A Recital of Reconstructed and Reimagined Ancient Greek Music

This melody was found among the musical papyri from Oxyrhynchus. Dating from the late 3^rd or possibly early 4^th century AD, it is the latest surviving ancient Greek musical fragment, and also the earliest surviving example of a Christian melody, therefore demonstrating a remarkable overlap in cultural and musical style. It was first published in the POxy collection in 1922. The version performed today includes supplements supplied by Stefan Hagel, who accompanies the chorus on kithara.

The Delphic Paean of Athenaios, a hymn dedicated to Apollo, is thought to have been composed for performance as a part of the Athenian Pythiads procession from Athens to Delphi in ~128/7 BCE.  This hymn was later inscribed in stone on marble slabs and placed high up on the wall of the Athenian Treasury in Delphi. Attributed to the composer Athenaios, it is one of the earliest pieces of music that can be attributed to a specific composer, bringing the ancient composers into the spotlight for the first time and creating a lot of speculation as to their identities. This hymn, discovered first in 1893 by French archaeologists, has formed the foundation for the study of ancient Greek music and its reconstruction due to its length and state of preservation.  The inscription, now at home in the archaeological museum of Delphi, contain both lyrics and musical notation inscribed into the stone. The version that is performed today is based off of the edition proposed by Tosca Lynch.

Thyra-Lilja Altunin will perform the laments for Hector from the end of the Iliad, in a semi-improvised melody following the pitch contour of the Greek language, with the accompaniment of Stefan Hagel on the seven strings of an early kithara. This experiment will show how a fixed pattern of binary harmony – a technique known from many traditional musics – can be used for non-self-accompanied improvised types of ancient Greek poetry.

Composed by Barnaby Brown (first performance)

Dedicated to Antonio Panetta. A study in polyphonic tonguing for Louvre aulos developing the Song of Seikilos (DAGM 23), composed at ΜΟΥΣΕΙΟΝ Matera in June 2024. This is part of a portfolio of scores designed to enable conservatoire students anywhere in the world to take the aulos as a principal or related study. Conventional scores make it easier for institutions to approve an aulos pathway, and for non-specialist examiners to assess student performances. For the composer, detailed scores serve as a distant peak that inspires focused practising, making the impossible draw slowly closer.

490 BCE

Composed by Barnaby Brown (2023)

In memory of Andrew Barker. First performed at the 14th MOISA Conference, Cremona, 12 June 2023. This third setting takes Stefan Hagel’s criticism of our first setting (2018, for BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show) to heart. The number of strophes in Pindar’s epinicia make it a serious possibility that they had recognisable tunes, a scenario incompatible with respecting the language tones. Setting 3 removes the ‘old auletic’ modulations of Setting 2 (with tonoi three dieses apart), making lyre accompaniment possible. Like Setting 2, it interprets the epitrites as cross rhythms, in tension with underlying dactylic feet, culminating in a tihai: a polyrhythmic technique used to elicit applause and conclude sections in Indian classical music. It was developed in collaboration with Rosa Fragorapti singing, dancing, and strumming lyre simultaneously. 

Stefan Hagel will exemplify some possible styles of lyre playing. First, he will extend a strummed style of seven-string binary harmonics, best suited for early citharas and lyras, to the accompaniment of lyric poetry, once more in a semi-improvised melody following the accentual and phrasal pitch contours of Sappho’s Prayer to Aphrodite. There will follow examples for various techniques on nine strings, as were apparently typical for private Hellenistic and Roman-period lyre playing. Finally, an invocation of the Muse and a Hymn to the Sun by second-century CE composer Mesomedes will be presented, which have survived in medieval manuscripts, probably copied from an ancient music-school book. Their melodies suit a contemporary cithara tuning reported in the famous astronomer Ptolemy’s work on the mathematical description of music.

Performed by Callum Armstrong

Composed by Alex Silverman

Not so much a new composition as an arrangement of the most famous ancient Greek musical inscription, drawing together some threads from this evening's recital and this terms' AMO seminar.  The harp, flute and cor anglais reflect the ancient combination of lyre and aulos. The chorus' melody is broken up to give space for breath, and to allow us to spend time with each phrase in turn; it is later repeated in canon, offering a fresh perspective on the structure of this simple, catchy song, and to reflect its continuing resonance across the ages. The piece was written specifically for today's instrumentalists, all founding members of AMO, but with one bigger goal: to encourage as many people as possible to join in the appreciation, discussion, and performance of ancient music.