| Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks |  | Artists: Ensemble De Organographia, Philip Neuman, Gayle Stuwe Neuman
Label: Pandourians
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $14.95
You Save: $4.03 (21%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 21617
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
UPC: 096436100520
EAN: 0096436100520
ASIN: B000044U1S
Release Date: May 23, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: De Organographia: Philip Neuman, Gayle Stuwe Neuman combine astute musicology, performance practice and instrument crafting in the realization of this amazing collection of music from 1950 BC to 300 AD. From the world's oldest notated music, vocal renderings are accompanied with performed lyres, kithara, pandoura, double reed pipes, flutes and other ancient instruments.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Someone finally did it right! August 4, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Someone finally managed to figure out what ancient music would have sounded like. Up until now, the majority of the attempts at reconstructing ancient music have simply been either A. BAD or B. AFFECTED. (In particular, there were some really lousy "reconstructions" done by a group in Spain.) As a student of classical Chinese music, and a linguist, I've always had an interest in what ancient Western and Middle Eastern music would have sounded like and had something to compare "reconstructions" to since classical Chinese music IS ancient music, dating from the Bronze age. (The Chinese were the one group of ancient civilizations that kept their music intact.) The Chinese scale is remarkably similar to the ancient Greek scale (Chinese scale lacks the "fa" note deliberately since Confucians thought this note drove men insane...and interestingly enough this note is necessary to write modern military music, like Sousa marches.) I've played the 21-string Guzheng for many years now and been amazed how ancient it sounds. This gives me a comparison to listen to reconstructions of Western and Middle Eastern ancient music. Up until this album, everybody else was playing the songs too slow without any emotion and trying to make their reconstructions sound like modern symphony music. Ancient music was first and foremost folk music. Even the religious music was folk music which had been codified over the years. True, in both China and Greece and Rome there were a few "symphonies" and "high-brow" compositions, but NONE of those survied in the west (and none is popular in China) since what survives is what common people (not musicologists) like. These guys nailed it. This album is definitely worth buying. (Ignore the negative comments by another reviewer which were dumb anyway.)
excellent recreation of ancient music April 25, 2006
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
this cd was all i hoped for. It is beautiful and almost seems to sweep the listener away it is so vividly done. It is steady as an ocean tide the tempos dont change drastically as in modern music but has a peaceful almost philosophical cadence to it. I highly reccomend these recordings.
Simply the Best Re-Creation of Antique Music January 25, 2006
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
This is the album by Ensemble De Organographia (Gayle Stuwe Neuman and Phlip Neuman). Probably you had heard thier CDs "Music of the Ancient Greeks" and "Carnevale! Festive Music of 16th century Italy".
Disc consists of 3 sets of Antique World music. Ancient Greek Music newly founded at Oxyrhinchus in Egypt (world premiere recording); music from ancient city Ugarit (XIII century B.C.) - Sumero-Babylonian music (including oldest notated music in the history of humankind); music of the Egyptians reconstructed after descriptions by Plutarch and Apuleius.
Ensemble De Organographia re-creates this music with such love and unerstanding of the ancient cultures, that you nearly feel the breezes of the Mediterranean sea and see the landscapes of its shores. They perform it as a music of still living folk tradition.
Of course you wouldn`t find here ancient analog of the 5th Beethoven`s symphony:)
The value of this music is that you could understand internal world and spirituality of the ancient people. It`s a miracle...
I had heard different "restorations" of the Music of the Ancient World - and this work by Ensemble De Organographia is simply the best!!! A must for the lover of the Antique culture.
And it`s hard for me to understand why works by Synaulia and Atrium Musicae De Madrid are so popular.
You could find CDs by Ensemble De Organographia on website by North Pacific Music. There you would find sound samples.
My real rate of this CD - 10 stars!!!!
You could also try CD "Music in the Age of the Pyramids" by Rafael Perez Arroyo (released in Europe by NAR). He uses coptic music as a model for reconsruction of the music of the Ancient Egypt.
 Summer February 11, 2001
1 out of 50 found this review helpful
I would love to listen a real-audio on the web to really say something about this CD, I'm sorry
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