Search - Various Artists, Early Music Workshop :: Fall of Constantinople 2: My Beloved City

So Beautiful and so Sad

02/13/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was suprised when I first listened to this album, the music is similar to Middle East and Indian Music, However, being that the songs all pertain to the fall of the Byzantine State in 1453, the songs all convey an undescribable sadness. The CD packaging explains that they are all lamentations, but at the same time, there is a deep sense of pride and optimisim in the more recent choral pieces at the end of the album, which date to the Greek indepenence movement in the 1820's. I had not been exposed to Greek Music before, although my Academic field is Byzantine Studies. Overall, I was pleasantly suprised with the Album, and would recommend it to anyone interested in the history of Greece, from the Mideval period to the present."