Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.
Identifieur interne : 001151 ( Istex/Corpus ); précédent : 001150; suivant : 001152Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.
Auteurs : Thomas J. MathiesenSource :
- Music and Letters [ 0027-4224 ] ; 2007-05.
Url:
DOI: 10.1093/ml/gcl092
Links to Exploration step
ISTEX:DE33863A16A8678BE07752730DF9D62FB42D5BF9Le document en format XML
<record><TEI wicri:istexFullTextTei="biblStruct"><teiHeader><fileDesc><titleStmt><title>Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.</title><author wicri:is="90%"><name sortKey="Mathiesen, Thomas J" sort="Mathiesen, Thomas J" uniqKey="Mathiesen T" first="Thomas J." last="Mathiesen">Thomas J. Mathiesen</name></author></titleStmt><publicationStmt><idno type="wicri:source">ISTEX</idno><idno type="RBID">ISTEX:DE33863A16A8678BE07752730DF9D62FB42D5BF9</idno><date when="2007" year="2007">2007</date><idno type="doi">10.1093/ml/gcl092</idno><idno type="url">https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7/fulltext.pdf</idno><idno type="wicri:Area/Istex/Corpus">001151</idno><idno type="wicri:explorRef" wicri:stream="Istex" wicri:step="Corpus" wicri:corpus="ISTEX">001151</idno></publicationStmt><sourceDesc><biblStruct><analytic><title level="a">Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.</title><author wicri:is="90%"><name sortKey="Mathiesen, Thomas J" sort="Mathiesen, Thomas J" uniqKey="Mathiesen T" first="Thomas J." last="Mathiesen">Thomas J. Mathiesen</name></author></analytic><monogr></monogr><series><title level="j">Music and Letters</title><idno type="ISSN">0027-4224</idno><imprint><publisher>Oxford University Press</publisher><date type="published" when="2007-05">2007-05</date><biblScope unit="volume">88</biblScope><biblScope unit="issue">2</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" from="316">316</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" to="322">322</biblScope></imprint><idno type="ISSN">0027-4224</idno></series></biblStruct></sourceDesc><seriesStmt><idno type="ISSN">0027-4224</idno></seriesStmt></fileDesc><profileDesc><textClass></textClass></profileDesc></teiHeader></TEI><istex><corpusName>oup</corpusName><author><json:item><name>Thomas J. Mathiesen</name></json:item></author><arkIstex>ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7</arkIstex><language><json:string>unknown</json:string></language><originalGenre><json:string>book-review</json:string></originalGenre><qualityIndicators><score>6.829</score><pdfWordCount>4817</pdfWordCount><pdfCharCount>29744</pdfCharCount><pdfVersion>1.4</pdfVersion><pdfPageCount>7</pdfPageCount><pdfPageSize>479 x 697 pts</pdfPageSize><refBibsNative>false</refBibsNative><abstractWordCount>1</abstractWordCount><abstractCharCount>0</abstractCharCount><keywordCount>0</keywordCount></qualityIndicators><title>Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.</title><genre><json:string>book-reviews</json:string></genre><host><title>Music and Letters</title><language><json:string>unknown</json:string></language><issn><json:string>0027-4224</json:string></issn><publisherId><json:string>musicj</json:string></publisherId><volume>88</volume><issue>2</issue><pages><first>316</first><last>322</last></pages><genre><json:string>journal</json:string></genre><subject><json:item><value>Reviews of Books</value></json:item></subject></host><namedEntities><unitex><date><json:string>the fifth and eleventh centuries</json:string><json:string>fourth century</json:string><json:string>seventeenth century</json:string><json:string>1588</json:string><json:string>2007</json:string></date><geogName></geogName><orgName><json:string>Oxford University</json:string></orgName><orgName_funder></orgName_funder><orgName_provider></orgName_provider><persName><json:string>Robin Wallace</json:string><json:string>Athanasius Kircher</json:string><json:string>Claudius Ptolemy</json:string><json:string>Fritz Kuttner</json:string><json:string>Stefan Hagel</json:string><json:string>Carl Orffs</json:string><json:string>EMI Svenska</json:string><json:string>Giovanni Battista</json:string><json:string>Benedetto Marcello</json:string><json:string>Lionel Sawkins</json:string><json:string>Giovanni Maria</json:string><json:string>Republic</json:string><json:string>Marcus Meibom</json:string><json:string>Catherine Massip</json:string><json:string>Queen Christina</json:string><json:string>Michel-Richard Delalande</json:string><json:string>Sidney Allen</json:string><json:string>Mersenne</json:string><json:string>J. Murray</json:string><json:string>Lawson</json:string><json:string>Emanuel Winternitz</json:string><json:string>Stephen G. Daitz</json:string><json:string>Matthias Pernerstorfer</json:string><json:string>Wallace</json:string><json:string>Marc-Antoine Charpentierçwho</json:string><json:string>Michel-Richard de Lalande</json:string><json:string>Baroque</json:string><json:string>Aristides Quintilianus</json:string><json:string>Curtis Franklin</json:string><json:string>Christine Harrauer</json:string><json:string>Annie Belis</json:string><json:string>J. Norton</json:string><json:string>Hagel</json:string><json:string>Werner Thomas</json:string></persName><placeName><json:string>Lund</json:string><json:string>Greece</json:string><json:string>Brenno</json:string><json:string>Erlangen</json:string><json:string>Europe</json:string><json:string>Athens</json:string><json:string>America</json:string><json:string>Vienna</json:string><json:string>Stockholm</json:string><json:string>Cambridge</json:string></placeName><ref_url></ref_url><ref_bibl><json:string>Nuremberg, 1970</json:string><json:string>Florence, 2002</json:string><json:string>Cambridge, 1973</json:string><json:string>Oxford, 2001</json:string><json:string>Amsterdam 1652</json:string><json:string>Florence, 1581</json:string><json:string>Rahden, 2004</json:string><json:string>in L’ rtusi (Venice, 1600</json:string><json:string>Nuremberg, 1960</json:string></ref_bibl><bibl></bibl></unitex></namedEntities><ark><json:string>ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7</json:string></ark><categories><wos></wos><scienceMetrix><json:string>arts & humanities</json:string><json:string>visual & performing arts</json:string><json:string>music</json:string></scienceMetrix><scopus><json:string>1 - Social Sciences</json:string><json:string>2 - Arts and Humanities</json:string><json:string>3 - Music</json:string></scopus></categories><publicationDate>2007</publicationDate><copyrightDate>2007</copyrightDate><doi><json:string>10.1093/ml/gcl092</json:string></doi><id>DE33863A16A8678BE07752730DF9D62FB42D5BF9</id><score>1</score><fulltext><json:item><extension>pdf</extension><original>true</original><mimetype>application/pdf</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7/fulltext.pdf</uri></json:item><json:item><extension>zip</extension><original>false</original><mimetype>application/zip</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7/bundle.zip</uri></json:item><istex:fulltextTEI uri="https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7/fulltext.tei"><teiHeader><fileDesc><titleStmt><title level="a">Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.</title><respStmt><resp>Références bibliographiques récupérées via GROBID</resp><name resp="ISTEX-API">ISTEX-API (INIST-CNRS)</name></respStmt></titleStmt><publicationStmt><authority>ISTEX</authority><publisher scheme="https://publisher-list.data.istex.fr">Oxford University Press</publisher><availability><licence><p>© The Author (2007). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.</p></licence><p scheme="https://loaded-corpus.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XBH-GTWS0RDP-M">oup</p></availability><date>2007</date></publicationStmt><notesStmt><note type="book-reviews" scheme="https://content-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XTP-PBH5VBM9-4">book-reviews</note><note type="journal" scheme="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/JMC-0GLKJH51-B">journal</note></notesStmt><sourceDesc><biblStruct type="inbook"><analytic><title level="a">Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.</title><author xml:id="author-0000"><persName><forename type="first">Thomas J.</forename><surname>Mathiesen</surname></persName></author><idno type="istex">DE33863A16A8678BE07752730DF9D62FB42D5BF9</idno><idno type="ark">ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7</idno><idno type="DOI">10.1093/ml/gcl092</idno></analytic><monogr><title level="j">Music and Letters</title><idno type="pISSN">0027-4224</idno><idno type="publisher-id">musicj</idno><idno type="PublisherID-hwp">musicj</idno><imprint><publisher>Oxford University Press</publisher><date type="published" when="2007-05"></date><biblScope unit="volume">88</biblScope><biblScope unit="issue">2</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" from="316">316</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" to="322">322</biblScope></imprint></monogr></biblStruct></sourceDesc></fileDesc><profileDesc><creation><date>2007</date></creation><textClass><keywords scheme="Journal Subject"><list><head></head><item><term>Reviews of Books</term></item></list></keywords></textClass></profileDesc><revisionDesc><change when="2007-05">Published</change><change xml:id="refBibs-istex" who="#ISTEX-API" when="2017-10-6">References added</change></revisionDesc></teiHeader></istex:fulltextTEI><json:item><extension>txt</extension><original>false</original><mimetype>text/plain</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7/fulltext.txt</uri></json:item></fulltext><metadata><istex:metadataXml wicri:clean="corpus oup, element #text not found" wicri:toSee="no header"><istex:xmlDeclaration>version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"</istex:xmlDeclaration><istex:docType PUBLIC="-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v2.3 20070202//EN" URI="journalpublishing.dtd" name="istex:docType"></istex:docType><istex:document><article article-type="book-review">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="hwp">musicj</journal-id>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">musicj</journal-id>
<journal-id journal-id-type="pmc">musicj</journal-id>
<journal-title>Music and Letters</journal-title>
<issn pub-type="ppub">0027-4224</issn>
<publisher>
<publisher-name>Oxford University Press</publisher-name>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1093/ml/gcl092</article-id>
<article-categories>
<subj-group>
<subject>Reviews of Books</subject>
</subj-group>
</article-categories>
<title-group>
<article-title><italic>Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003</italic>. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Mathiesen</surname><given-names>Thomas J.</given-names></name>
</contrib>
</contrib-group>
<pub-date pub-type="ppub">
<month>5</month>
<year>2007</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>88</volume>
<issue>2</issue>
<fpage>316</fpage>
<lpage>322</lpage>
<product product-type="book">
<article-title><italic>Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003</italic></article-title>. Ed. by <name><surname>Hagel</surname><given-names>Stefan</given-names></name> and <name><surname>Harrauer</surname><given-names>Christine</given-names></name>. pp. <fpage>178</fpage>; CD. Wiener Studien, Beiheft 30 (<publisher-name>Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften</publisher-name>, <publisher-loc>Vienna</publisher-loc>, <year>2005</year>), €45. ISBN <isbn>3-7001-3475-4</isbn>.)</product>
<copyright-statement>© The Author (2007). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2007</copyright-year>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body>
<p>How was ancient Greek music performed, and what did it sound like? These questions have intrigued scholars for centuries, especially since the first publication of actual pieces with musical notation by Vincenzo Galilei in his <italic>Dialogo della musica antica, et della moderna</italic> (Florence, 1581). By the middle of the seventeenth century, additional pieces had begun to appear in print (at least some of which are forgeries), and performances based on hypothetical reconstructions were presented in various courtly and academic circles. Marcus Meibom, for example, editor of the famous <italic>Antiquae musicae auctores septem</italic> (Amsterdam 1652), organized a concert at Queen Christina's court in Stockholm devoted entirely to reconstructions of Greek music, and a few decades earlier, Giovanni Battista Doni described in letters addressed to his friend Marin Mersenne several instruments he had designed capable of playing the ancient <italic>tonoi</italic>. Thus arose a tradition of performance practice applied to an ever expanding corpus of actual music (as distinct from literary remains such as music theory proper and references to music in other literature), informed by a continuing interest in the instrumentarium of ancient Greece, a tradition that continues to the present day. Under the influence of the ‘early music’ movement, increasingly sophisticated attempts were made to create recordings and perform concerts of ‘ancient Greek music’. Some of these pieces (for example, the Epitaph of Seikilos and the fragment from Euripides’ <italic>Orestes</italic>) have become a part of ‘the canon’—at least in the anglophone world—through their inclusion in most of the anthologies accompanying introductory histories of Western music. Other scholars have explored the inherent musicality of the spoken text (see e.g. Stephen G. Daitz's recordings of Homeric poetry) and continued the long-standing tradition of modern creative resettings of ancient texts based on our knowledge of scales, <italic>tonoi</italic>, metre, instruments, and so on (e.g. Peter Steadman and his New York Greek Drama Company).</p>
<p>Readers of the symposium volume under review would, however, gain no inkling of any of this tradition from the editorial preface or the contributions of the various authors, all of whom either cheerfully ignore or are blissfully unaware of most of the substantial amount of musicological and organological scholarship devoted over the past 400 years to issues bearing on the performance of ancient Greek music, not to mention all of the recordings ranging from Fritz Kuttner and J. Murray Barbour's reconstructions of various tunings and temperaments (Musurgia Records Theory Series A, nos. 1–3 (1955–8)), through Gregorio Paniagua's <italic>La Musique de la Grèce antique</italic> (Harmonia mundi HM 1015 (1978)), and on to Annie Bélis's <italic>De la pierre au son: Musiques de l’antiquité grecque</italic> (K617 069 (1996)), none of which is cited even in passing. Instead, the editors aver in their preface that ‘what is extant of ancient compositions doubtlessly deserves to be presented to the—increasingly interested—public’, adding that in the performance presented as part of the symposium, ‘the audience had the unique opportunity to compare several widely differing approaches, ranging from unaccompanied enactment of the vocal line (as preserved in the sources) up to entirely new compositions, based on the rhythms of the ancient text and transmitted musical scales, and to recreations based on fragments of ancient melodies’, as if none of these things had ever been done in the traditions of scholarship and earlier recordings.</p>
<p>Beyond this general limitation reflected throughout the collection, the articles exhibit considerable variety in scope and method, as expected in a symposium volume: the first half of the book is devoted to the first two articles, which offer extended, wide-ranging, technical treatments of complex issues pertaining to the lyre and the aulos; the other five articles, comprising a focused treatment of archaeological evidence (the third article) and four relatively brief general essays, occupy the second half of the book. A pocket in the back cover holds a hybrid CD, which includes a recording of the public performance (a program is provided on the final two pages of the book and from a link on the simple browser page (README.HTM) on the CD, which is not, however, linked to the recording itself; this must be played either through a separate program on the computer or on an audio CD player), audio examples for two of the articles (in MP3 format, accessible through the CD's browser page), and the full programme for the symposium, from which it appears that four of the presentations at it have not been included; the editors offer no explanation for their absence.</p>
<p>It is impossible to address fully each of the seven articles and the CD in a review of limited scope. Nevertheless, the following comments should serve to indicate the range of material as well as offering some cautions about the treatments of the topic.</p>
<p>The first three articles, forming the bulk of the book, are essentially devoted to issues pertaining to the lyre and the aulos. John Curtis Franklin (Athens) considers ways in which various tunings (preserved primarily in Claudius Ptolemy's <italic>Harmonica</italic>) might have been realized on the lyre, Stefan Hagel (Vienna) relates the aulos to Greek cosmology and music theory, and Graeme Lawson (Cambridge) explores archaeological and iconographic evidence for the medieval lyre and its relevance to the classical lyre and technique.</p>
<p>Franklin's article, ‘Hearing Greek Microtones’, which is illustrated by twenty-three audio examples on the CD, takes as its point of departure the notion that most readers ‘will have never heard these phenomena [microtones]’, and so it begins with a rather elementary description of the overtone series, use of harmonics, and acoustic beats (Franklin calls this ‘resonance’), illustrated with audio examples. He then turns to an overview of Aristoxenus’ definitions of consonance and dissonance and his emphasis on a diatonic scale, which Franklin presents in terms of Pythagorean ratios, despite the fact that Aristoxenus scupulously avoids these in his own treatments. In fact, Franklin (like many of Aristoxenus’ ancient and some of his modern critics) regularly assumes Pythagorean ratios in his discussions of Aristoxenus’ theory, even though the geometric and abstract nature of his demonstrations was long ago recognized by Galilei (in the <italic>Dialogo</italic>) and Giovanni Maria Artusi (in <italic>L’Artusi</italic> (Venice, 1600)).</p>
<p>In any case, the demonstration of the diatonic scale introduces the first of Franklin's ‘matrix’ diagrams, in which the octave from <italic>hypate</italic> to <italic>nete</italic> is arranged vertically and horizontally, ostensibly showing an ascending sequence of notes, whether reading from left to right or from top to bottom. All of Franklin's matrices and accompanying lyre diagrams show eight strings and most of them involve all eight strings in creating the individual tunings, even though Franklin, a bit later, makes much of the heptatonic tuning of the lyre. Likewise, in the following article, Hagel refers to ‘the standard lyre tuning’ of <italic>e–a–b–é</italic> (certainly a questionable assertion), with the gaps filled in various ways by the remaining three strings, and indeed, classical vase paintings of lyres generally show them with seven strings. Ignoring this apparent anomaly, Franklin introduces the initial matrix as follows: ‘Therefore I shall present all tunings in a matrix display, showing their cross-relationships, and the steps for creating them. (Only the epimoric relations which concern us here are given as ratios, in boldface; all others remain in decimal form, a necessary result of my method of calculation)’ (pp. 15–16). The method of calculation is not explained, nor is the way in which the matrix is supposed to be used. Inasmuch as the article relies heavily on the matrices (there are fifteen of them), it may be worthwhile to sort through this here.</p>
<p>As it turns out, the order of intervals reading from left to right is in fact descending (even though the leftmost column is labelled <italic>hypate</italic> and the rightmost <italic>nete</italic>) and the decimals are simply the result of division applied to the two elements of the assumed ratios between the notes, as can be demonstrated by working out the numbers in the first row: 1 (this really should be 1:1), 0.949, 0.844, 3:4, 2:3, 0.633, 0.563, 1:2. Thus, 0.949 is the rounded-off result (all decimals are rounded off accordingly) of dividing 243 by 256, the ratio (243:256) representing the Pythagorean leimma between <italic>hypate</italic> and <italic>parhypate</italic>, but in this and all subsequent cases descending, since the string length is longer (string lengths rather than frequencies must be assumed because each matrix is accompanied by a little drawing of a lyre showing intervals among the strings). The next number, 0.844, turns out to be the result of dividing 1,944 by 2,304, 1,944:2,304 representing the sum of 243:256 and 8:9 (i.e. the two intervals between <italic>hypate</italic> and <italic>lichanos</italic>). The next two ratios (3:4 and 2:3) respectively represent the lower fourth and fifth, while 0.633 is the result of dividing 486 by 768, 486:768 representing the sum of 2:3 and 243:256 (i.e., the intervals <italic>hypate</italic> to <italic>paramese</italic> to <italic>trite</italic>). Finally, 0.563 is the result of dividing 3,888 by 6,912, 3,888:6,912 representing the sum of 486:768 and 9:8 (i.e. the intervals <italic>hypate</italic> to <italic>trite</italic> to <italic>paranete</italic>), and 1:2 represents the lower octave. The entire process is reversed when reading from top to bottom on the matrix (the ratio in the lower left corner of the matrix is incorrect: it should read 2:1), and in this case, the intervals ascend.</p>
<p>Clearly, this must not be the way in which Franklin intends the matrices to be used. Instead, it seems that the reader is supposed to find a note in the top row (e.g. <italic>mese</italic>), another note in the left column (e.g. <italic>paramese</italic>), and then read the appropriate interval in the box at which the row and column intersect. In this case, the interval would be, correctly, 9:8. But if the reader selects <italic>mese</italic> in the top row and <italic>parhypate</italic> in the left column, instead of the familiar ratio for the ditone (81:64), 0.790 appears.</p>
<p>Since Franklin regularly refers to the Pythagorean ratios between each step of the scale in his discussion of the various tunings and even some of the composite ratios, it is confusing that most of these do not appear in the matrices, perhaps because he regards them as merely incidental results of his tuning process. Nevertheless, since the decimals convey absolutely nothing as they stand, they might better appear as ratios, which would convey at least something to readers familiar with tuning theory. Better still, they could easily be converted to cents.</p>
<p>Franklin states that ‘it is still more misleading to represent these tunings in cents, since this compounds the disadvantage of linearity with taking equal temperament as a point of reference, which is already a distortion of natural intonation’ (p. 15), but nothing could be more misleading than his set of unexplained decimals, which are not even precise reciprocals and therefore suggest that the intervals reading from left to right differ slightly from the same intervals reading from top to bottom. By contrast, if cents had been employed instead of decimals, the reader selecting <italic>mese</italic> in the top row and <italic>parhypate</italic> in the left column would have found 407.82 (instead of 0.790), conveying—at least to the musical reader—a clear aural sense of the interval.</p>
<p>Following a few additional observations about Aristoxenus, Franklin turns to a discussion of the various genera attributed to Archytas, Didymus, Eratosthenes, and Ptolemy, the tuning for each of which is demonstrated with an audio example on the CD. Unfortunately, the demonstrations on the CD do not seem quite to follow the procedure described in the text (and Exx. 14–23 do not demonstrate the procedure at all but only the end result), and even listeners experienced in tuning by beats will probably have some difficulty in deciphering what is happening on the recording. Finally, since Franklin is tuning by ear, the few ratios shown in the matrix diagrams are only approximations of the sound, at best. Adding to the confusion will be the typographical errors that send the reader to figures that do not correspond to the examples on the CD (e.g., on p. 39, each of the figure numbers for Archytas needs to be increased by 1; on p. 41, the reference to Didymus’ chromatic should read ‘figure 6’; and on p. 46, the reference to Archytas's diatonic should read ‘figure 5’).</p>
<p>It is certainly possible to tune the lyre according to Franklin's procedures, but he presents no evidence that ancient musicians ever did tune the lyre in this manner, especially if it had only seven strings rather than the eight shown in his diagrams. We certainly do not know whether the strings were tuned to consecutive notes of a scale or in some other manner (there is a good deal of scholarship on the subject). In fact, we know next to nothing about the tuning of the lyre, apart from the relatively late observations of Nicomachus (<italic>Manuale harmonices</italic> 3, 5, and 11) and the descriptions of eight practical tunings of the lyre and kithara provided by Ptolemy (<italic>Harmonica</italic> 2.16), most of which do not follow the symmetrical patterns (i.e. the same pattern of intervals above and below the tone of disjunction) found in the theoretical scales attributed to Archytas, Didymus, and Eratosthenes. None of these practical tunings is shown or mentioned by Franklin.</p>
<p>Stefan Hagel begins his article, ‘Twenty-Four in Auloi. Aristotle, <italic>Met</italic>. 1093b, the Harmony of the Spheres, and the Formation of the Perfect System’, with the dramatic statement: ‘if the hypothesis offered here is accepted it will consequently influence our view of a crucial chapter in the development of Greek music, both in theory and practice: the formation of the Greater Perfect System’. The consideration of the hypothesis begins with an exploration of the relationship between the aulos and Greek cosmology, based on a passing observation by Aristotle in the <italic>Metaphysica</italic>, which seems to imply some relationship between the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet, the lowest and highest notes on the aulos, and ‘the wholeness of the heavens’. After considering a number of possible associations involving the number 24 (including twenty-four semitones in a double octave, quarter-tones in an octave, and ‘playable notes’ on an aulos or on the entire family of auloi), Hagel concludes that the number 24 must pertain to some sort of Pythagorean ratio, probably involving as well the numbers 9 and 8, which are identified by Aristotle in the same passage as arithmetic and harmonic means. The possible connection between the twenty-four letters of the Greek Ionic alphabet and Alypian system of musical notation, in which they occupy the central octave, seems not to have occurred to Hagel.</p>
<p>Hagel then examines the various numbers employed in representing consecutive proportions for a scale, which suggests that ‘the “distance” of 24 might be the difference between the extremes of a sequence of numbers that represent, in Pythagorean manner, some tonal structure inherent in auloi’ (p. 57). Because Aristotle's reference to the aulos employs the terms <italic>bombyx</italic> and <italic>nete</italic>, a further relationship to the Greater Perfect System (GPS) is hypothesized, with <italic>bombyx</italic> as equivalent to <italic>proslambanomenos</italic> and <italic>nete</italic> as either <italic>nete diezeugmenon</italic> or <italic>nete hyperbolaion</italic>. The smallest numbers that can be used to express the ratios of the fixed notes in the GPS, if the lowest number reflects the lowest note, are 8:9:12:16:18:24:32; or, conversely, 36:32:24:18:16:12:9. The distance between 8 (<italic>proslambanomenos</italic>) and 32 (<italic>nete hyperbolaion</italic>) is 24; likewise, the distance between 36 (<italic>proslambanomenos</italic>) and 12 (<italic>nete diezeugmenon</italic>) is 24, but Hagel rules this out: because it excludes the number 9, the proportion could be reduced to 18:16:12:9:8:6, which lessens the distance between the extremes to 12.</p>
<p>With these numbers established, Hagel introduces further associations between the set of numbers and the names of the fixed notes, the spheres of the fixed stars and the planets, and the four elements as they are variously assigned in Ptolemy's <italic>Canobic Inscription</italic>, the <italic>Excerpta Neapolitana</italic>, Plutarch's <italic>De animae procreatione</italic>, Ps.-Iamblichus's <italic>Theologumena arithmeticae</italic>, and a passage from the Ikhwān al-Ṣāf āʾ. Readers might reasonably conclude from Hagel's treatment that parallel associations appear at the end of Ptolemy's <italic>Harmonica</italic> (3.14–16) as well, but that is pure conjecture; the chapters are Byzantine reconstructions that contain a different set of associations. Of course, all of these sources are many centuries later than Aristotle, and Hagel must therefore construct an elaborate case (pp. 64–74) in favour of their antiquity; readers familiar with these writings are unlikely to find the argument very persuasive. All this is further related to the famous cosmogony in Plato's <italic>Timaeus</italic>, after which Hagel proposes that the important number in the Aristotle's analogy is not, after all, 24 but 32, because Aristotle's ‘“wholeness of the heavens” can apply only to the outermost sphere of fixed stars’ (p. 78), which is associated with the <italic>nete hyperbolaion</italic> and (sometimes) the number 32 in the later sources. He dismisses out of hand (p. 77 n. 67) the much simpler explanation offered by Alexander's commentary (2nd–3rd c. <sc>ce</sc>) on <italic>Metaphysica</italic>: the number 24 represents the twelve signs of the zodiac, the eight spheres of the fixed stars and the planets, and the four elements.</p>
<p>Eventually the aulos is drawn back into the discussion with a reminder of its role in ‘the conceptual background of the numerical equation’ (p. 80), and Hagel concludes: ‘It is therefore plausible that the theoretical formulation of the Greater Perfect System went hand in hand with its practical realisation in aulos boring’ (p. 81). He then raises a final question, ‘what follows for the design of the aulos itself?’ (p. 82), leading to the final part of the article, in which the Louvre aulos fragments are analysed to see whether they exhibit the proportional relationships observed in the GPS and the cosmology. This section, largely drawn from his study of this aulos published in Vol. 4 of <italic>Studien zur Musikarchäologie</italic> (Rahden, 2004), contributes little to the earlier part of the article. All of Hagel's observations take for granted various assumptions about the aulos: it can be overblown, overblowing occurs at the twelfth, a part of the aulos described as the <italic>syrinx</italic> was a speaker hole, performers could produce more than a single pitch from each finger hole by half-holing, and so on. For all of these, however, there are important objections: overblowing depends on the type of reed; there is abundant evidence that a single beating reed was either the norm or at least as common as the double reed; no speaker holes appear on any surviving aulos fragments (as Hagel himself concedes—and dismisses—in n. 103); the term <italic>syrinx</italic> is commonly used to refer to the reed pipe itself; the complex passage in Aristoxenus’ <italic>Harmonica</italic> (1.20) quoted by Hagel pertaining to the <italic>syrinx</italic> can be read in various different ways, involving a number of complex terminological issues; multiple pitches can easily be produced from a single finger hole if the aulos is fitted with a single beating reed; the texts referring to these multiple pitches do not stat that they are produced by half-holing; and so on.</p>
<p>In any case, Hagel attempts to show in the final section of his article that the Louvre aulos in fact embodies the nature of the GPS, which leads him to conclude: ‘So convergent evidence gives rise to a new picture of pre-Aristoxenian music theory. Much of it … was motivated by the practical needs of the ongoing evolution of aulos music, and presumably flourished in a discussion between theorizing professional musicians … and aulos-playing philosophers …. At the beginning of the fourth century, the Perfect system had obviously found its canonical form. Yet the vestiges of that exciting period have become largely obliterated ….Accordingly, later theorists of the Pythagorean school concentrated on strings; anyway their mathematical demonstrations had now lost the connection with actual music’.</p>
<p>The excerpt from the <italic>Metaphysica</italic> that provides the basis for the article comes from a section in which Aristotle is ridiculing the Pythagorean propensity for seeing endless meanings in number. Hagel constructs an impressive edifice atop Aristotle's observation, but the reader may feel some trepidation about its stability.</p>
<p>In his essay ‘Ancient European Lyres: Excavated Finds and Experimental Performance Today’ Graeme Lawson observes that studies of ancient and medieval music have been shaped almost entirely by questions posed by ‘documents’ (i.e. pictorial records as well as texts) and that archaeological evidence, when considered at all, tends to be ‘used only as a means of validating document-based conclusions, anchoring philological or iconological theories in the material world’ (p. 94). Lawson proposes a fresh approach: ‘rather than simply trying to fit the archaeological evidence into existing historical and iconological models, we may sometimes start with the archaeological evidence—after the manner of forensic science—and work outwards from there’ (p. 95).</p>
<p>In the first part of his article, Lawson demonstrates ways in which excavated remains of lyres can help explain specific details in illustrations and sculpture—as well as clarifying the meaning of certain terms, such as OE <italic>hearpe</italic> and <italic>hearpan</italic>—for the period between the fifth and eleventh centuries C.E. In particular, details of jointing, stringing (generally between five and seven in illustrations), overall shape and proportion (the remains tend to be longer and narrower than is suggested by illustrations), the wrist strap, and bridge size and shape (the remains are flat and very narrow) have a direct bearing on the construction of replicas and techniques of performance (illustrated with an audio example on the CD).</p>
<p>Replicas enable experimentation with the ergonomics of the instruments, from which it is possible to conclude that the lyres could be played by the right hand alone or a combination of right- and left-hand plucking; some strings can be muted with the left hand while the right hand strums; and harmonics can be produced by touching the string with the left hand while plucking with the right or by touching the string with base of the hand and plucking with the fingers of the same hand (illustrated with an audio example on the CD).</p>
<p>Since the bridge, wrist-strap, and long hand-hole of the medieval north-west European lyre have such an impact on the possible performance techniques, similar questions need to be asked about the classical lyre. Unfortunately, there are no archaeological remains of classical lyre bridges (Lawson observes: ‘This is surely, at best, a handicap!’). Nevertheless, Lawson considers scholars’ complete reliance on illustrations to be ‘alarming’ (p. 113) and proposes that archaeological evidence needs to be found. This is to be done by building relationships with museum staff and fieldworkers so that organologists will be ‘invited to take a meaningful part in the excavation and post-excavation process’ (p. 115).</p>
<p>Lawson's article is based primarily on his own earlier publications, and he seems unaware that his basic principles have been applied for decades by scholars and performers interested in the sounds of early music. For musical iconography, he mentions only Emanuel Winternitz, and the Dolmetsch family are the sole representatives of early music practitioners. The only recordings mentioned are his own <italic>Sounds of the Viking Age</italic> (Music from Archaeology, Vol. 1; Archaeologia musica, Archaic APX 851) and C. S. Lund, <italic>The Sounds of Prehistoric Scandinavia</italic> (Musica sveciae, no. 1; EMI Svenska, HMV 1361031), and there is no reference to the ways in which performing scholars since the time of Dolmetsch have been experimenting with performance practice based both on documents and on replicas of instruments.</p>
<p>Of all the authors included in this publication, Egert Pöhlmann (Erlangen) is certainly the best known. His short article, ‘Dramatische Texte in den Fragmenten antiker Musik’, provides a brief and useful overview of the ways in which theatrical ‘reading texts’ were originally inscribed and eventually modified in layout as they were copied from papyrus to parchment, roll to codex, and maiuscule to minuscule; the role of the virtuoso performer and the preparation of anthologies; the types of texts that survive with musical notation, their layout and general appearance; various circumstances that might have contributed to their survival; the relationship between textual accentuation and musical line; and conclusions that can be drawn from the fragments about the possible survival of ‘authentic’ fifth- or fourth-century music. The treatment is based on Pöhlmann's profound engagement with the musical fragments, beginning with <italic>Griechische Musikfragmente</italic> (Nuremberg, 1960) and extending most recently to his co-editorship (with M. L. West) of <italic>Documents of Ancient Greek Music</italic> (Oxford, 2001), a revision of his earlier <italic>Denkmäler altgriechischer Musik</italic> (Nuremberg, 1970), which is still useful because it includes a number of historically important pieces omitted in the revision: the <italic>koine hormasia</italic>, first published by Zarlino in 1588, the famous <italic>Fälschungen</italic> published by Athanasius Kircher and Benedetto Marcello, and a few questionable examples in early manuscripts.</p>
<p>The articles by Matthias Pernerstorfer (‘Carl Orffs hesperische Musik’) and Georg Danek (‘Homerische Vortragstechnik: Rekonstruktion und modernes Publikum’), although different in methodology and aim, are similar in that they address the problem of reconstructing an ancient art for a modern audience. In his <italic>Antigonae, Oedipus der Tyrann</italic>, and <italic>Prometheus</italic>, Orff—influenced by his readings of Hölderlin's ‘hesperic’ translations, his own study of the language, and his exchanges with historians and philologists—was not interested in reconstructing some sort of historical artefact; rather, he wanted to recapture with modern means the cathartic power and spirit of Greek tragedy. For Pernerstorfer, Orff's work presents a negative response to the (rhetorical) question ‘whether ancient music itself, as an acoustic experience,… can be awakened to life on the stage’ (ob sie … selbst als akustisches Erlebnis auf der Bühne zum Leben erweckt werden kann; p. 129), a response explicitly anticipated by Pernerstorfer's quotation of Werner Thomas's observation (1980): ‘The work [<italic>Antigonae</italic>] is an offering on the contemporary stage to visualize ancient tragedy as music theatre with the means available now’ (Das Werk ist ein <italic>Angebot</italic> an die heutige Bühne, die antike Tragödie als Musiktheater mit jetzt verfügbaren Mitteln zu vergegenwärtigen; p. 125).</p>
<p>Danek agrees to a considerable extent when he concedes the impossibility of recreating the aesthetic experience of Homeric recitation for the modern public but nevertheless considers a number of matters that come into play when attempting to reconstruct the performance practice: (1) since no Homeric music survives, the extent to which the pitch accent of each word and overall intonation of the sentence would have been in parallel with the musical line; (2) technical elements (Danek calls them ‘aesthetic ingredients’ (ästhetische ‘Zutaten’)) involved in a reconstruction, such as the overall pitch and tuning of the four-string Phorminx, accompaniment technique, vocal style (‘more <italic>Sprechstimme</italic> than a singing voice’ (eher eine Sprech- als Gesangsstimme)), tempo, treatment of rests at the ends of verses, enjambment, balance between song and recitation (Gesangsvortrag und Rezitation), and so on; and (3) various ways in which Homeric recitation might be performed and contextualized for audiences to assist them in gaining some appreciation for its effect, even if not sharing fully in the experience of an ancient listener. As an example, the author offers a parallel between Homeric recitation and hip-hop, ‘with its monotonous background music and monotonously performed text, more recited than sung’ (mit ihrer monotonen Begleitmusik und dem monoton vorgetragenen, eher rezitierten als gesungenen Text; p. 174). Such a parallel is especially useful for younger listeners, in Danek's view, because they have no problem accepting Homer in his own culture as a counterpart to today's hip-hop singers. Readers may feel some hesitancy about this parallel.</p>
<p>The second track on the audio CD contains Stefan Hagel's performance of the <italic>Iliad</italic> 18.590–607, which certainly does not follow Danek's own description of the appropriate vocal style or take into account Aristides Quintilianus’ description of a vocal style intermediate between speaking and singing ‘in which we execute readings of poems’ (<italic>De musica</italic> 1.4). It is in some respects reminiscent of Konrat Ziegler's performance on <italic>Griechische Verse, griechische Prosa</italic> (Joint Association of Classical Teachers and Georg Olms, Discourses Limited, DCL 1001, 1967), although the author and performer seem unaware of this earlier recording, and of Stephen G. Daitz's recording <italic>The Iliad of Homer</italic> (bks. 1–24; J. Norton 1990–2), the discussions of the pertinent musical evidence in W. Sidney Allen's <italic>Accent and Rhythm. Prosodic Features of Latin and Greek</italic> (Cambridge, 1973), or the work that has been done on the performance of medieval song, at least some of which addresses many of the same issues introduced by Danek.</p>
<p>Robin Wallace's ‘Performing Damon's <italic>harmoniai</italic>’ is the least substantial of all the articles. Following a few brief references to some of the well-known explanations of the <italic>harmoniai</italic> of Plato's <italic>Republic</italic>, Wallace suggests that the various <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="gcl092i1"></inline-graphic></inline-formula><italic>the</italic> described in the <italic>Republic</italic> were not simply a matter of a particular <italic>harmonia</italic>, rhythm, or metre; rather, ‘Each rhythmic meter and each <italic>harmonia</italic> could be used in different ways, reflecting different <inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="gcl092i1"></inline-graphic></inline-formula><italic>the</italic>. The character of the song would shape the playing of its <italic>harmonia</italic>’. Wallace claims, in addition, that overall <italic>êthos</italic> was affected by the melodic shape (<italic>poikilia</italic>) and tempo (<italic>agōg</italic><inline-formula><inline-graphic xlink:href="gcl092i1"></inline-graphic></inline-formula>). Readers familiar with the articles on ‘Damon’ or ‘Ethos’ in <italic>New Grove II</italic>, any of the secondary literature cited in their bibliographies, or more recently Brenno Boccadoro's <italic>Ethos e varietas</italic> (Florence, 2002) will have no trouble sharing Wallace's conclusion that ‘the <italic>êthos</italic> of Greek songs did not lie in the formalisms of meter and <italic>harmonia</italic>, but in wider expressive qualities’.</p>
<p>Finally, not much should be said about the recording of the public performance. Because there are no programme notes to the nineteen tracks, nor with the exception of track 2 do any of the articles specifically refer to them, it is impossible to know just what the performances are trying to demonstrate, beyond the five extremely general categories to which they are assigned, ranging from an improvised melody (track 2) through extant vocal melodies with some sort of accompaniment (tracks 1, 3, 7, 9–12, 14–15, and 19) and on to new compositions based on ancient evidence (tracks 4–6, 8, 13, and 16–18). The exceedingly amateurish performances (with the exception of the tracks by Stelios Psadourakes) certainly do not provide useful alternatives to any of the commercially available recordings, and the new compositions are best passed over in silence.</p>
<p>The symposium was undoubtedly highly stimulating for the participants, but not every exchange of papers among like-minded colleagues can be converted into an effective publication intended for a broader scholarly audience. The aims of the collection are certainly laudable, but unfortunately the same cannot be said of the result.</p>
</body>
</article></istex:document></istex:metadataXml><mods version="3.6"><titleInfo><title>Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.</title></titleInfo><titleInfo type="alternative" contentType="CDATA"><title>Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.</title></titleInfo><name type="personal"><namePart type="given">Thomas J.</namePart><namePart type="family">Mathiesen</namePart></name><typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource><genre type="book-reviews" displayLabel="book-review" authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://content-type.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://content-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XTP-PBH5VBM9-4">book-reviews</genre><originInfo><publisher>Oxford University Press</publisher><dateIssued encoding="w3cdtf">2007-05</dateIssued><copyrightDate encoding="w3cdtf">2007</copyrightDate></originInfo><relatedItem type="host"><titleInfo><title>Music and Letters</title></titleInfo><genre type="journal" authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/JMC-0GLKJH51-B">journal</genre><originInfo><publisher>Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. </publisher><place><placeTerm type="text">Vienna</placeTerm></place></originInfo><subject><topic>Reviews of Books</topic></subject><identifier type="ISSN">0027-4224</identifier><identifier type="PublisherID">musicj</identifier><identifier type="PublisherID-hwp">musicj</identifier><part><date>2007</date><detail type="volume"><caption>vol.</caption><number>88</number></detail><detail type="issue"><caption>no.</caption><number>2</number></detail><extent unit="pages"><start>316</start><end>322</end></extent></part></relatedItem><identifier type="istex">DE33863A16A8678BE07752730DF9D62FB42D5BF9</identifier><identifier type="DOI">10.1093/ml/gcl092</identifier><accessCondition type="use and reproduction" contentType="copyright">© The Author (2007). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.</accessCondition><recordInfo><recordContentSource authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://loaded-corpus.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://loaded-corpus.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XBH-GTWS0RDP-M">oup</recordContentSource><recordOrigin>© The Author (2007). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.</recordOrigin></recordInfo></mods><json:item><extension>json</extension><original>false</original><mimetype>application/json</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7/record.json</uri></json:item></metadata><covers><json:item><extension>tiff</extension><original>true</original><mimetype>image/tiff</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/document/DE33863A16A8678BE07752730DF9D62FB42D5BF9/covers/tiff</uri></json:item></covers><annexes><json:item><extension>gif</extension><original>true</original><mimetype>image/gif</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/HXZ-SP20PFNM-7/annexes.gif</uri></json:item></annexes><serie></serie></istex></record>Pour manipuler ce document sous Unix (Dilib)
EXPLOR_STEP=$WICRI_ROOT/Wicri/Musique/explor/BourgeoisGentilV1/Data/Istex/Corpus
HfdSelect -h $EXPLOR_STEP/biblio.hfd -nk 001151 | SxmlIndent | more
Ou
HfdSelect -h $EXPLOR_AREA/Data/Istex/Corpus/biblio.hfd -nk 001151 | SxmlIndent | more
Pour mettre un lien sur cette page dans le réseau Wicri
{{Explor lien
|wiki= Wicri/Musique
|area= BourgeoisGentilV1
|flux= Istex
|étape= Corpus
|type= RBID
|clé= ISTEX:DE33863A16A8678BE07752730DF9D62FB42D5BF9
|texte= Ancient Greek Music in Performance: Symposion Wien 29. Sept.–1. Okt. 2003. Ed. by Stefan Hagel and Christine Harrauer.
}}
| This area was generated with Dilib version V0.6.33. |  |