Newsgroups: rec.music.early
Subject: RE: *Very* early music
From: Bohdan Rekshynskyj <brekshyn@SHEARSON.COM>
Date: 22 Dec 1992 14:08:01 -0500 (EST)
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT

Francois,
 
   There is a recording of Greek (and one Roman) music available by Paniagua
 (spelling?).
I forget the label.  It's most interesting but very low on factual commentary
 which brings
me to the article you posted.  Is there more technical information on how the
 research was
done and what theories used?  Is there a recording of this event?  I'd love to
 get my
hands on it and read it since Classical Greek and Roman civilization are
 interests of mine.
 
                                        Bohdan
 
 
 
=====================================================================
 
Bohdan Peter Rekshynskyj
 
Consultant
 
Compuserve:  72576.1754@compuserve.com
 
 
 
All promulgations are my own.  No corporate entity has authorization
to represent me.
 
Imprimatur.                                             Nihil obstat.
 
=====================================================================
 
 
 
---->  From: Francois Velde <velde2@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
---->  Subject:      *Very* early music
---->  To: Multiple recipients of list EARLYM-L <EARLYM-L@aearn.bitnet>
---->  Content-Length: 2224
---->
---->  Talk about early music on period instruments, this goes pretty far.
---->
---->  The following is a loose translation of an article in the French
---->  "Journal du CNRS", dec. 1992. It describes a concert of 2d cent. BC music
---->  given recently in Athens.
---->
---->  "The Greeks were crying, everyone was very moved. Me too." And for a
---->  good reason: last September, Annie Belis conducted, for the first time,
---->  the two great hymns to Apollo engraved on the walls of the Treasure of
 the
---->  Athenians in Delphi in 128 B.C.  "And on the site of their creation..."
---->  It took this young musical archaeologist 15 years of work to reach her
---->  goal: play the true pieces of music from the Greek and Roman Antiquity,
---->  and on copies of period instruments. A real marathon for this musican,
---->  specialized in musical notation and ancient scores, which took her
 through
---->  ancient history, ceramology [sic], iconography, epigraphy, organology
 [sic],
---->  and even Greek mathematics and philosophy; all of which allowed her not
 only
---->  to read the scores and rediscover the vocal techniques, but also to
 recreate
---->  the instruments with the help of the luthier Jean-Claude Condi. Relying
 on
---->  contemporary depictions, and using the same media and the assembling
 techniques
---->  as in Antique times, they recreated Greek lyres, two large kitharas, a
---->  kroupeza (foot-activated percussion) and a tympanon, a large drum based
 on a
---->  Pompei fresco. All that remained was to listen to this music, ranging
 from the
---->  5th century BC to the second century AD.  Annie Belis now conducts a
 vocal
---->  and instrumental ensemble, Kerylos. The group was the one playing in
 Delphi.
---->  "There were 25 of us, playing and singing in unisson. A difficult
 exercise,
---->  for a very peculiar music, sometimes with five beats and unusual
 intervals.
---->  The singers must be vocal athletes. But it is not just a tour de force:
---->  this music is beautiful and the texts are magnificent!" To have an idea
---->  of what this music sounds like ("it is like nothing else, except perhaps
---->  Alban Berg when he is really great...") no recording, but a concert in
---->  Metz on June 6, and a show on France Musique on December 13.
---->  Contact:
---->  Annie Belis, Institut de Recherche et d'histoire des textes, Metz,
 France.
---->          phone: (33) 87 36 41 52.
---->
---->
---->  --
---->
---->          Francois Velde
---->