Search - Synaulia :: Synaulia - Music from Ancient Rome, Vol. 1: Wind Instruments

Ancient Rome Lives again in the spirit of this music!

Octavius | 08/10/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No one really knows what the hit songs were in 235 A.D. but old traditional goat hearder songs & ancient religious folk chants still persist that have roots from Roman Times. Match that with instruments reconstructed from Roman paintings & sculptures and you get a sound so ethnic and exotic not just in location, but exotic in time. The CD is comes in an extensive & beautifully illustrated booklet on Roman music & instruments. It's not a corny Hollywoodish remake, instead it's unexpected and definately Roman feeling! The Trumpets with Tympanum and the Oracle chants are my favorite!"

Excellent 'reproduction'

Sergey Lenkov | 10/26/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although difficult to imagine that the 'scores' were completely authentic (in that the actual 'sheet' music does not survive), the carefull thought into the 'probabilities' of the actual scoring allows one to 'believe' in the reproduction. To those of us who don't really look for that sort of thing, this album provides just what we are after...the SOUND of Ancient Rome! It takes very little imagination to transport oneself to those times by listening to this marvelous CD."

Some New Modern Music From the Ancient Rome

Sergey Lenkov | Mother Russia | 04/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is CD-hypothesis. You would hear the modern "newly imagined" music written mainly by Walter Maioli for Ancient Roman instruments. You would hear the sounds of the antique music, not the music from the Roman sources itself. And the music performed by Syanaulia on this CD is very lively, interesting, theatrical, visible, so you would start to believe that this music is really authentic. It would help you to understand the spirit of the Pax Romana (Peaceful Universe of the Roman Empire). Beautiful booklet with the colour illustrations is included with this CD. So as a modern art form this record is very impressive. Well, it is a kind of fantasy music, but it gives you 3D vision of Roman Empire. Second CD by Synaulia with the music for strings is less interesting - this record sounds more fresh and emotional.

But it wouldn`t satisfy your hunger for the real music of the Antiquity. I highly recommend you CDs by ENSEMBLE DE ORGANOGRAPHIA "Music of the Ancient Greeks", "Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks"!!!



Also try other CD with modern "newly imagined" music in Ancient Greek style -"Melpomen" by Conrad Steinmann and Schola Cantorum Basilensis.

Try also European CDs with the music from the Greek and Roman sources (I think that Ensemble De Organographia - the best performers of this music, but to compare different approaches to Antique music is also very interesting):

Ensemble Kerylos and Annie Belis "Ancient Greek Music" (label K 617);

Musica Romana "Mesomedes" (maxi-single with the music by Mesomedes of Crete) and "Symphonia Panica" (label Emmuty Records; these CDs available only directly from this label).

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