Ancient Greek Period.

     

             Ancient Greek Period

       The music of ancient Greece was almost universally present in society, from marriages and funerals to religious ceremonies, theater , folk music and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greece. There are significant fragments of actual Greek musical notation as well as many literary references to ancient Greek music, such that some things can be known or reasonably surmised about what the music sounded like, the general role of music in society, the economics of music, the importance of a professional caste of musicians, etc. Even archaeological remains reveal an abundance of depictions on ceramics, for example, of music being performed. 

       The word music comes from the Muses, the daughters of Zeus and patron goddesses of creative and intellectual endeavours.

    

         Music in Society.

     There are many such references that indicate that music was an integral part of the Greek perception of how their race had even come into existence and how their destinies continued to be watched over and controlled by the Gods. It is no wonder, then, that music was omnipresent at the Pythain games, the Olympic games, religious ceremonies, leisure activities, and even the beginnings of drama as an outgrowth of the dithyrambs performed in honor of Dionysus.Underwent a change after the traumatic fall of Athens in 404 B.C. at the end of the first Peloponnesian War. Indeed, one reads of the "revolution" in Greek culture.

         Greek Music Instruments.

-Lyre : a strummed and occasionally plucked string instrument, essentially a hand-held zither built on a tortoise-shell frame, generally with seven or more strings tuned to the notes of one of the modes.

- Kithara : also a strummed string instrument.It had a box-type frame with strings stretched from the cross-bar at the top to the sounding box at the bottom.

-Aulos :  usually double, consisting of two double-reed (like an oboe) pipes, not joined but generally played with a mouth-band to hold both pipes steadily between the player's lips.

- Pan pipes : also known as panflute and syrinx. Is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting of a series of such pipes of gradually increasing length, tuned to a desired scale. Sound is produced by blowing across the top of the open pipe

-Hydraulis : is a keyboard instrument, the forerunner of the modern organ. As the name indicates, the instrument used water to supply a constant flow of pressure to the pipes.

Hymn to the Sun - by Halaris