History Music

Context: The Seikilos epitaph is a complete Ancient Greek song engraved on a funerary stele from the 1st–2nd century AD, making it the oldest fully preserved musical composition with both melody and lyrics intact. Found near modern Aydın in Turkey, it was dedicated by a man named Seikilos, possibly in memory of Euterpe. Its brief poem urges the reader to “shine while you live” and not give in to sorrow, expressing a clear, timeless philosophy on the brevity of life. Because the notation is fully preserved, it offers one of the clearest glimpses into how ancient Mediterranean music actually sounded.

Context (Lifted from Peter Pringle's Video Desc.): Gilgamesh was king of the Sumerian city of Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia, some 5000 years ago. According to legend, he was a ruthless despot, so the gods created a friend for him, a kind of wild man called Enkidu, who was able to challenge him successfully in battle. This took Gilgamesh’s mind off oppressing his people, and he and Enkidu became inseparable friends. The two of them shared many remarkable adventures together but they made a fatal mistake. They traveled to the great cedar forest, where they killed a sacred beast known as “The Bull of Heaven”. This angered the gods, so they sentenced Enkidu to death.

TABLET VIII of the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, contains the text I sing in this lament. I would like to thank Andrew R. George, the translator of Gilgamesh, whose translation of the text appears in the subtitles to this video, for his generous help with the pronunciation of Old Babylonian. [...]

There are two musical instruments in this interpretation of the lament of Gilgamesh. The lute I decided to use is the Persian “setar”, which is one of the closest instruments to the ancient three-stringed lutes that is still in existence today. The setar is capable of playing a wide range of quarter tones but, according to archaeomusicologists, the Babylonians did not use them. Personally, I’m not so sure about that.

The other musical instrument I used is a pair of reed pipes which are played together. The ones you see at the beginning of the video are copies of the pair of silver pipes that were discovered by archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley, during his excavations of the Sumerian city of Ur, in the 1920’s. They have a sound similar to the modern “duduk” and, like the duduk, the shehnai and the Australian didgeridoo, they are played using the technique known as “circular breathing”, in order to produce a continuous tone without interruption. The ancient Babylonian reed pipe was known as the “malilum”.

Since I could not sing, accompany myself on the lute, and play the pipes at the same time, I sampled the sound of the pipes and used a MIDI pedal keyboard (like the ones organists use to play bass notes) to trigger the sounds - one foot for each of the two silver pipes. That way I could perform all the parts of the lament at once, without any need for overdubs.

The glazed brick wall you see behind me in this video is part of the magnificent “Gate of Ishtar”, which was the main entrance to the ancient city of Babylon.

Context: The Carnyx was a Celtic instrument used for ~ 400 years between 200 BCE to 200 CE. A large S shaped wind instrument, with the head decorated and formed into a boars. According to the Greek historian Polybius (~206-126BC) accounts it was at least used during warfare:

There were countless trumpeters and horn blowers and since the whole army was shouting its war cries at the same time there was such a confused sound that the noise seemed to come not only from the trumpeters and the soldiers but also from the countryside which was joining in the echo.

Context: Guillaume de Machaut was a composer in the Ars nova ("new art") genre. His work was highly influential, with his death signifying the end of an era and the start of "Ars Subtilior". His music was during a transformative time in Europe, where polyphonic music was the overtaking monophonic.

Context:L Detrli Dolap ("The Troubled Watermill") was written by Turkish poet and Sufi mystic Yunus Emre. This rendition of Dertli Dolap is sung by Özgür Baba, playing a Cura.

Context: The Hurrian songs are a set of ancient musical tablets from Ugarit (c. 1400 BC), but only Hurrian Hymn No. 6 survives in nearly complete form, making it the oldest known piece of written music. Addressed to the goddess Nikkal, No. 6 preserves both lyrics and detailed notation for a nine-stringed lyre, showing that a sophisticated musical system already existed. Because the notation is partially damaged and uses an unfamiliar system, modern scholars have produced several differing reconstructions, with gradual improvements being made.