The melody is the oldest complete tune we have: The Song of Seikilos. Seikilos, a Greek musician who lived 1900 years ago in present day Turkey, had the melody and lyrics engraved on his tombstone.
Ὅσον ζῇς, φαίνου,
Hoson zês, phainou,
While you live, shine,
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ·
mêden holôs su lupou;
don't suffer anything at all;
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν,
pros oligon esti to zên,
life exists only a short while,
τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
to telos ho chronos apaitei.
and time demands its toll.
If you go to Copenhagen, you can see the cylindrical tombstone. You can see the melodic notation on the bottom half over the words. (Not sure why the museum mirror imaged the cylinder.)
http://www.nationalmuseet.dk/graphic...k/seikilos.jpg
I thought it would be interesting because Seikilos didn't provide a harmony for it. The melody can be tweaked a bit because it is determined by the time it takes to sing the words, i.e. poetic rather than musical meter.
Lesson #91: Days Of Wine And Roses as played by...
Today, 06:41 AM in The Songs