He gyrated, he pouted, he played two pipes at once – and he may have been the Elvis of ancient Greece...

This week, Jimmy and Armand plunge into the strange, stirring soundscape of the classical world, where music wasn’t background – it was everything.

We meet professional pipers who whipped crowds into frenzies, women whose musical talent could buy them out of slavery, and frogs who sang in rhythmic unison to torment a god. From breath-defying performance techniques to the eerie beauty of melodies reconstructed from scraps of papyrus, this is a world where language and pitch were inseparable – and where the past can still sing.

The music heard (in order) was: 

‘Improvisation on the Lourve Aulos’ performed by Callum Armstrong.

'The Frog Chorus' from ‘The Frogs’ by Aristophanes performed by Callum Armstrong.

‘Pindar's 12th Pythian Ode’ performed by Stef Conner and Barnaby Brown.

‘Euripides Orestes’ performed by a mixed choir and Barnaby Brown on the Aulos.

A big thank you to all the performers. 

Presented by Armand D’Angour and Jimmy Mulville

Produced by Diggory Waite

A Hat Trick Production

For more on the charity Classics For All, who support state schools to introduce or develop the teaching of classical subjects sustainably on the curriculum or as an after school activity, visit www.classicsforall.org.uk