Music and Ancient Greek Verse
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Both the creation and the presentation of a music composition partially based upon Ancient Greek literature and verse, should certainly be accompanied by explanatory remarks and elucidating information. First of all, we must point out that the aspiration of our musical endevour was neither to re-compose nor to scientifically approach the musical environment of the poems selected on each occasion. Of course, the same attitude stands for both the pronunciation, accentuation and rhythm of the Ancient Greek language. This selection of poems in their fragmentary form does not constitute a pretext for yet another conjecture or surmise, concerning the way that the Ancient Greek language was spoken. We had no intension whatsoever of attempting a musical recomposition of lyric chants. |
The musicians considered the original verse, upon which their music perfomance was based, as a unique expressive force bearing a special value, both in terms of sound, as well as in terms of meaning. Actually, throughout the whole period of creation that resulted in the present release, the verse was being constantly evoked as a source of inspiration; a pursuit which was bound to lead to the creation of something distinctive. Although it is rather superfluous, in addition to the above there was no attempt to adjust music to the metrical forms of each one of the poems, even thought of creating music, based - for instance upon the "glykoneious" or the "hipponakteious" of the Sapphic melody, would certainly be tempting and intriguing. |
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Lyric Poetry |