Music composed by Farya Faraji, and featuring instruments by Dimitris Athanasopoulos, Ilias Vlamakis, Ilias de Sutter Ndavidlis, Gökhan Saraç, Izet M, Carmel Abramovitch, and Latin translations by Demetrios Paraschos. A massive shoutout to Ilias Vlamakis for allowing me to use his lyra recordings. Please check out his amazing work at Cretan Lyra Lab: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRZ1_Xp1e_MAdgOpXXYAOLQ
This symphony tells the story of Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I, using the musical language of modern Greek music and its Byzantine medieval antecedents, both secular and liturgical.
The soundscape consists of a wide variety of instruments: the oud, kanun and lyras, which served as the central trinity of Eastern Roman court music in the 1000’s to the end of the empire, ancient instruments going all the way back to Antiquity and still played today like the tsambouna and mandouras, and folk instruments like the tambouras family of lutes and the kaval flute of northern Greece.
The melodies are based on the compositional and performative practices of liturgical Byzantine and Old Roman Chant, regional folk music such as Cycladic, Cretan, Pontic, Thracian Greek music, etc, with the exception of passages dealing with other cultures than the Eastern Romans.
The chapter “A New Cathedral” is not my own composition and is a lyra rendition of the traditional Orthodox hymn Xristos Anesti. The chapter “Theodora’s Malady” is not my own composition and is instead a 16th century Greek composition by a Greek Orthodox monk called Vatepodinos the Younger, played expertly here by Ilias Vlamakis of the Cretan Lyra Lab channel.
The lyrics are written in and pronounced using Classical Latin for convenience: it is not representative of how Latin was spoken at the time. Note that I also ignored vowel length and stress accent frequently for this symphony.
00:00 Overture : I am Justinian
08:20 My Empress
13:42 The Reforms
19:20 The Shadows Over Me
25:32 Nika
35:26 The General
40:00 A New Cathedral
44:00 Renovatio Imperii: Part I
58:54 Renovatio Imperii: Part II
1:06:12 Belisarius’ Crown
1:12:24 The Weight of Dreams
1:16:00 The Two Eyes of the Earth
1:29:26 The Plague
1:34:12 The Empress Reigns
1:39:12 Theodora’s Malady
1:42:00 Farewell, My Queen
1:47:30 Time
1:52:12 A General’s Farewell
1:57:14 Legacy
2:00:50 Death
source
Music composed by Farya Faraji, and featuring instruments by Dimitris Athanasopoulos, Ilias Vlamakis, Ilias de Sutter Ndavidlis, Gökhan Saraç, Izet M, Carmel Abramovitch, and Latin translations by Demetrios Paraschos. A massive shoutout to Ilias Vlamakis for allowing me to use his lyra recordings. Please check out his amazing work at Cretan Lyra Lab: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRZ1_Xp1e_MAdgOpXXYAOLQ
This symphony tells the story of Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I, using the musical language of modern Greek music and its Byzantine medieval antecedents, both secular and liturgical.
The soundscape consists of a wide variety of instruments: the oud, kanun and lyras, which served as the central trinity of Eastern Roman court music in the 1000's to the end of the empire, ancient instruments going all the way back to Antiquity and still played today like the tsambouna and mandouras, and folk instruments like the tambouras family of lutes and the kaval flute of northern Greece.
The melodies are based on the compositional and performative practices of liturgical Byzantine and Old Roman Chant, regional folk music such as Cycladic, Cretan, Pontic, Thracian Greek music, etc, with the exception of passages dealing with other cultures than the Eastern Romans.
The chapter "A New Cathedral" is not my own composition and is a lyra rendition of the traditional Orthodox hymn Xristos Anesti. The chapter "Theodora's Malady" is not my own composition and is instead a 16th century Greek composition by a Greek Orthodox monk called Vatepodinos the Younger, played expertly here by Ilias Vlamakis of the Cretan Lyra Lab channel.
The lyrics are written in and pronounced using Classical Latin for convenience: it is not representative of how Latin was spoken at the time. Note that I also ignored vowel length and stress accent frequently for this symphony.
00:00 Overture : I am Justinian
08:20 My Empress
13:42 The Reforms
19:20 The Shadows Over Me
25:32 Nika
35:26 The General
40:00 A New Cathedral
44:00 Renovatio Imperii: Part I
58:54 Renovatio Imperii: Part II
1:06:12 Belisarius' Crown
1:12:24 The Weight of Dreams
1:16:00 The Two Eyes of the Earth
1:29:26 The Plague
1:34:12 The Empress Reigns
1:39:12 Theodora's Malady
1:42:00 Farewell, My Queen
1:47:30 Time
1:52:12 A General's Farewell
1:57:14 Legacy
2:00:50 Death
Μάλιστα. Μόλις είδα μια δίωρη επική συμφωνία για τον Βυζαντινό Αυτοκράτορα Ιουστινιανό φτιαγμένη από έναν απ' ευθείας απόγονο του Χοσρόη Α" Βασιλιά των Περσών, των Μήδων και των Πάρθων! Amicus aut Adversarius es Farya?
Awsome work…. Is adictive…Can Someone share all the lyrics fot Renovatio Imperii: Part II?
Lyrics for 1:02:52 ?
1:24:00–1:29:26
this part is so underrated
it's so nostalgic for some reason
Ain’t no way it’s already been a year since this masterpiece dropped, I remember browsing YouTube and seeing this in my feed like it was yesterday
This is an oustanding peace of art that needs to live forever! Congratulations Farafaraji, you are a genious!!
1:55:25
Occidentalis cecidit italia flet patri cecidit urbs aeterna fracta est: the first verse 🔥🔥🔥🔥
A Belarusian Belisarius is a belarusius 🔥🔥🔥
What do the Roman people shout in the "Nika" part? Something like "Nika Vava"??, at least that's what I got from the phonetic sound.
32:50
those who touch themselfs:☠️☠️☠️
This is magnificent
Farya Faraji, I'm a big fan of your music and the Justinian Symphony is one of my favourites off all your music. I would love to see a song about Antonina, Belisarius' wife, as she was the most powerful uncrowded woman in the 6th century and companied Belisarius on his conquest in Italy.
Nobody is mentioning it but two eyes of the earth has to be the best thing to have ever graced my ears holy shit
Is rhis song available to buy?
I love the thought of Justinianus being sieged by traitors and rebels, he sends for Belisarius and an hour later the palace gates fly open and in steps Belisarius, sword drawn and ready to defend the Imperator.
57:00
Audiomovie
22:38
1:05:05
Me reconquering Italy to restore the Roman Empire in CK3:
I'm named Justin, and up until recently I thought my name was a 21st century name, that is until I started to learn about Justinian and Justin Martyr. Really makes me appreciate my name so much more. Little did I know it's ancient connection.