The premiere Byzantine episode of the Komodo Dragon Show features fanciful recreations of unheard music, along with chant of the Greek Catholic Melkite Church. That's this Wednesday from 8-11am CT on 101.5 in Winnipeg and http://www.umfm.com/listenonline/ in the stream.
Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:30am
Gregorio Paniagua - director, Atrium Musicae de Madrid
Harmonia mundi, HMA 1901015
52:39
(Dig that anacrusis, surely a friend of Agnes Day and Gloria Mundy. Ancient Greek music reconstructed from "scattered fragments of still existing papyrus." Marble columns, too. "Performing the ancient compositions also meant the reconstruction of an arsenal of ancient instruments." The Atrium Musicae subsequently disbanded.)
2. Traditional: What Do You Want, Death? (pre-Byzantine, before 4th century)
3:42
3. Traditional: Lament by the Dead (pre-Byzantine)
4:01
4. First Stasimon from Euripedes' Tragedy Orestes (c. 408 BCE)
3:35
5. Traditional: As Many Leaves As a Tree Has (pre-Byzantine)
9:24
Tracks 2-5
Christodoulos Halaris - researcher, orchestrator & conductor,
OP & PO Orchestra
Hellenic Elegies Vol.1: Antiquity, Middle-Ages, Post-Byzantine Period
Orata, ORM 4012
(Ancient Greek laments, "funeral odes (or songs) that were included in the ritual of the burial of the dead.")
Set #2 - 9:30am - 11:00am
6. Passion & Resurrection (rec. 1989)
Chant Byzantin
Harmonia mundi, HMX 2908063
51:25
(A telescoped presentation of Holy Week in the Melkite Church, sung in Arabic and Greek. My sense is that these selections are a little "theatricalized," more performance-oriented than worship-oriented.)
15:42
("This excellent work either is composed in support of a ballet performance or inspired by theatrical music." Not everyone agrees: "[O]bscene music... used on the stage." A strip-club music equivalent.)
8. Ioannis Koukouzelis: "Voulgarikon": A Musical Work Bulgarian Style (14th century)
3:35
(How they do it in Sofia. A work in the "Bulgarian" style,
reflective of the cosmopolitanism of the Byzantine Empire.)
Tracks 7-8
Christodoulos Halaris - researcher, orchestrator & conductor, OP & PO Orchestra
Byzantine Maïstores: Ioannis Koukouzelis Vol.1
Orata, BMKOUK 001
(I always thought that Koukouzelis, the saint-composer's surname, was an onomatopoeia of the avian kind, referring to a bird with reprehensible child-rearing methods, but apparently he was named after his answer to the question: What have you eaten today? Answer: κουκία καί ζέλία (beans 'n peas).
This last part is an Academic Show-n-Tell. We are a university after all. Reconstructing music from ancient fragments requires faithfulness to the primary sources, but not too much: Otherwise it's a dry exercise in painting by numbers. Here we have two interpretations of the same choral song from Euripedes' play Orestes.)
9. Anakrousis. Orestes Stasimo (c. 408 BCE)
Gregorio Paniagua - director, Atrium Musicae de Madrid
Musique de la Grèce antique
Harmonia mundi, HMA 1901015
3:06
(That burst of noise is the anacrusis, a sonic reset that clears the stage for the music to follow.)
10. First Stasimon from Euripedes' Tragedy Orestes (c. 408 BCE)
Christodoulos Halaris - researcher, orchestrator & conductor,
OP & PO Orchestra
Hellenic Elegies Vol.1: Antiquity, Middle-Ages, Post-Byzantine Period
Orata, ORM 4012
3:35
(Epitaph for Seikolos is the oldest extant, complete, notated musical composition, dating from around 200 BCE-100 CE.)
11. Epitaphe de Seikilos (200 BCE-100 CE)
Gregorio Paniagua - director, Atrium Musicae de Madrid
Musique de la Grèce antique
Harmonia mundi, HMA 1901015
1:51
(Paniagua is partial to a leaner sound, with silences standing in as the "mortar" holding fragments together.)
12. Seikylus' Epitaph (200 BCE-100 CE)
Christodoulos Halaris - researcher, orchestrator & conductor,
OP & PO Orchestra
Hellenic Elegies Vol.1: Antiquity, Middle-Ages, Post-Byzantine Period
Orata, ORM 4012
2:09
(Halaris prefers a continuous, thicker texture. And that plodding, out-of-tune bass zither(?) makes his orchestra feel like a raucous pre-Byzantine pick-up band.)
13. Jack Walrath: Epitaph for Seikolos (rec. 25-26 June 1992)
Jack Walrath - trumpet, Larry Willis - piano
Portraits in Ivory & Brass
Mapleshade Productions, 02032
4:25
Portraits in Ivory & Brass
Mapleshade Productions, 02032
4:25
(With the knocks and resonance inside the piano, Walrath's realization evokes something of the ancient mysteries.)
Where to buy CDs featured on today's show:
Musique de la Grèce antique - CD Universe
Hellenic Elegies Vol.1 - CDBaby
Chant Byzantin - CD Universe
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