Concert at Musée Adolf Michaelis, Strasbourg

https://www.facebook.com/museemichaelis/posts/1514763831997686?__tn__=-R

Recital at the Musée Adolf Michaelis - Strasbourg

https://amamstrasbourg.org/2019/10/22/voyage-au-coeur-de-la-musique-grecque-antique/

My work on Ancient Greek Music

                                             

There is a large amount of information about the structure of Ancient Greek music based on scientific research.
My occupation with Ancient Greek Music – as a composer and classical guitar player – is based on this scientific work, on the saved Ancient Greek melodies, which are preserved with their verse on papyruses or inscriptions and on my personal perception of the aesthetics of the music of Ancient Greece as this results from the observation of other art forms of this period of time (monuments, pediments, statues, figurines, pottery paintings etc.).
The fact that I was born and grown up under the light of the Parthenon, at the site of the archeological excavations, where nowadays the new Acropolis Museum in Athens is located, had a significant impact on my artistic work and created my need for the recomposition of the saved ancient melodies as a complete musical work. In this way, such as the visitor of a museum has the opportunity to have a complete idea of an ancient statue after the artificial addition of parts which were missing by its discovery, the modern auditor can listen to the saved melodies, which have been harmonized in the style of the period of Ancient Greece and completed as to the missing musical notes, with an approach that combines scientific knowledge of Ancient Greek music with artistic freedom.
Within the context of this musical journey, I have harmonized and arranged for classical guitar saved ancient Greek melodies, the duration of which allows them to be considered as complete musical pieces and I have also composed music based on the ancient melodies of shorter duration where I developed their music idea using the scales, rhythms and the harmony of that era. So, the auditor can listen to the “Epitaph of Seikilos”, which is the oldest melody completely saved with its verse in the world, dates back to about 200 BC - 100 AD and is engraved on a tombstone exhibited in the Copenhagen Museum. The auditor can also listen to the Delphic Hymns “Pean of Athenaeus” and “Pean of Limenius” (composed in the 127 BC and exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Delphi), the music works of Mesomedes “Invocation to Calliope and Apollo”, the “Hymn to Helios” and the “Hymn to Nemesis” (2nd century AD) and the “Invocation to the Muse”. To this program of Ancient Greek music I have also included two own compositions based on the compositional style of the music of Ancient Greece.
                                                                                                                         Nektarios Garantzotis