GREEK music
Among the many extraordinary treasures that have been dug from the sands of Egypt are the musical papyri: scraps of papyrus (the ancient equivalent of paper) containing musical notation. While it is certainly true that we do not know specifically what the melodies of Sappho sounded like, or the choruses of Sophocles, the frequent complaint that ancient Greek music is "lost" is overstated.
In fact, we know quite a lot: we know a great deal about the rhythms of the music, since these are reflected in the metrical patterns of Greek verse. We know much about the musical system, that is, how the scales were conceived and
the like, since by a near miracle the works of several Greek musical theorists survive. We can infer much about the instruments, using as evidence surviving fragments of ancient instruments, depictions on vases and wall paintings, literary descriptions, and cross-cultural comparison.
Most spectacularly, though, we also know something of the melodies, since over 30 melodies or collections of melodies come down to us. A couple are passed down through the medieval tradition. Five are preserved on stone inscriptions. The rest, however, survive on the waste paper of antiquity -- papyrus -- and many of these papyri have been published only recently. Most are very fragmentary, preserving only a few notes here, a couple of phrases there; but the sum of the parts does, in fact, give us a vivid idea of how ancient music sounded.
Indeed, these are heady times for students of ancient music. The gradual accumulation of evidence permits us to begin to sketch with some specificity what ancient music was like, particularly for early Roman empire (the first and second centuries AD). The music of those times was, in a word, extravagant-- sinuous, florid, even histrionic. For those interested in the details, I particularly recommend (aside from my own work, below) a landmark book that is both scholarly and reasonably accessible: M. L. West�s Ancient Greek Music (1992).
I have had the good fortune to publish two new papyrus fragments with ancient Greek musical notation (both currently in press; follow the links to hear the music):