Rediscovering Ancient Greek Music: A performance reconstructs the past
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- Music was ubiquitous in Ancient Greece. Now we can hear how it actually sounded. A short documentary directed by Mike Tomlinson.
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Much of what we think of as Ancient Greek poetry, including Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, was composed to be sung, frequently with the accompaniment of musical instruments. And while the Greeks left modern classicists many indications that music was omnipresent in society - from vases decorated with lyres, to melodic notation preserved on stone - the precise character and contours of the music has long been considered irreproducible. However, the UK Classicist and classical musician Armand D’Angour has spent years endeavouring to stitch the mysterious sounds of Ancient Greek music back together from large and small hints left behind. In 2017, his work culminated in a unique performance at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, intended to recreate the sounds of Greek music dating as far back as Homer’s era - roughly 700 BCE. This short documentary details the extraordinary research and musical expertise that made the concert possible, revealing remarkable sounds once thought lost to time. To learn more about what music sounded like in Ancient Greece, read D’Angour’s Aeon idea: aeon.co/ideas/can-we-know-wha...
Director: Mike Tomlinson
Producer: Hannah Veale, James Tomalin
#ancientgreece #history #greekmusic
These guys are okay, but let me tell you about this band I saw in Antioch back in 175 BC. Man, they crushed it.
OH MY GOD....L OOOOOO L.
This nearly holds a candle to that one time in 1998 when the Undertaker threw Mankind 16 ft through a steel cage.
How old are you man?!
@@mysteriousman4966 Just count the years:
175 BC
174 BC
173 BC
172 BC
...
😉
@@FlaxeMusic we all know nothing tops that
Its crazy how the aulos can sound so hideous but also so beautiful. Callum’s improvisation was so surreal, it brought me into some other world.
He is the most amazing Aulos player, I am so much looking forward to ne recordings by him
@@maxbrumbergflutes Spencer Klavan needs to invite him on his podcast and they can discuss this Miracle in even more glorious depth! I KNEW the scrawny tenor with the dark beard was him! I had no idea he’d participated in something this! I just stumbled into it. Amazing!
Narnia
Quit pot you freako
Reminds me of a kazoo.
The performance by Callum around 9:00 sounded much like the traditional music still played today in Albania and Greece. Really amazing that we can recover these things from so long ago.
That’s super cool, it just gets passed down and down
In fact all you can do is to study the music that is still played in the "most traditional possible" situations of today.
To claim that you play like they played 2500 years ago is sheer delusion.
@@andsalomoni that's so cool id love to see your papers and credentials on this
@@littlekreeper8918 You need credentials to understand that you can't know how did it sound a music that they played 2500 years ago, if you - nor anyone living today - couldn't ever hear it?
My thought too
The cyclical breathing technique the double pipe improviser is using is MIND BOGGLING. Consistent and never ending sound.
There are saxophonists & such who do circular breathing. I played clarinet for a couple of years or so, and I can't imagine pulling it off.
Or Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Heard him at a club in the Village.
The double flute played by Callum at 8:49 almost sounds like an accordion at times and others a bagpipe, but sometimes a flute. I love this instrument. Really cool
I guess the aeolus is just missing the range and the fact that it is two pipes and thus two notes cover up similarities with an oboe or a bassoon. But the instrument you pointed out have a distinct familiarity, as in both cases some sort of reed is actually what creates the sound. The rest of the instrument, the bore, length etc. then creates the typical tone.
I think especially comparing it to the sound of a bagpipe is not to far off, as with the second pipe you get an effect similar to the bourdon of the bagpipes drone pipes.
I think it sounds a lot like the duduk. It is a great sound tho!
Absolute devine experience
Alexander Kupke the aulos seems to be the ancestor to Duduk and Oboe. You fine-tune the tonality of both pipes with embouchure technique, this gives an amazing range of tuning possibilities and dynamics that you would never have with bagpipes.
Our latest researches show en even richer and more centered sound with new reed materials.
@@maxbrumbergflutes It's called diavlos (Δίαυλος). Avlos (Αυλός) roughly means flute. So di- (δι-, double) means two of those.
This is the absolute nerdiest thing that I have ever thoroughly enjoyed!!
lol true, this comment made me chuckle. I think the dude with the double pipes is by far the biggest nerd in the group.
As a Classics major whose exes include a couple music majors, this is right up my alley😊
When your passion overpowers any sense of self awareness (Which in my opinion is the ideal state of being)
It really is
Is there anything else worth spending your attention on other than nerdy things?? Honestly asking, like do you watch sports and reality tv normally?
As a Greek I want to thank you very much for what you do.
what are the lyrics saying?
Unfortunately it is in Ancient Greek and just by hearing I cannot say.
@@xybai5152 If you switch on the subtitles/closed captions some of it is translated. 11:31 onwards I noticed, not sure if it is earlier.
@@xybai5152 Also, their accent is very heavy, they kinda distort the words.
As a non Greek I also want to thank you very much for bringing music from ancient world back to life.
I love it when someone’s extreme passion (bordering on obsession) ends up culminating into a beautiful experience everyone can enjoy. Just because one person or a small group of people refused to let other people tell them, “it’s lost,” or, “it can’t be done.”
It's definitely a-coded 😂 (pretty sure I'm on the spectrum I can say it LOL)
The performance of mr. Callum Armstrong really, really sounds like Greek traditional music, especially the type of "kathistika", which are slow, lyric songs about unfulfilled love, tragic heroes and warriors for freedom. In the "modern" version, the musician will play his flute/bagpipe/lyre/oud/kanun etc, and then slowly sings the lyrics. Very touching performance...
The best way to reconstruct is to work back from what is unchanged today.
Agree he was the only one who seemed relatively believable.
Why did the rest of them sound like they were singing hymns in a church of England church on a Sunday service?
It's like they tried to make kleftiko with English beef, English parnsips and English parsley...
What a greta support for Greek Nazism and Golden Down
@@melonsdad7498 why do you say that? So, every classical music's masterpiece, based on traditional melodies, is nazistic?
@@melonsdad7498 Keep those creeps away from greek heretege and art, how dear you insult us like that!
The Aulos performance at 8:49 brought me to tears... Just imagining that this performance could have actually taken place more than 2000 years ago. Times so different one can't imagine but the people still performing and enjoying these melodies and harmonies just like me right here on my chair. It's just human nature
@@adde-j6q Kinda proves my point
transcending time and space :) you can feel it inside, can't you?
Let me introduce you to the wonderful book called "Motel of the mysteries, by David Macaulay). Once you read it, you would immediately have a different idea of things like this.
The times were different but the people experiencing them were the same.
I actually figured that was a part that was the least likely to be historically accurate and was more about sounding pleasing to modern ears since it was improv.
Wow, as a Greek I never knew that music melodies have been actually preserved, thank you so much. The aulos player was amazing.
Aulos in Greek = Αυλός ("avlos", with a v) , possibly coming from proto indo european h₂eulos meaning pipe.
@Dimitris Tripakis OK man but I'm sure once you heroically listened to it all, you then had to listen to an hour of Christos Nikolopoulos & Haroula to get the ancient κατάθλιψη out of your system :) 🇮🇱❤️🇬🇷
Εξού και το αυλάκι του νερού.
Hendrix on the two pipes is killing it truly what a legend. Everyone else was okay
I'm not even saying this to be funny but just honest. That last one Euripides' Orestes from 408 BC sounds like a an ancient world Power Metal song. I could easily hear that melody with bone crunching electric guitars and drums while someone like Simone Simons from Epica sang it.
Turilli/Lione Rhapsody - Zero Gravity
I need to hear a metal version of this song now.
@@maximilianberkowitz4086 WOW!!!! I think this shows how we're still the same species that we were thousands of years ago... Such similar melodies.
Some classical music has similar structures to dubstep, and I always wonder if some classical music producers only made the music they did, because they were limited by the technology of their time.
Like, imagine if the great composers of the past had today's technology. It'd be amazing what they could create.
@@maximilianberkowitz4086 the melody actually kinda fits. Awesome
Given the subject matter it would fit with Power Metal too.
I hope one day I'll be able to see a play of the Iliad and Odyssey to traditional flutes and lyres with a Greek narrator
You will my friend
It is incomplete i thought?
@@wpjohn91 Nope, the Iliad and the Odyssey are complete works. We're lucky we have them in complete form. So many other myths never made it
Your best bet is AC oddessy.
That would be fantastic.
OΜG. As a Greek I have heard literally if not thousands at least hundrends of songs of country music played with clarinet and lute and this music here is as close as it can be with the country music played in today's times. A bit shocked that the main form is kept unchanged for thousands of years.
I'm guessing they used what traditional greek music sounds like today, as inspiration to fill the unknown parts, so it's probably not a coincidence
What was hip in 2400 B.C. apparently has stood the test of time.
When I lived in Athens for a brief time, I indeed heard (and have on many CDs I purchased in Plaka) music that sounds very similar.
Yep. In fact, quite a big chunk of what is stereotypically considered arabic or turkish music was greatly influenced by ancient greek and byzantine music. So, the traditional music we have here in Greece isn't Ottoman in origin, rather, it's the direct evolution of music of the past!
It’s amazing that the ancient musical notes are still surviving
Is it? Humans find certain sounds pleasant, certain sounds not, that's been true since day #1. There's only so many musical notes, and there by, only so many coherently sounding melodies one can string together, in not "any", but any pleasing combination. I mean, why do people "how-many" years later still like Bach? We basically just keep adding to our playlist, it's only as of late are we able to pass them down to the later generations.
@@StanHowse Yes, because in order to make authentic ancient Greek music you need the documentation of rhythm, melody, notation, etc, all of which could only be written on perishable material that's now 2000 years old.
Get a room.
Even knowing how much is unknowable, experimental archeology can sometimes hit powerfully on an intuitive level. The pipe expert’s improvisation and the idea they played them like bagpipes with air held in the cheeks, struck me as so authentic and true.
There's a similar instrument, it's called Launeddas and it's played as you say, like a bagpipe with air held in the cheeks, and it sounds like one too. It's a very ancient instrument, and they way it is supposed to be played isn't lost to time, so there's no guesswork going on. Based on the Launeddas I think it's quite likely that the double flute is also supposed to be played like that. I don't know if these people had knowledge of other similar instruments to base their suppositions on, but whether that's the case or not, it's cool that they were able to get there on their own.
I wish archeologists would consult professionals from other fields more. This is a good example, where the insight of someone who is familiar with similar instruments is very eye-opening.
Don't get me wrong, they usually do. I just wish they did it more or made it standard procedure. If an archeologist makes a find and is wholly convinced they played an instrument a certain way, then that'll often go in the books even if an instrumentalist can confidently rebut it.
Another example is the water erosion on the sphinx. Geologists almost unanimously agree it's water erosion and that's it's odd, but they'll rarely "stick their neck out" because some archeologists will just refuse to even acknowledge their expertise.
I circle breathe with a didjeridu, and have often compared the experience to being the bagpipe.
I love this. Speaking as a Greek, and also an amateur composer, I am really impressed by Athenaeus' Paeon. The music you hear in Greek villages and in the Orthodox church reminds me of what I am hearing here. But a more important thing - something that most people don't know - is that melodies have a much more specific connection to lyrics than people are aware of. If you listen to the music and think about the lyrics, they fit together nicely. This is why I think the reconstruction of the melodies is accurate. Good job!!!
We have the Greeks to thank for almost the whole entirety of (Western) music theory - the concepts of intervals, chords, and modes all come from them. I think it's fitting that the Epitaph of Seikilos, an ancient Greek piece, is the oldest complete piece of music we have.
I disagree, i don't like this music at all, it's ugly.
@@skyj451 ok
@@skyj451 ok
I was just a tourist, but at the bus station to the Knossos palace a very old man was sitting in the heat for hours playing a smaller version of such flute, very similar patterns and sounds.
What we recognize as the classic “Greek plays” were really Operas in everything but name. All spoken words in the “plays” of Sophocles, Aristophanes, Euripides, etc. were all sung, with live music playing.
Indeed
Opera was an attempt to revive ancient Greek theatre, basically...
3:48 i could listen to this bloke talk all day, the passion with which he speaks is contagious
I wish that improvisation never ended, that was stunningly beautiful. There’s nothing as good as old music
Passionate and arresting music and lyrics. Listening to a piece that is almost 3000 years old, I spontaneously began imagining the audience of the time, who they were, what they were wearing, and wondering what relationship they were having with it. It is such earthy music that I could almost smell the smells and hear the rustlings and movement of people and all the ambient sound in a theatrical setting. I was very surprised at my active imagination during it and my emotional and cerebral reaction.
Fascinating!
American by any chance?
I think this may be why some of us are more interested in history than maybe some others. Some of us immediately transport back and kind of enter a meditation about what it must have been like. I for one seek that state and it is pleasing to my mind. :)
How do thus whilst reading to see what those people were hearing sung about.
By the lyrics I perceived this as a religious propaganda song, and envisioned little children frightened and awed by the spectacle while parents chuckle and pay their religious rites.
I get that feeling when im in old places, or holding old coins, sometimes when im out and about ill get a deja vous moment.
Such a noise.... Such an amazing noise... Callum Armstrong plays the sounds of the forests and the wild beasts, the canyon and the herds, the tides that wash out the rocks, the seagulls and the sparrows, the sun that turns the olives liquid a real nectar. So happy, so moved... Thank you
Witnessing your ecstasy makes me want to clutch my pearls, must I?
Makes your mind travel somewhere
The music produced by the Aulos is extraordinarily beautiful. Something about this whole style and rythm also by the choir is touching me in a way that I haven't really experienced yet.
It speaks to our DNA. Long lost memories of lives once lived.
double kazoo, but sounds good
Such a foreign musical concept, the drone, and yet it was everywhere for thousands of years
Astounding. Especially Callum Armstrong's performance on the aulos: a clean cut on the very fabric of time, a distant and fascinating echo from a remote, mystical past.
There was a CD of reconstructed ancient Greek music put out a couple of decades [1979 according to the CD, I've just checked] ago now, Musique de la Grece Antique, which was reconstructed music from the ancient Greek era - mainly hymns from memory - put together from scraps, often on papyrus, found from that era. Well worth tracking down and listening to for anyone interested in music from that era. There is another featuring music from Rome and another music from countries passed through on the Silk road to China in the times of Marco Polo.
My wife and I used to listen to this in Athens and dance on the Agora under the stars. She died in the plague of Pericles. I still think of her whenever I hear this song...
I love how the captions for the music is "ancient greek music"
XD ikr..
I like how they say it is when it’s really not
What do you know about it
What would you use instead to describe ancient music from Greece..?
@@vasiliskaranos605 Why not?
I would like to see the chorus and aulos performance again after they have had more time to rehearse. It would have been better had the chorus had the music memorized so that they could watch the conductor. Not only would they have been more synchronized, they could have played more with the mood and dynamics as the conductor was trying to have them do.
Overall, this program was fascinating. I very much enjoyed the exploration into reconstructing ancient music. Callum Armstrong’s aulos performance was beautiful and moving.
I agree, the video was fascinating but I wish they were a little more in sync and in line with the conductor. I feel like I’d have a much clearer idea of how it sounded
@@pikaapikachuuu and it felt rushed. in almost all folk music there's time for breath. time for the words to breath... after all, even your piper needs to breathe. there's no time for the words to express themselves, little time other than the shouting bits for punctuation or meaning to sink in.
just felt off. they did fine. but the arranger, I think, needs to dial it all down a bit. felt like they were singing in all caps.
@@Xomby i felt that too, but assumed it was due to the context (rushing from the Furys, you know).
I agree, but I would also like to hear it performed by Greek singers with a profound immersion in the language. Still, kudos to them for attempting something so extraordinarily difficult!
Fascinating to hear how music would have sounded 2500 yrs. ago. Wonderful!
Amazing how you achieved to do so much with so little to work with. As a Greek, I was moved, and couldn't help wondering what one of our ancestors would think listening to your recreation. Thank you so much.
8:17 I was surprised how relaxing those high pitched pipes can be from when I first heard them play earlier in this video!
Agree.. half way through vid and I see it explained with semi tones pitches on separate flutes for dissonance to be in sync... in a tune. Modern ear panic.
The buzzy, loud timbre of the large bore pipes is probably to help aid in protection and volume when accompanying large groups outdoors.
9:10 this guy is incredible
yyep
The Fantastic thing about their concert in the Museum is those statues around them have been witnessed original Ancient Greek music.
I’ve been fascinated by the Aulos since I first learned about it in the early 90’s. According to the sources I read at the time, it wasn’t understood-at least not well-how both pipes worked together. It’s incredible to see just how much more has been uncovered in just under 30 years. I can’t help but think that despite all this, there were many techniques born from generations of mastery, forever lost in time. All sorts of little tricks and such. Not that the music itself was lost, as professor Armand D’Angour points out.
Still...I’m interested in what eventually will be discovered/rediscovered yet, and how this instrument can be played to get the most out of it.
I applaud what this group, and many like them are doing.
8:55 thru 10:35 Amazing. Hearing this really adds depth to my imaginings of what life in ancient Greece might have been like.
@@adde-j6q Umm, yeah. That just shows how impressive the performance was. You comment also reveals you to be a troll. Piss off troll.
@@adde-j6q wow, your comment looks like another bored and annoyed karen
@@adde-j6q wow your comment looks like 10 others I've read
Brilliant, please consider to study the folk music, especially the Pyrrichion and similar tunes along with the Byzantine music. Both heavily influenced by oriental music but so was the ancient greek music influenced by middle eastern and egyptian music.
Be aware that ancient Greek music had indeed rythm and harmony but melody was also very important.
Thank you for an amazing feat!
Byzantine music is beautiful 👍
I was thinking that there are probably similar songs still being played today by folk musicians and you can find clues to what the ancient music sounded like.
Why is everyone obsessed with talking about what influenced ancient Greece/Rome but not what influenced byzantine, ancient Egyptian or Middle Eastern cultures.
@@silvermorona I thought lots of people were interested in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Byzantium was a continuation of Greece and Rome so it's more relevant to this video 👍
@@silvermorona i guess its hard to believe a group of people could accomplish and achieve as much as the greeks/romans did
This is fantastic! How lucky we are that there is such amazing musical scholarship. A chance to experience what has for so long been lost until now. There is such humanity and visceral connection in hearing this beautiful, dramatic and almost familiar music. Wow!
I really like how the 2021 Dune movie gave the Atreides music an ancient greek sound like this, as in the books they trace their heritage back to the greeks of earth.
ATREIDES! ATREIDES!
Interesting to learn the process that goes into the beautiful rhythms, sounds and melodies. That rhythm seems to be the rhythm of the ancient world and still very much in use today from India to Portugal.
I loved this, thank you. I particularly found what Callum Armstrong was playing to be absolutely beautiful and evocative. He brilliantly shows how the two pipes were used together to create a full musical experience. Perhaps, this way of playing developed so one person could give a performance and make a little money on his own or so one musician could accompany a bard singing at a performance.
I loved hearing the piper explain the pipes, the whole thing was great!
The guy playing both pipes without stop. THE TECHNIQUE IS SICK!!! and I play the biggest bigpipes out there.
callum's performance on the louvre aulos was truly evocative of the spirit of those ancient times. *8:56 & 9:40
I was touched by the rich and wonderful sound and i sad to myself that only the vicinity of gods can provide such experience. I believe that this is the music that ancient people listened, loved and considered it the divine.
It almost teared me up and it's an improvisation. He is so talented.
My fifth and sixth grade teacher Miss Parrot gave me such a love of Ancient Greek history. Thank you for bringing the music/poetry to life.
Wasnt sure how this comment was going to go. Pleased to see it was wholesome
@@hosephanerothe1440 took me a minute. I don’t know is Miss Parrot was familiar with such things.
I love the enthusiasm of the piper, you can really tell that he absolutely loves what he's doing.
I can tell where the passion is in the recreation of this kind of music. It really does almost feel like I'm in ancient Greece. This is wonderful.
I wonder how much air is required for those reeds. He makes the breathing look so easy. Incredible talent.
This is so cool, you're literally bringing history to life! 👏👏
It sounds a lot more medieval than I would have expected
A a musician myself, having the rhythms, instruments and melodies does not mean you have the "Music." That means you have a place in the ballpark. I'm not trying to diminish this work, I love that people are out there doing this, I'm saying he is overstating what can realistically be done here. Unless you have a direct audio recording, you can't attempt to reproduce style. Clinically trained musicians are absolutely great, but they are generally mathematical. They will play what they see and be very logical about it, attitude doesn't figure into it. Don't even get me started on local styles...
If dissonance is coming back, Imma be alive for it...
Man these Greeks..
Yesssss
My heart started pounding when the double piper was playing 😍😍😍
The rhythm feels familiar like I’ve heard it a thousand times. Like it was my whole heart - crazy
How fantastic are their efforts and accomplishments
Ahh takes me back miss those days, i feel old now
Thank you for making this available to the masses. I am grateful for the study and application of historic knowledge with current archeology. Both fascinating, and wondrous.
1:05 Guy's like we got this.
Imagine 2000 years from now a bunch of future music nerds will be trying to decipher WAP
The fact that I did not looked for this - but I loved it - is the proof the algorithm is becoming concious.
I' m a music teacher and more than 20 years ago did a research about the hidraulis, the water organ created by Ctesibios, circa third century BC. The research was for a column on a choir newspaper (this year the ACC choir completes 80 years of existence).
Too many coincidences.....
Thanks. Greetings from Brasil.
From what I’ve heard, the continuous drone had as much significance to classical and medieval musical traditions as the beat does in modern music. Something about trying to capture all that music was or could be in a single perfect note.
Hell yes :) Have you listened to Swans? Go and listen to "The Glowing Man" song and "The Knot" song. They really embody just what you said there...of course many other artists do this. But swans reaaaally hit that perfect note on those songs and hammers you with them
Callum plays mind blowing sounds! It brought tears to my eyes!
Over 2000 years and this still slaps
An impressive cumulative result of scholarly classical research, musicology and musicianship.
After these comments I really appreciate your effort for reconstruction of Greek ancient music..
Magic..travel in time…
Wonder if they all got all hyped up when a popular song was played “this my jam , let’s twirl ..” really wish I could go back just for one party and experience it .
As a Greek I love that you try to recreate our ancient music, thought I can't help feeling that the Erasmian pronunciation sounds foreign and wrong, even incomprehensible
This was really cool to watch. The final performance with the double flute sounded a lot like a kazoo. Callum Armstrong's performance was beautiful though!
This actually is the same tune i had in my mind. The only thing missing here are the big drums and the tambourines. Im half greek turk, half scottish and filipino. The tempo not always fast, for it is used to tell stories and invite crowds.
Well you can’t be 1/2 Turk, 1/2 Scotch and 1/2 Filipinx. You must be 1/3 of each.
Did you just say “scotch” 💀💀💀
And “Filipinx” 💀💀💀
@@steakfilly5199 Aye!
@@TP-om8of We call ourselves Filipino. The Filipinx term only came about because of UCLA.
@@jaicabardo4357 Transphobe! Racist!
I just got done watching a video about what music would've sounded like in Ancient Rome and thought it was awesome but this takes the cake. Amazing work by all!
Holy crap. That flautist is really enthusiastic.
Brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for your efforts.
Loved the aulos player. He's really into it and explained it well. Fascinating video overall!
I love how passionate the piper is! Wish i had the same dedication for something like that!
Fasinating! Totally new to me. Thank you, Oliver, for introducing me to this music.
Music soothes the soul …Greeks knew this all these years ago!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼Love this👍🏼
They've given us a small window into ancient history. How wonderful.
Callum is absolutely DOMINATING the bi-flute. Would be great to see him loosen up and go on tour with this insane Greek posse
Bravo! Superb work. This music must have been absolutely spellbinding in its time, and the contemporary work on it begins to calculate its significance in the development of music. Of course, this opens up a whole new genre of 'classical' music, not merely of reconstructions of ancient music, but of entirely new compositions based on Ancient Greek epic poetry in an authentically ancient style. And then there are the parallels with the development of Ancient Indian and other World music to be drawn, and the natural principles common to each. You can keep Classicists, musicologists, music archaeologists, research students and musicians in jobs for generations with this work. Bravo!
This was absolutely fascinating! The pipers were particularly impressive, especially Calum Armstrong. That breathing technique must take a lot of work to master successfully and produce that tone, duration and smoothness of sound.
Watching the different performers, I was somewhat reminded of Christian monastic singing (Kithara section) and even the Irish uilleann pipes during moments of the aulos section. Loved it; thanks for uploading!
Impressive. I've always wondered what ancient music sounded like and I had assumed it was lost to time. I assumed the ancients had not developed anything comparable to modern sheet music. I'm impressed that scholars with a keen eye like Professor D'Angour have been able to rediscover ancient music through surviving texts. I wonder if there's anything similar for the Romans?
That piper dude at 03:46... I wish I loved anything as much as that guy loves ancient Greek wind instruments.
Wow! Great work! Mad respect to those playing the pipe.
These are amazing people, all so good at what they do and with such passion! Fascinating to watch
UA-cam recommending this randomly after 4 years - i love it
That was fascinating. Beautiful. This musical insight into ancient Greece was a treat to experience.
interesting how dissonant the older music sounds to modern ears
Wonderful! Loved the sound of the Louvre aulos. The singing of the kithara player sounded as if it could be a precursor to Gregorian chant.
That is just mind bogglingly interesting, to be re-creating a song written on a papyrus leaf 2400 years ago.
Thinking of all pieces of ancient art gone forever I just want to cry
I've played at once soprano and alto recorders for decades, inspired by aulos playing shown in ancient art. What a surprise now to hear the reedy low tones produced by the authentic instrument, and to learn of it's particular nature. It sounds much like the crumhorn. Not to mention: This is Greek music!
This is not authentic and not Greek
@@vasiliskaranos605 how do you know? An assertion without explanation/evidence is worthless.
@@WilliamRing45 I am Greek and a musician. I know western, Byzantine, and Greek music theory and I play/sing all three types on multiple instruments and vocally. Let me tell you this: 1) their pronunciation is atrocious. No Greek speaker would be able to realize that they’re speaking Greek, and most know what Ancient Greek sounds like because it’s the liturgical language of the Greek Orthodox Church which 90% of Greek are part of. And it is historically inaccurate. 2) Theoretically speaking, this music ignores the ancient Pythagorean music theory which was the basis of all music in the area. It is preformed by notes and melodies, ignoring the modes in which the music was written. It is also sung with classical western vocal technique. The result is horrible. The way they would sing is closer to the way that Byzantine chant (a tradition that is the direct successor of Ancient Greek music that is still in use today with an uninterrupted history of preservation and passing down by generation) is sung. They are also signing it with western intervals, while Ancient Greek music and even Greek music from 100 years ago is microtonal, with specific notes that are in between the 12 notes of the western scale. Changing those notes changes the whole listening experience and image that the music puts in your head. The same applies for Byzantine music. There are countless performances of Byzantine music which are sung with the same mistakes that this is sung. It’s just not the same music as the one that is preformed by the authentic practitioners that have learned it from teachers which have learned from their teachers going back generations, rather than those non Greeks who study it scholarly and without seeking any information or source from Greeks and real Byzantine chanters. 3) the aulos (pipes) is played with harmonies or different Melodies on each pipe, while originally the melody was played on one pipe and the other pipe played a drone note which stayed the same to provide a base for the other pipe. This practice still exists in Byzantine music as the ison, which is someone who sings one note continually as the base for the actual melody. It’s not harmony or polyphony. Both those things were introduced in Western Europe in the Catholic Church in the late Middle Ages. So the way that this aulos player plays the instrument is unauthentic. Long story short, this is classical western music adapted to what non Greek scholars think ancient music sounded like plus wrong pronunciation. The end result is not good and it’s misleading and westernized.
@@vasiliskaranos605 request amply fulfilled! I think they need you at Oxford.
@@vasiliskaranos605 I must agree with you Mr Karanos. I' m a music teacher and the harmonies they used sound more west cristian, middle age, than from old Greece. But is undeniable the exquisite tecnique of the aulos player and the beauty of the piece.
Greetings from Brasil.
A super interesting video. I really appreciated the work involved with this and the expertise of all the people involved. I'm especially impressed with the instrument players who had to try to resurrect with very little information the way the instruments were played. But I was wondering how this stress based approach to Greek singing meshes with the fact that Ancient Greek was essentially a pitch based language. I hear in the performance primarily a stress based Greek. It would be interesting to know how the two actually meshed. Really interesting work
It's pretty common for singing and spoken language to be different. In the end it's all just speculation, but I would find it strange for a musician to not use "stress" if the instrument can do it. Then why would a singer not imitate it also. Music is all about experimentation and change. They were afterall the trend setters of their time.
I love how I can watch this video and listen to how Ancient Greek music sounded without any interruptions
This is awesome! I feel connected to the ancients. This is really really cool
2000 years without hearing this music is not enough
I think they got the tempo wrong, the people are singing too fast and the tempo is off
@@Plantdaddygardenman not quite your tempo, is it?
😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
Fascinating!! Its wonderful and amazing to get this glimpse into a different culture, an ANCIENT culture!
@3:50 this man speaks about his instrument with such passion and amusement.
Very informative. Thank you!
Impressed. I have not studied Greek literature except what you were taught in a general World Literature course. Still, to hear this interpretation was awe inspiring. Thanks to all who have worked to bring the glimpse of ancient Greece to us today. Well done!
Greek literature it was at its hightest in 1800s and 1950s or earlier
@@tonivoul1971 really?
@@yeetman4953 yea nikos kazanjakis being one of the best greek writers of the 20th century and more like him existed
Thank you for this glimpse through the veil of time. I got goose bumps. I think we need to be reminded that people who came before us were just as smart and just as (maybe more) emotionally intelligent as we “modern” folks.
far more intelligent and wise in the true workings of reality and the human conditions