# Ancient Music. What did it sound like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2003, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-music-what-did-it-sound-like/149888 "2003-01-20T23:25:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-music-what-did-it-sound-like/149888/21 "2003-01-21T21:02:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dorkusmalorkusmafia \* > \*\*[Correction to jr8’s dates. This link puts the Epitaph at the 2nd century BC, regardless of that the piece is still roughly a couple thousand years old. It also lists some other contemporary extant pieces.](http://keyboardtimes.com/mh/Chapter01/chapter01outline.htm) \*\* Strange – that site lists Grout/Palisca Ch.1 as its source – which is the same source I used for the date. In fact, I’ve got both the 5th and 6th editions, and both say it dates from “around the first century C.E.” _Orestes_ is 3rd to 2nd century B.C., according to the same source. ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-music-what-did-it-sound-like/149888/22 "2003-01-21T22:24:12Z")
That is odd. I don’t have my music texts here at the moment. I will have to look at it again when I get back home. On a side note, when I was researching a paper about Josquin Desprez, the monster version of Groves Dictionary of Music (the big encyclopedia set) said that he had more extant music than any other source. I believe it was something like 21 (for them) but 18 for every other source. I went with the majority source at that one because the extra research wasn’t worth it for a little throwaway paper for the school’s musical journal. However, I still noted the discrepancy. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-music-what-did-it-sound-like/149888/23 "2003-01-21T22:41:02Z")
Three cheers to jr8 for some wonderful answers. I was going to reach for my Grout, but your answer is much more thorough than my quick re-reading would have been. Besides, the best I have is the complete Fourth Edition and the shorter Third Edition. Are you a music professor there across the pond? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-music-what-did-it-sound-like/149888/24 "2003-01-22T00:28:12Z")
My wife is the musicology professor, hence the textbooks close at hand. Me, I’ve got a bachelors in music history but I’m more into the admin end of the music biz these days, or am trying to be. The signature in my first post says it all. **dorkus** : I’m willing to accept that Grout/Palisca may be wrong (as indeed Grove sometimes is), but it’s a little odd to see different information presented than is in the only source cited. It’s still pretty darned early for musical notation, whichever date you take. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-music-what-did-it-sound-like/149888/25 "2003-01-22T00:32:17Z")
I just thought I’d add that it’s nice to finally have a question to which I can offer more than the odd bit of trivia, my usual contribution to the factual threads. Let’s see – that makes one every two years or so, so the next one will be April 2005. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-music-what-did-it-sound-like/149888.md?page=1)