriac pelaggā , and the kettledrum, liles , Babylonian lilissu , were freely employed in sacred music. The harp was also employed in early Sumer, as we know from a monument of Lagash, but the Sumerian and Babylonian name of the harp is unknown. The Sumerians classified their chants by the names of these instruments.