Atrium Musicae de Madrid (Gregorio Paniagua) - Musique de la Grèce Antique

Considerably more remains of ancient Greek architecture than the music of this advanced and inspirational civilization. And although works explaining Greek music theory have survived, the actual existence of composed pieces from these times comes down to only a few scraps that survived on papyrus, marble columns, and other written sources. This Spanish ensemble under the leadership of Gregorio Paniagua pieced together these remains and performed them with reconstructions of instruments from ancient Greek sources, some of which, such as the bagpipe, remain in use today. Portions of the music included may remind listeners of very early classical music such as Gregorian chant, whereas other pieces will certainly cause an astonished reaction as they sound unlike any other music recorded. Some is sparse, floating, the melodic ideas developing very slowly. A few of the old-world Greek percussion instruments wind up sounding quite a bit like new-world electronic music. – Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide



I am not an expert by any means, but reconstructing Greek music from a few textual clues cannot be easy to do. The scholars responsible for this reconstruction freely acknowledge that they are borrowing from many apocryphal sources, and there is no way to be certain that what we hear is authentic Greek music, but what we do hear is (if you will permit a very unprofessional adjective) mind-blowing. The recording itself is very nice, and the music is (for most Westerners) unlike anything you have heard before. Anyone with an interest in ancient culture should listen to this if only to gain a deeper understanding of Greek culture, and anyone who wants to be challenged in their music appreciation cannot afford to pass this up. (demmeis)