from Reddit: The earliest (complete) music we know how it sounded. Greek.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/%CE%9F_%CE%95%CF%80%CE%B9%CF%84%CE%AC%CF%86%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82_%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85_%CE%A3%CE%B5%E1%BF%96%CE%BA%CE%B9%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%85_-_Epitaph_of_Seikilos.ogg
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikilos_epitaph
The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The epitaph has been dated variously from around 200 BC to around AD 100, but the first century AD is the most probable guess. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone, a stele, near Aydın, Turkey (not far from Ephesus). It is a Hellenistic Ionic song in either the Phrygian octave species or Iastian tonos. While older music with notation exists (for example the Hurrian songs), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition.[1]
The following is the Greek text found on the tombstone (in the later polytonic script; the original is in majuscule),[2] along with a transliteration of the words which are sung to the melody, and a somewhat free English translation thereof; this excludes the musical notation:
While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and time demands an end.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
(Asking sincerely, not snarky)
* Will you expand on your "Epicurean" reference, please? Enjoyment of being alive to the fullest is how to interpret the lyrics?
* "Pretty haunting melody" - do you mean pretty AND haunting or pretty-haunting?
* Tempo change in the link, I guess we don't know the original tempo. The upbeat second half of the video sounds contemporary (ours).
********O.K., questions over!1 I just found this hand bell:
Pleasure is the Good. Remember, too, that one part of Epicurus's teaching was to do nothing to an excess that was painful, e.g. don't drink to where you'll be hung over. "Have no grief at all" would seem to reflect that attitude. Though I suppose one could interpret the epitaph as meaning not to sorrow in the end of life, but that's Epicurian, too.
"Pretty" modifies "haunting," otherwise I'd have used a comma.
Unless they had metronomes in the Hellenistic period, the tempo must be a matter of guesswork. If it's marked "Allegretto," something is fishy.
-- Mal
