Legends of Sparta - Epic Music

You can buy this song and more of my music here: Music by Farya Faraji, including sampled improvisations from musicologists specialised in Ancient Greek music. Keep in mind that though aspects of this song very much emulate the sound of Ancient Greece’s music, it is by no means meant to be a reconstructive work representative of the era’s music (as evidenced by the copious use of the Bouzouki and Sazi, instruments that appeared more than two thousand years later in Greece), and has more in common with modern Greek folk. All in all though, it’s first and foremost an “epic“ style song, something along the lines of film soundtracks—the point here isn’t to emulate Ancient or modern Greek music in a totally accurate manner. The basis of this piece was inspired by a passage I read about Ancient Greek music, describing how Spartan soldiers would advance in battle to the sound of the auloi pipes, the instrument heard in the very beginning of the tune: “Thucydides describes the Spartans advancing to battle ’slowly, to the music of many pipers, as is their established custom, not for religious reasons but so that their approach should be even and rhythmical and their line not broken, as tends to happen with large forces as they come forward’. Plutarch develops the picture further. When their battle-line was ready drawn up, with the enemy looking on, the king would slaughter the nanny-goat, giving the word for everyone to put on wreaths and telling the pipers to pipe the Castor tune, while he gave the lead in the marching paean. It was a solemn and terrifying sight to see them, stepping in time to the pipe, with no split in their line and no disturbance in their spirits, calmly and cheerfully following the music into mortal danger.“