Ensemble Melpomen

Home­r­ic Hym­nos to Aphrodite 6th cen­tu­ry BC

Gio­van­ni sings this song in the style of a Home­r­ic epic. It is a kind of nar­ra­tive in the con­stant rhythm of the dactyl, which is sup­port­ed here by a lyre with a cir­cu­lar accom­pa­ni­ment and a tympanum.
Instru­ments: Lyre after the Elgin lyre from around 450 BC (British Muse­um) by Chrestos Terzes, tym­pa­num of unknown origin.

Let me sing of Aphrodite, the chaste and beautiful,
She who wears a gold­en gar­land. The island of Cyprus
With its tow­ers was bestowed upon her. In sup­ple waves
She car­ried off the pow­er of Zephyr, the damp west wind.
The Horae with their gold­en circlets
Wel­comed her and wrapped her in immor­tal garments,
Crown­ing then with a won­der­ful gar­land of wrought gold
Her immor­tal head. Into the lit­tle holes in her earlobes
They put flow­ers of pre­cious gold and brass, hanging
Gold­en chains round her del­i­cate neck and shim­mer­ing breasts
Such as the Horae them­selves wear when they go
To dance with the gods, or to the house of their father Zeus.
When all was done, they endowed Aphrodite in all the splendour
Of her adorn­ments with immor­tal sta­tus. They cried “Wel­come!”
When they beheld her, offer­ing her their right hand, and each one
Of them desired to take her as his spouse. Thus did the appear­ance of
Kýthera, crowned with vio­lets, elic­it sur­prise and wonder.

Αἰδοίην χρυσοστέφανον καλὴν Ἀφροδίτην
ᾄσομαι, ἣ πάσης Κύπρου κρήδεμνα λέλογχεν
εἰναλίης, ὅθι μιν Ζεφύρου μένος ὑγρὸν ἀέντος
ἤωεικεν κατὰ κῦμα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης
ἀφρῷ ἔνι μαλακῷˑ τὴν δὲ χρυσάμπυκες Ὧραι
δέξαντ΄ ἀσπασίως, περὶ δ΄ ἄμβροτα εἵματα ἕσσαν,
κρατὶ δ΄ ἐπ΄ ἀθανάτῳ στεφάνην ἔυτυκτον ἔθηκαν
καλὴν χρυσείην, ἐν δὲ τρητοῖσι λοβοῖσιν
ἄνθεμ΄ ὀρειχάλκου χρυσοῖό τε τιμήεντος,
δειρᾖ δ΄ ἀμφ΄ ἁπαλᾖ καὶ στήθεσιν ἀργυφέοισιν
ὅρμοισι χρυσέοισιν ἐκόσμεον οἷσί περ αὐταὶ
Ὧραι κοσμείσθην χρυσάμπυκες ὁππότ΄ ἴοιεν
ἐς χορὸν ἱμεροέντα θεῶν καἱ δώματα πατρό́ς.
αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ πάντα περὶ χροῒ κόσμον ἔθηκεν
ἧγον ἐς ἀθανἀτους· οἱ δ΄ ἠσπάζοντο ἰδόντες
χερσί τ΄ ἐδεξιόωντο καὶ ἠρήσαντο ἕκαστος
εἶναι κουριδίην ἄλοχον καὶ οἴκαδ΄ ἄγεσθαι,
εἶδος θαυμάζοντες ἰοστεφάνου Κυθερείης.

Sap­pho * before 600 BC (47 LB, 50 D)

Once again, Ari­an­na’s singing embod­ies Sap­pho’s inner voice. A tym­pa­num sup­ports the force of the text.

Eros shook my heart
Like wind fly­ing down a mountain
Into oak-trees

Ἔρος δ’ ἐτίναξέ μοι φρένας,
ὠς ἄνεμος κὰτ ὄρος δρύσιν ἐμπέτων

Sap­pho * before 600 BC (102 LP 114 D)

Once again, it is Ari­an­na who lends her voice to Sap­pho. But per­haps it is rather one of her pupils at her board­ing school on Les­bos who asks her for advice on her love trou­bles as a “lit­tle moth­er”. Ari­an­na accom­pa­nies her­self here on a bar­bi­tos. There is also a dou­ble flute, which is per­haps how the Greek aulos was imag­ined in the Mid­dle Ages.
Instru­ments: sev­en-string bar­bi­tos by Lutheros, flute aulos by Paul J. Reichlin

Sweet moth­er,
I can­not indeed weave the web;
Sub­dued as I am with long­ing for a cer­tain young
Per­son on account of ten­der Aphrodite.

γλύκηα μᾶτερ, οὔτοι δύναμαι
κρέκην τὸν ἴστον πόθῳ
δάμεισα παῖδος βραδίναν
δι’ Ἀφροδίταν

Sap­pho * before 600 BC (94 D)

The vers­es of this song are prob­a­bly the most famous frag­ment by Sap­pho, who was even revered by Pla­to as the tenth muse. The few vers­es of Mona (alone) find a won­der­ful and appro­pri­ate form in Ari­an­na and her barbitos.
Instru­ment: sev­en-stringed bar­bi­tos by Lutheros.

The moon has set
And the Pleiades; it is the middle
Of the night, time goes by:
I, though, sleep alone.

Δέδυκε μὲν ἀ σελάννα καὶ Πληίαδες,
μέσαι δὲ νυ̒κτες
παρὰ δ‘ ἔρχετ‘ ὦρα,
ἔγω δὲ μόνα κατευ̒δω

Mim­n­er­mos * before 600 BC

Two kym­bala illus­trate and cir­cle the vers­es of Mim­n­er­mos, who express­es the loss of the long­ing for youth in dactylic verse. Gio­van­ni “trem­bles” as Mim­n­er­mos him­self through the painful verses.
Instru­ments: two kym­bala after orig­i­nals from Mesopotamia ca. 800 BC by Markus Uhl.

A riv­er of sweat runs down my body,
I trem­ble when I behold the flower of youth
That is so love­ly and delightful!

αὐτίκα μοι κατὰ μὲν χροιὴν ῥέει ἄσπετος ἰδρώς,
πτοιῶμαι δ‘ ἐσορῶν ἄνθος ὀμηλικίης
τερπνὸν ὁμῶς καὶ καλόν.

Anakre­on * before 570 until 495 v. Chr.

Anacre­on, in stark con­trast to many oth­er singers of his time, is con­sid­ered to be an extreme­ly cheer­ful per­son. This is also evi­dent in this poem, which sings of the joy of drink­ing. Ari­an­na and Gio­van­ni sing, Mar­tin with tam­bu­rel­lo and Con­rad with the Per­sian aulos qos­meh cre­ate a fes­tive atmos­phere that can still be found at Per­sian wed­dings today.
Instru­ments: Qos­meh from the Kur­dish-Iran­ian region of unknown ori­gin, anony­mous tamburello.

The black earth drinks,
Trees drink again earth.
The sea drinks moun­tain torrents,
The sun drinks sea,
Moon drinks the sun:
Why do you fight with me, comrades,
When I want to drink?

Ἡ γῆ μέλαινα πίνει,
πίνει δὲ δένδρε΄αὖ γῆν.
Πίνει θάλασς΄ἀναύρους,
ὁ δ΄ἥλιος θάλασσαν,
τὸν δ΄ ἥλιον σελήνη·
τί μοι μάχεσθ΄, ἑταῖροι,
καὐτῷ θέλοντι πίνειν;

Who knows: a dance for a sym­po­sium, or a dance for the return home after a drink­ing binge, a so-called komos? In the Mid­dle Ages, such a piece would prob­a­bly have been called an estampie.
Instru­ments: Flöte­nau­los by Paul J. Reich­lin, ca. 1990, tam­bu­rel­lo of Egypt­ian origin.

A short lamen­ta­tion melody.
Schil­fau­los (kalam­os) after an Egypt­ian instru­ment in the Museo egit­to in Turin by Paul J. Reich­lin, ca. 2000