“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.” — Plato

The combo includes 5 books and 810 pages in total! More specifically:

✦ Learning the Ancient Greek Lyre – Beginners (Book 1) with 170 pages | Book I of the series focuses on the beginner lyre player. It is a great starting point for everyone willing to unwrap the true potential of this amazing ancient-inspired musical instrument.

✦ Learning the Ancient Greek Lyre – Intermediate (Book 2) with 164 pages | Book II of the series focuses on the intermediate lyre player. It is an excellent book companion for anyone who knows the basics of lyre playing, and is willing to gradually become an expert.

✦ Learning the Ancient Greek Lyre – Advanced (Book 3) with 152 pages | Book III of the series focuses on the advanced lyre player. It is an ideal companion for anyone willing to practice advanced playing techniques further and gradually take their place among the virtuoso lyre players.

✦ Aristoxenus’ Harmonic Elements for the Lyre Player with 216 pages | From simple intervals to tetrachords to the three ancient genera, Aristoxenus attempted to paint a complete picture of what harmony is and how we can use it.

✦ Aristoxenus’ Rhythmic Elements for the Lyre Player with 108 pages | A researcher of mousikē, which in ancient times encompassed all the Muses’ gifts—song, dance, and poetry—Aristoxenus sought to study and explain the underlying rhythmic patterns that govern them all, starting at the beginning, with the metric podas or foot, and advancing to the complexities of rhythmical structure.

In Classical Greece, music was a key element in shaping a virtuous individual and a just society. All the great philosophers agreed on the importance of making music education available to a broad audience, and the lyre was the means to do that. Plato even suggested a three-year compulsory lyre study for all the citizens of his Ideal City-State.

In this three-volume series, “Learning the Ancient Lyre,” you will find everything you need to start as a total beginner and learn all the skills required to become an advanced lyre player. Our educational approach is based on several ancient text sources, depictions of ancient Greek pottery, and Roman frescos, along with the limited (but significant) archaeological findings of lyres from antiquity to medieval times. Additionally, all the exercises, studies, and suggested playing techniques are based on the valuable teaching experience with hundreds of LyreAcademy students worldwide, along with the combined multi-year playing experience of several virtuosos such as Lina Palera, Theodore Koumartzis, and Thanasis Kleopas.

Aristoxenus’ seminal works remain the most important resource for the ancient music student, who faces an almost insurmountable problem. Written for his ancient peers, Aristoxenus’ treatises are almost incomprehensible for the modern musician due to a terminology that is either completely unknown or contradictory to Western music theory. This is exactly where the value of these books lie. Two long-awaited publications, Harmonic Elements for the Lyre Player and Rhythmic Elements for the Lyre Player, bridge that gap. Featuring both the original and the translated text, they go one step beyond. Using sheet music, modern notation, and passages from the original texts with explanatory notes, these books explain Aristoxenus’ teachings in a simple way aimed at the modern musician.

Whether you have a lyre at home or a genuine eagerness to understand ancient Greek music thought, these books are the way to dive into the world of ancient music.

_Credits
Nikolaos Koumartzis, D.Phil. (editor-in-chief)
Fotis Giantsios, M.Litt. (research director)
Lina Palera (composer)
Rogelio Toledo, Ph.D.(c), University of Vienna (foreword)
Armand D’Angour, Professor of Classics (scholarly advisor)
Michael J. Griffin, Professor of Classics (scholarly advisor)

_Publication ID
Paperback Premium Editions
Dimensions: 16 x 23 cm
Pages: 810 (in total)
Plus Sheet music for the ancient Greek lyre, Phorminx, and Kithara