Ancient Greek Music – The Basics

Ancient Greece was the birthplace of modern civilisation, and along with many other forms of art the development of music was a key part of the Ancient Greek culture, and played an important role in everyday life. Greek music was used as a way of honouring the gods, and an essential part of creating a civilised society and still to this day many traditional dances and songs are played at religious and cultural ceremonies as a key part of the celebrations.

Music was one of the main subjects in Ancient Greek education, along with reading, arithmetic and athletics and the Ancient Greeks crafted all kinds of musical instruments including lyres (a type of harp), pipes and percussion instruments such as drums and cymbals. The word music actually comes from the Greek word ‘muses’, who were the daughters of Zeus in the Ancient Greek pantheon and the goddesses of intellectual and creative endeavours.

The Ancient Greeks did note down their music, and some examples of this have survived along with many ancient literary references to music so historians can be reasonably sure of how music may have sounded in Ancient Greek times, and this has allowed musicians to record new versions of this classic form of ancient Greek music for us to listen to and enjoy in modern times.

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