THE LOST ROOTS OF ART AS TECHNE AND SOCIAL FUNCTION

In this fascinating talk, Romanian art podcaster Ruxandra Dacoromana of "Classical Odyssey" is talking to Iranian musicologist Farya Faraji about his philosophy and principles behind his music videos (we love him so much, he is his own page). Faraji's aim is not to reconstruct ancient music, but to make artistic approximations from the perspective of anthropology. It is more defined as re-engineering from the present, than a reconstruction of the old. Ruxandra and Faraji talk about how he embarked on the project in the pandemic era and about his family's background in Iran, France and Canada. But especially about the difference between modern and ancient art, and how we can rehabilitate lost arts and the values they represent.

Feb. 19, 2026 Classical Odyssey: CLASSICAL AGORA | FARYA FARAJI: Reconstructing vs Approximating the Past.

Faraji has an intriguing observation about how we think about the nature of art. The word art, in Greek is τέχνη (techni), which embodies the original meaning of the word.

The original meaning has survived into the modern day in words like technique, technical and high tech. But not in the cultural sense of say, modern art. The only remnant still in existence is the word, artisan which does not convey the same meaning at all.

Since the Romantic period we understand art as an activity of the avant garde and an expression of their feelings with regard to the brutality of modern (or postmodern) society. 

Art has become a barrage of recalcitrant expressions from the political Left, while the Right is resorted to the critique of the critique of modern life, or to art as the 'handmaiden of religion'.

We are basically stuck in the paradigm of 18th and 19th century France and Germany. We go with Kant (link) in philosophy, with Hegel (link) in politics and in intelligentsia (Left and Right) and with Rousseau (link) in art and culture, all dowsed in a hefty dose of liberal individualism. 

Modern art values individual originality. But this is not how art started its life in ancient times. In the oral tradition stories were told and retold, over and over again. Which is why we know of Bronze Age stories like the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were only finally written down around the 6th century BC.

In Western music today we have what's known as 'covers'. In Greece this is still an unknown concept. Popular songs -- new and old -- are sung over and over by different performers. These are not seen as 'covers', knock offs if you will, but valid 'interpretations' of an original that may be lost in time.

This touches upon historical hierarchy. The new is built on the shoulders of what came before. It is another concept that has not survived Liberal Enlightenment. Hierarchy has a bad connotation. It smacks of authority and people who know better than advanced Western man. 

Come to think of it, Faraji's point that people hate to hear, about art as a social function can be reduced to the same lack of humility. Ancient man was not an individual who wanted to shine for himself. He lived for his community. The Enlightenment turned art into a career choice, or a therapy for personal development. 

And one more point that is not mentioned, but that definitely is relevant. The ancients lived in a world in which the physical was infused with the spiritual. They did not think of the invisible as being in another realm as the visible. Every physical thing has a body, as well as meaning and a soul (read more about synthesis).

Faraji explains that language and meter inform melody, even if the music is instrumental. Today we do not understand this relationship. Meter for its part, is informed by dance. All music is basically dance music, which is why we still identity three quarter meter music as a waltz (link), or as a polka, etc. 

We have been looking at civilizational collapse for some time. We've been in this purgatory for at least the last 25 years, if not much longer. The Enlightenment is over, but the new has not yet been born. 

In the meantime we have artists like Faraji who are building a bridge to the lost past when art was still perceived in its original form as a τέχνη, instead of as therapy for effeminate, psychotic young men. This is not a reverse to a by-gone era, but a rehabilitation of lost values.

Here are the links to some of Faraji's works mentioned in the podcast. 

- The Kings in Epirus (link)

- Belisarius (link)

- Hymn to Kalliope (link)

- The Varangian's Saga feat. The Skaldic Bard (link)

0:00 Intro, Byzantine chatter

6:30 Farya's roots and approach to historical music

20:00 The methodology of historical approximation

28:00 Ecclesiocracy of the Byzantine Empire

30:20 Anachronisms and cultural spaces

41:35 The importance of linguistics

55:00 Individual vs collective authors: music as a social function

1:00:00 Master and disciple relationship

01:06:00 Cyclical time and art

01:10:40 Farya's Byzantine music and Roman memes

01:24:30 Distancing yourself from your work

01:26:00 The importance of the acquired taste

If you take the time to study the lives of truly great artists, you realize how petulant and shallow the modern idea is that “great trauma is required for great art”. Nope. Just good aesthetic sense, ability to feel deeply, and lots and lots and lots of practice. https://t.co/t3mPsMFoqo

— Megha (@megha_lilly) February 18, 2026

- More on music videos, Farya Faraji, Byzantine Empire, Roman Empire, Orthodox Chant, cyclical time, synthesis -