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Sample Track 1:
"Ashir Shirim (I Will Sing Songs to God)" from Ancient Echoes
Sample Track 2:
"Rannanu (Sing with Joy)" from Ancient Echoes
Sample Track 3:
"Abwoon (O Father-Mother of the Cosmos) [The Aramaic Lord's Prayer]" from Ancient Echoes
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Ancient Echoes
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Reviews: SAVAE -- Ancient Echoes

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Shelbyville News , Reviews: SAVAE -- Ancient Echoes >>

You've probably been wondering, "What did the music sound like in Jerusalem's second temple during the time of Jesus?"  

Well, maybe not.  But the San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble did more than wonder.  The group also known as SAVAE, has attempted to reconstruct this long-lost music using archaeological findings, anthropological studies, ancient Jewish and Christian texts and contemporaneous historical accounts.  The most important resource was the work of musicologist A.S. Idelsohn, who discovered in the 1900s that Jewish groups scattered around the globe used the same themes and progressions in their folk music.

SAVAE used his findings to write melodies for Aramaic prayers and texts found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient documents.  The music is performed on period instruments, including drums, lutes and the ram's horn trumpet called the shofar.

The result is by turns earthy and ethereal, primitive and operatic, spiritual and sensual, uplifting and spooky.  Whether or not the temple music of 2000 years ago actually sounded like this, Ancient Echoes makes for a powerful audio experience.

 05/01/03
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