John Chambers wrote:
>
> The idea that the Scrolls might have contained music is enticing and
> not all that unlikely. Alphabetic musical notation isn't at all new.
> Chris Walshaw wasn't nearly the first one to come up with the idea.
> (He was likely the first one to program it, but MusicTeX was already
> around, so it was just a matter of time.) Vaguely similar text-based
> musical notation was in use in China and India many centuries ago,
> and I've seen claims that the ancient Greeks did something similar.
> Their numbers were, like the Hebrew numbers, based on using letters
> to represent numbers, with alpha=1, beta=2 and so on. Supposedly some
> of the old Greek texts had "nonsense words" written below song text,
> and those letters were really numbers representing notes in a scale.
> The oriental systems were similar. It's not all that different
> conceptually from ABC.
Not to mention that the "standard notation" of western music history
(the tadpoles we all love and hate) started off that way.
As for the Greeks - well, I've already posted tis tune at abcusers once,
but it fits in.It's the only reconstruction of music notated by the
ancient Greek ABC that I know of
Frank Nordberg
X:1291
T:Oson zes fainu
T:Drinking song (c. 100 B.C.)
C:anon.
O:Greece
B:Allorto: Antologia della storia della Musica (Milano 1959)
N:ABC transcription by Frank Nordberg - http://www.musicaviva.com
R:Drinking song
Z:Reconstructed by Ricardo Allorto
%http://www.musicaviva.com/abc/abcusers/2000.abc
%Posted June 19th 2000 at abcusers by Frank Nordberg.
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:E dorian %or rather: ancient Greek phrygian
Ae2 e3|(cde) d3|c2d e (dc)|BA2 (BG2)|
w:O-son zes fai-__nu, me den o-los_ su li-pu:_
A c e d (cd)|cA2 (BG2)|A c B d e c|AA2 (A/F/E2)||
w:pros o-li-gon es-_ti to zen_ to te-los o cro-nos a-pai tei.__
W:
W:Oson zes fainu,
W:me den olos su lipu:
W:pros oligon esti to zen
W:to telos o cronos apai tei.
%Ricardo Allorto once attempted to reconstruct this ancient Greek
drinking song from the inscription on a tombstone. It's impossible to
say if it's very authentic, but it sounds really nice in any case
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