Oktokaidekasemos
for voices and body percussion. Duration c. 7’
License: CC-BY 4.0Â Â
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A modern composition based on a melody from a Roman-era schoolbook, as rhythmically reconstructed by Stefan Hagel (2008), with choreography and musical arranging by Barnaby Brown and Stef Conner (2022). For any community, any time, any age, anywhere.
Sources and scholarship
Melody:Â Anon. Bellermann A 101 = DAGM 37.
HAGEL, Stefan (2008). Ancient Greek rhythm: the Bellermann exercises. Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, 88: 129–31.
HAGEL, Stefan (2018). ‘Musics’, Bellermann’s Anonymi, and the art of the aulos. Greek and Roman Musical Studies, 6/1: 160.
Vocables: Anon. Bellermann § 77, 86 and 91–93; Aristides Quintilianus 1.6 and 2.14.
HAGEL, Stefan (2022). Ancient ‘solmisation’ and the meaning of notes. Greek and Roman Musical Studies, 10/1: 136–175.
Hagel’s 18-beat and 8-beat reconstructions (two alternative solutions) are found on pages 160 and 168 of https://doi.org/10.1163/22129758-12341316.
For more on these ancient vocables, see https://doi.org/10.1163/22129758-bja10042.
How to cite this sheet music
BROWN, Barnaby and Stef Conner (2025). Vocable Workout: Oktokaidekasemos (‘18-Beat’). Lotos Lab.
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28687133. License: CC-BY 4.0.