Table Of Content

Music in Ancient Greece i Classical World Series Aristophanes and His Th eatre of the Absurd, Paul Cartledge Art and the Romans , Anne Haward Athens and Sparta , S. Todd Athens under Tyrants, J. Smith Athletics in the Ancient World, Zahra Newby Attic Orators , Michael Edwards Augustan Rome, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill Cicero and the End of the Roman Republic, Th omas Wiedemann Cities of Roman Italy, Guy de la B é doy è re Classical Archaeology in the Field, S. J. Hill, L. Bowkett and K. and D. Wardle Classical Epic: Homer and Virgil, Richard Jenkyns Democracy in Classical Athens, Christopher Carey Early Greek Lawgivers, John Lewis Environment and the Classical World, Patricia Jeskins Greece and the Persians, John Sharwood Smith Greek and Roman Historians , Timothy E. Duff Greek and Roman Medicine , Helen King Greek Architecture, R. Tomlinson Greek Literature in the Roman Empire, Jason Kö nig Greek Sculpture , Georgina Muskett Greek Tragedy: Th emes and Contexts, Laura Swift Greek Vases, Elizabeth Moignard Homer: Th e Iliad , William Allan Julio-Claudian Emperors , T. Wiedemann Lucretius and the Didactic Epic, Monica Gale Morals and Values in Ancient Greece, John Ferguson Mycenaean World, K. and D. Wardle Ovid: A Poet on the Margins, Laurel Fulkerson Periclean Athens, P. J. Rhodes Plato’s Republic and the Greek Enlightenment, Hugh Lawson-Trancred Th e Plays of Aeschylus, A.F. Garvie Th e Plays of Euripides, James Morwood Th e Plays of Sophocles, A. F. Garvie Political Life in the City of Rome , J. R. Patterson Religion and the Greeks, Robert Garland Religion and the Romans , Ken Dowden Roman Architecture, Martin Th orpe Th e Roman Army , David Breeze Roman Britain , S. J. Hill and S. Ireland Roman Egypt, Livia Capponi Roman Frontiers in Britain, David Breeze Th e Roman Poetry of Love, Efi Spentzou Slavery in Classical Greece, N. Fisher Spectacle in the Roman World, Hazel Dodge Studying Roman Law, Paul du Plessis ii Music in Ancient Greece Melody, Rhythm and Life Spencer A. Klavan iii BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2021 Copyright © Spencer A. Klavan 2021 Spencer A. Klavan has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work. Cover design: Terry Woodley Cover image © World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Klavan, Spencer A. (Spencer Andrew), 1990– author. Title: Music in ancient Greece : melody, rhythm and life / Spencer A. Klavan. Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. | Series: Classical world | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Life in ancient Greece was musical life. Soloists competed onstage for popular accolades, becoming centrepieces for cultural conversation and even leading Plato to recommend that certain forms of music be banned from his ideal society. And the music didn’t stop when the audience left the theatre: melody and rhythm were woven into the whole fabric of daily existence for the Greeks. Vocal and instrumental songs were part of religious rituals, dramatic performances, dinner parties, and even military campaigns. Like Detroit in the 1960s or Vienna in the 18th century, Athens in the 400s BC was the hotspot where celebrated artists collaborated and diverse strands of musical tradition converged. The conversations and innovations that unfolded there would lay the groundwork for musical theory and practice in Greece and Rome for centuries to come. In this perfectly pitched introduction, Spencer Klavan explores Greek music’s origins, forms, and place in society. In recent years, state-of-the-art research and digital technology have enabled us to decipher and understand Greek music with unprecedented precision. Yet many readers today cannot access the resources that would enable them to grapple with this richly rewarding subject. Arcane technical details and obscure jargon veil the subject – it is rarely known, for instance, that authentic melodies still survive from antiquity, helping us to imagine the vivid soundscapes of the Classical and Hellenistic eras. Music in Ancient Greece and Beyond distills the latest discoveries into vivid prose so readers can come to grips with the basics as never before. With the tools in this book, beginners and specialists alike will learn to hear the ancient world afresh and come away with a new, musical perspective on their favourite classical texts”– Provided by publisher. Identifi ers: LCCN 2020040456 (print) | LCCN 2020040457 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350119949 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781350119925 (paperback) | ISBN 9781350119956 (epub) | ISBN 9781350119970 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Music, Greek and Roman–History and criticism. | Musical instruments, Ancient–Greece. Classifi cation: LCC ML169 .K53 2021 (print) | LCC ML169 (ebook) | DDC 780.938—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020040456 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020040457 ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-1994-9 PB: 978-1-3501-1992-5 ePDF: 978-1-3501-1997-0 eBook: 978-1-3501-1995-6 Series: Classical World Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk To fi nd out more about our authors and books visit w ww.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters . iv For Barnaby Taylor and Armand D’Angour: You believed I could learn, and that is why I did. v vi Contents List of Figures ix Timeline x 1 Introduction: Origins and Beginnings 1 What this book is about 1 Infl uences 4 What’s next 9 Some further reading 16 2 How Music Was Made: Instruments and Songs 19 Strings 20 Pipes 24 Th e real thing 28 Strike up the band 31 World music 32 Some further reading 36 3 Where Music Happened: Venues 39 Whistle while you work 40 Th e music of the gods 45 Music on the stage 46 Old material in new venues 50 Some further reading 52 4 Education 55 Old standards and new styles 56 Th e partheneion 60 Unreliable narrators: the case of Spartan music 63 Putting it together 65 Some further reading 68 5 Politics 71 Th e ethics of music – ē thos and mim ē sis 71 vii viii Contents Music in society 79 Some further reading 83 6 Th e Cosmos 85 Numbers in the sky: Pythagoreanism and mathematical cosmology 86 A short history of the entire universe: Pythagoreanism according to Plato 89 Th e Unifi ed Field Th eory of everything 91 Planetary sheet music 93 Some further reading 97 7 Tunes 99 How scales work 99 How we got here 104 Th e motley crew: musicians, theorists, and everything in between at Athens 107 Writing things down 109 What’s the point? 113 Some further reading 117 8 Rhythms 119 What is rhythm? 119 From words into music 123 Mixing it up 128 Writing it down 131 Appendix: vowel lengths 134 Some further reading 135 9 Beyond Greek Music 137 World music: Greek thinking goes abroad 139 Some further reading 143 Notes 145 Glossary 153 Index 157 Figures 1 Terracotta amphora (vase) attributed to the Berlin Painter, featuring a kitharode with his instrument 21 2 An aulos, of uncertain provenance. Wood covered in bronze with silver decoration 30 3 A fresco painting of guests at a symposium, one holding a stringed instrument 43 4 Diagram of disjunct and conjunct Greek scales compared to modern Western scale 102 5 Diagram of the Greater Perfect System with Greek scale degree names 106 6 Vienna Papyrus (Pap. Vienna G 2315), containing words and musical notation for Euripides’ O restes 338–44 112 7 Modern transcription of the Vienna Papyrus by Dr. Armand D’Angour (Oxford University) 114–15 8 Th e Seikilos stele, a gravestone carved with words and notation for a short commemorative song 132 9 Text transcription of the Seikilos stele 132 10 Musical transcription of the Seikilos stele 133 ix