Song of Seikilos

Song of Seikilos - student project

The Song of Seikilos

The most moving piece I was able to listen to in this class was probably the “Song of Seikilos”. Even though I personally would listen to a song because of its harmony, the history and the circumstances of the song turned listening to it into a unique experience. It is the oldest piece of music we were able to enjoy in this course and the experience of listening to a song older than two millennia created a mixture of feelings. Despite the essential meaning of music being different to ours, the need to communicate and to work through life events was able to shine throughout the piece.

Compared to Hildegard von Bingen, we know close to nothing about Seikilos besides the purpose of his song, However, because he was able to compose, he was probably also able to accompany himself on the lyra and because he was able to bury his wife in such a timeless manner would lead to the assumption he was a member of the upper class of Ancient Greek society. Due to composing the song we could also assume that he had a loving marriage with his wife who was precious enough to him to write a song about after her passing. Since we only know the translated lyrics of the song and nothing about how complex the melody was for Ancient Greek standards, it is hard to guess Seikilos’ age or experience as a composer. Nonetheless it talks rather maturely about the experience of loss and grief which leads me to believe Seikilos was an older gentleman, probably enjoying music and therefore a rather experienced composer in that sense.

As mentioned before, harmony in the sense it is used in today can’t be found in the song, however the simple melody and the notes paint a picture of grief and a happy life that has ended, maybe with gratefulness for the shared experiences and moments. It honestly hadn’t occurred to me before, that things like polyphony and modes had only existed for a couple of hundred years and had not been something ingrained into the human brain from the beginning of time. That it wasn’t something that we’d do somehow intuitively. Therefore, I can’t say that the harmony or the melody of the song are the most appealing parts of the song, actually, I only started genuinely liking the class pieces from Hildegard von Bingen onwards since it was the first time we could actually hear a melody and some kind of harmony close to our modern definitions.

Even though the music may sound foreign and even rather boring to our ears, the history is probably the most impressive part when listening to the composition. The Ancient Greeks lived more than two millennia before our time in such a complex society in which they discovered and developed a great variety of things and still had the desire to communicate about such humane things as losing a loved one. In the end being able to empathize with someone who lived more than 2000 years ago makes the piece so moving.