The Oldest Song We Know: Video
2007
1:07 min., SD video
The Oldest Song We Know is a single-channel video, a site-specific video installation and a series of photographs.
A model city consisting of photographs of American buildings is pulled by people with a fishing line through the Aegean, close to where the island of Atlantis supposedly sank. The soundtrack is a rendition of the Epitaph of Seikilos, the oldest known musical composition with lyrics, dated around 200 BC. The song is inscribed on a tombstone found in modern Turkey in the late 1800s. The lyrics are While you live, shine / Don’t suffer anything at all / Life exists only a short while / And time demands its toll.
The Oldest Song We Know: Installation
2007
8’ x 17’ x 17’
The Oldest Song We Know: Installation [detail]
2007
8’ x 17’ x 17’
The Oldest Song We Know: Installation [detail]
2007
8’ x 17’ x 17’
The Oldest Song We Know: Photograph 1
2007
39” x 26”
The Oldest Song We Know: Photograph 4
2007
39” x 26”
The Oldest Song We Know: Photograph 2
2007
31” x 20.5”
The Oldest Song We Know: Photograph 3
2007
31” x 20.5”
Click here to see the project fabrication process.
Performers
Costas Anastassiadis
Sotirios Bahtsetzis
Georgia Kotertsos
Myrtia Nikolakopoulou
Stephen Riolo
Production
Omer Ali Kazma
Audio
Epitaph of Seiklios (The oldest known documented song with chords)
© 2007 Megan and Murray McMillan