Posted on 09/30/2026 9:30:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Seikilos Epitaph is the earliest surviving music composition, written in ancient Greek in the 1st or 2nd century CE. Isn't it amazing we're playing a tune 2000 years old?
I made 2 versions. The first one's just the melody. The second adds simple accompaniments.
Tuning: G, A, B, C D E F G A B C' D' E' F' G' A' Seikilos Epitaph (The Oldest Complete Tune)
- Lyre Harp Cover & Tutorial | 0:52
Samantha on Mars | 43.4K subscribers | 25,046 views | January 23, 2022
Seikilos epitaph YouTube search
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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https://protesilaos.com/interpretations/2022-10-12-seikilos-epitaph/
While alive shine
Grieve none at all
Life amounts to little
Time demands the end
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikilos_epitaph
In English the poem translates as: “As long as you’re alive, shine, don’t be sad at all; life is short, time asks for its due” per Rohland (2022). Landels (1999) provides the alternative translation: “As long as you live, let the world see you, and don’t make yourself miserable; life is short, and Time demands his due”.
“the Seikilos Epitaph is not the absolute first or oldest musical piece in human history, but it is the oldest surviving complete song with fully readable musical notation.”
The Oldest Complete Song: Created around the 1st or 2nd century CE in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), it features both lyrics and specific pitch notation written on a stone monument.
Other musical recordings are older, but they are incomplete. For example, the Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal dates back to around 1400 BCE, but it only survives in broken pieces and tuning instructions rather than a fully intact melody. Sumerian cuneiform tablets from around 1900 BCE contain music theory and tuning guides, but they cannot be fully played today like the Seikilos Epitaph. Curse of being a music major.
wy69
Feels Like Rain | 4:50
John Hiatt | 23K subscribers | 64,520 views | December 12, 2018
🎵 Hey, FR has at least one topic about the Hurrian hymn. 🎶
Pleasant music Good vibrations BUMP!
The Complete Capitol Recordings Of The Nat King Cole Trio'Tis Autumn | 3:08
Nat King Cole | 521K subscribers | 4,428,751 views | May 10, 2017
Composer Lyricist: Jimmy van Heusen
Composer Lyricist: Sammy CahnThe September Of My Years | 3:21
Frank Sinatra | 3.04M subscribers | 155,847 views | July 25, 2018
“Good beat... easy to dance to”
— American Bandstand
That certainly gives a whole new meaning to "classical" music!
It's interesting that the ancient Greeks developed a pentatonic (five tone) scale independently of its development centuries earlier in China.
“...FR has at least one topic...”
I find it interesting that the writer(s) are determining any of them to be the first songs. Long before there were musical instruments the songs were done in voice and maybe with a clap, a foot stomp, or some other man made sound. And they weren’t harmonized but just a single melody that very few performed as music was not a lot more than a sound and Kacey Kasum wasn’t born yet.
Even the lute wasn’t recognized as invented until just before 3100 BCE. And it was quite the technology as early long-necked lutes appeared in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) prior to 3100 BCE, using turtle shells or carved wood for the body and animal skin for the soundboard. It wasn’t a Fender Stratocaster, but pretty cool for that time frame.
wy69
Kassia, a Byzantine-era composer, has a decent body of surviving work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioWWIiG_sHc
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