Played by Michael Levy.
A studio quality recording of this piece, can now be heard on my NEW CD ALBUM, "An Ancient Lyre" at CD Baby.The music is gorgeous. Thanks to Mark at Enough About Me for encouraging me to search around on YouTube for music from the ancient world of Greece and the Mediterranean. I looked mainly for music played on the lyre. Michael posted several videos under his YouTube handle Klezfiddle1.
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.
You can also purchase the MP3 album and CD through MadPriest's Amazon store. The MP3 version is $1.00 cheaper at Amazon, but the CD costs much less at CD Baby.
There is something very soothing about the sound.
ReplyDeletePS I'd have something a bit more intelligent than that to say about it but it is 3am here and my brain is telling me to go to bed. I'll listen to the music again tomorrow tho :)
ReplyDeleteYes, it's lovely and soothing and quite a revelation, since I've never listened to this type of music before.
ReplyDeleteCathy, your comment is brilliant for 3:00am in the morning.
ReplyDeleteThe music is lovely! Went and discovered a few more of his pieces and I think they're beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIt explains how David was able to calm Saul . . . at times.
ReplyDeleteKlezfiddle is great. If you didn't get a chance to listen to it, there is also the Hurrian hymn, which shows him actually playing the lyre. It's from Ugarit in what was northern Canaan, circa 1400 BC - a reconstruction, obviously - and, despite being to the wife of the moon god of the Canaanites, may give us an idea of the style of King David. It does have a different sound from the Greek, which used the strumming more frequently, while the Canaanites seemed to used a plucking technique more heavily.
http://youtu.be/viMbnj_Ei2A
Ciss and Mark, I've played all of Michael's pieces that I could find and other types of the ancient music, too.
ReplyDeleteIt explains how David was able to calm Saul . . . at times.
Exactly. I'll check out your other suggestion, and I will buy 'An Ancient Lyre'.
If you want to see - I won't say hear, because its a bit monotonous - something impressive, find a video of an aulos player; two flutes, played like bagpipes, but without the bag, so it's entirely the player keeping the continuous piping going.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm. I've never heard anything like it. How wonderful.
ReplyDeleteEllie, I was amazed to discover such a different type of music that is so beautiful, though so much beauty came out of ancient Greece and the Mediterranean, why wouldn't we expect them to produce beautiful music?
ReplyDeleteMark, I watched and listened to the performer on the double aulos. It's quite impressive and interesting, though a tad repetitious. I can't say I'd want to listen for hours, but then I wouldn't want to listen to bagpipes for hours, either. Here's the link.
ReplyDelete