Towards a Sociology of Classical Greek Music

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Towards a Sociology of Classical Greek Music

SOSYOLOJİ DERGİSİ TURKISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY Received: March 26, 2017 Revision received: June 18, 2017 Copyright © 2017 Istanbul University Department of Sociology Accepted: August 22, 2017 tjs.istanbul.edu.tr/en OnlineFirst: November 30, 2017 DOI 10.26650/TJS.2017.2.0002 December 2017 37(2) 211258 Original Article Towards a Sociology of Classical Greek Music Mark Griffith1 Abstract In this article I briefly survey, from a synchronic perspective, the various occasions on which music of one kind or another was played in archaic and classical Greece (ca. 750-320 BCE), and discuss the different social functions served by these performances and the various effects that they made (or were supposed to make) on their audiences. A socioloGy of ancient Greek music should look somewhat different from a history of that music, and different too from a purely philosophical/aesthetic or technical appreciation of that musical culture; and I attempt to include both etic and emic accounts of (i.e. members of which social groups and classes) and This article attempts to take due account of the “liveness” and corporeality of all Greek musical performance, and of its stronG, but not uniform, affective impact. In particular, I focus on differences of Gender, status, and ethnicity, and on the social functionalities of different musical idioms and instruments (strings, pipes, and percussion) that we can identify from our various sources, both literary and visual. Overall, I find Aristotle (especially in the ) to be the most helpful and reliable guide. Keywords To cite this article: Turkish Journal of Sociology, 37 TURKISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY what music amounted towhat it did for peoplewho performed the various different kinds of musicwho listened and/or responded in one way or another to these different kinds,what ordinary Greek people, as well as theorists and philosophers, thought about the role of music and musicians within their larger social and existential world.

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