Gregorio Paniagua – Musique de la Grece Antique

Most of you will have this; in fact, it was posted on avax before. However, that link for these fragments (@192kbs) has been dead for ages, so I ripped my own original to lossless. Apart from that, I wanted to have the ancient section of the board, so sadly empty, to at least contain one album. Perhaps others have more ancient music. I do too, but not in lossless.

At the time I bought it I was enthralled with the originality of some of these strange fragments. Of course reasonable doubt remains whether Paniagua’s interpretation of the neumes is entirely valid, but it’s definitely better than nothing. Besides, this doubt goes for any music earlier than ca. 1200.

My personal favourites are tracks 3 and 4 – The first Delphic Hymn to Apollo and Tecmessa’s Lament respectively. Especially the latter impressed me; it’s as if the sorrow of millenia is carried by that plaintive, wailing and wavering voice…a burden of mourning from the past reaching us, and a prophesy for sadness still to come…checking my ancient Greek dictionary, I found “tekmessa” might be related to the old verb “τήκω”, which means “to grieve”. Hm. Greek visitors of this board, correct me if I’m wrong.
Tecmessa, then, was the daughter of a King killed by the Greeks who besieged Troy. She was given to Ajax as a concubine. Having lost her father and her freedom, she certainly had reason to complain. Her text may be taken from a play by either Sophocles or Aeschylos.
They could have left out the sentimental panflute, but what am I talking about. The flute is of ancient Greek or Macedonian origin, so it has every right to take up its place among the instruments presented on this album.

O, by the way - if you have a heart condition, make sure to keep the volume of your amplifyer LOW for the first four seconds or so. I'm serious. The ancient Greeks started their plays with a nerve-wrecking explosion of sound, and if it hits you unprepared…

tracks:

01. Anakrousis - Orestes Stasimo [0:03:06.50]
02. Fragments instrumentaux de Contrapollinopolis [0:01:01.50]
03. 1er Hymne Delphique à Apollon [0:04:54.25]
04. Flainte de Tecmessa [0:01:17.43]
05. Papyrus Wien 29825 [0:05:00.45]
06. Hymne au Soleil [0:01:57.45]
07. Hymne à la Muse [0:01:00.05]
08. Hymne à Némésis [0:01:37.50]
09. Papyrus Michigan [0:04:07.50]
10. Aenaoi Nefelai [0:01:27.50]
11. Epitaphe de Seikilos [0:01:53.50]
12. Pean - Papyrus Berlin 6870 [0:01:48.37]
13. Anonymi Bellermann [0:04:13.00]
14. 1er Ode Pythique [0:01:35.00]
15. Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2436 [0:01:12.13]
16. Hymne Chrétienne d'Oxyrhynchus [0:01:31.62]
17. Homero Hymnus [0:00:30.00]
18. Papyrus Zenon - Cairon Fragment [0:00:51.05]
19. Terencio - Hecyra 861 [0:00:27.08]
20. Poem Mor 1, 11f. Mighe 37,523 [0:00:39.32]
21. 2e Hymne Delphique à Apollon [0:07:14.60]
22. Papyrus Oslo A/B Epilogos-Katastrophe [0:05:06.20]

Performers:

Atrium Musicae de Madrid - Gregorio Paniagua