Reproductions/Recreations of Ancient Music

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I keep looking for more modern reproductions of ancient music to put in my personal build in addition to the EB soundtrack and I'm wondering if other people do the same thing. Particularly, I'm wondering about some culture groups more than others. There are a number of modern cd's that are attempts to recreate what ancient greek music was like - and I just got one of them in the mail from amazon.com today: Melpomen, by Conrad Steinmann, made in Austria. It's about half/half vocal/instrumental. Some of the pieces are a little jarring, but some are perfect. Anyone else tried some of the other ones?

I've got a few different Tuva cd's, which gives me plenty of steppe-type music.

The one I'm wondering most about is "barbarian" culture music. Are there any *good* cd's out there that really attempt to recreate what celtic music was like? Of course if you do searches for celtic music you get tons and tons of things that are not appropriate in the least. I do have some mp3s by Krauka (Vikinga seidur) that are really good, but I can't handle all of the pieces on the cd. I know they've got a couple of other cd's too, but the samples I've heard online make them sound much more modern. Anyone know about any other attempts to recreate any of our barbarian factions' ancient music?

[Brightblade]

Duuude, you don't have the soundtracks to Troy and Gladiator in the background? Nothing like hearing the first opening scene music to Gladiator when you are establishing Imperium Romanorum in the German forests!

Joking. Really.

My mom has some Greek music from her visits to Athenai that I hate her for... it's all orchestra, but supposedly some stuff may be applicable. I'll try and dig through her stash.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Some of it just sounds like modern greek music (traditional greek, but modern) to me - but some sounds much more authentic (not that I know a terrible amount about either, but I know enough to be dangerous - to know that one is one and the other is the other ).

I recently made a post on the internal forum where I linked to a number of different places on the web one can find music like this (many of these have sample tracks or parts of tracks online):

Melpomen: Ancient Greek Music by Ancient Greek Anonymous, Conrad Steinmann, Conrad Steinmann, and Ensemble Melpomen (Audio CD - Jan 10, 2006)
http://www.amazon.com/Melpomen-Ancie...id=1170517688/

Music of the Ancient Greeks by Ensemble De Organographia, Anonymous, Athenaeus, and Euripides (Audio CD - Mar 24, 1997)
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Ancient-...id=1170517688/

Musique de la Grece Antique by Greek Anonymous, Gregorio Paniagua, and Madrid Atrium Musicae (Audio CD - Oct 10, 2000)
http://www.amazon.com/Musique-Grece-...id=1170517688/

Music from Ancient Rome, Vol. 1: Wind Instruments by Gaetano Delfini, Luce / Ravenstein, Natalia van Maioli, Walter Maioli, and Walter / Maioli, Luce Maioli (Audio CD - April 22, 1997)
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Ancient-...id=1170517688/

Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks by Ensemble De Organographia, Philip Neuman, and Gayle Stuwe Neuman
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Ancient-...id=1170517688/

The Cyprosyrian Girl: Hits of the Ancient Hellenes by John Curtis Franklin
http://www.kingmixers.com/AncGreekMusicFragments.html (a few full mp3s are online there - some are a little strange for sure, and sound more like 1970's hippie stuff )

Northern Europe during the Roman Era
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/emu005.htm

E tempore emergo
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/emu003.htm

Musica Romana
http://www.musica-romana.de/de/cd.html

Music of Greek Antiquity
Petros Tabouris et al.
F.M. Records PAIAN 653
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000003YH4/

------------------
Krauka -
http://www.krauka.dk/musik02.html

Also have just been told about Prehistoric Music of Ireland - they have a few mp3's of sections of tracks on there. Very authentic stuff.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~bronzeag...available.html

---------------------
If anyone has heard any of these or has any of these, your opinions on them would be much appreciated.

[oudysseos]

I know of one web resource that might interest you, if you don't know about it already.

www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/agm/index.htm

That page also contains links to other ancient music sites and some ancient greel pronounciation guides.

Hope it helps

[keravnos]

I know of one web resource that might interest you, if you don't know about it already.

www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/agm/index.htm

That page also contains links to other ancient music sites and some ancient greel pronounciation guides.

Hope it helps

Oudysseos, thanks for the link. In fact using this, I have found the following gem...

http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/agm/aulos/Ligy.mp3

It mimics one of the few scores of Ancient Hellenic music we KNOW of. It was originally performed at Delphi in 128 BC, the accompanying aulos is mentioned, and the vocal melody which went in similar tunes.

Ancient Greeks wrote their music like their numbers, using the letters of their 24letter alphabet. The above is written by Athenaios, Paean 14-16

So, people if you want to listen to authentic ancient greek music (not much was preserved but THIS fraction did), download and listen to the link above (don't worry, it is legal).

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Sort of surprised there's such limited interest in this type of stuff. I think it's more likely due to folks not having thought about it much or heard much of it instead of really not liking or enjoying it. Especially on eastern/semitic/nomadic stuff - which is really beautiful and works very well as additions in the game too. Just take a listen to this one: http://homepage.eircom.net/~bronzeag.../butterfly.mp3 - which has traditional Irish flute and a Bronze Age Irish horn.

[Elthore]

would some books help? or are you looking stricly for audio?

I found this, sounds kinda interesting, I could get a hold of it if you think it might be of some use. Hah, I think that might be name, no other info.

"Musical and poetical relicks of the Welsh bards, preserved, by tradition and authentic manuscripts, from very remote antiquity; never before published. To the bardic tunes are added variations for the harp, harpsichord, violin, or flute. With a select collection of the pennillion and englynion ... with English translations. Likewise, a general history of the bards and druids ... with an account of their music and poetry, to which is prefixed, a copious dissertation on the musical instruments of the aboriginal Britons
Jones, Edward, 1752-1824."


Also, if books would be helpful, lemme know if anything from this catalouge might help- http://main.library.utoronto.ca/ - All the libraries are nearby, and i could get them transferred to my school.


EDIT: just saw your post TA, and i was wondering if theres any way I can get to hear these 'old school' tunes you're finding at little to no cost?


EDIT2:
The Petrie Collection of the ancient music of Ireland
Petrie, George, 1790-1866

"Summary
First published in 1855, George Petrie's "The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland," is widely regarded as one of the most important nineteenth-century collections of traditional Irish music. It contains nearly two hundred melodies collected by Petrie as well as song texts in Irish and English and detailed notes by Petrie about the sources of the songs or pieces. The collection, which was originally published under the auspices of the Society for the Preservation and Publication of the Melodies of Ireland, has been out of print for many years and the few remaining copies are now extremely rare collector's items."

[Teleklos Archelaou]

For folks who have an Andrew Jackson 20 dollar bill on hand and spendable, and really like playing as the Romani, here is a good idea:

I've bought mp3's from both Synaulia CD's online in the last few days and I must say they really are quite good. Some have lyrics, but there are a good 8-10 tracks on each disc that are perfect for the campaign map, and already in mp3 format. It's quite easy to get them to work too. They certainly are the best reproductions of any ancient Roman music I've been able to find anywhere up to this point.

1. Disc 1 (wind instruments) and 2 (string instruments) are found at these two links:
http://audiolunchbox.com/album?a=63865
http://audiolunchbox.com/album?a=63864
You can buy them as mp3s for 10 USD per CD. Pay by creditcard or paypal and they are on your desktop in a few minutes. You get the cover art included if you want to print it out and make your own physical CDs.

2. Copy the tracks you like best into the EB/data/sounds/music/ directory.

3. open up descr_sounds_music.txt in the EB data directory (open it with a text editor) and insert the tracks you like into the campaign map slot - just make sure you spell the track names correctly, but you can very easily see the pattern there with the other EB mp3s. Restart a campaign and enjoy some pretty darned authentic Roman music while you're playing!

My personal choices are:
Disc 1, tracks: 2, 10, 14, 21, 15, 16, 20, 18, 11
Disc 2, tracks: 16, 2, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14

(audiolunchbox by the way is a totally legit site from everything I've been able to tell, but this was the first time I used it)

[Mamba]

Does it only work with .mp3's, or can you insert whatever music you want into it?

[Elthore]

interesting albums, if anyone wants to hear them, they're available for 'preview' off of emule

[Elthore]

Teleksos, I've listened to Kudsi Erguner Ensemble, and its just Turkish music. What makes you believe that its anything like ancient persian? and if ive made that assumption incorrectly, my apologies.

Ive listened to most of the other albums you've posted as well, and though i cant vouch for their authenticity, its good listening for sure!

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Some of the simplest stuff - like the traditional improvisation on the Ney flute (totally solo) and the improvisation on the oud and kanun. They're the two from Kudsi Erguner that I've found that work best.

My "eastern" culture mp3 set currently has four tracks off that Kudsi Erguner ensemble cd (those two I mentioned above plus two other instrumental ones that are a little more, and maybe too much, complex), three Gevorg Dabagian tracks off volume three of "The Music of Armenia" - all solo duduk tracks. One by the Shoghaken Ensemble off volume five of that same set, and one by a Duduki Trio from Georgia. Then the other piece is an instrumental track off a chant cd - Shahram Nazeri's Mythical Chant (Kurdish Classical Music). Someone else has promised me a few other ones that would work better, but I haven't heard back from him about it recently. I really would like to use some other ones from a few traditional albums I've got now, but staying away from vocals is something I've tried to focus on. As well as 10 minute tracks.

[abou]

Here you go, TA. I found this on youtube while looking for King Crimson videos. There is apparently a lot more by following the various related material links on the side.

[Iustinus]

I know this is late for this thread....

But on ancient reconstructed Gallic music, there are two bands I'm aware of.

One is French, I don't remember the name (I'll find it later) but the clips I heard weren't that great in my opinion.

However, I highly suggest Imbraxton- some really good sounding reconstructed Gallic music (in the language too.)

I've heard most of the groups mentioned above and have to say I don't care for most of them.... especially Omnia.
The amount of stupid laughs and sighs in the background of some songs drives me nuts (Synaulia does it too but a little bit less annoying.)

Also, I'm no expert in Ancient Greek or Classic Latin, but in some of these groups you can clearly, clearly hear the contemporary accents of the musicians (French, Spanish, German, etc) and it ruins the experience a bit for me.

Good luck in the search for good reconstructed music!

Iustinus

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Now that's what I'm looking for. I've pretty much spent my limit on some of these CD's, but thanks for pointing out that group!

[The Celt]

I know this is late for this thread....

But on ancient reconstructed Gallic music, there are two bands I'm aware of.

One is French, I don't remember the name (I'll find it later) but the clips I heard weren't that great in my opinion.

However, I highly suggest Imbraxton- some really good sounding reconstructed Gallic music (in the language too.)

I've heard most of the groups mentioned above and have to say I don't care for most of them.... especially Omnia.
The amount of stupid laughs and sighs in the background of some songs drives me nuts (Synaulia does it too but a little bit less annoying.)

Also, I'm no expert in Ancient Greek or Classic Latin, but in some of these groups you can clearly, clearly hear the contemporary accents of the musicians (French, Spanish, German, etc) and it ruins the experience a bit for me.

Good luck in the search for good reconstructed music!

Iustinus

Well those are neat but they've only got one CD and it sounds like a bunch of Drunken Germans singing really bad French.