Duo 4500-year-old reproduction lyre & pipes

[ruzickaw]

not a great music

[AndyHarpist]

@ruzickaw What music was 5,000 years ago might not have been to our ears today.

[AndyHarpist]

@AndyHarpist A completely correct observation. This odd instrument raises questions about what is music ; what is was used for; how it was played and how it was tuned.

All of which are really unknowable yet worth asking and trying to find out about.

[nofrig]

I didn't expect a lyre to sound like that. Interesting.

[ThefamousZozo]

When i was young we heard this like everywhere, it got kinda annoying.

But hearing it now remember i havent heard this in 4000 years, and it made me smile a little :).

[badran106]

the only flute made from ivory that reach us is in the collection of mr badran ghosn about 700 bc...see it at badran106 link test it by carbon...and then do a copy...you will get the real old tune....and i salute you from lebanon....

[ZR3FR1K]

People playing and/or practicing this kind of music back then, were stoned to death.

[Ayaka83]

in my country we have an instrument similar to this pipe (i guess the evolution of it) it is called "launeddas" and the peculiarity is to play them in a way that it look you are not breathing too byeee

[konkod123]

gr8 fingers for a musician



[Arlanthe]

I would like to see some replicas made for the public to purchase and use, that is awesome.

[Giuseppetiberi]

wow! awsome! do you now where it's possible to buy these pipes?! thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MrHalohalo85]

The lyre sounds alot like an Ethiopian Begenna harp. Interesting how this type of sound can still be heard today. Great job on the research. :)

[violentinu]

Launeddas.SRDN.



[Herik77]

Respira ogni tanto sennò ti scoppia quella vena!!

[MarkHarmer]

@Herik77 It's alarming, isn't it! But he does breathe - you can still puff out air with your cheeks while breathing in. Just takes a lot of practice!

[Herik77]

@MarkHarmer Ah! like a little bagpipe?.. ty for Reply :)

[Underdogpiano]

@MarkHarmer

Yes, its called circular breathing right? Same technique they use with the didgeridoo and other instruments.

[nonnopirro52]

@Herik77 é 1 tecnica sarda. nn ha bisogno di respirare come fai tu x dire cazz***

[Giuseppetiberi]

@nonnopirro52 non è una tecnica sarda, esiste da migliaia di anni e la utilizzano in tutto il mondo

[andylowings]

Thank you for your kind comment Mr Petroski.

The study of long dead music is a tough one... the truth is that no-one knows how something was really played last century let alone 4,500 years ago. There are some hints and those pipes did have a fixed length and some holes in so we know a bit... but otherwise we speculate hugely. It might have been like this, but may have been quite different, in every way possible.

Thanks again

[marcelpetroski]

Where's bibliography with studies about the reconstitution of this music? Anyone can help?

[Ono42012]

this is REAL Music!! Thanks for the Upload!

[rlmotionpictures]

Well, its a lot less disturbing then lady gaga.

[Fuliginosus]

This is what I grew up listening to. Back then we didn't have Rudy Vallee, or the Beatles or any of this hippety-stuff the youngsters listen to nowadays.

[andylowings]

We really don`t know how many strings there were on it as none were found. No trace at all.

But similar lyres have between 6 and 11 or more .

You might just be able to see on the lower decoration, under the strings, there are 8 vertical blue lapis stone `lines`... in the original of course too...

Why there and why 8?

We took this to mean this IS where the strings enter the body, and there`s eight of them!

Thank you for commenting.

[ArawnGraalrd]

How'd it get to be eight strings? I thought the Begena was using half of Ten.

My brother Charly just got an MOS in Guitar, in the US Army, so I thought I'd poke around, and show him what a real weapon looked like.

[andylowings]

Thanks for your comment Thor,

This is a playable version of a lyre found in a royal grave at Ur, one of the Sumerian city states of Mesopotamia. It is firmly dated to 2,550 BC though some, until recently, dated it at 2,650 BC.

Its not Babylonian, though perhaps they too had similar Lyres. The languages are also totally different.

[MajikkaniHand]

I rather like that lyre's buzz. Gives a very interesting sound, especially paired with the pipes.

[andylowings]

We really don`t know how the lyre would have been intended to sound some 4,500 years ago ...

Maybe our preconceptions need adjusting a little.

`Tonal perfection` maybe wasn`t so important..Maybe such lyres were just `worshipped` ,, maybe they were `hypnotic` instruments made to play for a couple of days or so..... Maybe they liked a buzz ?

Who knows! We show it here for you to consider such things and learning about the story.

Thank you for taking the time to comment and for listening.

[MetallicThor]

@andylowings 4500 years ago is 2500 BC. Babylonians only came to existence in 1700 BC when Hammurabi formed the Babylonian empire out of the remnants of the Akkadian empire. How could this be both 4500 years old and be Babylonian at the same time?

[hilz4prez]

He didn't stop playing the pipe once to breathe.

[ozmamusicware]

nice circular breathing technique...

[abby495]

Artisan, may you be blessed by Father and Lord Enki and the Mother of Heaven and Earth Ninhursag. Let us remember the divine Architect of the good city Eridu just like some 4,000 years ago. Let us fashion tunes and artifacts of our devotion and may the Lords of the 3 worlds hear our prayers.Tiamat is thirsty awaken Lord of the Living Waters from your slumber. Tiamat is thirsty. Amun

[bulldog01209]

the buzzing is normal ?

[AtarahDerek]

Wow, it's an old-school synthesizer.  Sweet.

[xtraorange]

That's really cool! However, I am concerned that the pipes player's vain by his eye is going to explode. :/

[GIadiator]

is the piper a relative to jeremy irons??

[dderudito]

4500 years old? AIs it really true?

[andylowings]

@dderudito

4,550 to be exact. It was revised from 4,600 five years ago.

[dderudito]

@andylowings Thus, it is so fantastic

[xzyza2000]

Had you played a KUDYAPI ( Ancient Filipino musical Instrument)...

[juanpus]

Congratulations. I am a peruvian archeologist and I love music. How can I make a contact with you?

[wirlysourpineapples]

totally groovy man

[Maguirearch]

I can see similarities in this and Irish Music...The Uillian pipes....The Irish have legendary eastern Origins....connections with Egypt and The Cuacausus ..Osetia and Georgia...Eastern Iberia

[cblair84]

wow...this is amazing!!! what race of people or civilization played these instruments??

[Apolox1912]

They were the mediterranean civilizations, such as the Greeks =)

[LiveFreelyKJ]

@Apolox1912 Actually they are Ancient Mesopotamian who are now known as Chaldean/Assyrians and reside in Iraq where Ancient Mesopotamia once was.

[Apolox1912]

Yes, you're right, I did notice that, after watching the whole video. I like so much Mesopotamian civilizations and many Mediterranean ones too! =)

[Silent44]

@Apolox1912 I wouldn't doubt the Mediterranean "civilizations" such as the Hellenistic Greeks played these exact instruments. What of ours (Sumer & Akkad, Mesopotamia) did they not steal and adopt?

[palehorsepalerider]

Its good to hear this once again, its been at least 4000 years since I heard it last.

[nyalarhotep]

@palehorsepalerider It was worth waiting.

[vwlover94]

@palehorsepalerider haha 

[dmarker21]

Great music regardless of how authentic it may or may not be. I play a double chantered, no-drone pipe called "le ciaramelle d'amatrice." Check out my videos to hear some of my friends in Italy playing it. It's an unbroken tradition in Italy going back to perhaps the Tibia/Aulos. Might give you some ideas on different ways to play the Ur pipes. Who knows, they could be related!

[glishev]

It's amazing.

[MrDeadbrain]

The lyre remberes me at the ethopian one, which is in use still today.

[Thialeana]

This is amazing! Great work guys!

[trafficjam10]

this is such an alien sound

[LadyofDragons]

I think it sounds awesome. :3

[trafficjam10]

@LadyofDragons I totally agree! :-)

[dderudito]

@trafficjam10 So, it's more psssible you are a alien. :)

[fljugherra]

Yay, Barnaby Brown played the whole piece without breathing!

[IIISEXYHEALIII]

fantastic.good work guys!

[WolfPupKoryu]

How interesting... Any way to take a closer look at the pipes?

[AyasaLorenn]

The pipes are so consistant throughout, are you circular breathing the majority of the video? I do think I saw a few sneaks of air at times though.

[glorplaxy]

This is so incredible. The lyre has such a unique sound.

I would love to do something like this with an algoza instead of the pipes.

[Cogwerks]

Quite a fascinating sound.

[ZetaFin]

Sounds great!

[Lo2y11]

seems like ireland M !!!

:D

[IC2720]

Mmmm...no different scale.

[TriumVirateABAP]

When a sound is heard which has been anticipated for centuries it sounds into the essense of vines young and old. All these know is that they were prepared to stand when they heard this sound ushering the coming of monumental events.

[celticmodes]

Recently heard Ann Heyman and Charlie do something similar with Horse Hair harp and Lyre.

[biigzen]

Thats really interesting. i wonder where the people of Ur's minds went musically, that is how they chose to use the musical notes available to them with the instruments they used. I wonder if these guys are close to recreating the music they made or if theyre completely off. Guess we'll never know.

[fishcat42]

There are two types of truly ancient (40,000+ year old) flutes known - one is based around the 8-note scale, the others are based around the 5-note scale. There is some evidence that the caves selected for cave paintings were chosen for acoustic properties. We have limited, but useful, myth fragments from the pre-Indo-Europeans and the Sumerians involving how they understood music. A handful of ancient (Egyptian and possibly Babylonian) music scores exist, and some can even be interpreted.

[biigzen]

Truly amazing

[thenextHermanLi24]

nice

[calypso694]

what pipes are those? i have to get some

[andylowings]

"all music must have originated from this"

Well I doubt it.

We are discovering much from the truly ancient past all the time. Sounding rocks; bone flutes from 35,000 years ago....

I reckon human always `liked sounds` don`t you.

Thanks for the comment and interest !

Hard to prove though!

[vikingskippen]

these are the oldest instruments ever found. all music as we know it must have originated from this, strange thought.

[z3roo0]

very small pipes.. looks like sticks or something

[lorentzinvariant]

Beautiful performance! Question: Is there evidence in the historical record of the ancient use of the technique of circular breathing on such pipes (as is used in the performance here)? Thanks in advance for your answer.

[prespect4life]

where can i buy pipes like that?

[Walkemor]

The lyre doesn't make a lot of sound for such a HUGE instrument? I think the pipes are nice, though.

[MarkHarmer]

I think now you mention it, the pipes are probably slightly loud in this recording, but that's partly because they do in reality have quite a penetrating sound (for such tiny instruments). The lyre really is quite loud in real life as it has a hollow sound box and a parchment bridge which gives it that slight buzz and a very deep sound (it was sometimes called a bull lyre I believe, which always makes me think that it's a reference to the sound as well as its appearance).

[andylowings]

Thank you for the kind comments!

Barnaby is indeed a real hard-working hard-blowing piper.

He told me that the smaller the pipes the harder it is . The reeds were particularly hard to keep in tune and sounding correctly in that cold church !

[MuxoAlberto]

This man is the most pulmonar-man that I ever seen man.

[Alosnup]

Its an incredible archeological sound work!!!, its amazing to heard it after thousands of years unheared.

Great work!!

[seanlikestoeat]

kick ass music

[windmaker21]

such wonderful music. I could hear this all day.

[harpbloke]

so what makes you think the lyre had a vibrating component, eeeks, trombaharina???careful now lads, dont want to corrupt history....hmmmm

[Kerasounta]

i think the name of the pipes are diabolo.

[SoraTakenouchi16]

thanks for the video!it has made my dream come true.thamk you very much

[Th3ba1r0n]

Just think. Who were the minds that created these instruments? And what an inovation it must have been? It's as powerful as the discovery of fire and the wheel :D

[mizas79]

this music might sound strange to some today, but 4500 years ago other people were still grunting at each other and greeks had music.

[Prettynessy69]

you watch toomuch tv

[TriumVirateABAP]

It helps to TRAVEL and save you little money, the time to do this is now while it's still cheap.

Magazines and Nat.Geo only go so far, as well as excuses. It also helps to pitch Biases and prejudice and mingle with this ideae first before going forth.

You wouldn't want to show others how you really are, clean your life up FIRST before you go, that way you do not make others back home ashamed!!!!

[leftysergeant]

The Greeks could not write their own names when the bull lyre was made. They learned writing and music both from the descendants of the Sumerians.

[TheClassicalLiberal]

this song makes me want to drink beer out of a long reed straw from a giant clay vase.

[leftysergeant]

TCL, I think some tribes still drink beer like that in Kenya.  Sumerian culture had a long reach.

[Ono42012]

@TheClassicalLiberal  LOL well put

[Redhorse1959]

Are those pipes in anyway related to that part of bag pipes? They sound like some types of pipes Celts used like the old Welsh pipes and bag reconstructed. Or horn pipe?

[andylowings]

The silver pipes here are the great grandfathers of the aolos, the twin pipes found in classical Greece.

They were found in the Royal Graves at Ur and date from 2550 BC. Remade by Bo Lawergren of NY.

Andy Lowings

[Coyoteee111]

What's the name of those pipes?I'm very interested in them!

[BelligerentAuthority]

Those pipes are really cool

[andylowings]

Tickets for the LONDON CONCERT are now on sale: tel

01733 253068

or 0208 660 0192

Bolivar Hall Goodridge St. LONDON Friday Dec 5th 7.30pm

nearest tube: Warren St

[LaCarusiella]

I love to watch this,it's fantastic to hear an instrument of more than 4.000 years ago!The sound of the harp is a bit weired though.How can I buy the tickets for the concert in London and where will it be??

It doesn't say anything on the british museum website.I so want to see this live!

[arkhatych]

Strange, Starnge! In my opinion it's not a music! It's a mixture of harp & pipes

[Muratete]

I don't speak english, but I try to write this post. It's great! :)

[andylowings]

Hi Sean,

Thank you for your kind comments. It is perhaps a little celtic but who knows what may have been the sound back then?

We try our best !

Come over for the concert in London on December 5th 2008 ! Kind regards

[seanthepiper]

Hi There ! That's pretty "Summerian-Celtic"

music you're playing & no wonder, considering Barnaby Brown's prowess as a Scots GHB

and Launeddas / Celtic "Triple" Piper !

I saw Simon O'Dywer's "Ghee-Ghit" by Lawergren.I like Ben Hume's (of New York City) set he made for me, back in 1997. Different scales result, depending . on the REEDS used. I'm also a friend of Anne Kilmer, of the "Sounds From Silence" recording. Is that buzzing due to "Bray" Pins on the Lyre ? Keep Up UR GOOD WORK ! Sean Folsom

[andylowings]

Hi Brotoi, We have used the theme of the deaths of the musicians with their instruments, to choreograph a short ballet to music. It`s on our DVD .

We are also recording a CD in two weeks

Feel free to contact us about either.

Andy

[Brotoi]

Nice. I've seen both the Sumerian music videos. Any chance there will be more?

[andylowings]

The original musical scale some say can be deduced from the finger hole positions, found in the original pieces of the pipes and replicated here.

The Lyre is tuned diatonically, which some researchers say is indicated in old tablets describing what was the tuning method used back then in 2,550 BC

Basically do re me fa so la te do.

[elisaprato]

do you know what kind of musical scale this is ?

[porsdottir]

I wish I could find those pipes for sale somewhere! Just did a search and came back with nothing, apart from metre-long ones! I want these!!!!

[MarkHarmer]

I'm pretty sure he made these - they are amazing. They're thinner than pencils and the first time I heard them I was astonished at the sound. They really are quite loud but also they can be controlled by the player's breath really well.

[alivonal]

when I eat mexican, I sound like this too. just kidding, it is very interesting stuff.

[daryush55]

Those pipes are amazing! Where can I find more information about them?

[TuckerD92]

Wonderful!!! Absolutely amazing I look foward to progress on this project. Music is an international language, if only we could find some way of hearing the songs the ancients did.

[cstamets]

Starting at 1:14... watch the vein on the piper's forehead. Found that funny for some reason, hehe. Enjoyed the music too.

[Filosofer]

that's cause he is blowing into an instrument with a passage way smaller than a straw...

with the sound he's reproducing, it's amazing how much alike it sounds to the bagpipes we got in greece.

notice how the sound of the pipes doesn't stop while he goes in for a breather.

let the veins stand out like the music he plays!

[pinnolone1978]

I also make the same sounds with the papers!

[RolfLarsson]

How did they do the reconstruction of how the harp sounded?

[fsoldaten]

+1 to that. im sure they had a reason for arriving at the taughtness they did though? but i must say it sounds pretty out of tune...

[HARMONICO101]

Well, they obviously didn't use the same tuning or scale system that we use today.

[yanpan16]

wow!!!

[andylowings]

Many thanks for your kind comment djypsyjazz !

Indeed, these pipes do have a modern legacy.. And who knows maybe the Gold Lyre too is connected to the more modern lyres still being played in the world??

Andy

[djypsydjazz]

That lyre was an influence on the kinnor which was a lyre played around Mesopotamia. I love the basses on that thing. I wish I had the gold to make a lyre like that one.

[Klezfiddle1]

I am almost certain that the origin of the Hebrew word for melody, "Zemer", was so named because this word actually SOUNDS like the buzz made by the low tension gut strings buzzing on the bridge of the Kinnor lyre...as also heard here, on this even more ancient lyre! I am actually in the process of recording an album of solo lyre music played on a replica of the ancient Kinnor...check my own Youtube Channel out for live performances of some of the 22tracks!;o)

[djypsydjazz]

Those pipes represent the classical greek instrument called the aulos. Very cool.

[Solstreif]

Hello I am a norwegian folk singer.

I just love these old instruments an its sound:-)

Beautiful!

Sonja

[LessaAlessandro]

Search also "launeddas"

[blackjack100]

u can purchase da same primitive pipe on google, try doin a search, the name is ''launeddas''. They're ancient pipes sold in Sardinia (once best known as atlantis.)

[carlosmangela]

enchanting...takes me into another world..probably a lost world that I was once a part of.

[SCWguqin]

I'm still getting used to the fact that double reedpipes were apparently the "serious" wind instrument of choice in the Mediterranean and West Asia for millennia; this video goes some distance toward helping me understand why. Step by step...

As for the performance itself, I like the concept and the execution was capable; at times the systematic exploration of the scales outran euphony, however. I'm all for alternative conceptions of euphony, but this one needs to be worked out more.

[certus9]

I'm a classical professional string player. I love your music and hope to hear a lot more from you. From what I know of theory I would say that you've got it about as close as one could have it. congratulations and keep up the good work.

[Admin022]

Ooo, very cool. Thanks for sharing this. Please explain more about the construciton of the instruments! : )

[ApollosKourros]

Eerie, but enchanting. Well done once again! It's a little nasally like bagpipes, but as froggman said, I'm really not getting the "celtic" part.

[kumquatcity]

I too thought this sounded a bit Celtic -- as well as Middle Eastern. So I cannot agree with maxdiggi. Correct me if I'm wrong, someone, but weren't the Mesopotamians seafarers? Isn't it possible that someone traveled to other lands and left remnants of their music behind? Maxdiggi, if you look it up, one of the definitions under "Aryan" is "(formerly) Indo-Iranian." Perhaps the world's cultures are more closely tied than we tend to think?

Now, as far as the music goes -- Beautiful.

[maxdiggi]

Ridicuolos. They are playing celtic music with middle-east intsruments.. There's no Greek at all in it and it is another mistake. Ur is in the actual IRAQ. Something harmonic-minor would be more appreciated as an historic value.

Maybe they are trying to make the public think at an "Arian" origin of civilisation, like the invention of a "Sumer" popolation (Nazi idea) instead of the real AKKAD.

[MarkHarmer]

Sorry, Maxdiggi. The scale comes from the positions of the holes in the pipes, which were contemporary with the Lyre - and it's the best evidence we have of the scale. Also I don't think we're trying to make the public (interesting choice of words you have there) think anything - it's an improvisation using the scale as reconstructed. Ur predates modern Iraq so not sure what your point is there.

[MarkHarmer]

We tuned the lowest 5 lyre strings to the notes of the pipes, the next 2 strings to perfect 5ths with strings 2 & 3, and the top string an octave above the lowest.

I settled for roughly equal intervals - 180 cents +/- 15, or a fifth divided into

five roughly equal steps - as this is common around the Arabic world and West Africa.

[froggman1975]

Sorry Maxdiggi, but I'm a huge fan of celtic music, and I hear nothing celtic in here (except, maybe, the fact that the double pipe provides a drone effect that is pseduo-bagpipe-ish... but then again, we know that bagpipes are not endemic to Celtic music and may also have some origins or parallel development in the Mediterranean or the Middle East)

[carlosmangela]

Please tell me more about the origin of Bagpipes and their probable Meditarranean ancestory. Thx

[shautora]

I don't know about their origin, but I know that bagpipes are still used throughout many parts of Greece and Anatolia, and perhaps elsewhere. Theirs is called "Gaida".

[KRISHNARAJIYENGAR]

Thanks. I think even Scandinavia has its bagpipes. It would be fascinating to learn about bagpipes in Greece and Antolia

[shautora]

Check the Wikipedia, they should have some good articles, I know they have one on the Gaida.

[froggman1975]

Also, while it doesn't sound like modern Middle Eastern music, neither does modern western music sound like ancient western music, and I actually hear some scale and mode structure in there that sounds decidedly Middle Eastern/North African.

[blicksflicks]

Ummm, the word UR was found on it, goof ball! lol The stone!

[rakkav]

What can you tell us about the scale, mode and tuning of the pipe and lyre, and about how you chose to put together the melody and harmony? (It's a fascinating composition, and it's probably no accident that it's reminiscent of recordings of ancient Greek music.)

[annielovessean]

Another fantastic video from you, Mark! I love it! It is indeed a voice from the past that I thought you and Andy represented magnificently!

[andylowings]

Thank you for your kind comments! These instruments are authentic down to the real cedar wood, lapis lazuli and gold so we feel this what might have been the sound of 4,550 years ago. Andy Lowings

[golfer78]

yes, it is great...

[Summer9293]

Absolutely awesome!!

[BardofCornwall]

Amazing!

[Moon2Earth]

the sounds are lovely and it would be too bad not to reconstruct and preserve such instruments, the voice of the past heard in the future, I think the whle project must be, although challenging, really gratifying too..I love this, thank you for sharing.

[Klezfiddle1]

FABULOUS!Interesting - I think the existence of double pipes as early as 4500 years ago,disproves the prevailing "urban legend" view, that the ancients did not use any form of harmony.