Upload
others
View
1
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
ANCIENT LYRE MUSIC FOR MEDITATION
This album features a selection of new compositions for archaic replica lyres in
some of the most hypnotic, mesmerizing ancient Middle Eastern & ancient
Greek musical modes I have so far experimented with.
The meditative compilation album also features original compositions for some
of the beautifully reconstructed ancient Greek lyres, hand-made in modern
Greece by Luthieros Ancient & Modern Music Instruments.
Track 4, "The Tortoise Shell Lyre of Hermes", features the Luthieros replica
tortoise shell lyre - featuring an actual tortoise shell for the resonator; locally
sourced only from native land tortoises which have died of natural causes, and
whose shells are readily available to collect from local forests:
The second track, “Kithara of the Golden Age”, features their wonderful replica
Kithara of the Golden Age of Classical Greece:
In this piece, I attempt to demonstrate the reconstructed vibrato mechanism
of the ancient Greek Kithara - the favoured lyre of the professional musicians
of ancient Greece.
Over 2500 years before the invention of the 'whammy bar' of the electric
guitar, many ancient music scholars now agree that the ancient Greeks had
invented a unique spring vibrato mechanism which was incorporated into the
design of the Kithara - when light lateral pressure is applied to either of the
vertical pillars rising from the yoke or to the discs either side of the yoke, lateral
movement of the yoke and strings is achieved by the curved wooden springs
seated directly below the yoke:
Track 3, “The Barbitos Lyre of Sappho” features the replica bass register lyre
made by Luthieros, known as the Barbitos or Barbiton:
This unique lyre, with extended string length and an actual tortoise shell
resonator was often associated with the ancient Greek poet, Sappho of Lesbos:
Track 14, “Amatores (Lovers)”, originally featured on my 2013 release, “The
Ancient Roman Lyre”. This piece is in the dreamy, sensual and evocation
sounding ancient Greek Hypodorian Mode – the equivalent intervals as F-F on
the white notes of the piano (and misnamed the “Lydian” mode in the early
Middle Ages).
Track 1, “Contemplationis (Contemplation)” is also from “The Ancient Roman
Lyre”. This piece is in the intensely introspective ancient Greek Dorian Mode –
the equivalent intervals as E-E on the white notes of the piano (misnamed the
“Phrygian” mode in the early Middle Ages).
These two tracks from my album “The Ancient Roman Lyre”, as well as track
5,"Sacred Reverie”, Track 7, “The Wisdom of Minerva” (from my 2012 album
“Ode to Ancient Rome”) and track 8, "Ancient Visions" (originally from my 2010
album, “Ancient Visions – New Compositions for an Ancient Lyre”) feature the
wonderfully harp-like tone of an evocation of a 10-string ‘Davidic lyre’, hand-
made in the USA by Marini Made Harps:
http://www.marinimadeharps.com/davidic.htm
Track 15 on this meditative compilation also features the Marini lyre, in an
extended length spontaneous improvisation for harp & lyre, "Higher
Consciousness", with the talented Harpist, Rebecca Penkett. This track is
mastered with the subtle use of ambient, contemporary studio effects, in my
attempt to enhance the meditative feeling of the piece.
Track 6, “Asteriai (Nymphs of the Stars)” features another of the wonderful
lyres made by Luthieros – a large chelys (tortoise shell form) lyre, with the
resonator made in wood in the form of the tortoise shell, giving a much richer
sound than the delicate tone produced by the actual tortoise shell resonators
used in their Barbitos and smaller sized replica tortoise shell lyres:
This track originally featured in my album, “The Lyre of Hermes”.
Track 9, “Trance of the Shaman” was originally from my album “Ancient Visions
– New Compositions for an Ancient Lyre”.
This track and the remaining tracks 10 to 13 (Lost in Rapture, Inner Light,
Voyage of the Soul and Other Worlds), are in hypnotic, ancient Middle Eastern
musical modes, featuring a tenor register evocation of the 10-string Biblical
Kinnor, by Mid East Ethnic Instruments:
http://www.mid-east.com/Kinnor-Harp
The Mid East evocation of the Biblical Kinnor is based on illustrations of lyres
depicted on ancient Jewish coins from the time of the Simon Bar Kokhba
Revolt against the Roman occupation of Judea (132–136 CE):
THE TRACKS
1. Contemplationis (Contemplation)
2. Kithara of the Golden Age
3. The Barbitos Lyre of Sappho
4. The Tortoise Shell Lyre of Hermes
5. Sacred Reverie
6. Asteriai (Nymphs of the Stars)
7. The Wisdom of Minerva
8. Ancient Visions
9. Trance of the Shaman
10. Lost in Rapture
11. Inner Light
12. Voyage of the Soul
13. Other Worlds
14. Amatores (Lovers)
15. Higher Consciousness
In our increasingly soulless, manufactured musical world, it is my intention that
the 'new ancestral music' featured in this album forms sound tracks suitable
for relaxation, meditation & spiritual contemplation…