In ancient times, all poetry was sung. The poet is pictured playing a lyre or other instrument. There was no separation of lyrics and melody as we now think of them. Unfortunately none of the melodies for these early love lyrics has survived but it's easy to imagine a softly strummed harp and a husky voice singing the words that have come down to us.
Though they are thousands of years old, the earliest love songs sound so contemporary, so honest, so urgent, they might have been written yesterday. They are proof that human emotions have not changed. When we fall in love today, we feel what men and women felt in centuries past: desire, joy, disappointment, yearning, fulfillment.
So just how far back can we trace love songs? When Pharoah Rameses wanted to tell a beautiful, bronze-skinned Egyptian lady that he found her desirable, did he have a court musician sing something that sounded like "Love Me Tender"? In a way, he did. We have recovered 3500-year-old Egyptian love poems from pieces of papyrus and pottery fragments. They are filled with the language and sentiments we hear in today's pop songs.
The oldest written record of love songs comes from an area around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers known as Sumeria. The cone-shaped cuneiform script of Sumer was pressed into clay tablets which have survived to this day, giving us a glimpse into the Top 40 songs - or, at any rate, the lyrics - of 4000 years ago. These poem/songs were written in praise of the Sumerian gods and goddesses, notably Inana, a Moon and fertility goddess, and Dumiz (or Tamuz), a god of crops and fields. But like the later Hebrew "Song Of Songs," the religious context seems slight indeed. The songs speak to us of the very real emotions of young lovers, sensual pleasure, and romantic encounters.
In the lyrics for the song "My Honey Sweet" can be seen the very same type of repetition we use today in pop songs. A repeated line - which is called a "hook" in today's music - is easy to remember and catches the listener's attention
Though they are thousands of years old, the earliest love songs sound so contemporary, so honest, so urgent, they might have been written yesterday. They are proof that human emotions have not changed. When we fall in love today, we feel what men and women felt in centuries past: desire, joy, disappointment, yearning, fulfillment.
So just how far back can we trace love songs? When Pharoah Rameses wanted to tell a beautiful, bronze-skinned Egyptian lady that he found her desirable, did he have a court musician sing something that sounded like "Love Me Tender"? In a way, he did. We have recovered 3500-year-old Egyptian love poems from pieces of papyrus and pottery fragments. They are filled with the language and sentiments we hear in today's pop songs.
The oldest written record of love songs comes from an area around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers known as Sumeria. The cone-shaped cuneiform script of Sumer was pressed into clay tablets which have survived to this day, giving us a glimpse into the Top 40 songs - or, at any rate, the lyrics - of 4000 years ago. These poem/songs were written in praise of the Sumerian gods and goddesses, notably Inana, a Moon and fertility goddess, and Dumiz (or Tamuz), a god of crops and fields. But like the later Hebrew "Song Of Songs," the religious context seems slight indeed. The songs speak to us of the very real emotions of young lovers, sensual pleasure, and romantic encounters.
In the lyrics for the song "My Honey Sweet" can be seen the very same type of repetition we use today in pop songs. A repeated line - which is called a "hook" in today's music - is easy to remember and catches the listener's attention
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