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THE OLDEST COMPLETE PIECE OF MUSIC IN HISTORY!

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Klezfiddle1
November 06, 2007

A studio quality version of "Song of Seikilos" can now be heard on my NEW ALBUM, "An Ancient Lyre" : http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ml... For full details, also visit: http://www.ancientlyre.com This ...

A studio quality version of "Song of Seikilos" can now be heard on my NEW ALBUM, "An Ancient Lyre" :

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mlevy4

For full details, also visit:
http://www.ancientlyre.com

This video features my arrangement for solo lyre, of "The Song of Seikilos"- unique in musical history, as it is the only piece of music from antiquity in the entire Western world, that has SO far been found, which has survived in its COMPLETE form, and unlike much earlier surviving fragments of melodies that have been found, this song is written in a totally unambiguous ALPHABETICAL musical notation, which can be played, note for note, as it was written...2000 YEARS AGO!

http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Son...

This melody is an amazing musical legacy from ancient Greece; a precious remnant of a long-forgotten musical culture now forever lost in the mists of time...

It is written in the ancient Greek "Hypophrygian" mode; the equivelant intervals as heard in a scale of G-G played on the white notes of the piano. (This mode confusingly has exactly the same intervals as heard in the MEDIEVAL "Mixolydian" mode -the ORIGINAL ancient GREEK "Mixolydian" mode, was, in fact, B-B!).

Due to a misinterpretation of the Latin texts of Boethius, mediaeval modes were given the wrong Greek names! For the CORRECT names of the ORIGINAL ancient Greek modes, see:

http://www.harmonics.com/lucy/lsd/cor...

For more fascinating details of what the great ancient Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle had to say about the musical modes, please see this fascinating link:

http://www.pathguy.com/modes.htm

This is my second, & in my opinion, my most interesting arrangement of the song on Youtube (the link to my other upload can be seen in the video responses at the top).

My other arrangement of this ancient melody, used a lyre tonally similar to the ancient Greek Lyra - the lyre depicted on countless ancient Greek vases, which was made from a tortoise shell, with a soundboard of taut animal hide stretched across it.

In this version, I have tried to utilize EVERY conceivable lyre-playing technique I could think of, which may have also been used in Antiquity! This is also a far more lively rendition - I have recently learnt that "The Song of Sekilos" is, in fact a DRINKING SONG!(What a GREAT idea of the ancient Greeks to put a drinking song on a TOMBSTONE - I want one to be on MINE!!).

Although much older music has been found (& which I have had a go at recreating on some of my other Youtube uploads), all that remains are either just pitiful fragments of the melodies, or the way the melodies have been notated in ancient times have SO many modern interpretations that the actual melody is still mostly academic guess work.

About 2000 years after it was written, this melody was rediscovered in 1883, in its complete & original form. It was found inscribed in marble on an ancient Greek burial stele, bearing the following epitaph: "I am a portrait in stone. I was put here by Seikilos, where I remain forever, the symbol of timeless remembrance".

The words of the song are:

"Hoson zes, phainou
Meden holos su lupou;
Pros oligon esti to zen
To telos ho chronos apaitei"
(While you live, shine
Don't suffer anything at all;
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll)

It is played here on an an instrument strikingly similar to the ancient Greek Kithara; the larger, wooden lyre favoured by professional ancient Greek musicians. The instrument I am playing, is, in fact, a copy of an ancient Jewish Temple Lyre, the "Kinnor", as depicted from an illustration on the back of an ancient Jewish coin from the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans in 135 C.E. (Photos of this coin can be seen all over my Youtube Channel page?). I am almost certain there must have been some cross-cultural musical influences, between ancient Greece, and ancient Israel...

Relax and enjoy some "Time Travel" with me, back to the amazingly distant times of Aristotle, the glory of the Acropolis & the Parthenon...

Category: Music

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This is a video response to Echoes of Ancient Greece...(2 of 4)

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sjokolade777 (2 weeks ago) Show Hide

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he plays like an anthroposophist....

janeym (3 weeks ago) Show Hide

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this is one of my favorite modes! phrygian and dorian are also spectacular =)

IIISEXYHEALIII (1 month ago) Show Hide

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fantastic!Φαντασικό αυτο που έπαιξες αμα είσαι ελληνας και με καταλαβαίνεις τι λέω.

dhojebonufang (1 month ago) Show Hide

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1:50 -1:56 best!!!

jmm53087 (1 month ago) Show Hide

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Fantastic! It's amazing to hear ancient music as it sounded thousands of years ago.

khay95 (1 month ago) Show Hide

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also crazy

adamatova (2 months ago) Show Hide

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It begs to be sung to. I think people forget that King David was a splendid singer, as well as poet, psalm writer and dancer. It would seem that this instrument complements the human voice to a high degree and without it sounds only like a half of a harmony. But thank you sharing this.

zamorachristian1 (2 months ago) Show Hide

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@Klezfiddle1 may I ask are you jewish? And beautiful music you play

Klezfiddle1 (2 months ago) Show Hide

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Well, my surname is "Levy"! ;o) It is amazing what's in a surname - it was my very own, very ancient Levites ancestors who actually played these 10-string Biblical Lyres over 2000 years ago in the Temple of Jerusalem, to accompany the singing of the Levitical Choir...now THA'S what I call "Roots Music"!!

pissedpatriot1776 (4 days ago) Show Hide

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Man thats just COOL!!!

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THE OLDEST COMPLETE PIECE OF MUSIC IN HISTORY!

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