The Seikilos epitaph is an Ancient Greek inscription that preserves the oldest surviving complete musical composition, including musical notation.[1][2][3] Commonly dated between the 1st and 2nd century AD, the inscription was found engraved on a pillar (stele) from the ancient Hellenistic town of Tralles (present-day Turkey) in 1883. The stele includes two poems; an elegiac distich and a song with vocal notation signs above the words.[4][5] A Hellenistic Ionic song, it is either in the Phrygian octave species or Ionian (Iastian) tonos. The melody of the song is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in ancient Greek musical notation. While older music with notation exists (e.g. the Hurrian songs, or the Delphic Hymns), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition.[6]
Seikilos epitaph | |
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![]() Seikilos stele with poetry and musical notation | |
Type | Stele |
Material | Marble |
Writing | Koine Greek |
Created | c. 1st or 2nd century AD, Tralles, Asia Minor |
Discovered | 1883 |
Discovered by | W. M. Ramsay |
Present location | National Museum of Denmark |
Based on its structure and language, the artifact is generally understood to have been an epitaph (a tombstone inscription) created by a man named Seikilos and possibly dedicated to a woman named Euterpe. An alternative view, put forward by Armand D'Angour, holds that the inscription does not mark a tomb, but was instead a monument erected by Seikilos himself to commemorate his musical and poetic skill.[7]
Inscription
editDistich
editThe elegiac distich (also called couplet) on top of the tombstone, originally in all-capitals, precedes the song and reads:[7]
Ε Ι Κ Ω Ν Η ΛΙΘΟΣ / ΕΙΜΙ ∙Τ Ι Θ Η Σ Ι Μ Ε / ΣΕΙΚΙΛΟΣΕ Ν Θ Α / ΜΝΗΜΗΣ ΑΘΑΝΑΤΟΥ / ΣΗΜΑ ΠΟΛΥΧΡΟΝΙΟΝ
Ε ἰκ ὼν ἡ λίθοςε ἰμί. τίθησίμ ε Σεικίλος ἔν θ α μνήμης ἀθανάτουσ ῆμ α πολυχρόνιον.[8]
eikṑn ḗ líthos eimí. títhēsí me Seikílos éntha mnḗmēs athanátou sêma polykhrónion.
In English it translates as: "I, the stone, am an image and Seikilos places me here (to be) a long-lasting monument to immortal memory" per Landels (2002).[4][9] D’Angour (2021) maintains that the translation of the letter "
Epitaph
editBelow the distich follows a brief poem, also in all-capitals, with vocal notation signs above the words. The text, here excluding the musical notations (followed below by the polytonic script[8] and Latin transliteration[10]), reads:
Ο Σ Ο Ν Ζ Η Σ ΦΑΙΝΟΥ / ΜΗΔΕΝΟ Λ Ω Σ Σ Υ / ΛΥΠΟΥΠ Ρ Ο Σ Ο Λ Ι /Γ Ο Ν Ε Σ Τ Ι Τ Ο Ζ Η Ν /Τ Ο Τ Ε Λ Ο Σ Ο Χ Ρ Ο /Ν Ο Σ ΑΠΑΙΤΕΙ
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In English the poem translates as: "As long as you're alive, shine, don't be sad at all; life is short, time asks for its due" per Rohland (2022).[11] Landels (2002) provides a similar, slightly freer, translation: "As long as you live, let the world see you, and don't make yourself miserable; life is short, and Time demands his due".[4]
Dedication
editBefore the last line was ground off so Mrs. Purser (the wife of the discoverer) could use the stele as a flowerpot stand, the dedication read:
ΣΕΙΚΙΛΟΣ
Ε Υ Τ Ε Ρ
[...]Ζ Ε Ι [...]
The verb '
Σεικίλος
Ε ὐτέρ[π ῃ]
Seikílos Eutér[pēi]
meaning "Seikilos to Euterpe"; hence, according to this reconstruction, the tombstone and the epigrams thereon were dedicated by Seikilos to a woman named Euterpe, who was possibly his wife.[1] Alternatively, the inscription references Euterpe, the Muse of lyric poetry and music in Greek mythology, as a way to emphasize Seikilos' poetic skill.[12] Another possible partial reconstruction could be:
Σεικίλος
Ε ὐτέρ[π ο υ ]
Seikílos Eutér[pou]
meaning "Seikilos of Euterpes", i.e. "Seikilos, son of Euterpes".[13][14]
Word accent
editA German scholar Otto Crusius in 1893, shortly after the publication of this inscription, was the first to observe that the music of this song as well as that of the hymns of Mesomedes tends to follow the pitch of the word accents.[15] The publication of the two Delphic hymns in the same year confirmed this tendency. Thus in this epitaph, in most of the words, the accented syllable is higher in pitch than the syllable which follows; and the circumflex accents in
One word which does not conform is the first word ὅ
Another apparently anomalous word is ἐ
Melody
editTranscription
editThe inscription above each line of the lyrics (transcribed here in polytonic script), consists of letters and signs indicating the melody of the song:[20]
Scholarly views
editAlthough the transcription of the melody is unproblematic, there is some disagreement about the nature of the melodic material itself. There are no modulations, and the notation is clearly in the diatonic genus, but while it is described by Thomas J. Mathiesen and Jon Solomon on the one hand as being clearly in the diatonic Iastian tonos,[21] Mathiesen also says it would "fit perfectly" within Ptolemy's Phrygian tonos,[22] since, according to Jon Solomon, the arrangement of the tones (1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 [ascending]) "is that of the Phrygian species" according to Cleonides.[23] The overall note series is alternatively described by Egert Pöhlmann and Martin Litchfield West as corresponding "to a segment from the Ionian scale".[24] R. P. Winnington-Ingram says "The scale employed is the diatonic octave from e to e (in two sharps). The tonic seems to be a; the cadence is a f♯ e. This piece is … [in] Phrygic (the D mode) with its tonic in the same relative position as that of the Doric."[6] Yet Claude Palisca explains that the difficulty lies in the fact that "the harmoniai had no finals, dominants, or internal relationships that would establish a hierarchy of tensions and points of rest, although the mese ('middle note') may have had a gravitational function". Although the epitaph's melody is "clearly structured around a single octave, … the melody emphasizes the mese by position … rather than the mese by function".[25] Moreover, Charles Cosgrove, building on West, shows that although the notes correspond to the Phrygian octave species, analyzing the song on the assumption that its orientation notes are the standing notes of a set of disjunct tetrachords forming the Phrygian octave species does not sufficiently illumine the melody's tonal structure. The song's pitch centers (notes of emphasis according to frequency, duration, and placement) are, in Greek notational nomenclature, C and Z, which correspond to G and D if the scale is mapped on the white keys of the piano (A and E in the "two sharps" transcription above). [26] These two pitches are mese and nete diezeugmenon of the octave species, but the two other standing notes of that scale's tetrachords (hypate and paramese) do not come into play in significant ways as pitch centers, whether individually or together in intervals forming fourths. The melody is dominated by fifths and thirds; and although the piece ends on hypate, that is the only occurrence of this note. This instance of hypate probably derives its suitability as a final by virtue of being "the same," through octave equivalency, as nete diezeugmenon, the pitch center Z.[27]
Stigmai
editThe musical notation has certain dots above it, called stigmai (στιγμαί), singular stigmē (στιγμή), which are also found in certain other fragments of Greek music, such as the fragment from Euripides' Orestes. The meaning of these is still uncertain. According to an ancient source (known as the Anonymus Bellermanni), they represent an 'arsis', which has been taken to mean a kind of 'upbeat' ('arsis' means 'raising' in Greek);[28] Armand D'Angour argues, however, that this does not rule out the possibility of a dynamic stress.[29] Another view, by Solomon, is that the stigmai "signify a rhythmical emphasis".[30] According to Mathiesen,
The meaning of the stigme has been debated for years by scholars. Is it an ictus mark, does it indicate stress, does it show arsis or thesis, and which part of the foot ought to be called arsis?[31]
A stigme appears on all the syllables of the second half of each bar as it is printed above (for example on ὅλως, -
Dating
editThe find has been variously dated, but the first or second century AD is the most probable guess. One authority states that on grounds of paleography the inscription can be "securely dated to the first century C.E.",[33] while on the same basis (the use of swallow-tail serifs, the almost triangular
Discovery and exhibition
editThe Epitaph was discovered in 1883 by Sir W. M. Ramsay in Tralleis, a small town near Aydın, Turkey. According to one source the stele was then lost and rediscovered in Smyrna in 1922, at about the end of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922.[4] According to another source the stele, having first been discovered during the building of the railway next to Aydın, had first remained in the possession of the building firm's director, Edward Purser, where Ramsay found and published about it; in about 1893, as it "was broken at the bottom, its base was sawn off straight so that it could stand and serve as a pedestal for Mrs Purser's flowerpots"; this caused the loss of one line of text, i.e., while the stele would now stand upright, the grinding had obliterated the last line of the inscription. The stele next passed to Edward Purser's son-in-law, Mr Young, who kept it in Buca, Smyrna. It remained there until the defeat of the Greeks, having been taken by the Dutch Consul for safe keeping during the war; the Consul's son-in-law later brought it by way of Constantinople and Stockholm to The Hague; it remained there until 1966, when it was acquired by the Department of Antiquities of the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. This is where the stele has been located since (inventory number: 14897).[24]
Alternative rhythmization
editA possible alternative way of rhythmizing the Seikilos song, in order to preserve the iambic ('rising', di-dum) feel of the rhythm, was suggested by Armand D'Angour, with the barlines displaced one quaver to the right, as in the following transcription:[35][36]
Stefan Hagel, discussing an example in the Anonymus Bellermanni, suggests the possibility of a similar transcription with displaced barlines of a line of music with this same rhythm.[37] His hypothesis is based on an assumption about ancient rhythmical theory and practice, namely that "the regular iambic environment precluded accented shorts altogether; in other words, the accent of the iambic foot fell on its long".[37]
However, Tosca Lynch argues that this assumption is contradicted by ancient rhythmical theory and practice.[38] She notes that the song in its conventional transcription corresponds to the rhythm referred to by ancient Greek rhythmicians as an "iambic dactyl" (δάκτυλος
Popular culture
editFor the 1951 film Quo Vadis, Miklós Rózsa drew inspiration from Ancient Greco-Roman music and instruments. Nero (Peter Ustinov) is shown composing and singing a melody based in the Seikilos epitaph. The English lyrics however are by H. Gray.[40]
The melody has been featured in the video game soundtracks for both Civilization VI[41] and Minecraft in the Greek Mythology Mash-Up Pack DLC.[42]
Footnotes
editNotes
edit- ^ For the accentuation, see below.
Citations
edit- ^ a b Randel 2003, pp. 361, 767.
- ^ Pilch 2011, p. 78.
- ^ Hauser, Tomal & Rajan 2017, p. 2.
- ^ a b c d Landels 2002, p. 252.
- ^ a b Pöhlmann and West 2001, p. 91.
- ^ a b Winnington-Ingram 1929, p. 343.
- ^ a b c d e D’Angour 2021, Interpreting the stone.
- ^ a b Rohland 2022, p. 1.
- ^ See also Rohland 2022, p. 2
- ^ D’Angour 2021, Words and music.
- ^ Rohland 2022, p. 2.
- ^ D’Angour 2021, Conclusion.
- ^ Pöhlmann and West 2001, p. 91
- ^ Pilch 2011, p. 79.
- ^ Cosgrove and Meyer 2006, pp. 66, 75.
- ^ Probert 2003, p. 5.
- ^ Cosgrove and Meyer 2006, p. 75.
- ^ Probert 2003, p. 144.
- ^ Cf. Devine & Stephens 1994, p. 221, supporting ἔ
σ τ ι . - ^ Pöhlmann and West 2001, p. 88; Mathiesen 1999, p. 149
- ^ Mathiesen 1999, p. 150; Solomon 1986, p. 459.
- ^ Mathiesen 1999, p. 150.
- ^ Solomon 1986, p. 461, n14.
- ^ a b Pöhlmann and West 2001, p. 90.
- ^ Palisca 2006, pp. 77–78.
- ^ Cosgrove 2011, pp. 88, 187.
- ^ Cosgrove 2011, pp. 187, 168, n48.
- ^ Hagel 2008, 126.
- ^ D'Angour 2018, 63.
- ^ Solomon, J. "Orestes 344–45: Colometry and Music".
- ^ Mathiesen 1981, 27.
- ^ Hagel 2008, pp. 127–28.
- ^ Mathiesen 1999, p. 148.
- ^ Pöhlmann and West 2001, p. 88.
- ^ D'Angour 2018, pp. 70–71.
- ^ Mathiesen 1985, p. 177, similarly suggests that the theses were placed on the long syllables of the song.
- ^ a b Hagel 2008, p. 128.
- ^ Lynch 2020, pp. 275–295.
- ^ Lynch 2020.
- ^ Vendries, Christophe (29 April 2015). "La musique de la Rome antique dans le péplum hollywoodien (1951-1963)". Mélanges de l'École française de Rome - Antiquité (in French) (127–1). doi:10.4000/mefra.2791. ISSN 0223-5102. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
- ^ Civ 6 Greek Pericles&Gorgo Theme music FULL, retrieved 2023-04-18
- ^ Seikilos' Epitaph, retrieved 2023-05-17
Sources
edit- Cosgrove, Charles H., and Mary C. Meyer. 2006. "Melody and Word Accent Relationships in Ancient Greek Musical Documents: The Pitch Height Rule". The Journal of Hellenic Studies 126:68–81.
- Cosgrove, Charles. 2011. An Ancient Christian Hymn with Musical Notation: Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1786: Text and Commentary. Heidelberg: Mohr Siebeck Verlag. ISBN 978-3-16-150923-0
- D'Angour, Armand. 2018. "The Song of Seikilos". In: Tom Phillips and Armand D'Angour (eds). Music, Text, and Culture in Ancient Greece. Oxford University Press ISBN 978-0-19-879446-2, pp. 64–72.
- D’Angour, Armand (2021). "The Song of Seikilos: a Musically Notated Ancient Greek Poem". antigonejournal.com.
- Devine, A.M., and Laurence D. Stephens. 1994. The Prosody of Greek Speech. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508546-4, ISBN 978-0-19-537335-6.
- Hagel, Stefan. 2008. "Ancient Greek Rhythm: The Bellermann Exercises". Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, New Series, 88, no. 1:125–38.
- Hauser, Christian; Tomal, Daniel; Rajan, Rekha (2017). Songwriting: Strategies for Musical Self-Expression and Creativity. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4758-2942-6.
- Landels, John (2002). Music in Ancient Greece and Rome. Routledge. ISBN 1134704879.
- Lynch, Tosca A.C. 2020. "Rhythmics". In Lynch, T. and Rocconi, E. (eds.), A Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Music, Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Mathiesen, Thomas J. 1981. "New Fragments of Ancient Greek Music". Music Theory Spectrum 7:159–80.
- Mathiesen, Thomas J. 1985. "Rhythm and Meter in Ancient Greek Music". Acta Musicologica, Vol. 53, Fasc. 1, pp. 14-32. doi:10.1525/mts.1985.7.1.02a00090
- Mathiesen, Thomas J. 1999. Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
- Palisca, Claude V. 2006. Music and Ideas in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Studies in the History of Music Theory and Literature 1. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-03156-4.
- Pilch, John (2011). Flights of the Soul, Visions, Heavenly Journeys, and Peak Experiences in the Biblical World. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 9780802865403.
- Pöhlmann, Egert, and Martin Litchfield West. 2001. Documents of Ancient Greek Music: The Extant Melodies and Fragments. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-815223-1.
- Probert, Philomen. 2003. A New Short Guide the Accentuation of Ancient Greek. Bristol Classical Press.
- Randel, Don Michael, ed. (2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music (4th ed.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674011632.
- Rohland, Robert (2022). Carpe Diem, The Poetics of Presence in Greek and Latin Literature. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316510827.
- Solomon, Jon D. 1986. "The Seikilos Inscription: A Theoretical Analysis". American Journal of Philology 107 (Winter): 455–79.
- Winnington-Ingram, Reginald P. 1929. "Ancient Greek Music: A Survey". Music & Letters 10, No. 4 (October): 326–45. JSTOR 726126
External links
edit- Seikilos Epitaph: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- "Skolion of Seikilos", The Session.
- RM recording of the Seikilos song, text accompanied by lyre (download)
- Arrangement for organ of the Seikilos song (video and score)
- Another version of the song for lyre and voice recorded for Classic FM