Ancient Rome Refocused

Seikilos Epitaph (Bonus, Epi 30, S6)


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Bonus, Episode 30, (S6) Intro Narration by David Denyer.WikipediaThe Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving complete musical composition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_composition), including musical notation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation), from anywhere in the world. The epitaph (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitaph) has been variously dated, but seems to be either from the 1st or the 2nd century CE. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation#Ancient_Greece), was found engraved on a tombstone (a stele (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stele)) from the Hellenistic town of Tralles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tralles_(diocese)) near present-day Aydın (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayd%C4%B1n), Turkey, not far from Ephesus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephesus). It is a Hellenistic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_period) Ionic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionia) song in either the Phrygian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_(music)#Greek_scales) octave species (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_species) or Iastian tonos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_system_of_ancient_Greece#Ionian_(Iastian)). While older music with notation exists (for example the Hurrian songs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurrian_songs)), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition.[1]
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Ancient Rome RefocusedBy Rob Cain

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