Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Vocals by the Anton Pann Byzantine choir, conducted by Constantin Răileanu, tsambouna by Dimitrios Dallas, lyra by Illias de Sutter Ntavidlis, oud by Izer M, lyrics by Demetrios Parascho, kanonaki, laouto and daouli by Farya Faraji.
The Epic Byzantine series is a musical project that uses the sounds of today's living Greek traditional music to explore the themes, myths, and folklore that originated in the medieval Eastern Roman (Byzantine) period. These works are not reconstructions of medieval Greek music, nor "epic music" of the cinematic, heightened soundscape genre, but an ethnomusicological project reflecting the living tradition of Greek music as it exists today. The repertoire of Greek traditional music is a direct continuation of the narrative traditions that crystallised in the Byzantine period, including the Akritic songs and other local legends. Likewise, Greek traditional music continues the modal and monophonic musical language of medieval Greece, preserved in forms such as Byzantine chant. The Epic Byzantine series therefore explores Byzantine-era epic narratives through modern Greek traditional music, understood as a direct continuation of that earlier cultural and musical world.
Belisarius is a song written and performed within the tradition of Agean island Greek traditional music, and the broader modal traditions of the region including liturgical Byzantine Chant. It was released in 2023 and achieved virality, proving the core message of this channel: that traditional music is welcomed by audiences at large. With Belisarius, we are looking at what is essentially an example Aegean islands tsambouna music, which uses drums and the laouto's rhythmic basis that plays a modal drone called Ison, keeping to the tonal center of the mode throughout the melody and dropping to the subtonic in moments of melodic resolution, against the melodic development of the tsambouna bagpipe.
Over this instrumental basis, I wanted the sound of a Byzantine choir of the liturgical style for this rendition. Whilst this sound is typically meant for liturgical music, it is not infrequent for Byzantine liturgical choirs to perform secular modal music, as the secular traditions of the areas where Byzantine chant is performed belong to the same shared DNA of modal music, being therefore part of one broader tradition. I thus collaborated with the renowned Anton Pann ensemble and choir, directed by Constantin Răileanu, a Byzantine chanter, musicologist, and expert of Byzantine music, as well as the broader modal traditions of the Balkans and Anatolia, all rooted in Byzantine influence. The choice of a Romanian choir was obvious: they are part of the Byzantine musical sphere and posess some of the greatest Byzantine musicians, and that, paired with their language, renders them uniquely well suited to tackling a modal Byzantine song in the Latin language.
The tsambouna is beautifully played by my friend and colleague Dimitrios Dallas, an expert in the Agean musical tradition this song showcases.
Belisarius' viral success is a testament to the power of letting traditional music speak as it is, collaborating with members of that tradition and placing oneself in service of that tradition, to let those communal, old sounds speak for themselves. Its success is not the fruits of any one person's "musical vision," but a collaborative process rooted in the beauty of traditional sounds from the Byzantine modal tradition.
The lyrics are from my Justinian symphony from 2023, which tell in operatic form the careers of Belisarius and Justinian, sang here in the form of a dialogue.
Lyrics in Latin:
Gladius Rōmae imperiī sum
Ubist nostrum imperium?
Nē plōrā, māter Rōma;
Denuō flōrēbis.
Cīvis Rōmānus sum,
Sed sine imperiō sum.
Sanguine barbarōrum renāta erit Rōma.
Caesar, Trāiāne,
Cantāte nōbīs, maiōrēs.
Dīcō: Vāde, vince, Belisāriē!
Gladius Rōmae es,
Belisāriē, ībis, vidēbis, vincēs.
Dīcō: Vāde, vince, Belisāriē!
Gladius Rōmae sum,
Belisarius!
English translation:
I am the sword of the Roman Empire.
Where is our empire?
Do not weep, Mother Rome;
You shall bloom again.
I am a Roman citizen,
But I am without an empire.
Rome shall be reborn through the blood of the barbarians.
Caesar, Trajan,
Sing to us, O ancestors.
I say: Go forth, conquer,
Belisarius!
You are the sword of Rome,
Belisarius—you shall go, you shall see, you shall conquer.
I say: Go forth, conquer, Belisarius!
I am the sword of Rome,
Belisarius!
Vocals by the Anton Pann Byzantine choir, conducted by Constantin Răileanu, tsambouna by Dimitrios Dallas, lyra by Illias de Sutter Ntavidlis, oud by Izer M, lyrics by Demetrios Parascho, kanonaki, laouto and daouli by Farya Faraji.
The Epic Byzantine series is a musical project that uses the sounds of today's living Greek traditional music to explore the themes, myths, and folklore that originated in the medieval Eastern Roman (Byzantine) period. These works are not reconstructions of medieval Greek music, nor "epic music" of the cinematic, heightened soundscape genre, but an ethnomusicological project reflecting the living tradition of Greek music as it exists today. The repertoire of Greek traditional music is a direct continuation of the narrative traditions that crystallised in the Byzantine period, including the Akritic songs and other local legends. Likewise, Greek traditional music continues the modal and monophonic musical language of medieval Greece, preserved in forms such as Byzantine chant. The Epic Byzantine series therefore explores Byzantine-era epic narratives through modern Greek traditional music, understood as a direct continuation of that earlier cultural and musical world.
Belisarius is a song written and performed within the tradition of Agean island Greek traditional music, and the broader modal traditions of the region including liturgical Byzantine Chant. It was released in 2023 and achieved virality, proving the core message of this channel: that traditional music is welcomed by audiences at large. With Belisarius, we are looking at what is essentially an example Aegean islands tsambouna music, which uses drums and the laouto's rhythmic basis that plays a modal drone called Ison, keeping to the tonal center of the mode throughout the melody and dropping to the subtonic in moments of melodic resolution, against the melodic development of the tsambouna bagpipe.
Over this instrumental basis, I wanted the sound of a Byzantine choir of the liturgical style for this rendition. Whilst this sound is typically meant for liturgical music, it is not infrequent for Byzantine liturgical choirs to perform secular modal music, as the secular traditions of the areas where Byzantine chant is performed belong to the same shared DNA of modal music, being therefore part of one broader tradition. I thus collaborated with the renowned Anton Pann ensemble and choir, directed by Constantin Răileanu, a Byzantine chanter, musicologist, and expert of Byzantine music, as well as the broader modal traditions of the Balkans and Anatolia, all rooted in Byzantine influence. The choice of a Romanian choir was obvious: they are part of the Byzantine musical sphere and posess some of the greatest Byzantine musicians, and that, paired with their language, renders them uniquely well suited to tackling a modal Byzantine song in the Latin language.
The tsambouna is beautifully played by my friend and colleague Dimitrios Dallas, an expert in the Agean musical tradition this song showcases.
Belisarius' viral success is a testament to the power of letting traditional music speak as it is, collaborating with members of that tradition and placing oneself in service of that tradition, to let those communal, old sounds speak for themselves. Its success is not the fruits of any one person's "musical vision," but a collaborative process rooted in the beauty of traditional sounds from the Byzantine modal tradition.
The lyrics are from my Justinian symphony from 2023, which tell in operatic form the careers of Belisarius and Justinian, sang here in the form of a dialogue.
Lyrics in Latin:
Gladius Rōmae imperiī sum
Ubist nostrum imperium?
Nē plōrā, māter Rōma;
Denuō flōrēbis.
Cīvis Rōmānus sum,
Sed sine imperiō sum.
Sanguine barbarōrum renāta erit Rōma.
Caesar, Trāiāne,
Cantāte nōbīs, maiōrēs.
Dīcō: Vāde, vince, Belisāriē!
Gladius Rōmae es,
Belisāriē, ībis, vidēbis, vincēs.
Dīcō: Vāde, vince, Belisāriē!
Gladius Rōmae sum,
Belisarius!
English translation:
I am the sword of the Roman Empire.
Where is our empire?
Do not weep, Mother Rome;
You shall bloom again.
I am a Roman citizen,
But I am without an empire.
Rome shall be reborn through the blood of the barbarians.
Caesar, Trajan,
Sing to us, O ancestors.
I say: Go forth, conquer,
Belisarius!
You are the sword of Rome,
Belisarius—you shall go, you shall see, you shall conquer.
I say: Go forth, conquer, Belisarius!
I am the sword of Rome,
Belisarius!
