Vīvāmus - Ancient Roman Song

Music and vocals by Farya Faraji, lyrics by Gaius Valerius Catullus. This another one of my attempts at conveying a historically accurate sound of what Ancient Roman music would have sounded like based on the known facts. In my opinion, the best place to start for reconstructing their music is the poetry: Ancient Roman poetry used the interplay of long vs short vowel lengths and stress accent to create rythmic effects to the poetry, not unlike modern rap does. This gives us a direct insight into some rythmic structures preserved by the phonemic quality of the language.

Therefore, I based the structure of this song entirely on the recitation of the poem, and simply added musical notes to the pre-existing rythmic skeleton, using what they called the Phrygian Diatonic mode (which is the equivalent to today's Dorian mode), and building the instrumentation around my reconstructed Greco-Roman lyre, frame drums, ancient cymbals, and a pan flute, all of which were in use back then. Knowing that poetry was often recited musically, I believe this example to be one of the most plausible possibilities of what their songs may have sounded like. The pronunciation used is Restored Classical pronunciation, which is the same pronunciation Catullus himself would have used.

Catullus is one of the great Roman poets of the late Republic, who wrote in the Neoteric style, a style that was somewhat rebellious for its day in contrast to the established norm, since the Neoterics purposefully moved away from the epic scale of gods and heroes rooted in Homeric poetry, and instead embraced more personal issues like personal love, or an artist's identity. This poem, which we call Catullus 5, like 24 others, is devoted to a certain Lesbia, widely believed to be Clodia Metelli, a Roman aristocrat.

Latin lyrics:
Uīuāmūs mĕă Lēsbĭa. ātque ămēmŭs.
rūmōrēsquĕ sĕnūm sĕuērĭōrŭm
ōmnēs ūnĭŭs aēstĭmēmŭs āssĭs.
dā mī bāsĭă mīllĕ. deīndĕ cēntŭm.
deīn mīlle āltĕră. deīn sĕcūndă cēntŭm.
deīnde ūsque āltĕră mīllĕ. deīndĕ cēntŭm.
deīn cūm mīlĭă mūltă fēcĕrīmŭs
cōntūrbābĭmŭs īllă nē scĭāmŭs
aūt nē quīs mălŭs īnuĭdērĕ pōssĭt
cūm tāntūm scĭăt ēssĕ bāsĭōrŭm

English translation:
Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
and let us judge all the rumors of the old men
to be worth just one penny!
Give me a thousand kisses, then another hundred,
then another thousand, then a second hundred,
then yet another thousand more, then another hundred.
Then, when we have made many thousands,
we will mix them all up so that we don't know,
and so that no one can be jealous of us when he finds out
how many kisses we have shared.

[faryafaraji]

Music and vocals by Farya Faraji, lyrics by Gaius Valerius Catullus. This another one of my attempts at conveying a historically accurate sound of what Ancient Roman music would have sounded like based on the known facts. In my opinion, the best place to start for reconstructing their music is the poetry: Ancient Roman poetry used the interplay of long vs short vowel lengths and stress accent to create rythmic effects to the poetry, not unlike modern rap does. This gives us a direct insight into some rythmic structures preserved by the phonemic quality of the language.

Therefore, I based the structure of this song entirely on the recitation of the poem, and simply added musical notes to the pre-existing rythmic skeleton, using what they called the Phrygian Diatonic mode (which is the equivalent to today's Dorian mode), and building the instrumentation around my reconstructed Greco-Roman lyre, frame drums, ancient cymbals, and a pan flute, all of which were in use back then. Knowing that poetry was often recited musically, I believe this example to be one of the most plausible possibilities of what their songs may have sounded like. The pronunciation used is Restored Classical pronunciation, which is the same pronunciation Catullus himself would have used.

Catullus is one of the great Roman poets of the late Republic, who wrote in the Neoteric style, a style that was somewhat rebellious for its day in contrast to the established norm, since the Neoterics purposefully moved away from the epic scale of gods and heroes rooted in Homeric poetry, and instead embraced more personal issues like personal love, or an artist's identity. This poem, which we call Catullus 5, like 24 others, is devoted to a certain Lesbia, widely believed to be Clodia Metelli, a Roman aristocrat.

Latin lyrics:
Uīuāmūs mĕă Lēsbĭa. ātque ămēmŭs.
rūmōrēsquĕ sĕnūm sĕuērĭōrŭm
ōmnēs ūnĭŭs aēstĭmēmŭs āssĭs.
dā mī bāsĭă mīllĕ. deīndĕ cēntŭm.
deīn mīlle āltĕră. deīn sĕcūndă cēntŭm.
deīnde ūsque āltĕră mīllĕ. deīndĕ cēntŭm.
deīn cūm mīlĭă mūltă fēcĕrīmŭs
cōntūrbābĭmŭs īllă nē scĭāmŭs
aūt nē quīs mălŭs īnuĭdērĕ pōssĭt
cūm tāntūm scĭăt ēssĕ bāsĭōrŭm

English translation:
Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
and let us judge all the rumors of the old men
to be worth just one penny!
Give me a thousand kisses, then another hundred,
then another thousand, then a second hundred,
then yet another thousand more, then another hundred.
Then, when we have made many thousands,
we will mix them all up so that we don't know,
and so that no one can be jealous of us when he finds out
how many kisses we have shared.

[sktalha]

Why this channel is so underrated ??

This is one of the finest music producing channel ever witnessed.

[mitrahispana]

This was the first Roman poem I ever had to translate as a school assignment. I still have it memorized. Even across the sea of time, it is still emotionally charged and passionate. Bravo! I think it’s another perfect performance from Farya Faraji,

[johannesullmann]

Farya, I have a Latin Test in 2 Weeks about Catullus and this is one of my favorire poems by him. Thank you for making the studying easier, Fresko/Tapestry-Man

[georgianmapper]

this man has made more roman music than romans themselves

[iancrhd]

Nice work Farya! I prefer this kind of daily life/cultural songs rather than the epic ones. History is not just battles and generals, but ordinary people with ordinary lifes too.

[daciaromana]

Great voice. You have to admire the pronunciation. It’s the most authentic there is. Even the retracted "s" is on point. It is as if a real Roman is singing.

[DavidAmster]

Euge! Optime hoc carmen pulchrum cantavisti! Thanks so much for this beautiful and accurate rendition of Catullus. May you do many more!

[vojin]

I am a law student and these days I am studying for my Roman law exam. Thank you Farya Faraji, for all of your work related with Roman Empire (including Byzantium), it helps me to better understand and visualize the times that are long behind us. God bless!

[tribunus]

Love it! Always amazing music, no matter the place, historical period or culture. It's really inspiring. Thank you so much

[Marcelocostache]

As somebody who speaks Romanian Spanish and French I’m surprised how much y can actually understand, please make more videos like this thank you.

[Northy.]

Another banger from the best Historically accurate musical man of this time

[iberius]

Masterpiece! Catullus himself would no doubt have been proud of this! More of this ancient poetry should be set to such splendid musical arrangement!

[MedjayofFaiyum]

This man can become a Persian, a Roman, A French Crusader, a French Renissance Jacques Sparrow, a Greek singer, etc

I wonder if we'll see our esteemed ancient singer of the world, Farya sing Ancient Egyptian Songs?

I would love to see Farya in Ancient Egyptian cosplay (Bayek of Siwa style) while singing the songs of the glorious land of Khemet

[justinianthegreat]

Amazing work Mr. Faraji, you give great honor to my ancestors, the people whom your ancestors had fought against, it is absolutely amazing and the more you make songs the better it gets, you show us quality music and great talent that improves overtime. Excited for your next Byzantine music

[easternlights]

Oh my god thank you so much! The work of my favourite poet set to the music of my favourite musician!

[dand]

i'm addicted to this youtube channel (Farya Faraji) ... always great quality content !

[kirkdougherty]

A lovely performance. You made me get out my old volume of Catullus' poems which happily is a bilingual edition translated by James Michie. These performances transport me back to ages that the fascinated me when I was a child learning how to read. Thank you for keeping the spirit alive for me and others like me.

[sabrinam]

You brought this poem to life in such a sublime way.

[primusIIV]

These songs are absoluetly enchanting to listen to, the instruments and lyrics are soothing to ears. I am glad we have great artists like you