The Ancient Greek Kithara Peter Pringle 2015-10-26 | The instrument in this video is a reproduction of the ancient Greek 'kithara' and it was made by Greek master luthier Anastasios Koumartzis of LUTHIEROS MUSIC INSTRUMENTS. The strings on the instrument are of 100% pure silk, which is closest in tone and response to the gut strings of the ancient Greeks. The more time I spend with this kithara, the more I discover about it. I am beginning to understand why the kithara players of the Golden Age (500 B.C.) were considered rock stars!
SEVEN DAYS SINCE I LAST SAW MY LOVE Peter Pringle 2023-11-24 | There are dozens of ancient Egyptian songs and hymns for which we have the words, but not the music. Unfortunately, the ancient Egyptians did not have a formal system of notation so we can only guess at what the melodies for the songs might have been. We do know, however, quite a lot about the instruments they had because many of them have survived, while others can be seen illustrated on the walls of tombs and temples.I built the harp you see in this video several years ago, made a couple of videos with it, and then moved on to other things. I recently decided to dust it off and play it again. It is what is called an “arched harp”, known to the ancient Egyptians as a “djedjet”. Unlike modern harps, these instruments were C-shaped, and did not have a front supporting pillar. The words of the song in this video are taken from the seventh song of a set of love songs written on papyrus scrolls in the Egyptian language of the New Kingdom about 3,500 years ago. The scrolls are part of the Chester Beatty collection, and are currently housed in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. The temple you see at the beginning of the video is that of the goddess Hathor in Dendera, Egypt. Hathor was one of the most popular and widely worshipped deities of ancient Egypt. She had the facial features of a cow and the body of a woman. She was recognized as the goddess of love, beauty, fertility and music, as well as the protector of women.
ENKIDU And The Woman SHAMKAT Peter Pringle 2023-06-24 | This is one of my favorite episodes from the Babylonian EPIC OF GILGAMESH. I think it needs to be pointed out that the story of Gilgamesh originated in Sumer, and we do have cuneiform tablets of parts of it in Sumerian, but most of what we know comes from cuneiform tablets written much later in Akkadian and Old Babylonian. These are Semitic languages (related to modern Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic and Ethiopic, among others) and they are quite different from Sumerian which is a “language isolate” unrelated to any known tongue. In this particular video, I am singing parts of the Babylonian EPIC OF GILGAMESH in Old Babylonian, although the story itself comes to us from ancient Sumer.The hero Enkidu, who had been raised in the wild and lived his life with animals, meets a woman for the first time. What follows is not difficult to imagine. According to the cuneiform tablets, the two of them made love non-stop for one whole week, during which time Enkidu “remains erect”. Something the medical profession today would undoubtedly consider a medical emergency!After their marathon love-making session, the woman introduces Enkidu to the delights of civilization. Since Enkidu had never worn clothes, she takes off her own clothes, divides them into two parts, puts one part on herself and dresses Enkidu in the other part. She then offers to take Enkidu into the great city of Uruk, and this is where he will later meet Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk. Traditional translations of the Babylonian cuneiform tablets refer to the woman as a “harlot”. This is a rather outdated and quaint word for a “fallen woman”, which does not at all describe the individual I call “Shamkat”. The English language does not have a word to describe this woman that does not carry all sorts of negative and highly judgmental connotations. The fact is, she must have been quite an amazing creature! Had it not been for her, Enkidu would never have become the hero, adventurer, and companion of Gilgamesh that he eventually became.It is worth noting, for those who are unfamiliar with the Epic, that when Gilgamesh and Enkidu finally meet, they get into a massive fight that busts up half the city of Uruk. That is another chapter of the story I would love to do sometime. I used two musical instruments in this video, both of them Anatolian. The main instrument is the Turkish long-neck lute known as the saz (or baglama), and the other is the double reed wind instrument known as the “zurna”. Both the saz and the zurna are similar to the ancient instruments of Anatolia and Mesopotamia, and they have changed very little in 5000 years. Unfortunately, although I do play the zurna, it’s not possible to play any wind instrument and sing at the same time. What I have done is to sample the instrument, and use it as a drone which I can control, in performance, with a foot pedal keyboard. There are no overdubs, pre-records, or add-ons in this video. It was all performed live, just as you see it. I would like to thank Andrew George, Professor Emeritus of Babylonian at the University of London. His extraordinary work on the Babylonian Epic Of Gilgamesh is, for me, an endless source of inspiration.
Namárië - Galadriels Lament - J.R.R. Tolkien Peter Pringle 2023-05-28 | This is a song that I posted a few years ago, but it was taken down because of a copyright dispute. I didn’t think my performance was particularly good, so I made no attempt to settle the dispute or to put the video back up on YouTube. In the intervening years I have received a couple of hundred inquiries from people wondering what happened to the video, and asking me to put it back. Since the dispute is resolved I have just re-uploaded the video.The instrument I am playing is called “l’orgue de cristal” (French for ‘the crystal organ’). It was originally invented by the German scientist and musician, Ernst Chladni (1756 - 1827) and since the 18th century it has undergone all sorts of modifications and alterations. The principle, however, remains the same.The instrument produces a huge volume of very intense sound, and one of the objections I have to this performance is that a lot of sound leaks into the vocal microphone and IMO things tend to get acoustically “mushy”. There doesn’t seem to be any way around this if you are going to play “l’orgue de cristal” and sing at the same time.Anyway, for all you Tolkien fans, here is my version of “Namárië”, which means “farewell” in the Elvish language known as “Quenya”.
THE EXALTATION OF INANNA in Sumerian Peter Pringle 2023-03-02 | THE EXALTATION OF INANNA was written in Sumerian by the daughter of Sargon The Great, the High Priestess of Inanna in the city of Ur, a woman by the name of Enheduanna. What you hear in this video, are the first twelve lines of the EXALTATION, sung in Sumerian, and accompanied on a scale replica of the remarkable “Gold Lyre of Ur”, discovered in the 1920’s by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley.Enheduanna was born more than 4,000 years ago, and she is the first named author of a literary work that we know of. Her writings and her history are well documented on the internet, and if you are interested in learning more about her, I refer you to a wonderful website called “enheduana ‘dot’ net”.The “Gold Lyre of Ur”, which I play in the video, is a drone instrument whose lowest note is the same as the lowest note on a concert piano keyboard (A-0 or 27.500 Hz). These large Sumerian lyres were not appropriate for playing melodies, and according to ancient Sumerian writers, the sound of them was like the “roaring of bulls”! The instrument is highly resonant, and there are overtones that exist within it that add unusual effects to the timbre. I tried to get rid of some of these overtones, but they seem to be a built-in part of the instrument.There are 153 lines in the EXALTATION OF INANNA. I sang only the first 12 lines in this video (with no repetition) and that took me six minutes. At that rate, it would probably take about one and a half hours, give or take, to sing the entire work. By comparison, Handel’s MESSIAH is about two and a half hours, and much of the text is repeated. The smaller “Silver Lyre” which you see next to me in the video, is the cow-headed “mate” of the bull-headed “Gold Lyre”, and the two instruments were found together during the excavations at Ur. Sumerians liked to juxtapose opposites: sun/moon, male/female, gold/silver, bull/cow, etc. It is probable that the much larger “Gold Lyre” was played by a man, while the smaller “Silver Lyre” was played by a woman. In fact, the remains of what are thought to be those of a female musician were found clutching the “Silver Lyre” in the “royal death pit” at Ur.There are some words and concepts that Enheduanna used in her EXALTATION that are not well understood by modern scholars. Most notably, the word “mé” which seems to refer to something we know nothing about. The goddess INANNA is described as holding the “mé”, and the word is mentioned several times in the first lines of the work, always referring to some kind of mysterious power or force that the goddess possesses. At 3:21 into the video, I have included a photo of the three cuneiform Sumerian clay tablets on which the entire EXALTATION was written, and at 1:24 there is a Sumerian cylinder seal impression of the goddess Inanna herself. The final image at the end of the video is ISHTAR GATE in the reconstructed city of Babylon, which sits not far from the city of Baghdad, in modern Iraq. The Sumerian goddess INANNA was adopted by the later Babylonians and Akkadians and given the name “Ishtar”.
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT Peter Pringle 2022-12-04 | Most fans of Arthurian legend will be familiar with the story of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. This epic poem was written in the 1300’s, and there is a detailed article in Wikipedia for those who are not already acquainted with the tale. The author of the work wrote in a Middle English dialect that is incomprehensible to us today. What you hear in this video is a simplified adaptation for modern English speakers. For movie fans, there is also a film, SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT, which came out in 2021.The original story concerns a strange “game”, having to do with life, death, honor and chivalry. This video concerns only the beginning of the “game”, and it all unfolds on Christmas Eve in the court of King Arthur. One of the interesting things about the story is that it is about a time when Christianity was first introduced to Britain, and existed alongside “The Old Ways” of magic and nature worship. The hurdy-gurdy I am playing is of the early design that was called a “chifonie” or “symphonie”. I use a variety of effects, including a Whammy pedal, that have been created for guitar players. These allow me to shift pitch and add simple harmonies which players could not have done centuries ago. When you watch this video, the first thing you are probably going to ask yourself is ‘What the heck is that pyramid thingee?’ That is a very special type of amplification system made by LA VOIX DU LUTHIER in France. It is called “LA PYRAMIDE” and it is not a conventional cone speaker. It is a resonator, specifically designed to lend acoustic vibrancy and “life” to any sound that is fed into it. For the curious, there is a website: la-voix-du-luthier [dot] com. For those who like to add a little zest to their Christmas spirit, the story of The Green Knight should fill the bill quite nicely!Merry Christmas everyone.
Lament For GILGAMESH, The Gold Lyre Of Ur Peter Pringle 2022-10-09 | This video is a performance of a Sumerian incantation and lament upon the death of the hero, GILGAMESH. For those who are interested, the translation and transliteration of the Sumerian cuneiform tablets can be found online at the University of Oxford website - The Electronic Text Corpus Of Sumerian Literature.“The Gold Lyre of Ur” was unearthed by archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley, in the 1920’s during his excavations in the Sumerian city of Ur, in modern day Iraq. Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo at the top of the video, there was little left of the lyre because the Sumerians simply put it into the ground 5000 years ago and covered it over with tons of earth. In the intervening millennia, everything that was degradable turned to dust, and only the imprint of the instrument was left, along with the stone mosaic decorations, the four vignettes made of shell, and the gold. Thanks to very careful measurements and photos taken by Woolley, museum curators have been able to reconstruct the fragile bits and pieces, and the instrument is now on display in Baghdad. What you see in this video is my own replica, made from cedar like the original. Needless to say, I used brass sheeting instead of gold, but it is unlikely that the ornamentation would change the basic sound of the instrument. A lyre of this size, whose lowest note is the same as the lowest ‘C’ on a piano keyboard, would probably have been used as a drone instrument, and would not have been used to play melodies like a harp or a smaller lyre. The bench-shaped bridges used on these instruments, suggest that they probably “buzzed” like the modern Indian tamboura, or the Ethiopian “begena” lyre. The buzzing sound made possible by the wide flat bridge, greatly increases the volume output of the string, as well as the decay time of the vibration.The large “balag” drum you see on my left in the video, is four feet (120 cm) in diameter, and was a common percussion instrument in Sumer, although there are none that have survived the ages. These drums were an integral part of ceremonies to summon the souls in the “Netherworld” because, as you can hear, they make enough noise “to wake the dead”! The belief in an afterlife was an integral part of Sumerian culture, and I highly recommend Dr. Irving Finkel’s wonderful book on the subject, THE FIRST GHOSTS.The video of my full performance was too long, so I have edited it down to about 8 minutes (still too long IMO). Much of this sort of incantation was repetition, but I suspect the ancient Sumerians had a greater tolerance for long, drawn-out rituals than most of us do today. I chopped several minutes out of the middle. We have the Sumerian cuneiform texts, as well as some of the musical instruments, but we do not have the melodies because the Sumerians didn’t write them down. I believe that the parts that were sung were probably largely improvised, just as they are today in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Ancient Sumerian teachers did not write down their music because they taught mainly by memory and by ear.From the standpoint of a singer, I have performed these texts in a loud, declarative style. The Sumerians did not have amplification, and singers had to be heard by large crowds at temple gatherings, or sometimes outside.
ENKIS HAILSTORM - sung in Sumerian Peter Pringle 2022-02-22 | The Sumerian god known as ENKI was god of the waters, and he is often depicted with rivers (possibly the Tigris and the Euphrates) flowing from his shoulders. Although the clay tablets on which this story of Enki was written are 5000 years old, they speak of a time even more remote, the time of creation, when the Sumerian gods (known as the Anunnaki) began organizing the world. The Sumerian text for this story is taken from a collection of tablets known as GILGAMESH, ENKIDU AND THE NETHER WORLD, and anyone who is interested in the translations and Sumerian transliterations can find them on the University of Oxford website: THE ELECTRONIC TEXT CORPUS OF SUMERIAN LITERATURE.Some of the other Anunnaki gods who are mentioned in this tale are AN (Enki’s father and god of the heavens), ENLIL (a god of wind and storms), and ERESHKIGAL (queen of the nether world). The lute that you see me playing at the beginning of this video is a Sumerian “gish-gudi”, the ancient ancestor of lutes that are still found today in Mesopotamia, Persia, Turkey and the Middle East. There are no examples of Sumerian lutes still in existence, they long ago turned to dust, but we do have descriptions of the instruments and a few rare depictions. I also used a “zurna” a kind of folk oboe that was very popular in ancient times, and still exists throughout the Middle East. With a bit of practice, it is possible to play the zurna using “circular breathing” which provides a constant drone. Unfortunately, it is not possible to sing and play the zurna at the same time! No one knows what Sumerian music sounded like, but we do know something about the instruments they used. What I have done in this video is to use the musical tools we know were available to the musicians of Sumer, and then allow my own imagination to do the rest. The walls you see in the background of the video are part of an inner courtyard in the city of Babylon in modern Iraq.
CAEDMONS HYMN on the Anglo-Saxon Lyre Peter Pringle 2021-10-29 | This is the earliest known poem in the English language, written in the 7th century, in what is called “Old English”. We know very little about the author, whose name was Caedmon, beyond what was said about him by “The Father of English History”, the monk known as The Venerable Bede (672 - 735 A.D.). The setting for my performance of the hymn is Odda’s Chapel in Gloucestershire, South West England. The chapel is Anglo-Saxon, built a decade before the Norman invasion. Although we have the words of the hymn, we have no idea what Caedmon’s music sounded like. I wrote the melody myself after being inspired by an excellent workshop given by the wonderful singer and musicologist, Stef Conner, and her fellow musicologist and ancient music historian, Hanna Marti.
THE LYRE OF MEGIDDO, Psalm 23 in Hebrew Peter Pringle 2021-09-18 | Seven years ago, I built a small lyre based on a 1200 BCE artifact that had been excavated in the ruins of the ancient city of Har Megiddo (aka “Armageddon”) in northern Israel. Once the instrument was completed, I posted a video of it to YouTube and within a couple of weeks I received a request from THE MUSEUM OF MAKING MUSIC in Carlsbad, California, to allow them to have the instrument on temporary loan for a display they were planning. I packed up the lyre, sent it to the museum, and more or less forgot about it. A few weeks ago, the lyre was returned to me by the museum. It was just like receiving a brand new instrument, and I decided to do something new with it.The original artifact on which the lyre was based is roughly contemporary with King David, and it is safe to assume that David played a lyre (which the Old Testament calls a “kinnor” in Hebrew) that was similar to the Canaanite “lyre of Megiddo”. According to tradition, of the 150 psalms in the Old Testament BOOK OF PSALMS, 73 are said to have been written by David himself. Of these, Psalm 23 is one of the most loved.No one has any idea what the psalms might have sounded like sung by David but we do know he was a singer and an instrumentalist. No music has survived, and the texts were not written down until several hundred years after David’s death. I can make no claims to authenticity in this rendition, since we do not even know how David tuned his lyre. For this video, I have tuned to an F minor harmonic scale, and I sang in a gentle, lyric, style, which seems appropriate for the content. All I can say for sure is that it would have been possible for David to play this on his 10-string “kinnor”.The MUSEUM OF MAKING MUSIC has been recently renovated and for anyone interested in music who happens to be in the Carlsbad, California, area it is well worth a visit. When I built the lyre in the video above, I put together a webpage (URL below) showing how it was created after the original artifact. http://www.peterpringle.com/megiddo.html
Franz Schubert - THE HURDY-GURDY MAN Peter Pringle 2021-08-10 | This song was written by the Austrian composer, Franz Schubert, in 1827 the final song of a cycle called DIE WINTERREISE (The Winter’s Journey) and it is one of the most popular and enduring songs ever composed. Originally for voice and piano with words by the German poet, Wilhelm Müller, it tells the story of a wandering “drehleier” player, and was consequently called “Der Leiermann”. Schubert is not talking about an organ grinder. In fact, the grinder organ (sometimes called the barrel organ) is not a musical instrument at all. It is a mechanical music box with a crank. The hurdy-gurdy, on the other hand, is an ancient instrument on which tunes can actually be played.The piano, for which Schubert wrote the original accompaniment to this song, does not do a very good imitation of a hurdy-gurdy, and the hurdy-gurdy does an equally poor imitation of a piano. Consequently, I rearranged the song so that harmonies and chord changes can be played. This was possible because the hurdy-gurdy in the video is a solid-body instrument made by French luthier, Philippe Mousnier, which allows the player to use all the electronic devices and tools that are available for electric guitars (harmonizers, pitch shifters, signal splitters, and all the FX devices in the electronic arsenal). At two places in this song, I show the pedal keyboard (similar to the kind of thing organists use) which allows me to control the drone strings using my feet. For singers, another advantage of the solid-body instrument is that, like the electric guitar, it uses magnetic pickups to amplify its sound. This means that it doesn’t make much noise and its sound doesn’t leak into your vocal microphone, so it is possible to sing while playing the instrument without drowning out your own voice! It also means that you can practice the instrument quietly at 3 o’clock in the morning without waking up everybody in the house.I have wanted to sing this song for years and figured it’s now or never! 😀
THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH (Tablet One) Peter Pringle 2021-06-24 | One of the exciting things about the EPIC OF GILGAMESH is that there are probably parts of it still waiting to be discovered, hidden beneath the sands of Mesopotamia. What you hear in this video is from TABLET ONE (a Prologue) of a series of cuneiform tablets recovered from the excavations of the library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal in the ancient city of Nineveh.The translator of the Epic Of Gilgamesh, assyriologist Andrew R. George, whose translation is provided in the subtitles, is one of only a small handful of people in the world able to read Old Babylonian cuneiform script, and his help with the correct pronunciation of the original Babylonian text was essential. For more about Professor George and his work, there are some very entertaining videos of his lectures on YouTube, as well as an impressive list of published books. If you want to read the entire Epic, I highly recommend the following book which can be ordered through Amazon. amazon.com/Epic-Gilgamesh-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449191The paintings you see in this video are the work of artist, illustrator and visionary, Monika Beisner, who created a wonderful series of images inspired by Gilgamesh, his adventures, and his quest for immortality. For more information about this amazing artist, Wikipedia has an excellent article on her life and work.We know very little about the music of the Babylonians. All I can say about my own rendition of this prologue, is that I used instruments that we know were available to ancient musicians: drums, a lute, reed flutes, and of course the human voice. Here is Andrew George's translation of the text as I have sung it in the video.He who saw the Deep, the country’s foundation,Who knew the proper ways, was wise in all matters!Gilgamesh, who saw the Deep, the country’s foundation,Who knew the proper ways, was wise in all matters!He explored everywhere the seats of power,He knew of everything the sum of wisdom.He saw what was secret, discovered what was hidden,He brought back a tale of before the Deluge.He came a far road, was weary, found peace,All his labours were set on a tablet of stone.Find the tablet-box of cedar,Pick up the tablet of lapis lazuli and read outThe travails of Gilgamesh, all that he went through.Surpassing all other kings, heroic of stature,Brave scion of Uruk, wild bull on the rampage!Two-thirds of him god but one third human,Gilgamesh so tall, magnificent and terrible!Who is there can rival his kingly standing,And say like Gilgamesh, ‘It is I am the king’?
THE SEDUCTION OF THE GODDESS INANA Peter Pringle 2021-04-28 | Although we do not know what this song sounded like when it was sung in ancient Sumer, we do have the words to the song, written in cuneiform on clay tablets nearly 5000 years ago, and I have used instruments (a three stringed Mesopotamian lute, and two reed flutes) that we know the Sumerians possessed.There are many songs, which the Sumerians called “tigi”, that have been translated by sumerologists, and this is one of my favorites. It is sung by the god Dumuzid (aka Tammuz) to the young goddess Inana (aka Ishtar) in an effort to seduce her.Dumuzid was a shepherd god, and like Inana he was one of the so-called “Anunnaki”. He was also a very naughty boy! The Sumerians had a wonderful sense of humor, and were not the slightest bit prudish when writing or singing about the pleasures of seduction and love making. The irony of this song is that Dumuzid is telling young Inana to lie to her mother, so she can spend the day with him but he also tells her that these are the “lies of women”. In other words, he is blaming his own male dishonesty on females! I am convinced the ancient Sumerians would have found this hilariously funny. The idea of a male as a “teacher” of love to women is still reflected in songwriting today, and the same theme is expressed in the 1953 hit song, TEACH ME TONIGHT, by songwriters Gene De Paul and Sammy Cahn.The ziggurat you see in the background is in the City of Samarra, in modern day Iraq.
THE SEA TURTLE (from the album Dancing Alone) Peter Pringle 2021-03-15 | This song was written as a lullaby, and is based upon a poem by the great Persian poet, Hafiz, who was born in the city of Shiraz in the year 1315.Hafiz wrote, “I am like a magnificent, magical, ocean turtle Setting aside his dazzling wings of blueCrawling upon your shoresTo bury the divine seed of verse.”This is one of fourteen songs from the album, DANCING ALONE, inspired by the works of four 12th and 13th century Persian Sufi poets: Rumi, Attar, Hafiz and Iraqi. I made the album for myself with no intention of releasing it, and it sat on a shelf for several years - until now. For anyone interested, it can be downloaded from all the major digital music providers.The two main instruments you hear in the recording are the Ethervox MIDI theremin made by Robert Moog in the late 1990’s, and the Indian “surbahar”.
ONCE (From The Album DANCING ALONE) Peter Pringle 2021-03-01 | This song is from an album I made a called DANCING ALONE, which consists of 14 songs inspired by the works of 12th and 13th century Persian Sufi poets. I never released the album until now because I didn’t think anybody would be interested in it. I made a few copies as gifts for friends, and then stuck it on a shelf where it has been sleeping for the last few years.It is now available for download from all the major digital outlets (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, etc.)The songs are based on works by four ancient poets: Rumi, Attar, Hafiz and Iraqi. These writers described the ecstasy of their spiritual experience using the metaphor of the lover and the beloved, which are universal images that we all understand. Rumi wrote: “I used to be shy, but you made me sing.”
GILGAMESH LAMENT FOR ENKIDU Peter Pringle 2021-01-27 | Gilgamesh was king of the Sumerian city of Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia, some 5000 years ago. According to legend, he was a ruthless despot, so the gods created a friend for him, a kind of wild man called Enkidu, who was able to challenge him successfully in battle. This took Gilgamesh’s mind off oppressing his people, and he and Enkidu became inseparable friends. The two of them shared many remarkable adventures together but they made a fatal mistake. They traveled to the great cedar forest, where they killed a sacred beast known as “The Bull of Heaven”. This angered the gods, so they sentenced Enkidu to death.TABLET VIII of the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, contains the text I sing in this lament. I would like to thank Andrew R. George, the translator of Gilgamesh, whose translation of the text appears in the subtitles to this video, for his generous help with the pronunciation of Old Babylonian. For those who are interested in learning more, I highly recommend Andrew George's YouTube videos on Mesopotamian mythology, as well as his excellent book, which is available on Amazon at the following link. amazon.com/Epic-Gilgamesh-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449191There are two musical instruments in this interpretation of the lament of Gilgamesh. The lute I decided to use is the Persian “setar”, which is one of the closest instruments to the ancient three-stringed lutes that is still in existence today. The setar is capable of playing a wide range of quarter tones but, according to archaeomusicologists, the Babylonians did not use them. Personally, I’m not so sure about that.The other musical instrument I used is a pair of reed pipes which are played together. The ones you see at the beginning of the video are copies of the pair of silver pipes that were discovered by archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley, during his excavations of the Sumerian city of Ur, in the 1920’s. They have a sound similar to the modern “duduk” and, like the duduk, the shehnai and the Australian didgeridoo, they are played using the technique known as “circular breathing”, in order to produce a continuous tone without interruption. The ancient Babylonian reed pipe was known as the “malilum”.Since I could not sing, accompany myself on the lute, and play the pipes at the same time, I sampled the sound of the pipes and used a MIDI pedal keyboard (like the ones organists use to play bass notes) to trigger the sounds - one foot for each of the two silver pipes. That way I could perform all the parts of the lament at once, without any need for overdubs.The glazed brick wall you see behind me in this video is part of the magnificent “Gate of Ishtar”, which was the main entrance to the ancient city of Babylon.Any questions or remarks you may have regarding this video can be sent to me at the following address:Enjoy!gilgamesh@peterpringle.com
Alexander In India - Surbahar & Kithara Peter Pringle 2020-10-24 | In spite of having had a lot of fun making this video, I wasn’t too happy with it and originally posted it to YouTube as “unlisted” but a few people asked me to make it public - so here it is.The surbahar belongs to the Veena Family of the classical instruments of India, and is comparable to the western cello in size and register. The one you see in the video was made for me about 50 years ago by the great Indian luthier, Kanai Lal of Calcutta. The Greek “kithara” was built by master luthier, Anastasios Koumartzis, of LUTHIEROS MUSIC INSTRUMENTS, which is located in the Macedonian region of Northern Greece. This is the same area in which Alexander The Great was born. The kithara was the instrument of choice for professional musicians during the Golden Age of Greece which reached its height around 500 B.C.E.In his military exploits, Alexander travelled east as far as the Indus river, which he reached in 326 B.C.E. By that time, he was far from home, his men were getting tired, and they were met by fierce opposition from the armies of the rulers whose territories they invaded. As a result, Alexander never penetrated into the Indian subcontinent, and died in Babylon in 323 B.C.E., on his way back home.This composition is in the Indian scale (“thaat”) known as “bhairav” (flat 6th and flat 2nd). The surbahar was built to be tuned to an F#, so the kithara is tuned F# G B C C# D F F#.
THE OLDEST SONG IN THE WORLD Peter Pringle 2020-08-23 | This song to the Hurrian goddess Nikkal, is the oldest piece of music for which we have both the words and the accompanying musical notes. The work was written on clay tablets around 3500 years ago, and was discovered by archaeologists in the 1950’s in the ruins of the ancient city of Ugarit.The tablets, which are written in the Hurrian language using Sumerian cuneiform script, have been studied for years by a number of eminent scholars, and several theories have been advanced as to how the music should be interpreted. In my opinion, the most thorough and convincing interpretation (and by far the most musical), is that offered by archaeomusicologist, Dr. Richard J. Dumbrill, and that is the one which you hear in this video. The long-necked lute you see me playing is a cross between the Turkish baglama and the Persian setar. I made this instrument myself as an experiment. It has four strings but the bass notes are a double course. It is tuned F-C-F. Lutes of this type have been played since the most ancient times throughout Mesopotamia and Anatolia.The pipes you hear are replicas of the 5000 year old silver pipes discovered in the Sumerian city of Ur in the 1920’s. These are reed instruments but since I cannot play wind instruments and sing at the same time, I sampled the pipes and I am playing them by means of a pedal keyboard, similar to the kind of pedalboard used by organists. My left foot controls the lower register pipe, and my right foot the higher register. Players of these instruments used the technique known as “circular breathing”, which is still used today for wind instruments like the Armenian duduk, and the Australian didgeridoo. This song was performed live, in a single pass. Nothing was added or overdubbed.The text of the song is not well understood because the Hurrian language has not been thoroughly studied and the original tablet has bits missing. The goddess Nikkal, like most lunar deities, was associated with fertility and childbirth. Here is a very rough idea of what experts believe is being sung by the singer. I have tried to make this poetic rather than literal.I have made offerings to the goddessThat she will open her heart in love,And that my sins will be forgiven.May my jars of sweet sesame oil please her, That she may look kindly upon us, And make us fruitful.Like the sprouting fields of grain,May women bring forth with their husbandsAnd may those who are yet virgins One day be blessed with children.
My Lyre Sings Only Of Love Peter Pringle 2020-05-09 | This song is performed in ancient Greek on an instrument called the “barbitos”. It is of a unique family of ancient lyres that are flexible and able to play all the notes that you can play on a keyboard, as well as slides and vibrato. If you want to know more about this kind of lyre, I made a YouTube video explaining exactly how it works. Here is the link.youtu.be/Y6Qb4rwgN3Y
The Death Of King Arthur (hurdy-gurdy) Peter Pringle 2019-09-12 | The instrument you see and hear in this video is a “solid-body” alto Artus hurdy-gurdy (aka “vielle à roue”) from the workshop of French luthier, Philippe Mousnier. This instrument is to the traditional hurdy-gurdy what the Stratocaster is to the classical guitar. It has no soundbox but is provided with electromagnetic pickups that allow the player to take advantage of all the devices and FX that can be applied to the electric guitar. Everything you hear in this performance was performed live. There are no overdubs or additions. I used two linked Digitech Whammy pedals, and a Roland PK-5 pedalboard which allow me to play complex harmonies and to change key. In a way, this is not a hurdy-gurdy at all but a new and incredibly versatile instrument.For a singer, one of the advantages of a solid body is that the unamplified volume output is low. Traditional acoustic gurdies are very loud, so their sound bleeds into the vocal mike and competes with the singer.The Artus is also provided with a retractable wheel, which lets the player change the timbre and volume output of the strings - something that cannot be done on a traditional hurdy-gurdy. Philippe Mousnier, who made this instrument, has a short YT video explaining how all of this works.youtu.be/2vQURO4Vwz0The story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is one of the world’s most enduring legends. This video deals only with the death of the King as told by the British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson in his epic poem - LE MORTE D’ARTHUR - which he based on an earlier work by Sir Thomas Malory. I have edited the story in order to keep it under six minutes and avoid putting everybody to sleep. Sorry about the “popping” on the audio. I was too close to the mike. That’s the problem when you are your own sound engineer! 😀
FIRST MAN Theremin Theme Peter Pringle 2018-11-17 | The theremin in this video, or rather the music it made, actually went to the moon with astronaut Neil Armstrong as part of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Here is a quote from the final paragraphs of the book, MOONDUST: IN SEARCH OF THE MEN WHO FELL TO EARTH by Andrew Smith ( the full story of the Apollo 11 moon mission, published in 2006)."Of more interest to me, though, was Neil Armstrong’s response to a supplementary question about 'the strange, electronic sounding music' that Collins [fellow astronaut Michael Collins] reported him taking to Luna. Armstrong told me that the electronic sound I referred to was the theremin music of Dr. Samuel Hoffman, specifically an album called MUSIC OUT OF THE MOON, which he [Neil Armstrong] had committed to tape from his own collection."The theme played in this video was written by composer Justin Hurwitz for the 2018 film FIRST MAN. The movie is based on the book, FIRST MAN: THE LIFE OF NEIL A. ARMSTRONG, by James R. Hansen. The theremin you see and hear in this video once belonged to Dr. Samuel Hoffman, and was used for the recording of the album MUSIC OUT OF THE MOON.
THE COLD SONG played on the Haken Continuum Peter Pringle 2018-01-27 | This song was written in 1691 by the English composer, Henry Purcell, for his opera KING ARTHUR and in recent years it has become one of the most widely appreciated melodies of its period, and has been sung by both classical and popular singers.The HAKEN CONTINUUM is one of the most exciting and versatile inventions of the “new” generation of musical instruments. The Continuum you see in this video, however, has been enhanced with two things: a keyboard extension and a special speaker modelled on the “palme” that was devised in the 1930’s by French inventor and musical instrument maker, Maurice Martenot (father of the ondes martenot). Maurice Martenot experimented extensively with various types of resonator/speakers to use with his ondes. He wanted to lend an acoustic element to the sound which he could not reproduce electronically with what was available in the 1930’s. His “palme” was essentially a 12-string lyre in the form of a large palm leaf, with a speaker inside it. I was curious to know what a “palme” might sound like with some of the Continuum presets, so I built one. The strings of Martenot’s speakers were tuned to the chromatic scale and were intended to vibrate sympathetically with the ondes. Measuring 36 inches from stem to stern, my Continuum “palme” (which you see in this video) is much larger than those that were built by Martenot. It is also strung with steel strings, not gut, and has its own built-in electromagnetic pickup (like an electric guitar), so it does not require a microphone. The Continuum keyboard extension is another idea of my own, and it allows a number of things to be done on the instrument which are otherwise impossible or extremely difficult. The keyboard is entirely mechanical, with no electronic components, and consists of a row of tiny “fingers” that push into the neoprene fingerpad of the Continuum, allowing instant pinpoint accuracy without the need for quantization or “rounding”. Key pressure controls volume, just as it does when you play the neoprene with your fingers, and the keyboard and fingerpad can be played simultaneously. You can slide, and skip and jump and go wherever you want just as if you were dancing.The sound you hear from the Continuum was conceived by Ed Eagan, the designer of the “Eagan matrix” which is the sound engine behind the hundreds of presets built into the instrument. It is called “icicles” and it seemed particularly appropriate for this piece. The harpsichord accompaniment comes from a ROLAND FantomXR (triggered by my trusty old KORG Triton Extreme). It was my original intention to play both the harpsichord and the Continuum at the same time, but unfortunately I don’t have enough arms & hands to do what I wanted to do.
The Haken Continuum Meets The Chinese Guzheng Peter Pringle 2017-04-27 | Here is a short piece for Haken Continuum, and the Chinese zither known as the “guzheng”. Normally, the guzheng is played with finger picks on the right hand, but I chose not to use picks so that I could move freely from one instrument to the other if I wanted to. This means that I had to sacrifice certain guzheng techniques (such as the tremolo) which require picks.In this video I am using a full keyboard extension which sits just above the fingerpad of the Continuum and acts a mechanical alternative for playing the instrument. The extension has no electronic components, and is not connected in any way to the Continuum itself. Basically, it consists of a row of small mechanical depressors, one for each of its 88 keys, and is just a convenience to facilitate accurate and precise runs, arpeggios, trills, etc.The Continuum is a thousand instruments rolled into a single interface. The sound you hear from it in this video is only one of a huge number of possibilities from sound designer Edmund Eagan. Unlike many new interfaces, the Continuum generates its own sounds independently, and does not require a computer.
Fun With The Fujara Peter Pringle 2017-04-07 | The “fujara” is a Slovakian overtone flute. Notes are controlled partly by stopping holes with your fingers (like a conventional flute or recorder) and partly by the pressure of your breath. A few weeks ago, I got myself a “futujara” from flute wizard Nadishana and I had such fun with it right out of the box, that I decided to make myself a fujara out of PVC pipe. The instrument I made is the one you see in the video. It is 68 inches (173 cm) long and is in the key of G. I called this video “FUN WITH THE FUJARA” because I make no claims to being able to play the instrument at anything beyond the level of a rank amateur!There are, however, a couple of things about the performance that I should explain. First of all, I am playing while seated, and that is because I am accompanying myself on a pedal board (a ROLAND PK-5) similar to the type of pedal board found on church organs. The “choir” that you hear is being controlled by the pedals. The fujara is traditionally played while standing, but it is not possible to play pedals in a standing position. The ability to add harmony to the improvisation lends another dimension to the experience of the instrument.At one point in the video I am also using a pitch shifter (a LEXICON MPX 1) which is activated by a footswitch. This allows me to play a major third and when it is used in combination with the two notes possible with the pedal board, some unusual and unexpected harmonies are possible. There are some wonderful fujara virtuosos on YouTube, and I have been seriously inspired (not to mention humbled) by both Winne Clement and Max Brumberg.
A THOUSAND KISSES - Catullus 5 Peter Pringle 2017-02-06 | This is a poem written by the Roman poet Catullus, who was born somewhere around 82 B.C.E. If ancient Rome had a party guy, Catullus was it! He also happened to be one of the finest classical Latin poets we know of.This verse is known as Catullus 5, and is a love song to a woman called Lesbia. Catullus was crazy about her, although we’re not sure that Lesbia was equally crazy about Catullus. We do know that “Lesbia” was not the woman’s real name. Catullus changed it to protect her because she was married to another man. That’s Catullus for you!For Latin scholars, there are a couple of things I’d like to say about my pronunciation of certain letters. I have deliberately chosen to use a later, Italian flavored pronunciation because it sounds better that the classical Latin pronunciation I learned when I studied the language years ago. For example, in this song I say “chen-tum” instead of “ken-tum”, “shee-at” instead of “ski-at” and “vee-vah-mus” rather than “wee-wah-mus”. I find this to be softer and more musical, although I suspect my old Latin teachers would probably have a fit!The Romans had an organ called a “hydraulis”, similar to what you see in this video, except that it used the pressure of water running out of a container to draw wind into the pipes of the instrument. The water apparatus was later replaced with a bellows operated by the left hand of the player, but the organ in the video uses a pump to supply air to the pipes, which frees both hands of the musician to play the keyboard just as a hydraulis player would have done.
SKIBBEREEN Peter Pringle 2016-09-03 | This is not one of those toe-tapping, singalong Irish songs. It is a narrative that recounts the tragedy of The Great Famine that struck Ireland in the mid 19th century, killing close to a million people and forcing a million more to leave Ireland and start new lives elsewhere. The song was written in America sometime in the late 1860’s or 1870’s, presumably by a man named Patrick Carpenter who lived somewhere in the Boston area. It was first published around 1880. For many years, it was rarely performed publicly because it ends with a call to arms, and was therefore considered subversive and revolutionary. The Celtic harp I am playing was made around 1980 by harp builder Arsalaan Fay.
Haken Continuum 88-key Keyboard Extension Peter Pringle 2016-08-13 | The Haken Continuum keyboard extension is an entirely mechanical device, with no electronic components, that can be used to expand the technical possibilities of the Haken Continuum Fingerboard. In this video, Edmund Eagan, one of the developers of the Continuum and the designer of the EaganMatrix (the programmable synthesizer that is built into the Continuum) demonstrates the use of an 88-key extension on the full sized Continuum.I should mention that Ed Eagan did not rehearse or practice prior to recording these 12 short improvisations, and had never played, or even seen, a keyboard extension. The extension is not intended to replace the fingerboard, it is meant to enhance it and make it possible to do certain runs, chords, arpeggios and ornaments that are impossible to perform accurately and consistently without it.I created a page on my website explaining exactly how I built the extension keyboard, with step by step instructions for any brave do-it-yourselfers out there.http://www.peterpringle.com/extension.html
The Haken Continuum Keyboard Extension Peter Pringle 2016-05-28 | This is the introduction of my keyboard extension for the Haken Continuum. It is entirely mechanical and has no electronic or electrical components whatsoever. It sits over the fingerpad of the Continuum but does not touch it or interfere with it in any way, except when pressure is applied to a key and a small, precisely placed, drop-shaped “pearl” pushes into the neoprene surface. Since the fingerpad is pressure sensitive on the Z axis, the keyboard is also.The keyboard extension in the video has a total of 47 keys, but I am now building a full sized, 93 key extension that will cover the entire Continuum fingerpad. I guess I should add that I am in no way connected to the manufacturers of the Continuum. I am strictly a fan of the instrument, looking for creative ways to expand its usefulness and versatility.For more information visit http://www.peterpringle.com/conboard.html
Haken Continuum Goes To RUSSIA Peter Pringle 2016-02-28 | Here’s something new and different for those of you who are interested in the Haken Continuum Fingerboard.One of the new presets designed by audio wizard Edmund Eagan for the latest firmware version of the Haken Continuum is called TWO HANDED VOICE. As its name implies it takes two hands to control it: one hand for pitch, the other for the formant (i.e. the vowel sound you want to make - AH…EH…EE..OO…etc.) This precludes the possibility of playing another instrument simultaneously (such as a keyboard) because you don’t have a free hand to do it with. Normally, for the TWO HANDED VOICE, one hand moves from left to right on the upper part of the fingerboard (called the ‘Y’ axis), and the other from left to right on the lower part, with each hand controlling a different function.So I devised “the FINGAH” (that’s New Yorkese for “finger”) which I cobbled together from bits & pieces I cannibalized from here & there. Never throw anything away because the minute you do you’re going to need it!!Here is a video I made showing “the fingah” in action. The device fits snugly onto the Continuum, and exerts exactly the right amount of pressure on the upper part of the ‘Y’ axis, leaving one of your two hands free. The pressure (which is adjustable) is exerted by a roller, so there is no friction or drag on the neoprene fingerboard surface, and the formant can be modified by sliding the “fingah” along a rail that supports it from above. Everything is on roller bearings, both above and below, so it just seems to float along. Volume is controlled by finger pressure of the pitch hand. The “fingah” is hinged, like a lid, so you can easily lift it from the fingerboard when it is not in use, without having to remove it altogether from your setup. Edmund Eagan’s TWO HANDED VOICE is the best, most versatile, and most consistently believable electronic vocal emulation I have ever heard. I love it….and it is so easy to play!
THEREMIN - And This Is My Beloved Peter Pringle 2015-12-31 | This song is from the hit 1953 musical, KISMET, with music adapted from the works of the Russian composer, Alexander Borodin. The story unfolds in old Baghdad, so I put myself in an appropriate fantasy decor! I am playing the 1929 RCA theremin once owned by the late Dr. Samuel Hoffman.
RCA Theremin HYMNE A LAMOUR Peter Pringle 2015-12-05 | I made a video of this classic Edith Piaf song several years ago when YouTube quality was not as good as it is today and everything sounded as if it had been recorded at the bottom of a swimming pool. Here is a new theremin version of the song played on Samuel Hoffman’s 1929 RCA theremin. I lived in Paris for a while in the late 1960’s and it is one of the most wonderful cities in the world.
IF SATIE HAD COMPOSED FOR THEREMIN Peter Pringle 2015-04-11 | French composer Erik Satie (1866 - 1925) was born too early to have been acquainted with the theremin but if he had been born 10 years later, I think he would have been intrigued with the instrument and perhaps he might have composed some music for it.Here is my own little "hommage à Satie" for theremin and piano which I called LA VOIX DU SPHINX (The Voice Of The Sphinx).
The Theremin Goes BAROQUE Peter Pringle 2015-04-06 | This is Dr. Samuel Hoffman's 1929 RCA theremin. I removed the cabinet doors so you can peek inside.
Duet With Two Vintage RCA Theremins Peter Pringle 2015-03-07 | There are two 1929 RCA theremins on this version of the old hymn, HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW: The instrument that belonged to the Hollywood thereminist Dr. Samuel Hoffman, and the one that belonged to Leon Theremin's business partner and personal assistant, Julius Goldberg.
GOD ONLY KNOWS - theremin Peter Pringle 2014-10-11 | Here's a bit of theremin trivia. Back in the 1950's the Wilson family (aka The Beach Boys) were friends of the Hoffman family, and occasionally when the Wilsons visited the Hoffmans, the boys would get a chance to play the 1929 RCA theremin that belonged to Hollywood thereminist, Samuel Hoffman. That is the same theremin that you hear in this video and that is how The Beach Boys became acquainted with the instrument.This song - GOD ONLY KNOWS - was written by Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, and was recorded by the group in 1966.
CARMINA BURANA - RCA Theremin Peter Pringle 2014-09-29 | This is "IN TRUTINA" from CARMINA BURANA by Carl Orff. The "Carmina Burana" is a collection of poems mostly in medieval Latin written in the 11th 12th and 13th centuries. They were discovered in 1803 in the Benedictine monastery of BENEDIKTBEUERN, in Bavaria. That is why I chose the chapel of the monastery as an appropriate place to play this piece.
Portative Organ Peter Pringle 2014-09-14 | Portative organs generally have a bellows attached to the backside of the instrument that must be pumped by the player. This organ has been provided with a separate, electrically driven pump and "windchest" so both hands are freed to play the keys (as they were with the ancient Greek and Roman "hydraulis").The garment I am wearing in this video is a genuine and very rare piece of late medieval clothing probably made for a knight. The collar, cuffs and hem are embroidered with symbols from the life of Christ, in threads of silver and gold.
THEREMIN: OMBRA DI NUBE Peter Pringle 2014-08-15 | This short song, OMBRA DI NUBE, was written in 1935 by Italian composer and Roman Catholic priest, Licinio Refice. Since the composer died in 1954 during rehearsals for his opera CECILIA, based on the life of Saint Cecilia (the patron saint of music) I thought it might be appropriate to perform it in the Basilica of Saint Cecilia In Trastevere in Rome........this was done through the miracle of Green Screen. The 1929 RCA theremin in the video, with its distinctive "lightning bolt" art deco antennas, was once the property of inventor Leon Theremin's assistant and business partner, Julius Goldberg.
The Epic Of Gilgamesh In Sumerian Peter Pringle 2014-06-09 | The EPIC OF GILGAMESH is the earliest great work of literature that we know of, and was first written down by the Sumerians around 2100 B.C. Ancient Sumer was the land that lay between the two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, in Mesopotamia. The language that the Sumerians spoke was unrelated to the Semitic languages of their neighbors the Akkadians and Babylonians, and it was written in a syllabary (a kind of alphabet) called "cuneiform". By 2000 B.C., the language of Sumer had almost completely died out and was used only by scholars (like Latin is today). No one knows how it was pronounced because it has not been heard in 4000 years.What you hear in this video are a few of the opening lines of part of the epic poem, accompanied only by a long-neck, three-string, Sumerian lute known as a "gish-gu-di". The instrument is tuned to G - G - D, and although it is similar to other long neck lutes still in use today (the tar, the setar, the saz, etc.) the modern instruments are low tension and strung with fine steel wire. The ancient long neck lutes (such as the Egyptian "nefer") were strung with gut and behaved slightly differently. The short-neck lute known as the "oud" is strung with gut/nylon, and its sound has much in common with the ancient long-neck lute although the oud is not a fretted instrument and its strings are much shorter (about 25 inches or 63 cm) as compared to 32 inches (82 cm) on a long-neck instrument. For anyone interested in these lutes, I highly recommend THE ARCHAEOMUSICOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST by Professor Richard Dumbrill. The location for this performance is the courtyard of Nebuchadnezzar's palace in Babylon. The piece is four minutes long and is intended only as a taste of what the music of ancient Sumer might have sounded like.
CASTAMERE: theremin, harp & voice Peter Pringle 2014-02-20 | This song is called THE RAINS OF CASTAMERE and it is one of the themes from the HBO hit series THE GAME OF THRONES. I used a single action "Dilling Model" harp made by Arsalaan Fay in the late 1970's, which I played through a Lexicon MPX1 "pingpong" effect. The theremin you hear in the second half of the song is the 1929 RCA instrument that once belonged to the late Dr. Samuel Hoffman. I used a vintage RCA 106 speaker.
The Lyre Of Megiddo Peter Pringle 2014-01-25 | The "lyre of Har Megiddo" is an instrument etched onto an ivory plaque that was discovered by archaeologist Gordon Loud in the excavations of a royal palace in the ancient city of Megiddo (aka Armageddon) in Israel. One of the interesting things about this image, which appears at the beginning of this video, is that it dates from roughly the time of the biblical King David (slightly before 1000 B.C.) and if David played a harp, as the Tanach (Old Testament) says he did, it was almost certainly an instrument of this sort.David's instrument, which was called a "kinnor" in ancient Hebrew, had ten strings, and we know that he played it "with his hand" (as opposed to using a plectrum or pick for strumming - 1 Samuel 13:9). Being curious as to what this instrument might have sounded like, I built a replica of it, and that is what I am playing in this video. It is tuned to an F harmonic minor scale, and strung with pure silk. Harps and lyres in ancient time were strung with gut but silk, when it is properly prepared, is equally hard, strong and resonant. Was this the sound that lulled troubled King Saul to sleep? We cannot know for sure, but it is possible. If you are curious about this instrument, here is a page on my website that explains a little about its construction and history.http://www.peterpringle.com/megiddo.html
Homeric Hymn To ARTEMIS Peter Pringle 2013-10-05 | Artemis (called "Diana" by the Romans) was the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt and twin sister of the sun god Apollo. It is said that she was born several minutes before Apollo and since she was a goddess and had come into the world all-knowing, she immediately assisted her mother with the birth of her twin brother! According to tradition, Artemis was a virgin and was one of the few beings in the universe - either divine or human - who was immune to the power of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Her festival was held in the fall when the goddess would dance to the song of the graces. Artemis was a powerful and dangerous deity. She carried a golden bow with golden arrows and when she took aim, she never missed!The words to this song, adapted into English, are part of a collection of 33 ancient Greek hymns written several centuries B.C. The instrument used to accompany the voice is the Greek lyre known as the "chelys", an instrument sacred to Apollo and which was traditionally made from a tortoise shell and two horns of an antelope. The high soprano voice you hear in Artemis' dance is the electronic instrument known as the theremin (in this case a Moog Music Etherwave Pro).One thing I would like to point out about the music, although it is played on a Greek "chelys" lyre, neither the melody nor the vocal performance is intended to be authentically ancient Greek. This is a kind of neo-romantic fantasy.I am fortunate to have the amazing, not to mention totally uninhibited, prize-winning dancer and choreographer AnneBruce Falconer as a neighbor. We had a wonderful time making this video and we hope you enjoy it.
The Sumerian Silver Lyre Peter Pringle 2013-06-07 | The 5000-year-old Sumerian “Silver Lyre of Ur”, along with several other musical instruments, was unearthed in southern Iraq in the 1920’s by the British archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley. Very little of it was left after five millennia, but careful research revealed that the soundbox was entirely made of silver, not wood overlaid with a sheet of silver. The soundbox of this reproduction of the Silver Lyre is made of metal, which gives the instrument a timbre that is probably comparable to the original artifact.For anyone wanting more information, I refer you to the work of the remarkable archaeomusicologist, Richard Dumbrill.
SPARTACUS - Suras Theme - Theremin & Chelys Peter Pringle 2013-03-15 | This music is "Sura's Theme" from the television series, SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND. I am playing it on a Moog Etherwave Pro theremin, and a replica of an ancient Greek lyre known as the "chelys". According to Greek legend, this instrument was invented by the god Hermes, who took the shell of a tortoise and the horns of an antelope, stretched a skin over the shell then added some strings. He later gave the instrument to Orpheus. The chelys in this video has 12 strings and is tuned to a diatonic scale.If you are curious about the chelys and how it was made, here is a page on my website with more informationhttp://www.peterpringle.com/chelys.html
Dagdas Magic Harp Peter Pringle 2013-02-10 | This is one of many stories about the mythological king of ancient Ireland, know as "Dagda" (pronounced "dada"). Dagda is said to have possessed, among other wonderful things, a magical harp which he could use to produce supernatural phenomena. This story was first written down by Christian monks around the 12th century AD, but at that time it was already ancient and had been handed down verbally for more than a thousand years.According to legend, there were two tribes living in Ireland at the time of King Dagda: the Fomorians who were small and dark haired people, and the Celtic "Tuatha De Danaan" who were tall, light skinned and blond and whose leader was King Dagda. It seems they were constantly at war and this particular tale has to do with the time the Fomorians stole Dagda's magic harp (something which turned out to be a very bad idea). The instrument I am using to accompany myself in this song is a two part affair of my own devising which I call the "tibicen" (the Latin word for "piper"). It is entirely electronic, and consists of a small keyboard which sits in my lap, and a pedalboard (similar to a church organ) on the floor in floor in front of me. Nothing was added to this performance and there are no overdubs or additions of any kind. This is exactly the way it was performed.The pedalboard provides the drone, while the keyboard plays melody. The instrument has a huge range, can play in any key, and I have tried to show some of what it can do in this video.In ancient time, when sagas of this sort were performed, they sometimes went on for hours. I had to cut this down to its bare essentials in order to bring it in under eight minutes. The unedited story contains a lot of interesting details but I didn't want to bore everyone by going on too long!
AE FOND KISS by Robert Burns Peter Pringle 2013-01-06 | "Robbie" Burns Day - January 25, 2013I have known this song for many years, but I had always heard it sung by classically trained sopranos and tenors, so I never dared to sing it. A couple of weeks ago, I heard a rendition of it performed here on YT by Scottish popular singer Eddi Reader, and I loved it! So I decided to take a crack at it myself. Robert Burns is Scotland's poet/ambassador to the world, and this song (only one of many that he wrote) is for me one of the most poignant songs of unrequited love that has ever been written. I'm not going to bore everyone with the history of this song. If you are curious about it, here is the Wikipedia entry that will tell you the whole story.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ae_Fond_KissThe instrument I am playing in this video I call the "tibicen" (this is the Latin word for "piper"). I devised this instrument myself because I love to sing with the pipes but it is impossible to play them and sing at the same time. The tibicen is entirely electronic and consists of two parts (only one of which can be seen in this video). There is a keyboard "chanter" which sits on the knees of the performer and can play in any key over a range of many octaves. The other part is a pedal board similar to an organ (which is not visible in the video) which plays the drones, and can change keys and harmonies very much like the Irish uilleann pipes.Part of the problem with pipes (and with the hurdy gurdy which I also play) is that they are extremely loud and their volume cannot be controlled by the player so they tend to drown out a singer. With the tibicen, every aspect of the sound, volume, slides, range, etc., can be controlled, and it is ideal for an electronic musician like myself.
