Music in Ancient Greece: Melody, Rhythm and Life

177 Pages·2021·2.385 MB·English

by  Spencer A. Klavan

Music in Ancient Greece
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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
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Music in Ancient Greece
Melody, Rhythm and Life
Spencer A. Klavan
iii
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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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

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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

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iv
For Barnaby Taylor and Armand D’Angour:
You believed I could learn, and that is why I did.
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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
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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
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