DESCRIPTION:
A live performanc of "The Wisdom of Minerva" track 2 from my album, "Ode To Ancient Rome": http://bit.ly/yKJRvI Minerva was the Roman goddess of Wisdom...

This piece is a spontaneous improvisation, using the ancient percussive hammered-lyre technique, on the ancient chromatic Phrygian mode (equivalent intervals as DEFG#ABCD) This haunting musical mode can be heard in a fragment of ancient Greek dramatic music called "Techmessa's Lament".

The chromatic Phrygian mode also has ancient origins in the Middle East, where according to the work of the late Suzanne Haik Vantoura, it appears in some of the original 3000 year old music of the Hebrew Bible (the same scale miraculously survives today in examples of Jewish instrumental Klezmer music!).

The hammered lyre technique was first illustrated in the Bas Reliefs of musicians in the ruins of the palace of Nineveh (c.700BCE), which clearly show the lyre players hitting the strings of their lyres with a small wooden baton (like a hammered dulcimer).

1000 years later, this technique seems to have spread to the Mediterranean, as can be seen in the depictions of Kithara players seen in the 2nd century Paphos Mosaic, beautifully preserved in the ruins of Roman villas on Cyprus.

This percussive lyre playing technique may be the oldest technique for playing any string instrument - the Mesolithic musical bow, dating back at least 60,000 years, is still played today in Africa by the San Bushmen, by hitting the single string of an archery bow with a stick to produce a percussive musical sound...

For all details of my musical adventures in time travel, please visit:

http://www.ancientlyre.com