What I Would do if I Lived in Ancient Greece (from a Musical Perspective)

The period of Ancient Greece is a bit of a long time period to cover, and it's full of many interesting things. How awesome would it be to travel back in time and chill out with Socrates or another great thinker (although not Plato... based on my readings for my music history class, he sounds like a bit of jerk)? I would just love to pick their brains, and maybe disprove some common stereotypes about women of the time period. 

Anyway, the focus of this post is going to be music! Exciting, right? I was inspired by my music history class for this one. I'm going to tell you this now... ancient Greek music is weird. The lute is pretty, the aulos not so much, and their notes are especially strange. I guess that they wrote their music based on weird scalar patterns (I can't remember the exact term, but they each had a name like "proslambenomenos") including quarter tones (which just sound horribly off-key to the modern ear). I wince every time. Then, the music apparently either consisted of just a single melodic line (doubled by voice and lute) or else a melodic line over a single repeated pitch in the instrumentals. In short, pretty weird compared to what we're used to hearing. Here are a couple of examples, if you're interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RjBePQV4xE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn7jvHI2kU4

Weird, huh? Cool, but weird. You're lucky I didn't post anything with quarter tones!

The point of this little education session is so that you can now understand exactly what I would do if I could go back to ancient Greece:

1. Wow them all by showing them polyphony. For those of you who don't really know music terminology, this means music with more than one voice/melody line. So, in other words, I might steal their lutes and play a harmony line along with something I was singing. Also, their music doesn't seem particularly tonal (in other words, there's no pitch that you feel an ache to return to; there's no pitch centre!). I wonder what they would think of tonal music? Of course, they might just find more modern (by modern, I kind of mean classical, sorry) music just as strange as I find their music.

2. Come up with mathematical equations for pitches before Pythagoras, just to feel extra smart. 

3. Show them modern opera technique. Of course, I'm still learning, so I'm not really a great example.  However, I have a feeling that sound production was far different back then. I'd be interested to see what they would think of a larger, more balanced sound! 

4. Prove the capability of a woman to perform. Again, I don't think it would be fair to say that I'm really a good example of this since I'm just learning and not all that great yet. However, the slightly feminist side of me is itching to show them that a woman can accomplish just as much of a man. 

5. Teach them a modern notation system. The Greeks apparently had a rough sort of notation system, but very little of their music was actually recorded because it was apparently regarded as something meant only for the specific moment of the performance. However, how lovely would it be to give them a way to write down exactly what they're doing and give them a reason for doing it? Then we wouldn't really have to guess about their performance practices and musical styles to the same degree, because it would already by a part of history!

Anyway, sorry if this got too music-nerdy for you. I just find the subject pretty interesting myself (which is why I'm studying it, I suppose!). The point is, Greek music was interesting, and I would love a chance to see what a musical performance was really like then. I'd also love to exchange musical knowledge. Ancient Greece is a pretty cool place, to be honest. If only there were a time machine!

-Laura