Reconstructed Ancient Egyptian Melody (1 of 2)

I learnt this melody from an amazing recording, "Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians & Greeks" by "The Enemble De Organographia". I have recently uploaded a FAR superior recording of the same reconstructed melody...thankfully without the unnecessary eons of added reverb heard in this version, and with a FAR superior mic - please see the video response (...hopefully Anubis may spare my poor Soul afterall!!).

This first video, features my first arrangement for solo lyre, of an academic reconstruction of an ancient Egyptian melody heard on this CD. The scale used was taken from a three-holed Egyptian vertical flute, still in a playable condition.

It was deciphered from illustrations on a tomb painting of a Banquet Scene found at Thebes - the specific hand gestures of the individuals depicted in this scene were found to be an example of an ancient system of musical notation often used in antiquity, called called "Chironomy"; this is a system of hand gestures which were used, to denote both the pitch and ornamentation of a melody.This ancient lost art is discussed at length in this fascinating article:

http://www.rakkav.com/biblemusic/pages/chironomy.htm

The Theban Banquet Scene shows a scene of four rows of seated guests preparing to attend a banquet, with the guests on the left of each row displaying these chironomy signs, depicting the melody being played by the musicians on the sitting on the right.

In my arrangement of the melody, I have used many lyre-playing techniques also used in antiquity - finger-stopping the strings & strumming rythm,using plectrum for tremelo accomaniment,glissandos and simple chordal accompaniment in the left hand, whilst the meldoy is being plucked with a plectrum in the right hand.

All of my 9 albums of mystical, ancient lyre music are now available from iTunes...

1)"An Ancient Lyre": http://bit.ly/dhCozi

2)"King David's Lyre; Echoes of Ancient Israel":
http://bit.ly/9PCIua




3)"The Ancient Biblical Lyre": http://bit.ly/9hTDje

4)"Lyre of the Levites": http://bit.ly/9baWuM

5)"Apollo's Lyre": http://bit.ly/dhCozi

6)"Ancient Times -- Music of The Ancient World": http://bit.ly/aRF5PD

7)"The Ancient Greek Modes": http://bit.ly/cZks0o

8)"The Ancient Greek Lyre": http://bit.ly/bxO7Ra

9)"Ancient Visions -- New Compositions for an Ancient Lyre": http://bit.ly/dCPmRN

Physical CDs are also available anywhere in the world from CD Baby, for 3 of my best selling albums:

"An Ancient Lyre": http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mlevy4

"King David's Lyre; Echoes of Ancient Israel":
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mlevy

"Lyre of the Levites": http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mlevy2

For full details about my albums of lyre music, and the fascinating ancient historical background, please visit my official website:

http://www.ancientlyre.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Pyramids
• Cairo
• Giza
• ancient
• Egypt
• Sphinx
• lyre
• harp
• Rameses
• Valley
• of
• the
• Kings
• Akhenaten
• Tutankhamun
• Cleopatra
• Coptic

[lilmissmusic2012]

This is amazing!! What instrument is that, never saw it before in my life. :D

[Klezfiddle1]

@lilmissmusic2012 The instrument is a replica lyre - for all details on where to buy one, please see the "Blogs" section of my website (URL given on video annotation) where I have posted a blog entitled "How To Acquire a Lyre"

[carlinsanders]

Interesting sounds! Thanks for posting all the historical info too - I'd never heard of "chironomy" before.

[Klezfiddle1]

For more fascinating details and research, please see the "Historical Details" section of my new "ancientlyre" website - the URL is given on my Youtube Channel Page :)

[S1587915G]

Did the Egyptians produce any written scores for their music, I wonder?

[Klezfiddle1]

The system of musical notation used in ancient Egypt was transmitted by a unique system of hand gestures called "chironomy", which were used to denote both the changes of pitch in any given musical mode, and also the ornamentation of the melody. We know some of the actual musical modes used, thanks to discoveries of ancient Egyptian flutes which were still playable! I think the 2 main musical modes discovered, was something similar to the natural minor & the minor pentatonic scales.

[Drakul1234]

I bet the original composer would have never guessed his/her music would last for thousands of years!

[sigursiggi]

this is like listening to a ghost...unbelievably beautiful. thx for posting this.

[phr4nk3rd00d13]

@Drakul1234 and transmitted to people throughout the world by means of mysterious electronic devices and whatnot..

[abcedy123456]

This is vary interesting as I recently took up guitar. I closed my eyes and imagined my self at a banquet or a party 2000 years ago hearing these huanting melodys. Very interesting.

[PhuQuangLe111]

is this suppose to be tune to 432 hz

[nubihotepamun]

So beautiful, I love that sound!

[aporia82]

@wimpie25 perfect comment :))

[wimpie25]

@Drakul1234

We can only hope that no one will rediscover a recording of Lady Gaga in the year 4000....