The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The epitaph has been dated variously from around 200 BC to around AD 100, but the first century AD is the most probable guess. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in theancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone, a stele, Tralles Hellenistic town , near Aydın,Turkey (not far from Ephesus). It is a HellenisticIonic song in either the Phrygianoctave species or Iastian tonos. While older music with notation exists (for example the Hurrian songs), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition.[1]
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