Quote from: Ian Warner;453944My Classics Teacher thinks Blessed was massively miscast as Augustus was supposed to be a scrawny little shit but I quite like him. Especially this

I can't imagine the series without Blessed. I don't know much about the real augustus, and I assume you teacher is correct in terms of accuracy. But Blessed just worked so well in that role.

Quote from: Benoist;453876I just watched the entire series again last week, actually.

I think it's Derek Jacobi's best role. I really love the whole cast. I even forgive Brian Blessed for being himself so much. LOL

I have been meaning to watch the series again sometime soon. At some point I'd love to run a court intrigue game with a similar setting.

Quote from: Ian Warner;453719I Claudius tried it's best to stick with contempary archaeologist's view of early Imperial Roman music including a kickass theme tune but also including this

That is one of the most astounding moments of the entire series.  Where you are just jaw-droppingly blown away by just how absolutely out of his mind Caligula really is. I remember the first time I saw that, as well as the reactions of friends I've shown I Claudius to later.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Ian Warner;453944My Classics Teacher thinks Blessed was massively miscast as Augustus was supposed to be a scrawny little shit but I quite like him. Especially this

Physically miscast? Probably, yes.  But in terms of gravitas, Blessed's casting was a work of genius.  Few other actors could have captured Augustus so well.

RPGpundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;454098Physically miscast? Probably, yes.  But in terms of gravitas, Blessed's casting was a work of genius.  Few other actors could have captured Augustus so well.

RPGpundit

I have to agree with you there.

Blessed really shines at making Augustus charismatic but when he decides to mean business he is immensely formidable.

Damnit, you people are going to get me to watch I, Claudius again for the first time in yonks.

This is a good thing! :hatsoff:

As is Brian Blessed in anything!

Quote from: RPGPundit;454098Physically miscast? Probably, yes.  But in terms of gravitas, Blessed's casting was a work of genius.  Few other actors could have captured Augustus so well.

RPGpundit

I agree. Blessed plays Blessed very well. It was a stroke of casting genius to have thought that Blessed might have blended well as Augustus. Reading Robert Graves' book, I can see how they thought about this. The passages that describe Augustus as a large child who never really grew up when Claudius talks about his teachers and childhood and how Postumus became the "King" of the kids in college really makes me think of the way Blessed portrayed the character.

I think there's more to say about the format the TV series adopted, and the need to condense so much material into 13 units like this, which led to a whole series of shortcuts whose victims started with the complex multifaceted personality of Augustus as depicted in the book, rather than just go on a assumption that Blessed doesn't "fit" Augustus. He does, in a peculiar way.

Quote from: Cole;454134Blessed really shines at making Augustus charismatic but when he decides to mean business he is immensely formidable.

Augustus and Aggripa dancing around each other playing at being friends (which they really are), while at the same time each trying to get what they want (being part of the Imperial family for Aggripa, getting his friend back to soothe the crowds of Rome angry at Marcellus's death for Augustus) out of each other. Blessed's acting with his eyes is terrific. It's a brilliant scene.

Quote from: RPGPundit;454098Physically miscast? Probably, yes.  But in terms of gravitas, Blessed's casting was a work of genius.  Few other actors could have captured Augustus so well.

RPGpundit

I agree. Augustus did after all have a Charisma that was in contrast to his rather unimpresive looks and I think in history there are few people that could have written a book that my Latin Master said you can crudely translate as "How fucking Awesome is Augustus? By Augustus"

Slightly off-topic, I'm a bit of a folky, so my brother bought me a cassette of Viking Music for Christmas. It consisted of a bunch of musicians who had studied old music and has reconstructed what kind of music the Vikings would have listened to.

All I can say is that music has come a long way since.

So, I wouldn't go for authentic music of the time - Roman music was probably nowhere near as good as we think it might have been.

Quote from: soltakss;454576Slightly off-topic, I'm a bit of a folky, so my brother bought me a cassette of Viking Music for Christmas. It consisted of a bunch of musicians who had studied old music and has reconstructed what kind of music the Vikings would have listened to.

All I can say is that music has come a long way since.

So, I wouldn't go for authentic music of the time - Roman music was probably nowhere near as good as we think it might have been.

I once bought a music of the Byzantine Empire CD, and it was some pretty discordant stuff. Don't know how authentic it was, but I actually had players requesting it be turned off. Can't say I blame them either.

Quote from: soltakss;454576Slightly off-topic, I'm a bit of a folky, so my brother bought me a cassette of Viking Music for Christmas. It consisted of a bunch of musicians who had studied old music and has reconstructed what kind of music the Vikings would have listened to.

All I can say is that music has come a long way since.

So, I wouldn't go for authentic music of the time - Roman music was probably nowhere near as good as we think it might have been.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;454581I once bought a music of the Byzantine Empire CD, and it was some pretty discordant stuff. Don't know how authentic it was, but I actually had players requesting it be turned off. Can't say I blame them either.

So far I haven't heared reconstructed "ancient" music that was actually pleasant to listen to, to me. In this case I prefer to go for getting a certain atmosphere across, rather than semi-authenticity. We'll never know what the real thing sounded like anyway.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;454581I once bought a music of the Byzantine Empire CD, and it was some pretty discordant stuff. Don't know how authentic it was, but I actually had players requesting it be turned off. Can't say I blame them either.

Most music before the development of polyphony sounds extremely weird to people raised listening to western music.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;454683Most music before the development of polyphony sounds extremely weird to people raised listening to western music.

The thing is I like world music (and I like Gregorian Chant--which I believe is Monophony rather than polyphany). This stuff sounded like the music from Hy-Brasil in Erik the Viking.

Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;454667So far I haven't heard reconstructed "ancient" music that was actually pleasant to listen to, to me. In this case I prefer to go for getting a certain atmosphere across, rather than semi-authenticity. We'll never know what the real thing sounded like anyway.

In this case, it happens to be your cultural bias that is both defining and interfering with the reconstructed "ancient" music. Up thread, I posted a couple video clips from a group that was playing at Augusta Raurica. I picked those particular clips to add to this, because they had selected all of the instruments that were in use at the time of the late empire, which is well documented. They were playing in the remains of the forum in an ancient roman city. I had other clips collected from live outdoor performances from the ruins in Cologne, as well as from Italy,  And Spain too, but heard significantly more cultural biases in those performances, so did not opt to link them here.

They appeared to be playing in a very relaxed manner, such as one would expect from street performers, ad-libbing, and even pausing to adjust both the tempo and the rythm. It would be very similar to say, a small group gathering in the forum to play on market day afternoon for a few coins...

The exact Roman melodies preferred and played in ancient times are unknown, however the sound itself, the music, would be instantly familiar to anyone in 200 a.d. that happened to stroll by the forum.

If you listened to either of those videos than you indeed know what the real thing sounds like. You would instantly be able to recognize the Roman songs, and be able to pick them out from say, Egyptian songs, or Parthian songs, or Sumerian music. You could even tell the difference from Greek music, because the Greeks used fewer instruments than the Romans, so the sound was different. Doesn't take an expert to listen, it just takes someone willing to listen.

It never ceases to amaze me, how much modern folk look down on the achievements of their predecessors, especially when it wasn't documented. Come to think of it, Exactly when does proper documentation determine authenticity?  

The Egyptian, the Parthian, and the  Sumerian songs are an accurate reconstruction because they were based on written and recorded ancient songs.

It is lamentable that modern music has ruined your ear, if not, ...your willingness to hear.

P.S. Augusta Raurica did not fall to any attack from the Germans. It was destroyed in an earthquake, and then abandoned by the Romans as a viable colony location.