Discovering Ancient Greek Music

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January 9th, 2007 by Duplicator | Mail a friend

How actually ancient Greeks played their music, is an unsolved issue. If I were to choose between various interpretations that I know, the one offered by Lyravlos ensemble of ancient Greek music, seems to me more convincing.

Lyravlos follows scientific research in the construction of ancient Greek instruments (handmade by the leader of the ensembe, Panayiotis Stefos), as well as in the interpretation, which aims at a line of connection between the ancient and modern Greek demotike music, a line that is scientifically proved by the well known scholar Thr. Georgiadis, and others.

In this course Lyravlos managed to find a way toward a discovery of an interpretation that is simultaneously ancient, modern and ‘natural’ (one can imagine the ancients actually play like this), while Paniagua is abstract and cold, Chalaris byzantine (to the point of insulting our taste), Tambouris modern and cold, none of them being able to persuade us that their interpretation is even a little close to the ancient sound.

Lyravlos has now published online audio files of ancient Greek music (mp3 and wma), at the Centre of Greek Musical Tradition, where you can listen to excerpts from its performances and get more information on the ensemble and on ancient Greek music (surviving pieces, construction of authentic instruments, the role of music in ancient Greek life, etc).