ANCIENT LYRE MUSIC FOR MEDITATION

This album features a selection of new compositions for archaic replica lyres in

some of the most hypnotic, mesmerizing ancient Middle Eastern & ancient

Greek musical modes I have so far experimented with.

The meditative compilation album also features original compositions for some

of the beautifully reconstructed ancient Greek lyres, hand-made in modern

Greece by Luthieros Ancient & Modern Music Instruments.

Track 4, "The Tortoise Shell Lyre of Hermes", features the Luthieros replica

tortoise shell lyre - featuring an actual tortoise shell for the resonator; locally

sourced only from native land tortoises which have died of natural causes, and

whose shells are readily available to collect from local forests:

The second track, “Kithara of the Golden Age”, features their wonderful replica

Kithara of the Golden Age of Classical Greece:

In this piece, I attempt to demonstrate the reconstructed vibrato mechanism

of the ancient Greek Kithara - the favoured lyre of the professional musicians

of ancient Greece.

Over 2500 years before the invention of the 'whammy bar' of the electric

guitar, many ancient music scholars now agree that the ancient Greeks had

invented a unique spring vibrato mechanism which was incorporated into the

design of the Kithara - when light lateral pressure is applied to either of the

vertical pillars rising from the yoke or to the discs either side of the yoke, lateral

movement of the yoke and strings is achieved by the curved wooden springs

seated directly below the yoke:

Track 3, “The Barbitos Lyre of Sappho” features the replica bass register lyre

made by Luthieros, known as the Barbitos or Barbiton:

This unique lyre, with extended string length and an actual tortoise shell

resonator was often associated with the ancient Greek poet, Sappho of Lesbos:

Track 14, “Amatores (Lovers)”, originally featured on my 2013 release, “The

Ancient Roman Lyre”. This piece is in the dreamy, sensual and evocation

sounding ancient Greek Hypodorian Mode – the equivalent intervals as F-F on

the white notes of the piano (and misnamed the “Lydian” mode in the early

Middle Ages).

Track 1, “Contemplationis (Contemplation)” is also from “The Ancient Roman

Lyre”. This piece is in the intensely introspective ancient Greek Dorian Mode –

the equivalent intervals as E-E on the white notes of the piano (misnamed the

“Phrygian” mode in the early Middle Ages).

These two tracks from my album “The Ancient Roman Lyre”, as well as track

5,"Sacred Reverie”, Track 7, “The Wisdom of Minerva” (from my 2012 album

“Ode to Ancient Rome”) and track 8, "Ancient Visions" (originally from my 2010

album, “Ancient Visions – New Compositions for an Ancient Lyre”) feature the

wonderfully harp-like tone of an evocation of a 10-string ‘Davidic lyre’, hand-

made in the USA by Marini Made Harps:

http://www.marinimadeharps.com/davidic.htm

Track 15 on this meditative compilation also features the Marini lyre, in an

extended length spontaneous improvisation for harp & lyre, "Higher

Consciousness", with the talented Harpist, Rebecca Penkett. This track is

mastered with the subtle use of ambient, contemporary studio effects, in my

attempt to enhance the meditative feeling of the piece.

Track 6, “Asteriai (Nymphs of the Stars)” features another of the wonderful

lyres made by Luthieros – a large chelys (tortoise shell form) lyre, with the

resonator made in wood in the form of the tortoise shell, giving a much richer

sound than the delicate tone produced by the actual tortoise shell resonators

used in their Barbitos and smaller sized replica tortoise shell lyres:

This track originally featured in my album, “The Lyre of Hermes”.

Track 9, “Trance of the Shaman” was originally from my album “Ancient Visions

– New Compositions for an Ancient Lyre”.

This track and the remaining tracks 10 to 13 (Lost in Rapture, Inner Light,

Voyage of the Soul and Other Worlds), are in hypnotic, ancient Middle Eastern

musical modes, featuring a tenor register evocation of the 10-string Biblical

Kinnor, by Mid East Ethnic Instruments:

http://www.mid-east.com/Kinnor-Harp

The Mid East evocation of the Biblical Kinnor is based on illustrations of lyres

depicted on ancient Jewish coins from the time of the Simon Bar Kokhba

Revolt against the Roman occupation of Judea (132–136 CE):

THE TRACKS

1. Contemplationis (Contemplation)

2. Kithara of the Golden Age

3. The Barbitos Lyre of Sappho

4. The Tortoise Shell Lyre of Hermes

5. Sacred Reverie

6. Asteriai (Nymphs of the Stars)

7. The Wisdom of Minerva

8. Ancient Visions

9. Trance of the Shaman

10. Lost in Rapture

11. Inner Light

12. Voyage of the Soul

13. Other Worlds

14. Amatores (Lovers)

15. Higher Consciousness

In our increasingly soulless, manufactured musical world, it is my intention that

the 'new ancestral music' featured in this album forms sound tracks suitable

for relaxation, meditation & spiritual contemplation…