Constantinople : Queen of Cities - Epic Music

An original composition by Farya Faraji. I wanted to write something that would encapsulate the growth of the settlement which would become the centre of the Old World for centuries: first Lygos, then Byzantium, then Augusta Antonia, and finally, the New Rome: Constantinople. The music begins with Ancient Greek orchestration: made up of cymbals, lyres, a pan flute, askaulos and aulos. It then gradually moves into a medieval Eastern Roman one, with the santouri, qanun, byzantine lyre and oud, all utilised in the court music of Constantinople by the 14th century and perhaps earlier. The melody is built to be especially chromatic in structure, as is typical of older Greek music from the Hellenistic and Byzantine eras, and plays around with the tetrachordal structure of Greek music theory; moving around the Hijaz-like tetrachords with the natural minor tetrachord around the piece. #epicbyzantinemusic #epicromanmusic