The Gates of Trajan - Epic Byzantine Music
You can buy this song and the rest of my music here: https://faryafaraji.bandcamp.com/albu...
Music by Farya Faraji, including musical samples by Ancient Greek music specialists. The Epic Byzantine series is a project that uses the sounds of the current, living heritage of Greek traditional music to explore the themes, myths, and folklore that originated in the medieval Eastern Roman (Byzantine) period. These works are not reconstructions of medieval Greek music, nor "epic music" in a cinematic soundtrack sense, but an ethnomusicological project reflecting the living tradition of Greek music as it exists today. The repertoire of Greek traditional music is a direct continuation of the narrative traditions that crystallised in the Byzantine period, including the Akritic songs and other local legends. Likewise, Greek traditional music continues the modal and monophonic musical language of medieval Greece, preserved in forms such as Byzantine chant. The Epic Byzantine series therefore explores Byzantine-era epic narratives through today's Greek traditional music, understood as a direct continuation of that earlier cultural and musical world.
The Battle of the Gates of Trajan was a battle between Byzantine and the forces of the First Bulgarian Empire in 986. It was a decisive victory for the Bulgarian forces, led by Samuil of Bulgaria, and a crushing defeat for the Byzantines. As described by John Geometres: "Even if the sun would have come down, I would have never thought that the Moesian (Bulgarian) arrows were stronger than the Avzonian (Greek, Byzantine) spears. And when you, Phaethon (Sun), descend to the earth with your gold-shining chariot, tell the great soul of the Caesar: The Danube (Bulgaria) took the crown of Rome. The arrows of the Moesians broke the spears of the Avzonians.
Due to the Bulgarian theme of the piece as well as the geographical location of the battle, I chose to root this composition in the tradition of Thracian music, which is a shared musical tradition between the southern parts of Bulgaria and Northern Greece. Alongside the use of the gaida bagpipe, possibly the emblematic instrument of Thracian music, the music uses an irregular time signature. A person not from the Balkans, Turkey, Greece or other countries with similar music might initially have a hard time sensing where the rhythm of the song is and tapping their foot to it--this is a common aspect of Balkanic music, which often uses asymmetrical rhythmic structures that are unusual to ears from other cultures. A Thracian style choir, most commonly found in Bulgaria, accompanies the song, as well as throat singing which is a nod to the Turkic origin of the Bulgars, an ethnic Turkic people who coexisted and fought alongside the Slavic Bulgarians, and who together with the latter formed the backbone of the First Bulgarian Empire.