# Anyone here into really old music?



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I've been taking Medieval/Renaissance music history class, and we are currently studying monophonic (single line) music. Anyone here into that stuff? I've had to listen to a ton of Gregorian chant, and learn all about the notation, modes, and forms. Anyone heard of Hildegaarde von Bingen? She made great stuff. Also, we listened to some secular stuff, namely troubador cansos, and even a minnelied. It's really fascinating stuff, all between 10th-13th centuries.

And even before all this, we checked these pieces out:










I find this all absolutely fascinating.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Baroque is as far as I go back. From what I've heard before that, I wasn't interested. Probably because it is mainly choral music.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

The Stasimon Chorus is fantastic. I'm not particularly familiar with the music of ancient Greece, although I have played around with some of Pythagoras' tuning systems.


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## Krisena (Jul 21, 2012)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I've been taking Medieval/Renaissance music history class, and we are currently studying monophonic (single line) music. Anyone here into that stuff? I've had to listen to a ton of Gregorian chant, and learn all about the notation, modes, and forms. Anyone heard of Hildegaarde von Bingen? She made great stuff. Also, we listened to some secular stuff, namely troubador cansos, and even a minnelied. It's really fascinating stuff, all between 10th-13th centuries.
> 
> And even before all this, we checked these pieces out:
> 
> ...


HOLY COW, AUTHENTIC ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC I've looked for this forever. I am in heaven.

Edit: People have always said to me that it doesn't exist anymore, that nothing has survived.


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## nikola (Sep 7, 2012)

Did they write notes 200 BC? How that melody survived? 
Both compositions are quite interesting considering how old they are. That 'Seikilos' melody reminded me at begining of dueling banjos from 'Deliverance' 

I found it.. it's on tombstone.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Anyone heard of Hildegaarde von Bingen? ...


I have this, and can recommend if you enjoy her music. Plus the box is cheap, too.


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

This is my favorite piece of monophony ever.






If you like this music I kindly recommend you any record of *Anonymous 4* group. Those ladies are fantastic ! 

For secular music I particularly like figures like Bernart de Ventadorn and Walther von der Vogelweide.











I also suggest you a band, Estampie. They are really into medieval music and performs it in an almost scholastically. There is also an ensemble called Estampie, but they are both very good.  However, if you are a "purist" check out only their first 2-3 albums, because they develop a slightly different style after that.


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

Krisena said:


> HOLY COW, AUTHENTIC ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC I've looked for this forever. I am in heaven.
> 
> Edit: People have always said to me that it doesn't exist anymore, that nothing has survived.


There is CD with Ancient Greece and Roman Music performed by Atrium Musicae de Madrid. These performances are as "scholastic" as they can be, regarding the period. You can also find it entirely on youtube :






For Ancient Roman music try "Ancient Roman Music" by Synaulia. It is a team of musicians, archeologists, paleorganologists and choreographers dedicated to the application of their historical research to ancient music and dance, in particular to the ancient Etruscan and Roman periods. You can also find it on youtube and amazon.

Enjoy !


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I like old music. I think more people would in the right context. 

My wife doesn't listen to this music usually, but once we were at a concert, sitting in the balcony. As they turned down the lights, without us knowing, a choir walked in behind us and began singing Gregorian chant. It was so beautiful, so pure, and so unexpected, my wife was overtaken with it.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

nikola said:


> Did they write notes 200 BC? How that melody survived?
> Both compositions are quite interesting considering how old they are. That 'Seikilos' melody reminded me at begining of dueling banjos from 'Deliverance'
> 
> I found it.. it's on tombstone.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_ancient_Greece

The ancient greeks used Letter notation and little symbols for rhythm, but not actual notes/neumes. They didn't use ABCDEFG the way we have that, but letters that had certain significance.


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## sah (Feb 28, 2012)

Renaissance said:


> There is CD with Ancient Greece and Roman Music performed by Atrium Musicae de Madrid. These performances are as "scholastic" as they can be, regarding the period. You can also find it entirely on youtube :


From this CD:



> United here for the first time are the rare fragments of music which have come
> down to us from Ancient Greece. We have added the only surviving musical fragment of
> Imperial Rome: four mutilated measures from a work by Terence. It is as if nothing were
> left of the Acropolis but a few scattered bits of columns and a pair of ruined capitals. In
> ...


What I learnt in the conservatory is that it is not known how to read Greek "scores". There are books that explain how to read Gregorian chant. I would like to see the same about Greek music. However, I like that CD.


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## Renaissance (Jul 10, 2012)

I know that those "notes" are really weird and hard to interpret, that's why I said that these interpretations are as "scholastic" as they can be, because there is nothing more you can do to bring this music back to life. These interpretation, as flawed as they are, may be the closest thing to reality we have.


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