Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
After getting permission from Mary McGrath, the vocalist and writer of the poem "Life Lessons", I can now upload the full version of this piece, featuring vocals by Mary herself. Mary McGrath is an American writer and photographer. She has published a book "Trespassing, Stoplights and Attitudes", now out of print, but a little bird told me there may be a few copies left from the author herself. If interested in getting a copy, please leave a comment saying so and we'll find a way to get you in contact with Mary. The copy can be signed, making it a limited edition item! This music and poetry piece is the result of a collaboration on wikiloops.com - see wikiloops.com/backingtrack-jam-293028
The piano only version was uploaded earlier as "Late night thoughts".
#poetry #piano #meditative #philipglass #minimal
After getting permission from Mary McGrath, the vocalist and writer of the poem "Life Lessons", I can now upload the full version of this piece, featuring vocals by Mary herself. Mary McGrath is an American writer and photographer. She has published a book "Trespassing, Stoplights and Attitudes", now out of print, but a little bird told me there may be a few copies left from the author herself. If interested in getting a copy, please leave a comment saying so and we'll find a way to get you in contact with Mary. The copy can be signed, making it a limited edition item! This music and poetry piece is the result of a collaboration on wikiloops.com - see wikiloops.com/backingtrack-jam-293028
The piano only version was uploaded earlier as "Late night thoughts".
#poetry #piano #meditative #philipglass #minimal


![Epitaph 1: Seikilos Epitaph
Im starting the upload of a series of 7 pieces inspired by ancient Greek and Roman Epitaphs (texts on graves). Ill upload a new one every 2 weeks. Endlessly fascinating, the epitaphs come in all sizes and styles (as will become apparent as more uploads appear).
While most of the pieces I will upload are more experimental in nature, this first one is a very accessible (but modernized) version of the oldest known complete song (music + lyrics) in history, namely Seikilos Epitaph (written by Seikilos, and dedicated to Euterpe, possibly his wife). Many versions of this song exist by now, and this video adds one to the pile. It is composed by hand and recorded fragment by fragment as midi information into a digital audio workstation. After all recordings were done, all tracks are executed simultaneously using a Roland Integra-7.
The epitaph has been variously dated, but seems to be either from the 1st or the 2nd century AD. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone (a stele) from the Hellenistic town Tralles near present-day Aydın, Turkey, not far from Ephesus. It is a Hellenistic Ionic song in either the Phrygian octave species or Iastian tonos. While older music with notation exists (for example the Hurrian songs), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition.
Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἔστι[2] τὸ ζῆν
τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
hóson zêis, phaínou
mēdèn hólōs sù lupoû
pròs olígon ésti tò zên
tò télos ho khrónos apaiteî.
While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and Time demands his due. Epitaph 1: Seikilos Epitaph](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9P27OWI1hIo/mqdefault.jpg)



![Funeral Song - orchestral version with MuseScore 4.0
On the occasion of the just released free and open source MuseScore 4.0 sheet music editor, I reworked a piece I wrote a few months ago into an orchestral arrangement. You can hear the previous (very diiferent!) version of this same piece at wikiloops.com (at https://www.wikiloops.com/backingtrack-jam-251773.php). Wikiloops.com is a website where Ive been happily collaborating with musicians from all over the world in the past few months. If you feel like playing or composing with other musicians in all kinds of musical styles as well, be sure to check it out!
(Interestingly, I couldnt find how to display the score with correct transposing for the different instruments - either the option is hidden very well, or its not yet present in this entirely renewed version of MuseScore 4.0.)
[Note: after a few hours more searching, I did find the concert pitch button. Its hidden in the bottom of the screen - not sure who thought thatd be intuitive... but at least its there. Too late for this video though.]
Credits:
background video by Ambient_Nature_ Atmosphere from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-huge-water-stream-coming-out-of-mountains-5139026/
thumbnail based on https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=181623&picture=old-church-and-cemetery
score display from MuseScore 4.0 (https://www.musescore.org) Funeral Song - orchestral version with MuseScore 4.0](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/A4kTh1pBwTM/mqdefault.jpg)



