The world's oldest complete song

riverflow

Song of Seikilos (ca. 100 AD)

This short song is the oldest surviving complete composition, known today as the “Song of Seikilos.” The song is roughly two thousand years old. The text and music notation were engraved as an epitaph on a Greek tombstone near Ephesus (in what is modern Turkey). The tombstone reads: “I am an image in stone. Seikilos put me here, where I am forever the symbol of eternal remembrance.” It is followed by this short notated text:

Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν
τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.

As long as you live, shine:
have no grief at all
for life is short—
time will claim its toll.

It is amazing to think that this otherwise unknown human being can be “resurrected” by such a short and simple melody, hearing the same melody and words he himself had heard some two thousand years ago…



[LINK]

...just recorded this morning.

genkaku

Hard to imagine that the Hindus, whose texts, by some reckonings, stretch back to 4,500 BC, didn't have a tune or two.

riverflow

I'm sure they did, and even of ancient Greek music, there is written music older than this tune (including settings of Pindar and a chorus from Euripides!), but the best we can get today are fragments here and there. The significance of this song is that the whole song (albeit a very short one!) was found intact.

Here's another lovely rendition of the melody (with instruments):



[LINK]

Dennis1

Well, the Rig Veda has a comet siting dated to around 6,000 years BC. The Rig Veda is almost entirely complete songs. The Vedic hymns which date from this period are called hymns because they were sung. The data you present should have had "In the Western World" somewhere. Best of fortune,

lobster

As long as you live, shine:
have no grief at all
for life is short—
time will claim its toll.

Have a Nice Day, set to music . . .
. . . my sort of funeral dirge . . . :clap:

riverflow

Dennis1 said:

Well, the Rig Veda has a comet siting dated to around 6,000 years BC. The Rig Veda is almost entirely complete songs. The Vedic hymns which date from this period are called hymns because they were sung. The data you present should have had "In the Western World" somewhere. Best of fortune,

Yes, the Rig Veda may have been sung, but we no longer have the notation. The Iliad likewise also was sung, as were the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible, etc.

My point in sharing this was that this is the world's oldest SURVIVING complete song-- not a fragment, but a whole composition, as I stated quite clearly in the OP.

BhikkhuJayasara

riverflow said:

Dennis1 said:

Well, the Rig Veda has a comet siting dated to around 6,000 years BC. The Rig Veda is almost entirely complete songs. The Vedic hymns which date from this period are called hymns because they were sung. The data you present should have had "In the Western World" somewhere. Best of fortune,

Yes, the Rig Veda may have been sung, but we no longer have the notation. The Iliad likewise also was sung, as were the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible, etc.

My point in sharing this was that this is the world's oldest SURVIVING complete song-- not a fragment, but a whole composition, as I stated quite clearly in the OP.

Isn't the Rig Veda still passed down orally? I remember watching a documentary about india where they spoke about the Brahmins still passing down chants/hyms from the dawn of human civilization.

sndymorn

Thanks for sharing this River. What scale is used and is it the first scale ever notated? Does the scale of this work appear earlier in some written form (ie some older tune with no words)?
I assume it is Ionian Scale.
I have studied a bit of music theory. Enough to be dangerous as they say. Anyway, I was jogging with a friend yesterday and we spoke of the history of Rock music. I added my thoughts, but what I wanted to talk about was Klezmer and Celtic connections in the chain.... He did not know what Klesmer was and I am not schooled enough to try and make a solid connection to Rock's roots.
Anyway, it all starts with the forerunners of Seikolos.

When you posted the Seikolos, I immediately made a comparison to Neil Armstrong's first footprint on the moon. Just as all man's scientific accomplishments are represented in the dust there on the moon , so are man's musical accomplishments to that moment represented in this urn.
Wow!

riverflow

@sndymorn - no, as far as Greek music goes, there are fragments of older material, but only fragments (including a chorus from one of Euripides plays-- which sounds very peculiar). The scale here, in modern day terms would be mixolydian (basically a major scale but with a flattened 7th-- or like playing the white keys on a piano from G to G). There were other scales as well, and Plato apparently went on about some scales were "wholesome" and others not so much (Plato was a bit of a prude actually LOL).

Not as old-- but certainly very interesting-- is the notation used for honkyoku, traditional Japanese shakuhachi music originally performed by the komuso, Buddhist monks who played the flute with baskets over their heads. The notation involves written notes, but also adding improvised embellishments to the notes using poetic descriptions of nature. I understand the descriptions are purely subjective, so it can vary from one performance to the next.