Music of Ancient Rome and Greece

[Susanna]

Dear Virilis,

wow Kantele...with hole or without, I mean this gusli-thinnie or a modern one.
I think they date back to the 13th cent., so says my husband...

Well, I think if you use goat-strings it would be the most authentic, I guess you are using metall-strings at the moment?
But I think a Kantele owns not enough sound-body for resonanz to play goat-strings. Maybe you should try hemp-strings are horsehair-strings.

Do you play with a plektrum? You should maybe try.

The tuning is very good if you wanna play with other musical instruments are just be able to play most pieces, I think changing tuning to often on a string-instrument harms the tuning.
So, open tuning is the most logical. :wink:

Which wood is your Kantele of?

[Virilis]

Susanna, here is the link to my "kantele":

http://lovikka.com/eng/perinteinen_5kielinen.html

I just bought it last week, I thought it would be nice to play with it after the sauna on the lake.....

I developed this tuning just to make it sound "homeric :wink: " I usually play acoustic/electric guitar (from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Jethro Tull). The strings are made of steel and not very traditional. I play it with my fingers. I think the instrument itself is made of pine...

Anyway it sounds very nice and perhaps I should buy a ten string one to get more variety to the playing, what do you think?

[Sergey Lenkov]

Thank you very much, Susanna!!!

[Sergey Lenkov]

D

Above in this topic there`s a link to works by Ioannidis Nicolaos.
I repeat it:
http://homoecumenicus.com/Ioannidis_Mus ... ligion.htm

http://homoecumenicus.com/ioannidis_mus ... greeks.htm

What do you think of these works?


P.S. Probably it would be interesting to somebody - here`s the link to CD by David Marshall, which was discussed above:

http://www.rvrcd.co.uk/catalogue/romanm ... sintro.htm

[Susanna]

Beside the plastic-kithara with metall strings and an absolute modern tuning mechanism...

After listening to the mp3s I think of modern Greek Folk Music with Guitar and a nice good singer, which he defenitly is.
The percussion sounds quite synthesizing...

I do not hear any metrical pronounciation, which would be necessary for ancient Greek language. All sylables seem to have the same lenght.
In modern Greek language you have only short sylables, in ancient you have long and short. So no ancient rhythm appears for me hear, altough he seems to sing some words and sylables longer than others.

The tuning is very modern and folky, I think none ancient tonality appeared to me exept dorian.

With the Sappho text I do not hear any Sapphian strophe.
But maybe they slowed it down?

Sounds like a very nice interepretation of ancient Greek textes in modern Greek Folk musical tradition. Nice to listen to and quiet a soft voice and a good guitar/kithara (whatever is played there) player.

[Sergey Lenkov]

Thank you, Susanna, I understood you :wink:
And what do you think of information posted by Hoplite 14gr on 3 Apr. 2006 ("Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin written in Doric Anapestos)?
I mean, it isn`t a joke?

[hoplite14gr]

Niet Sergey!
It is not prikol (joke). The issue has been reserched by my friend G. Iliopoulos in an article he wrote on Epicharmos and doric comedy.
Remove the electronics and the guitars and test the beat wth drams.
It is Doric anapestos!
Kind regards

[Sergey Lenkov]

Privet, Stefanos!
You knowledge of Russian is impressive . Probably Page and Plant are well-educated persons, who read much classic literature and listened much to performers of folk and medieval (or even Antique) music?
Probably that`s explanation why this song so emotional, impressive, charming and popular - it remides to the listeners about deep roots and ancient spirit of European culture, and people are impressed not by Led Zeppelin itself but by that ancient essence, which contains this song.
By the way, this question was interesting for me because my interest to ancient music started with... "Stairway to Heaven". In 1988 (it was time of so-called perestroyka) in the USSR for first time was released LP by LedZep with this song. I was a student and for me it was a new song in that time. I was very impressed. After that I had heard for the first time records of Estonian group Hortus Musicus. They performed music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It reminded me of "Stairway to Heaven" and I understood that I liked not Led Zeppelin itself but these medieval influences in thier music. And so I started to listen to the ancient music...

[Sergey Lenkov]

P.S.
One more performer of Ancient Greek music - Petros Tabouris.
Probably it would be interesting to somebody.

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/petros_tabouris

Susanna, had you heard this guy ?

[Susanna]

If I am not mistaken...I have to check my disk-collection.

But lately there were several CDs from Greece on the market, with also "Roman" and "Bible" and "Mesopotamian" music...the CDs were self-burnt, the Label was just sticked on the CD (no print) and the Cover was one side with no real information...just claiming to be ancient.
And in fact...they were really bad...

I guess this is something different...it looks much better...I mean the cover ;-) )

Do you have it?

Hey, I am still waiting for your adress to send the CD
:wink:

[hoplite14gr]

Sapcibo Sergey.
The credit goes to my wife Olgq and she thanks you.
Yes me too strarted from Rock ballads and graduate to Neo-Folk in my old age :roll:
Kind regards

[Sergey Lenkov]

Susanna, thank you, could you look for your privat messeges on this forum. I sent my adress there. If it doesn`t work should I send it to webste of Musica Romana?

[Sergey Lenkov]

O.K. Stefanos, best wishes for you and Olga!

[Sergey Lenkov]

As to record by Petros Tabouris - I had heard it.
Some information about this record you could read here:
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/fmr653.htm
(by the way, Susanna, probably you would drop some information about Musica Romana there?)
Tabouris plays lyra, barbitos, hydraulis and some other instruments.
As you noted more than half of the record are modern compositions.
The record seemed to me melodic, but less interesting than records by Ensemble De Organographia, Annie Belis and Paniagua.
There were no photographs of the instruments in the booklet.
And by the way, on Paniagua`s CD there is a track "Terencio. Hecyra 861" - "the only surviving musical fragment of Imperial Rome". It was a fake?
P.S. You could read the following page:
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Music.htm
It was mentioned in this topic above.
Here you could find the link to video (!) of hydraulis playing.

[hoplite14gr]

With much delay and doubtful result.
Hymn to Heliconian Muses taken from a stele in Delfi 3rd century B.C.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hoplite14 ... pg&.src=ph