Reproductions/Recreations of Ancient Music

[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

[Danest]

I could have sworn that I saw on this very forum a sound file of a celtic war horn of some kind - forgot what it was called, but it was one of those really tall things that sometimes had what looked like an animal head at the top. Really interesting sound that it made, if I recall. Wish I could remember what it was called. Anyone remember? :)

[Orb]

Bump :D

[Anthony]

I could have sworn that I saw on this very forum a sound file of a celtic war horn of some kind - forgot what it was called, but it was one of those really tall things that sometimes had what looked like an animal head at the top. Really interesting sound that it made, if I recall. Wish I could remember what it was called. Anyone remember? :)

That'd be a carnyx, but it wasn't a musical instrument, it was for commanding regiments in battle.

[The Celt]

That'd be a carnyx, but it wasn't a musical instrument, it was for commanding regiments in battle.

Maybe we could use that as new battle horns? The vanilla battle horns sound kinda wimpy IMHO.

[The Persian Cataphract]

TA how is your search going? Have you looked out for Persian music, because I think that it happens the same as with Celtic music.

I think TA explained it in the best way. Traditional Iranian music is very aimed at vocals, and one could almost write an entire treatise on singing techniques alone. The tradition of singing is very deeply rooted in Iranian culture, and it is said that about 2,000 pieces of Sassanid folk music have passed on to us, including the works of Barbâd (Called "The Great"), Nakîsâ and Sarkâsh, through Farâbî. Since most Sassanian records were destroyed during the Islamic incursions, it hints at a very strong tradition of singing and the pieces being of such popularity as to have passed on by oral tradition. We have knowledge as to what instruments and what system of scales the Sassanians (Which we have reasons to believe that much of this was known during Parthian times as well) used, and it is remarkably alike Greek in many aspects. Even more sad is that a purely Iranian tradition has been misused under the facade of Sufism, denoting it as the music of dervishes and music of Iranian Islam... Someone shoot me already

Unfortunately, Iranian classical music is very much so driven by vocals and what is even more unfortunate is that Iranian classical music is declining. Shahram Nazeri, Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Jalal Akhbari and Souroush Izadi are only a handful of artists today who are proficient in classical music. That is unless I start asking around among some pals of mine for some true traditional Kurdish, Lûr, Gûrgânî, Gîlânî, Balûchî and Bandarî music, sung by true herders, and nomads ... This is not music easily acquired to come by in an Iran where singing is largely prohibited, especially to women, and it's not like most of these simple people would carry around a studio for recording

I have a few instrumental tracks. Shahram Nazeri is one of the greatest artists in this field as the language he usually sings in was Kurmanji, a form of Kurdish, very similar to Pahlavî. His songs are very Daf-intensive, a form of a framedrum with rings connected to the edges, giving a very mesmerizing treble sound akin to soft, white noise while beating the hide (Often deer-skin). Traditional songs are either based on the tunbak (Goblet-drum) or the daf. Sometimes both are used, but the tunbak would be the dominant basis, while the daf would merely be percussion. There are other drums, but they are meant for specific styles, so the goblet and framedrums are the most generic.

[Tuuvi]

I think it would be really cool if you guys would release a historical music add-on or something like that, I would definently download it.

[Danest]

Ah, some Carnyx notes played in place of the vanilla battle horn... that'd be really cool. Or maybe carnyx sounds and screaming, if we get warcry back.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

We really can't do anything like that for copyright reasons Lignator. Sorry.

[Eduorius]

I have read that the music of the Basque country is very old.

[Orb]

So, could I ask, how do you get the music to play?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

In the game? Take a look at post 32 above - it has the basic instructions. Here is an example of my Roman stratmap section:

		state MUSIC_STRATMAP_SUMMER
			event delay 5 volume -40
				folder data/sounds/music
				EB_Roman_Theme.mp3
				Roman_10.mp3
				Roman_11.mp3
				Roman_12.mp3
				Roman_13.mp3
				Roman_14.mp3
				Roman_15.mp3
				EB_Western_Greek_Theme2.mp3
				Roman_16.mp3
				Roman_17.mp3
				Roman_18.mp3
				Roman_19.mp3
				Roman_20.mp3
				Roman_21.mp3
				EB_Roman_Theme.mp3
				Roman_22.mp3
				Roman_23.mp3
				Roman_24.mp3
				Roman_25.mp3
			end

I renamed the mp3s to ones that are easy to keep track of, and kept some of ours interspersed between them.

[Orb]

In the game? Take a look at post 32 above - it has the basic instructions. Here is an example of my Roman stratmap section:

Ah, I'd basically already done that, and assumed I was missing something.

It turned out I was.

Pontos is Eastern, not East Greek

[Orb]

Well, now I've worked that minor technical error out, I am going to have the wierdest EB soundtrack possible for my Pontics

[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!

[Orb]

And there I was, about to do my thread Jesus act on this...

[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.

[Iustinus]

Here's the other Gallic music group I mentioned:

http://www.ensemble-bardos.org/

Also, there used to be a clip of the song Luccu Gaisatis online (by Imbraxton,) it's a good song, it might be around with some careful searching.

Iustinus

[Iustinus]

I just remembered another group, this one Ancient Greek, that I don't think has been mentioned.

I don't know if anyone has heard of Daemonia Nymphe, but I really like their stuff. It's not strictly reconstructed music, but the instruments are apparently all high quality reconstructed instruments and the themes (mostly religious) really bring me back to, for example, the Dionysian cult when I listen to them. I'm not sure that they sing in Ancient Greek, the language sounds modern to me, but I could be wrong. Anyhow, just another suggestion!

http://groups.msn.com/DaemoniaNymphe/

Iustinus

Edit:

Actually, I think Daemonia Nymphe would probably be one of the absolute best groups out there for a game soundtrack, some of the songs are perfect for battle!

Here's a link with some of their tracks:

http://www.myspace.com/daemonianymphemyspace

Listen to Divined by Trophonios and imagine a Theban army marching into battle, for example.......