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October 29, 2013
Top of the Pops in 200 AD: Hear only complete surviving ancient song sung
“I am a tombstone, an image. Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance.” The last line is damaged, reputedly by Anglo-Irish railway engineer Edward Purser who was on site building the Smyrna-Aidin Ottoman Railway when the stele was discovered and who sawed off the base so his wife could use it as a flower display, but it appears to be a dedication from Seikilos to a Euterpe, perhaps his wife? It’s the song that ensured the stele would truly be an everlasting memorial because he didn’t just have the lyrics engraved, but rather also included the melody in ancient Greek musical notation. = = The History Blog
Posted by gerardvanderleun at October 29, 2013 10:23 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
I hate to say it, but it sounds like that Vulcan harp music Mr. Spock was so fond of on Star Trek...
Posted by: B Lewis at October 29, 2013 11:33 PM
That's like "Hey Jude" with the Na Na Na Na Hey Heys cut off, What is it with these Anglo-types anyways?
Posted by: Ostinato at October 30, 2013 1:07 AM
That's an odd experience. It's extraordinary that something that surrounds us every day, something as fundamental to our lives as music, can sound so alien sometimes. Thanks.
By the way, where the essay says, ". . . but it appears to be a dedication from Seikilos to a Euterpe, perhaps his wife?"—Euterpe is one of the Muses. She handled "lute playing and lyric poetry", so it's probably dedicated to the Muse, not a given woman.
Posted by: Minta Marie Morze at October 30, 2013 7:53 AM
Nah, doesn't sound Spockish...In fact, Uhura and Spock seem to be in different and incompatible keys, but that's probably because I'm a racist.
No. It sounds like a typical 5 tone scale - think black keys song. Scales in modern western Music all have Greek names anyway, so they must have had a way to determine what the scales sounded like.
It's a far cry from the Byzantine chant of Orthodox music, which is also quite ancient and well preserved. This sounds more authentic than the pasty white singer upstairs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxl-x8LMnbQ
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