good music

Track 1, the meditative prelude to my album, "An Ancient Lyre"....

INTRODUCTION

The concept of this unique album, is a meditative "Musical Adventures in Time Travel"! On this Voyage, I will take you back to the entrancing sounds of ancient Egypt, examples of some of the the actual surviving musical fragments of ancient Greece, and indeed, to the oldest fragment of written melody so far ever discovered, in my arrangement for solo lyre, of the 3400 year old "Hurrian Hymn " from Mesopotamia!

The lyre I play is a replica of the 10- string Lyre of the Ancient Hebrews (known in Hebrew as the "Kinnor" ( כנור ). This incredible lyre also features in my earlier albums available from cdbaby, "King David's Lyre; Echoes of Ancient Israel" and "Lyre of the Levites". . My replica 3000 year old Kinnor Lyre of the Ancient Hebrews, is almost tonally identical to the wooden lyres played throughout the Ancient World - for example, the type of lyre played 3000 years ago in the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt ( as seen on the see album cover) and the ancient Greek Kithara Lyre. Therefore, I came up with the inspiration of this concept heard here, of creating an album featuring music from all these amazing Ancient Civlilizations...


THE MUSIC

1) "An Ancient Lyre" - my meditative prelude to the album, consisting of a spontaneous improvisation on a mesmerizing, hypnotic, dreamy ancient Middle Eastern "Hijaz" scale...


2) "Hurrian Hymn no.6" - My performance of the 3400 year old "Hurrian Hymn"heard here recently featured in the Internationally renowned pages of "The Biblical Archaeological Review: http://bit.ly/dIeTgb

 The 3400 year old "Hurrian Hymn" (Text H6) which was discovered in Ugarit in Syria in the early 1950s, and was preserved for 3400 years on a clay tablet, written in the Cuniform text of the ancient Hurrian language - it is THE oldest written song yet known, in History! Respect, to the amazing ancient culture of Syria.. .السلام عليكم

Although about 29 musical texts were discovered at Ugarit, only this text, (text H6), was in a sufficient state of preservation to allow for modern academic musical reconstruction.

In short, the Cuneiform text clearly indicated specific names for lyre strings, and their respective musical intervals – a sort of “Guitar tablature”, for lyre!

Although discovered in modern day Syria, the Hurrians were not Syrian – they came from modern day Anatolia. The Hurrian Hymn actually dates to the very end of the Hurrian civilisation (c.1400BCE) . The Hurrian civilization dates back to at least 3000 BCE. It is an incredible thought, that just maybe, the musical texts found at Ugarit, preserved precious sacred Hurrian music which may have already been thousands of years old, prior to their inscription for posterity, on the clay tablets found at Ugarit!

The replica of the ancient Kinnor Lyre from neighbouring Israel, on which I am performing the piece, is almost tonally identical to the wooden asymmetric-shaped lyres played throughout the Middle East at this amazingly distant time...when the Pharaoh's still ruled ancient Egypt.

A photograph of the actual clay tablet on which the Hurrian Hymn was inscribed, can be seen here:

http://phoenicia.org/music.html

The melody is an interpretation by Richard Dumbrill, from the ambiguous Cuneiform text of the Hurrian language in which it was written. Although many of the meanings of the Hurrian language are now lost in the mists of time, it can be established that the fragmentary Hurrian Hymn which has been found on these precious clay tablets are dedicated to Nikkal; the wife of the moon goddess. 

There are several such interpretations of this melody, but to me, the fabulous interpretation by Richard Dumbrill just somehow sounds the most "authentic". Below is a link to the sheet music, as interpreted by Richard Dumbrill and 
arranged by Clint Goss, and also to Richard Dumbrill's own website:

http://www.flutekey.com/pdf/HurrianTabLtd.pdf

http://hometown.aol.com/ricdum/mane.htm#Music

In my arrangement of the Hurrian Hymn, I have attempted to illustrate an interesting diversity of ancient lyre playing techniques, ranging from the use of "block and strum" improvisation at the end, glissando's, trills & tremolos, and alternating between harp-like tones in the left hand produced by finger-plucked strings, and guitar-like tones in the right hand, produced by use of the plectrum. 

I have arranged the melody in the style of a "Theme and Variations" - I first quote the unadorned melody in the first section, followed by the different lyre techniques described above in the repeat, & also featuring improvisatory passages at the end of the performance.

My arrangement of the melody is much slower than the actual arrangement by Richard Dumbrill - I wanted the improvisations in the variations on the theme to stand out, and to better illustrate the use of lyre techniques by a more rubato approach to the melody...


3) "Echoes of Ancient Egypt" - this improvisation on the lyre, uses a genuine pentatonic ancient Egyptian scale...last heard, some 3000 years ago! Although tragically no actual written music from ancient Egypt has survived, we do know from many ancient illustrations, that the ancient Egyptians did use a form of musical notation, whereby specific gestures of the hand represented specific changes in pitch in a given musical scale - this is ancient form of musical notation is known as "Chironomy". We also know some of the specific scales once used in ancient Egypt, thanks to the discovery of serveral ancient Egyptian flutes, still in playable condition! The ancient lost art of Chironomy, and details of this haunting, ancient Egyptian scale are discussed at length in this fascinating article:

http://www.rakkav.com/biblemusic/pages/chironomy.htm

The minor pentatonic scale I am using in this improvisation, was deciphered from ancient chironomy gestures by the late Professor Hans Hickmann, of the Museum in Cairo.

This improvisation is therefore my attmept to evoke the sounds of the Lyres heard in the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, over 3000 years ago...

Tracks 4 - 8 of the album continue my attempt to evoke the sounds of ancient Egypt, in my arrangements for solo lyre, of a selection of my favourite tradtional Egyptian folk songs from Port Said, where the Simsimyya Lyre is still played toady by the local musicians - a lyre which has its origins stretching back almost 4000 years ago, to the Middle kingdom of Ancient Egypt...


4)"My Heart Was Burnt by Love" - a traditional Egyptian folk song

5) "Salah" - a traditional Egyptian folk song

6) "Baghanni" (I Sing) - a wonderful traditional Egyptian folk song from Port Said.

7) "Sar A Lay" - a traditional Egyptian folk song from Port Said.

8) "I Saw The Moon" - a wonderful traditional Egyptian folk song from Port Said.

9) "The First Delphic Hymn to Apollo" - This is my arrangement for solo lyre, of the famous "First Delphic Hymn to Apollo" - a precious surviving fragment of music, which is an amazing legacy from the mostly lost musical culture of ancient Greece! My replica "Kinnor" lyre of the Ancient hebrews (based on illustrations found on ancient Jewish coins), is virtually identical to the ancient Greek "Kithara" - the large wooden lyre favoured by the professional musicians of ancient Greece (with the small exception, that Kithara had 7 strings, whereas the Kinnor had 10 - no doubt to represent the Ten Commandments?)

There are two Delphic Hymns that have been discovered, and they were dedicated to the god Apollo. The two Delphic Hymns have sadly not survived in their complete form. However, they do survive in substantial fragments...giving just a tantalizing taste of the glory of the tragically lost, magnificent musical culture of ancient Greece! 

The two Delphic Hymns are dated c.138 BC and 128 BC. My rendition here, is of the earlier of them; the First Delphic Hymn. Although it has unfortunately not survived in its complete form, the First Delphic Hymn to Apollo is THE earliest unambiguous surviving fragment of notated music from anywhere in the Western World! It is written in the unambiguous alphabetical musical notation system used in ancient Greece, whereby alphabetical notation describing the pitch of the melody, is written above the text of the song, as can be clearly seen in this image of the actual Delphic Hymn, as it was found, inscribed in marble:

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Delphic_Hymns

The rhythm can easily be inferred from the syllables of the text.

The First Delphic Hymn to Apollo was discovered in 1893 by a French archaeologist. It was inscribed in marble, carved on an outside wall of the Treasury of the Athenians at Delphi.

All that is known about its composer is that it was written by an Athenian, around 138 BC, since the part of the inscription giving the name of the composer is too difficult to read. The Second Delphic Hymn is slightly more recent, and has been dated to precisely 128 BC; evidently it was first performed in the same year. The name of the composer of the Second Delphic Hymn has also survived, in a separate inscription: he is called "Limenius". The occasion of the later hymn was the Pythian Festival, and this one, the earlier hymn, was probably written for the boys choir at the Pythian Games in 138 BC.

The translation of the fragment of text which has survived of the this, the First Delphic Hymn to Apollo, is as follows:

"Hear me, you who posses deep-wooded Helicon,
fair-armed daughters of Zeus the magnificent!
Fly to beguile with your accents your brother,
golden-tressed Phoebus who, on the twin peak of this rock of Parnassus,
escorted by illustrious maidens of Delphi,
sets out for the limpid streams of Castalia, traversing,
on the Delphic promontory, the prophetic pinnacle.
Behold glorious Attica, nation of the great city which,
thanks to the prayers of the Tritonid warrior,
occupies a hillside sheltered from all harm.
On the holy alters Hephaestos consumes the thighs of young bullocks,
mingled with the flames, the Arabian vapor rises towards Olympos.
The shrill rustling lotus murmurs its swelling song, and the golden kithara,
the sweet-sounding kithara, answers the voice of men.
And all the host of poets, dwellers in Attica, sing your glory, God,
famed for playing the kithara, son of great Zeus,
beside this snow-crowned peak, oh you who reveal to all mortals
the eternal and infallible oracles.
They sing how you conquered the prophetic tripod
guarded by a fierce dragon when, with your darts
you pierced the gaudy, tortuously coiling monster,
so that, uttering many fearful hisses, the beast expired.
They sing too, . . . ."


10) "Hymn to the Muse" - a hauntingly beautiful surviving fragment of the mostly lost music of ancient Greece. This piece was written almost 2000 years ago, by Mesomedes of Crete...

Mesomedes of Crete was a Greek lyric poet and composer of the early 2nd century AD. More information can be found at:

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Bios/Mesomedes.html

It is written in the ancient Greek "Dorian" mode; E-E on the white note of the piano - not to be confused with the MEDIEVAL "Dorian" mode, which was D-D! Due to a misinterpretation of the Latin texts of Boethius, medieval modes were given the wrong Greek names! For the CORRECT names of the ORIGINAL ancient Greek modes, see:

http://www.harmonics.com/lucy/lsd/corrections.html

For what Plato & Aristotle themselves had this to say about these ancient musical modes, please see this fascinating link:

http://www.pathguy.com/modes.htm

The most challenging aspect of playing this piece, is attempting to play the many accidentals required by the melody - on a DIATONICALLY tuned lyre...WITHOUT the aid of any fancy sharpening pedals, which are to be found on almost all modern harps! 

According to the musicologist Curt Sachs, the ancient Greeks managed to get around this by a technique I have been working on, called "finger-stopping" - an accidental can be played, by increasing the pitch of a lyre string by a semitone; this is achieved by pressing the string (about a centimeter in from the tuning peg), with a finger of the left hand which shortens its vibrating length, and therefore increases the pitch of the note the string produces.

The translation of the words to this ancient Greek song are as follows:

'Sing for me, dear Muse, begin my tuneful strain; a breeze blow from your groves to stir my listless brain...Skillful Calliope, leader of the delightful Muses, and you, skillful priest of our rites, son of Leto, Paean of Delos, be at my side'. (translation by J. G. Landels).


11) Ancient Greek Fragment - This simply mesmerizing fragment of ancient Greek music, is catalogued simply as "ANONYMI BELLERMANN 97" . It was preserved in an ancient Byzantine manuscript: 

Conspectus codicum:
V. Venetus Marcianus appl. cl. VI, saec. XIII-XIV
N. Neapolitanus graecus III. C4, saec. XV
F. Florentius Ricc. 41, saec. XVI

I first heard this amazing piece performed on the album "Musique de la Grece Antique" (Atrium Musicae de Madrid, 1979)


12) "Song of Seikilos" - the final track on my album, is 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...about 2000 years ago:

http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/SongOfSeikilos.htm

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!).

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 includes experimenting with "string blocking" at the beginning (blocking certain notes to form chords with the left hand to enable rhythm to be strummed on the lyre; just as on a guitar!), alternating between finger-plucked and plectrum plucked tones, the use of basic harmony below the melodic line, a touch of improvisation between phrases and plenty of tremolos & glissando's...in order to inject some new life into this beautiful ancient melody...

This is a more lively rendition than some of the "dire dirge-like" renditions of the song I have heard on some older recordings of it - 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!!). The ancient Greek term for a drinking song like this was called a "Skolion".

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 timeless words of the song are:

"Hoson zes, phainou 
Meden holos su lupou; 
Pros oligon esti to zen 
To telos ho chronos apaitei"

Translation - "While you live, shine 
Don't suffer anything at all; 
Life exists only a short while 
And time demands its toll"

For full details about this album, including a detailed PDF booklet of the album notes, pelase visit:

http://ancientlyre.com/albums_for_solo_lyre/an_ancient_lyre/

An Ancient Lyre

Track 3 from my album, "Ode To Ancient Rome". This album is the sequel to my album “Echoes of Ancient Rome” – like the first album in this series, “Ode To Ancient Rome” comprises of a series of new compositions for an ancient lyre in authentic ancient musical modes, to evoke once more, the lost music of ancient Rome. These set of compositions for my replica Kithara-style lyre is my attempt to restore a precious remnant of the music of ancient Rome, which for the most part, is now forever lost...

Unlike ancient Greece, tragically, virtually no surviving written music has survived from ancient Rome. These set of composition for my replica Kithara-style lyre is my attempt to restore a precious remnant of the music of ancient Rome, which is now forever lost - so far, all that has been discovered, is one pitiful fragment by Terence:

TERENCIO, HECYRA 861 (Terence). Versus 861. Hecyra of Terence. Codex Victorianus Laurentianus XXXVIII-24, saec. X

This piece can be heard track 19, on the recording "Musique de la Grece Antique". Here are some more details from the notes for this unIque album, about the only surviving fragment of written music ever found from ancient Rome:

"We have added the only surviving musical fragment of
Imperial Rome: four mutilated measures from a work by Terence. It is as if nothing were
left of the Acropolis but a few scattered bits of columns and a pair of ruined capitals"
 
All the various lyre-playing techniques heard in this album, are authentically based on lyre-playing styles which have remarkably survived from Antiquity & which still can be heard today in the amazing lyres still played throughout the continent of Africa, where unlike the rest of the Western world, a precious remnant of the cross-cultural influences from the around ancient world have miraculously survived.

Some of these lyre-playing techniques include the “block & strum” method, still practiced today by the Krar Lyre players of Eritrea in East Africa – this technique allows the player to strum rhythm & basic chords on the lyre, similar to an acoustic guitar. This technique entails blocking strings with the left hand which are not required and leaving open only the strings which form the required intervals, which then can be strummed with a plectrum in the left hand.
Ancient illustrations of Kithara players seem to infer that this technique was also prominent in Ancient Greece – many illustrations clearly depict the left of the lyre player blocking/dampening the strings with the left hand whilst strumming the open strings with a plectrum in their right hand.

Other lyre playing techniques include the use of tremolo (based on the style of Egyptian Simsimiyya Lyre Players still heard today), alternating between harp-like finger plucked tones played with the left hand, and guitar-like plectrum-plucked tones with the right hand, using basic finger-plucked intervals/chords with the left hand to form a basic harmonic background for the melodic line being played with the plectrum in the right hand. 

I also explore the rare percussive hammered lyre playing technique, where the stings of the lyre are hit with small wooden baton (like on a hammered dulcimer), instead of being plucked with either the finges or a plectrum...

THE ANCIENT MUSICAL MODES USED IN THIS ALBUM

Due to the known prominent influence of Ancient Greek culture in the Roman world, in order to create an authentic-sounding evocation of what the solo lyre music of ancient Rome may have once sounded, I decided to base the compositions in a selection some of the original Ancient Greek modes, with melodies inspired mostly by a "Musical Adventure in Time Travel" of the gods of Ancient Rome. 

The names of musical modes in use today, (e.g. Dorian, Mixolydian etc) although having the same names as the original Greek musical modes, were actually misnamed during the Middle Ages! Apparently, the Greeks counted intervals from top to bottom.  When medieval ecclesiastical scholars tried to interpret the ancient texts, they counted from bottom to top, jumbling the information. The misnamed medieval modes are only distinguished by the ancient Greek modes of the same name, by being labelled “Church Modes”. It was due to a misinterpretation of the Latin texts of Boethius, that medieval modes were given the wrong Greek names!

According to an article on Greece in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the original ancient Greek names for species of the octave included the following (on white keys):
B-B: Mixolydian
E-E: Dorian
A-A: Hypodorian
D-D: Phrygian
G-G: Hypophrygian
C-C: Lydian
F-F: Hypolydian

For what Plato & Aristotle had this to say about these ancient musical modes, please see this fascinating link:
http://www.pathguy.com/modes.htm

THE TUNING OF ANTIQUITY

In antiquity, lyres were tuned either cyclically, in perfect 5ths, the 3rds & 6ths then being fine-tuned by ear (Pythagorean tuning) or divisively (using exact mathematical ratios to precisely divide a musical string into specific pitch ratios) to achieve what is called "Just Intonation".  

The modern tuning system of equal temperament was devised to enable music to be performed in any of the 12 keys of the chromatic scale whilst keeping exactly the same equal ratio of pitch between each of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale...which sadly has sacrificed the essential purity of tone, which can only be heard in the just intonation once used in antiquity.

Divisive tuning was the most natural way to tune the ancient lutes, or any fretted instrument, which uses frets to divide the vibrating portion of each string into the required precise ratio of pitches. Although more often cylically tuned when played solo, Lyres were also often divisively tuned in antiquity, as they were quite often played in ensemble with other instruments which were in turn, divisively tuned. 

Although described in the writings of Pythagoras in his experiments at dividing a musical monochord, the divisive tuning system predates Pythagoras by thousands of years and may have evolved along with the origin of the long-necked lute in ancient Babylonia some 5000 years ago, according to John Wheeler (editor of Suzanne Haik Vantoura’s book, “The Music of the Bible Revealed”):

"The long-necked lute (according to Curt Sachs) was invented in Babylonia, and indeed thanks to that fact divisive tuning was invented there also. Cyclical tuning was also known there (and that got documented long after his death by the famous theory and hymn tablets from Babylon and Ugarit), but there is this curious fact: the Babylonians used divisive tuning as the basis for their symbolic correlation of the pillar degrees of the octave (e.g., C-F-G-C') with the four seasons, while the Chinese used cyclical tuning as the basis for the symbolic correlation of the same. This (wrote Sachs) is consistent as Babylon was the "home" of the lute and China the "home" of the harp (even though Babylon knew of harps and lyres too and China, if memory serves, also knew the lute from very early times). Divisive tuning is the "natural" tuning of the lute, as cyclical tuning is the "natural" tuning of the harp and lyre, according to Sachs. By that he meant that it's easiest and most natural to tune, and then to play, folk instruments of those genres that way - as I can vouch as a working musician"
I have used divisive tuning throughout this album, in my attempt to recreate the purity of the just intonation used in antiquity, which like the music of ancient Rome, has now sadly been forgotten...

THE TRACKS

1. Ode To Ancient Rome (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Phrygian Mode)

A requiem to the tragically lost music of ancient Rome, this piece is performed in the mournful ancient Geek Phrygian Mode.

2. The Wisdom of Minerva (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Chromatic Phrgyian Mode) 

In this piece, I have experimented with a rare ancient lyre playing technique, whereby the strings are hit percussively, with a small wooden baton (like on a hammered dulcimer ) instead of being plucked with either the fingers of a plectrum. The first illustration of the hammered lye playing technique dates back to c.700BCE, in the illustrations of musicians on the Bas Reliefs found at the ruins of the Palace of Nineveh, in ancient Assyria.
 
This playing technique seems to have spread  from ancient Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean, and may there is indeed evidence that this technique could have also been practiced in ancient Rome, as can be seen in the depictions of lyre players discovered in the ruins of Roman Villas on the island of Cyprus, in the famous Paphos Mosaics.

3. The Flames of Vesta (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Hypophrygian Mode)

Vesta was the Roman goddess of the home, to whom the sacred fire of Vesta was perpetually kept burning by the Vestal Virgins...

4. Dark Realms of Pluto (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Hypodorian Mode) - 

Pluto was the Roman god of the underworld...

5. On The Wings of Cupid (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Hypolydian Mode)

Cupid was the winged god of love, desire & erotic love...

6. The Flight of Mercury (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Dorian Mode) – 

Mercury was the Roman god of travel, a messenger who wore winged sandels...

7. Libation to Laetitia (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Lydian Mode)  

Laetitia was the Roman goddess of joy & gaiety...
 For full details, including a PDF booklet of the album notes, please see:
http://ancientlyre.com/albums_for_solo_lyre/ode_to_ancient_rome/

Buy on iTunes

Sacred Flame Of Vesta

"Dark Realms of Pluto" - track 4 from my album, "Ode To Ancient Rome". This album is the sequel to my album “Echoes of Ancient Rome” – like the first album in this series, “Ode To Ancient Rome” comprises of a series of new compositions for an ancient lyre in authentic ancient musical modes, to evoke once more, the lost music of ancient Rome. These set of compositions for my replica Kithara-style lyre is my attempt to restore a precious remnant of the music of ancient Rome, which for the most part, is now forever lost...

Unlike ancient Greece, tragically, virtually no surviving written music has survived from ancient Rome. These set of composition for my replica Kithara-style lyre is my attempt to restore a precious remnant of the music of ancient Rome, which is now forever lost - so far, all that has been discovered, is one pitiful fragment by Terence:

TERENCIO, HECYRA 861 (Terence). Versus 861. Hecyra of Terence. Codex Victorianus Laurentianus XXXVIII-24, saec. X

This piece can be heard track 19, on the recording "Musique de la Grece Antique". Here are some more details from the notes for this unIque album, about the only surviving fragment of written music ever found from ancient Rome:

"We have added the only surviving musical fragment of
Imperial Rome: four mutilated measures from a work by Terence. It is as if nothing were
left of the Acropolis but a few scattered bits of columns and a pair of ruined capitals"
 
All the various lyre-playing techniques heard in this album, are authentically based on lyre-playing styles which have remarkably survived from Antiquity & which still can be heard today in the amazing lyres still played throughout the continent of Africa, where unlike the rest of the Western world, a precious remnant of the cross-cultural influences from the around ancient world have miraculously survived.

Some of these lyre-playing techniques include the “block & strum” method, still practiced today by the Krar Lyre players of Eritrea in East Africa – this technique allows the player to strum rhythm & basic chords on the lyre, similar to an acoustic guitar. This technique entails blocking strings with the left hand which are not required and leaving open only the strings which form the required intervals, which then can be strummed with a plectrum in the left hand.
Ancient illustrations of Kithara players seem to infer that this technique was also prominent in Ancient Greece – many illustrations clearly depict the left of the lyre player blocking/dampening the strings with the left hand whilst strumming the open strings with a plectrum in their right hand.

Other lyre playing techniques include the use of tremolo (based on the style of Egyptian Simsimiyya Lyre Players still heard today), alternating between harp-like finger plucked tones played with the left hand, and guitar-like plectrum-plucked tones with the right hand, using basic finger-plucked intervals/chords with the left hand to form a basic harmonic background for the melodic line being played with the plectrum in the right hand. 

I also explore the rare percussive hammered lyre playing technique, where the stings of the lyre are hit with small wooden baton (like on a hammered dulcimer), instead of being plucked with either the finges or a plectrum...

THE ANCIENT MUSICAL MODES USED IN THIS ALBUM

Due to the known prominent influence of Ancient Greek culture in the Roman world, in order to create an authentic-sounding evocation of what the solo lyre music of ancient Rome may have once sounded, I decided to base the compositions in a selection some of the original Ancient Greek modes, with melodies inspired mostly by a "Musical Adventure in Time Travel" of the gods of Ancient Rome. 

The names of musical modes in use today, (e.g. Dorian, Mixolydian etc) although having the same names as the original Greek musical modes, were actually misnamed during the Middle Ages! Apparently, the Greeks counted intervals from top to bottom.  When medieval ecclesiastical scholars tried to interpret the ancient texts, they counted from bottom to top, jumbling the information. The misnamed medieval modes are only distinguished by the ancient Greek modes of the same name, by being labelled “Church Modes”. It was due to a misinterpretation of the Latin texts of Boethius, that medieval modes were given the wrong Greek names!

According to an article on Greece in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the original ancient Greek names for species of the octave included the following (on white keys):
B-B: Mixolydian
E-E: Dorian
A-A: Hypodorian
D-D: Phrygian
G-G: Hypophrygian
C-C: Lydian
F-F: Hypolydian

For what Plato & Aristotle had this to say about these ancient musical modes, please see this fascinating link:
http://www.pathguy.com/modes.htm

THE TUNING OF ANTIQUITY

In antiquity, lyres were tuned either cyclically, in perfect 5ths, the 3rds & 6ths then being fine-tuned by ear (Pythagorean tuning) or divisively (using exact mathematical ratios to precisely divide a musical string into specific pitch ratios) to achieve what is called "Just Intonation".  

The modern tuning system of equal temperament was devised to enable music to be performed in any of the 12 keys of the chromatic scale whilst keeping exactly the same equal ratio of pitch between each of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale...which sadly has sacrificed the essential purity of tone, which can only be heard in the just intonation once used in antiquity.

Divisive tuning was the most natural way to tune the ancient lutes, or any fretted instrument, which uses frets to divide the vibrating portion of each string into the required precise ratio of pitches. Although more often cylically tuned when played solo, Lyres were also often divisively tuned in antiquity, as they were quite often played in ensemble with other instruments which were in turn, divisively tuned. 

Although described in the writings of Pythagoras in his experiments at dividing a musical monochord, the divisive tuning system predates Pythagoras by thousands of years and may have evolved along with the origin of the long-necked lute in ancient Babylonia some 5000 years ago, according to John Wheeler (editor of Suzanne Haik Vantoura’s book, “The Music of the Bible Revealed”):

"The long-necked lute (according to Curt Sachs) was invented in Babylonia, and indeed thanks to that fact divisive tuning was invented there also. Cyclical tuning was also known there (and that got documented long after his death by the famous theory and hymn tablets from Babylon and Ugarit), but there is this curious fact: the Babylonians used divisive tuning as the basis for their symbolic correlation of the pillar degrees of the octave (e.g., C-F-G-C') with the four seasons, while the Chinese used cyclical tuning as the basis for the symbolic correlation of the same. This (wrote Sachs) is consistent as Babylon was the "home" of the lute and China the "home" of the harp (even though Babylon knew of harps and lyres too and China, if memory serves, also knew the lute from very early times). Divisive tuning is the "natural" tuning of the lute, as cyclical tuning is the "natural" tuning of the harp and lyre, according to Sachs. By that he meant that it's easiest and most natural to tune, and then to play, folk instruments of those genres that way - as I can vouch as a working musician"
I have used divisive tuning throughout this album, in my attempt to recreate the purity of the just intonation used in antiquity, which like the music of ancient Rome, has now sadly been forgotten...

THE TRACKS

1. Ode To Ancient Rome (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Phrygian Mode)

A requiem to the tragically lost music of ancient Rome, this piece is performed in the mournful ancient Geek Phrygian Mode.

2. The Wisdom of Minerva (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Chromatic Phrgyian Mode) 

In this piece, I have experimented with a rare ancient lyre playing technique, whereby the strings are hit percussively, with a small wooden baton (like on a hammered dulcimer ) instead of being plucked with either the fingers of a plectrum. The first illustration of the hammered lye playing technique dates back to c.700BCE, in the illustrations of musicians on the Bas Reliefs found at the ruins of the Palace of Nineveh, in ancient Assyria.
 
This playing technique seems to have spread  from ancient Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean, and may there is indeed evidence that this technique could have also been practiced in ancient Rome, as can be seen in the depictions of lyre players discovered in the ruins of Roman Villas on the island of Cyprus, in the famous Paphos Mosaics.

3. The Flames of Vesta (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Hypophrygian Mode)

Vesta was the Roman goddess of the home, to whom the sacred fire of Vesta was perpetually kept burning by the Vestal Virgins...

4. Dark Realms of Pluto (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Hypodorian Mode) - 

Pluto was the Roman god of the underworld...

5. On The Wings of Cupid (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Hypolydian Mode)

Cupid was the winged god of love, desire & erotic love...

6. The Flight of Mercury (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Dorian Mode) – 

Mercury was the Roman god of travel, a messenger who wore winged sandels...

7. Libation to Laetitia (Original Composition For Lyre in The Ancient Lydian Mode)  

Laetitia was the Roman goddess of joy & gaiety...

For full details, including a free PDF booklet of the albu notes, please see:

http://ancientlyre.com/albums_for_solo_lyre/ode_to_ancient_rome/

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Dark Realms Of Pluto (Composition For Solo Lyre in the Ancient Hypodorian Mode)

This is from Post Apolcolypse Heroes Rise
I take no credit for this song and all right belong to their respected owners.
 

Killer Tracks - Deep Undercurrent

Veiled Forest

composer: Isaac Albéniz
piano: Carlos Márquez

"Isaac Albéniz’s Suite española, Op. 47, is a suite for solo piano. It is mainly composed of works written in 1886 which were grouped together in 1887, in honour of the Queen of Spain. Like many of Albeniz’s works for the piano, these pieces depict different regions and musical styles in Spain." (wikipedia)

Image: Alhambra Tiles
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Isaac Albéniz: Sevilla (Suite Española, Op. 47)

Lully - Marche Pour La Ceremonie Des Tures - Savall1991

original music, piano, Native American style flutes

Solace for Semitic Brothers and Sisters

This track is from the album "May Dreams of You" and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: www.cdbaby.com/cd/eugendoga22
Sergey Skripka & Russian State Symphonic Orchestra of Cinematography.
Romantic music by Eugen Doga. "Love and romance are at the foundation of our whole being. We don’t always agree with this, we begin deviating to the left and right, but there is only one direction – towards the human soul". Eugen Doga
Composer Eugen Doga - the author of a great number of works - ballets, quartets, songs, lyrical songs, music for stage plays and more than 200 films, music for opening and closing ceremony of the 1980 Olympic Games held in Moscow. The famous waltz from the motion-picture "A Hunting Accident" is one of the most famous music works of the 20th century. The multiple award-winning academician of 8 Academies.
The official website of composer Eugen Doga www.dogamusic.com/en
Like Us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/DogaEugen
Sheet Music eugendoga.musicaneo.com/
The official video channel www.youtube.com/user/DogaEugen

Montmartre

Reeds 5 jaar timmeren de mannen van Snaarmaarwaar aan de weg. Met hun mix van eigen nummers en traditionele tunes spreken ze een erg breed publiek aan, van de folkies pur sang tot de liefhebbers van het stevigere werk. Stilaan krijgt de band ook weerklank uit de buitenlanden. Zo speelden ze afgelopen tijd op Nanjing Jazz and World Festival (China), Festival des Luthiers et Maîtres Sonneurs (F), Rudolstadt (D), Kaustinen Folkfestival (Fin), Kinnersley Festival (GB), Mandopolis (F), Viljandi Folkfestival (Est), Sunrise Celebration (GB),… Ook na de uitstekende ontvangst van hun debuutcd “Snaarmaarwaar” (2009) zijn ze blijven schaven aan hun unieke snarensound. Waar mandola en mandoline onstuimig over elkaar buitelen, houdt de gitaar het zootje moeiteloos in het gareel met strakke ritmes en diepdonkere grooves. Intussen is er hun tweede worp, “Phosphor Bronze” (2011). Nog steeds serveren deze heren een portie onversneden folk, recht in het gezicht, subtiel én spannend. Nog steeds zijn goeie melodieën de leidraad en fundament van hun groepsklank. Warm en sprankelend als Phosphor Bronze, het metaal waarvan de beste snaren gefabriceerd worden.

01 Ponto De Encontro

Enjoy six interpretations of "Shalom Aleichem" by various artists, including Shimshai, Holly Taya Shere, Shlomo Carlebach, Shefa Gold, Joey Weinsberg, The Nava Tehilah Ensemble and a live recording from Romemu Friday Night Services.

Shalom Aleichem Medley

Les Friction - Who Will Save You Now

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, conductor

Muti Conducts Mozart, Strauss, and Liszt - Broadcast

Michael Levy is a UK-based composer for the recreated lyres of antiquity, whose musical mission is to create an entirely new musical genre, which could best be described as a 'New Ancestral Music' - dedicated to creating new music for the recreated ancient lyre, featuring an exotic palette of ancient musical modes and intonations not heard for almost 2000 years.

Michael has collaborated with the Grammy award winning Canadian composer, Rufus Wainwright - Rufus musically incorporated one of Michael's "Hymn to Zeus"  in two scenes of his second opera, "Hadrian" - which premiered in Toronto on 13th October 2018.

In 2022, Michael collaborated with the iconic American artist, Jeff Koons – his music for recreated ancient Greek kithara is currently the main soundscape of Koon’s animatronic sculpture, “Apollo Kithara” (2020-2022) on view at DESTE’s Project Space on the Greek island of Hydra.

Sacred Flame Of Vesta

Michael Levy Lyre Music

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