No recordings of antiquity exist, and Sappho's melodies are lost. But the pitch-data survived. Everything below is synthesised live, on a plucked-string voice, from real ancient material — the modes, the Pythagorean tuning, the metre. Tap to listen.
seven strings · Terpander's lyre · tap to pluck
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what's real here. the pitches come from the documented ancient octave species and Pythagorean tuning (whole tone 9:8, leimma 256:243); the enharmonic genus uses true quarter-tones; the rhythm is the actual quantitative metre (long ≈ twice a short). what's not. the plucked timbre is a modern synthesis of a lyre, not a recording — none exist. the "Seikilos mode" phrase is an evocation in the right scale and lilt, not the surviving Seikilos melody, which needs its score read note-for-note. sound is generated by your browser; nothing is downloaded.