How to play “Song of Seikilos” (c.200BCE – 100CE)!

A studio quaility recording of this piece can now be heard on my NEW ALBUM, “An Ancient Lyre” :

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mlevy4

This video features a detailed discussion 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!

http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/SongOfSeikilos.htm

This melody is an amazing musical legacy from ancient Greece; a precious remnant of a long-forgotten musical culture now forever lost in the mists of time…

I have recently learnt that “The Song of Sekilos” is, in fact a “Skolion”…an ancient Greek DRINKING SONG! (What a GREAT idea of the ancient Greeks to put a drinking song on a TOMBSTONE – I want one to be on MINE!!).

Although much older music has been found (& which I have had a go at recreating on some of my other Youtube uploads), all that remains are either just pitiful fragments of the melodies, or the way the melodies have been notated in ancient times have SO many modern interpretations that the actual melody is still mostly academic guess work.

About 2000 years after it was written, this melody was rediscovered in 1883, in its complete & original form. It was found inscribed in marble on an ancient Greek burial stele, bearing the following epitaph: “I am a portrait in stone. I was put here by Seikilos, where I remain forever, the symbol of timeless remembrance”.

The words of the song are:

“Hoson zes, phainou
Meden holos su lupou;
Pros oligon esti to zen
To telos ho chronos apaitei”
(While you live, shine
Don’t suffer anything at all;
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll)

My Albums of Ancient Lyre Music are available, anywhere in the world, from iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-levy/id4324920

They are also available from Amazon MP3 Store:

http://amzn.to/eyI34H

Also, my 3 CD albums, “King David’s Lyre; Echoes of Ancient Israel”, “An Ancient Lyre” & “Lyre of the Levites” are available anywhere in the world from CD Baby:

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/MichaelLevy

For full details, and all the historical research behind my myriad of “Musical Adventures in Time Travel”, please visit my official website:

http://www.ancientlyre.com

Many thanks for watching!

Duration : 0:9:14

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