Music in ancient Mesopotamia is important to religious rites and secular entertainments. In religion, the goddess Ninigizibara relates to the balag (balaĝ), a type of lyre used in ritual hymns and prayers. She may be a deity, the instrument or the ritual itself.
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Music in Mesopotamia is influenced by, and influences, music of Egypt, East and West Africa and the Mediterranean coast. Religious music centers on the gods, often a specific deity such as Inanna Queen of Heaven.
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Religion also involves healing rites with music, songs and incantations against demons causing disease. The first evidence of music in Mesopotamia is a bone whistle dating back to c. 5000 BCE. The singing bowls of Tibet originate in Mesopotamia c. 2800 BCE.
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In Sumer by the c. 2600 BCE musical instruments include harps, lyres, lutes, reed pipes, and drums. Around the third millennium BCE one of the early forms of religious music takes the form of the city lament, accompanied by the barag.
The laments are sung by priests when temples have been destroyed and are being rebuilt. They call upon the god/dess with praises. Once they have the deity's attention, they describe how terrible things will be for the city if the deity leaves.
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By the second millennium BCE city laments are moving into the secular zone, and the style of prayer and music called balaĝ gains popularity. Balag is both the name of the musical genre and the instrument.
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Ninigizibara, the goddess of the ritual, can be either a deity or the instrument itself, thus the instrument may be called balag or Ninigizibara. Balag prayers were sung by a Gala priest, or priest of Inanna, while rituals are enacted around the instrument.
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The balag instrument itself may be regarded as a minor deity. Every instrument has a name or title and specific rites of worship. King Gudea has two made, called ‘Great Dragon of the Land' and 'Lady as Exalted as Heaven' c. 2150 BCE.
The balag ritual is intended to soothe the local deity with pleasant sounds, while lamenting the fate of city if it's abandoned by the deity. Balags are popular from the Old Babylonian (c. 2000 BCE) period to the Seleucid Empire in the first century BCE.
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As a literary genre, the balag is written in cuneiform script and sung by the Gala priest in the Sumerian dialect Emesal, translated as 'fine tongue' or 'high-pitched voice'. The two types of Emesal prayers are the Balag and the Ershemma.
Their styles are named for the instruments used (balag and shem, a drum). Some compositions begin with the balag and end with shem. Each balag is composed to a specific god. In some religious festivals, dancers, jugglers and acrobats accompany the musicians.
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From Mari, Syria, comes a concept of the placement of the musicians in the temple. The Ninigizibara or balag is set opposite a statue of that city's deity, Eštar. Singers sit to the right of the instrument.
On the left is an orchestra. Female musicians stand behind the instrument. Ritual acts are performed as well, to persuade the local deity not to abandon the city. Laments even include grief over the loss of music during destruction of a city and its temple.
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In one composition, the "weeping goddess" Ninisinna laments the destruction of her city, Isin. She not only grieves for the loss of food, drink, and luxury, but also due to the lack of music.
In the hymn she laments “no sweet-sounding musical instruments such as the lyre, drum, tambourine, and reed pipe; no comforting songs and soothing words from the temple singers and priests.” The rituals involve animal sacrifices, primarily that of a bull.
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In one Akkadian ritual with a lilissu drum, a bull is brought to the temple and offerings made to Ea (Enki), god of music, water, creation and wisdom. During the ritual, parts of the bull are burned with a torch. Attendants lay down twelve linens on the floor.
The bronze image of a god is put atop each cloth. Sacrifices are made and a drum is set in place. The bronze god images are then put into the drum.
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Priests whisper incantations into the bull's ears. A hymn is sung, accompanied by an oboe. The bull is then sacrificed.
One of the earliest known figures in the history of Mesopotamian music is an Akkadian priestess, Enheduanna (c. 2300 BCE). She's the daughter of Sargon the Great of Akkad. Enheduanna is a scribe and composer as well as priestess.
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Scribes are responsible for creating works such as lists of songs and hymns, along with tablets pertaining to the use, care and religious significance of the instruments. They cover topics of extensive music theory and include musical notations.
The Sumerian system indicates the names of strings on a lyre, and the order they should be played. Ancient Mesopotamian music uses a system of musical scales, chords and thirds. The music is based a heptatonic (seven musical tones), diatonic scale.
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The ancient Mesopotamians use the concept of musical intervals, including the octave, and the circle of fifths. A clay tablet has been found listing 27 types of musical instruments. Woodwinds are popular including flutes and pipes.
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