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Music of Ancient Rome and Greece
#31
Yes, thats me ;-) )

Hi Richard!
:lol:
Susanna

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.musica-romana.de">www.musica-romana.de

A Lyra is basically an instrument to accompaign pyromanic city destruction.
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#32
A link, please! Big Grin
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#33
www.musica-romana.de

Ahem...I still have to update the English Version...Gosh...wanna do this during the next weeks, sorry folks.
Beggin 4 a little patience :wink:
Susanna

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.musica-romana.de">www.musica-romana.de

A Lyra is basically an instrument to accompaign pyromanic city destruction.
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#34
Thanks Susanna,

No problem, I read German just as well. Big Grin
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#35
Ik kan het ook in het Nederlands probere...maar dat is niet heel goed. :wink:
Susanna

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.musica-romana.de">www.musica-romana.de

A Lyra is basically an instrument to accompaign pyromanic city destruction.
Reply
#36
Big Grin
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#37
Do you know anything about the Aquincum organ?
http://www.gallica.co.uk/aquincum/index.htm

Is the reconstruction more or less accurate?
Dan Diffendale
Ph.D. candidate, University of Michigan
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#38
Salve!
It`s just great!
So much new information is here! Thank you all!!! Big Grin

Don`t miss CDs by Ensemble De Organographia:
Music of Ancient Greeks
Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks.
Look here:
www.northpacificmusic.com/Greeks.html
www.northpacificmusic.com/Sumerians.html
Musica Romana is OK, but Ensemble De Organographia - the best performers of Antique music. Their versions most sincere and heartful.
I highly recommend for you these CDs.
Also try CD
"Melpomen" Big Grin
http://www.harmoniamundi.com/others/alb ... bum_id=978

CD "Music in the Age of Pyramids" by Rafael Perez Arroyo and Hathor Ensemble (NAR-0010-01) presents sounds of Egyptian instruments, singing of Egyptian texts and melodies taken from Coptic Christian hymns. Very interesting, meditative record: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 34-5632768 .

And by the way, post by Iosephus is great and interesting, but may be someone had heard more lengthy records of hydraulos?

You could hear sound of hydraulos on Atrium Musicae De Madrid CD, but it is very short pieces.
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#39
Dear Sergey,

I am sorry to say, but "Melpomen" has rarely nothing to do with ancient music, they have so much mistakes in their booklets and research, the same for Hathor Ensemble.
Their music is very good and also good performed, but I followed their speeches on the last meeting of the International Study Group on Musicarchaeology and their researches are not very scientific.
Melpomens musical instruments are far away from authentic, sorry to say.
Their music is good to listen to, cause its interesting and creative.

De Orgonografia are very good researched, also I only know their ancient greek music. And its well performed. Compliments!
I like to listen to it a lot ;-) )

And how can you know Musica Romana, we do not sell any CDs to Russia!?

The reconstructions of hydraulis are also discussible. Depends on which found is reconstructed, fact is for example, we did not found any registers of the organ, which would be necessary when discussing their tonality.

But the link above is a very good reconstruction from a German organ-building-master, I think is the closest one to the ancient ones at the moment ;-) )

Much regards,
Susanna
Susanna

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.musica-romana.de">www.musica-romana.de

A Lyra is basically an instrument to accompaign pyromanic city destruction.
Reply
#40
Big Grin Hello, Susanna! It is pleasure for me to talk with you!
Well, if you had read posts above - the people listen to fantasy music by Synaulia - they think it is authentic. So if they would listen to "Melpomen" - it wouldn`t do them much harm!!!
As a professional you could give us more objective view of this music - I`m only historian and music lover while you are performer and musicologist, and the only source of informaton for me about their instuments etc. - the booklet of CD "Melpomen". "Authetic" of course isn`t right word here - it is restoration, more or less successful, in my review of their CD on Amazon.com I called it "new age world music in the Ancient Greek style" - but it is beautiful and it helps to understand the culture of Antiquity. At least they tried to do their best. So as a listener I could recommend it to other lovers of Antiquity.
As to Musica Romana - the soundclips of your first CD "Mesomedes" were for some time in the last year on Emmuty Records website - so I had heard them (now there`s no information about this CD there and no soundclips; and why they sell new CD by Musica Romana together with CD by Omnia - it`s a mystery - it would only confuse the listeners - they would think that Omnia also authentic). You`ve got website by Musica Romana - so it is no wonder that here in Russia I knew about Musica Romana. That`s why I`m so sure that Musica Romana is OK.
What seemed interesting for me - that in annotation on Emmuty website - Musica Romana stated that CD "Mesomedes" could be used for teaching. I`m using music of Ancient Greece in my lectures on history of culture. It is good to know that some people in other countries think of it the same way as me.
Probably you could give me some brief recommendations - about using of Antique music in educational purposes or share with us your own view of this problem.
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#41
P.S.
Probably you would tell us something interesting about the meeting
of the International Study Group on Musicarchaeology?
What did seem most interesting for you?
Which projects you could recommend for us?
Which new records should we expect?
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#42
Susanna,
What do you think of the Italian group 'Ludi Scaenici'? They are invited every year to the Tarraco Roman festival.
I like their music and their instruments but, of course my knowledge on Ancient music is not very deep...

Aitor
It\'s all an accident, an accident of hands. Mine, others, all without mind, from one extreme to another, but neither works nor will ever.

Rolf Steiner
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#43
Waiting for Susanna... Big Grin
Well, while we are waiting for Susanna, some more information, which could be interesting for somebody.
For those who would like to listen to Musica Romana (Susanna herself is playing!!! Big Grin
http://www.emmuty.de/katalog/EM020.php

Also I want to mention one more CD, which could be interesting for you.
Search the following link:
http://www.cd-baroque.com/francais/3600 ... ylos&B1=OK
You could find CD by Annie Belis and Ensemble Kerylos "Ancient Greek Music" (15 tracks). CD presents mostly the same pieces which you could find on CDs by Atrium Musicae of Madrid (without fragments of doubtful origin) and Ensemble De Organographia (on their CDs - mentioned above - you would find 33 tracks of Ancient Greek music, they recorded some fragments founded in Oxyrynchus in the last decades). Of course, you would hear music by Mesomedes of Crete, friend and musician of Emperor Hadrian. The sound of this CD by Annie Belis is big and solemn with mezzo-soprano by Genevieve Bousquet. It is a kind of Baroque version of Ancient Greek music.
Well, it is philosophical question, why we need so much versions of the same pieces? And some could answer in post-modern style, that we are listening not to Ancient Greek and Roman music but to the music of modern performers, so the value of this records is low, it`s only modern mind game.
But why we are wathcing "Hamlet" in different versions and still it is interesting? I think that it is interesting because of the global humane ideas by Shakespeare, not because of actor playing or new tricks by the directors in the cinema or in the theater.
So I think that each new performance (even not truely authentic and accurate) helps us to understand this music and the culture of Antique world a little bit better - probably the quantity of the records and performances would turn into new quality. As I read the first performances of Delphic hymnes in the end of the 19th century (of course on modern instruments) were complete disillussion for the listeneres while now we are used to the world music and we are enjoing these records.
Probably as in Renaissance epoch Italian composers in attempt to re-create Ancient Greek tradition of singing and playing music in theatrical plays invented opera - we also would see not only new level of understanding of Ancient Greek and Roman music but we would see the appearance of new art forms?
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#44
Hi Sergey,

well...duh...we had concerts during the weekend, starting Friday with travelling to Austria and playing there on Saturday and back in the night and playing Sunday in Germany and then yesterday evening back home...and Saturday was an outside-concerts with rain and coolness...the string-instruments really did not enjoy it ;-) )

I think the people do not think that Omnia is authentic, because it is said in the CD very clair that this is played with instruments inspired by Antiquity and music that is self-written. As long as you inform your customers like that its quite ok and honest for me.
We have also self-written pieces, but played and carefully handmade reconstructions of archaeological founds or descriptions of ancient instruments. Of course the written sources of Mesomedes for example are real pieces of that period, but it is more easy to play them correct (even though I wonder why a lot of people do not) but it is more heavy to create an authentic sound!
I have seen some bardic group playing metal-strings on their lyras for example :?

Soundexamples are prepared to go online dirung the summer, we wanna record simple examples for every instruments as mp3s and also maybe from the new CDs, but have a little patience ;-) )

Belis is a phantastic researcher, all her books I can recommand very much. But honestly the CD is a little to classic for my taste...exactly what you think Sergey ;-) )
Modern Opera-singing in French and Italian Baroquen-singing-school is not very ancient somehow, but is also a form of an interpretation. For me it sounds all a bit slow and dry...but if you are interested in ancient music, you should not miss it. :wink:

We recorded all the ancient songs new at a Live-concert in Radio and we will release it as an album this summer. One thing that I saw often during the last years was that the groups with ancient music did not sound live what they sound on CD, which I think is very much of a pity. I mean studio is ok, but you should be able to perform that also live :lol:

I know Ludi Scaenici, I saw them live and know the CD...the show is great , I love the dancing girls :wink:
Their were ones one group with Synaulia, their are the people who played mostly the reed-instruments on their first and second CDs. The music is self-written. They do not sing...its a show-troup. They are very good musicians. But their music is as authentic as I think from Synaulia...same mistakes...double flutes...single-reeds...all sold as tibiae. Totally nonesens! Sounds like a nice interepretation of what people expect from Roman music. But I miss much research of the instruments and ancient musical theory.
Also Synaulia has written on the backside of their CD: "First earnest try of the reconstruction of ancient Roman music"...simply not true...their are recordings already in the 60s!

But I think all the recordings do good work, it interests people in the theme and it helps to learn from mistakes.

Sergey, do you speak German? Our CD is only availible with a German booklet at the moment...email me your private adress and you will own the first of our panflute-CDs in Russia soon...hey, by the way...I just recocnize that me husband speaks Russian
Tongue
Susanna

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.musica-romana.de">www.musica-romana.de

A Lyra is basically an instrument to accompaign pyromanic city destruction.
Reply
#45
Salve!

One stupid question: when I am in our summerhouse I play my 5-string "Kantele" (a traditional finnish, also an instrument of the heroes of Kalevala). The strings are played open, so you just pick the strings you play and mute the others.

I have tried to find some "homeric" open scale to the instrument and this is what I use:

D , E , F# , G# , A

Any suggestions how I could achieve even more "bronze-age" sound :wink: ?
Virilis / Jyrki Halme
PHILODOX
Moderator
[Image: fectio.png]
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