For this week’s Throw Back Thursday, lets throw it way way back, all the way back, to oldest known melody on earth, “Hurrian Hymn #6.” Found on a 3,400 year-old clay tablet from in Ugarit, Syria, “Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is a beautiful reminder that humans have always been drawn to music, and to hear something so far away and so close is odd, but touching. Obviously it is impossible to directly translate an ancient clay tablet to modern music, but a popular interpretation from Michael Levy on the lyre is such a good try, it’ll have you ruing the fact that Hurrian Hymns 1-5 are lost to time.

This lyre performance is slightly haunting, the notes are sorrowful and ringing. The instrument is left by itself, and the scales and patterns remind one quite a bit of different musical trends that have come and gone in the thousands of years between then and now. It was the only legible tablet found of the 29 it was with, I wonder if it was part of a larger piece, and what a joy to imagine that even then they were composing books of songs, or albums if we dare to dream.

“Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is genuinely good, and I’m not saying that to be nice. I’m saying that because I think those ancient Syrian people did a pretty damn good job carving their hymn into a clay tablet considering their lack of resources and immense amount of obstacles. This clay tablet proves the existence of musical notation, something I, and everyone at Impact, would be nothing without. Thank you “Hurrian Hymn No. 6” for being a trendsetter. I’ll think of you when my friends say music would be nothing without The Beatles or Nirvana. What about those ancient Syrians I will ask? What about “Hurrian Hymn No. 6?”