DOCSLIB.ORG

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC in the ROMAN AGE.1 the Cultivation Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC in the ROMAN AGE.1 the Cultivation Of INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE ROMAN AGE.1 THE cultivation of instrumental music remained in a backward state among the Greeks in the fifth and fourth centuries, B.C. - This was certainly not due to any want of taste for music.as a whole, for-no race ever valued it higher than did the Greeks. The reasons seem to have been, first, the bondage of-the instrument to the voice, second, the unsettled state of the musical scale, and thirdly, the dislike of the Greeks for over-elaboration in music. • .. • .-..-. ' . These three points are well illustrated in. the Republic of Plato, In opening the discussion on the admissibility of certain modes,-Socrates is made to say that a musical composition is made up of three things, the 'words,' the 'harmony,' and the 'rhythm,' and that the musical "words' are in themselves in no way different from the words of. common speech.2 In another place much scorn is cast by Glaucon on the musicians that sought for the least perceptible interval to make that the unit of sound-measurementr some of the experimenters declaring that they could distinguish an intermed- iate note, where others insisted that the two sounds had passed into unison.3 Socrates answers 'You mean those gentlemen who tease and torture the strings, screwing them up on the pegs.' . • Socrates and Glaucon both speak as amateurs in music, and their feelings must have been shared by many Athenians at the time. Just as with us there are some who long for the return of Handel's 'noble harmonies,' as a relief from the chromatic aberrations of the Wagnerian school, so these two worthy Greeks looked back to the sturdy Dorian airs of Terpander as the true strains of the Hellenic muse, before she had learnt to voice the subtler moods of the heart of man. To such amateurs the refinements of the musical scale must have seemed base loans from the decadent 1 I wish to thank the following gentlemen 4; and Dr. W. H. p. Rouse for supplying me for their kind and valued help to me in with a modern example of a pan-pipe from collecting the materials for this article: M. Smyrna. A. Merlin, Head of the Department of With very few exceptions, the monuments Antiquities for Tunisia, for having specially referred to are known to me in the originals, had photographed for me the unpublished from my visits to the museums where they are statuette from the Sluse'e Alaoui, Tunis (Fig. to be found. 5) as well as for much other assistance; 2 iii. 398 D. Cf. Nettleship, Lectures on M. Gouvet, Director of the Museum at Susa Plato's Hep. 108. (Sousse) for the prints used in Figures 2 and 3 vii. 531 A. INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE ROMAN AGE. 161 art of the East; and if, as is now thought, the music of the fourth century used intervals of a quarter, three-eighths, a third, two-thirds, and three- quarters of a tone, this was no wonder.4 The contrast is drawn by Socrates between the school to which Aristo- xenus belonged, the cultivators of the enharmonic style, and the Pythagoreans, who based the scale on the harmonic relations of the octave, fourth, and fifth. Into the details of this controversy there is no need to enter, but it is clear that such a simple and easily-tuned instrument as the lyre was best fitted to this screwing-up process by which the minimum intervals were reached. A many-stringed instrument would have taken too long to adjust to any highly complicated system. By the time of Aristoxenus himself the enharmonic scale was nearly dead, as Aristoxenus himself regrets;5 and although the later musical writers repeat mechanically their account of it, there is not much reason for thinking that it was ever revived in practice. Aristoxenus complains that, if the enharmonic system was dropped, there would soon be nothing left but the diatonic and the ' highstrung' chromatic (j^pcbfxa crvvrovov or roviaiov 6), and these actually survived. The objection felt by many Greeks to variety of musical effect is voiced by Socrates soon after his remark first quoted. He banishes such many- stringed and various instruments as the 'Triangle,' the 'Pectis,' and all kinds of flutes,7 leaving only the lyre, cithara, and, for shepherds, the pan-pipe {syrinx). It is possible that in retaining the cithara, Socrates may have meant only the kind with few strings, for it would have been strange to admit a fourteen-stringed cithara, while condemning the flute for its too great variety of sound. Here Plato's views must have seemed very narrow even to his own age. In making music a means of moral upbuilding he not only struck at virtuosity and over-refinement, but would have checked the progress of the art along its most promising lines. His beliefs do not seem to have had much effect, for the very instruments that he excluded were culti- vated with growing zeal. In Greece itself however the double-flute, lyre, and cithara remained the favourites. At Athens every boy was taught the lyre, and 4 Cf. Westphal, Harm,, u. Mel. d. Gr. 45-47. chromatic could be played on a piano ; and AVestphal's view holds the field, but it needs although Ptolemy lias three kinds of diatonic some faith to believe that these ear-splitting scale, it would still seem that the music of his dissonances were commonly played and sung. day would not have sounded utterly barbarous The so-called enharmonic mode of the modern to our ears. A form of chromatic mode is in Eastern Church fH^os rplros ; cf. I. Th. use in the Eastern Church, and is often heard Sakellarides 'Iepa 'T/IVIJISIO 95) is sung like in Romaic folk-songs: it has an austere and the major scale of F ; and it has been supposed striking effect. A ' soft' diatonic is sung in by Dom Gaisser {La Musique Eccl. Gr. d' apres some Greek churches as the second Byzantine la Tradition) that the ancient enharmonic was mode; but few western listeners find much in practice the same as this, the two quarter- sweetness in it. We ourselves allow both the tones being always sung together, and the ' just' and the ' tempered' intonation ; the double tone being divided. It is impossible bagpipes, I believe, are tuned to neither of now to go into this interesting theory. these, and their effect is not always disliked. 5 Quoted in Plut. de Mus. 38. Cf. Aristox. 7 iii. 399 c and D. Arist. Pol. viii. 6 will not Harm. i. 23. allow these instruments in the training of the 6 This is stated by Ptolemy. Cf. Monro, young. -ModesofAncicntGr.Mus.nl. The highstrung H.S.— VOL. XXVII. M 162 H. J. W. TILLYARD the use of the flute was by no means confined to professionals : Alcibiades, for example, is said to have studied on it.8 Again Epaminondas not only played the flute like other Thebans, but learnt the lyre also. The cithara, which had been perfected by Timotheus,9 was chiefly played by professionals. These three instruments are common subjects on Attic vases, and late monuments and authorities show that their use went on through the Roman age : their nature however is so well known that there is no need to say more about them. The kinds of harp called ' Triangle' and ' Pectis' by Plato seem to have been of Lydian origin. Athenaeus, who has a long discussion on the subject, says'that the Magadis was a stringed instrument, later called Sambuca, while the Pectis was the same.10 It is possible that the ' Triangle ' was also similar, and that the names of Trigonon and Pectis were meant as Greek renderings for the foreign words Magadis and Sambuca. This harp, as it may safely be called, is often seen in Egyptian art, and must have been widespread over the East. It appears on a fine red-figured vase in conjunction with the lyre and cithara.11 Athenaeus says that Sappho brought in its use from Lydia, and Anacreon, as his own words record, played a harp with twenty strings.12 The instrument embraced the whole compass of the singing voice, and had high notes beyond the range of the cithara.18 It could be used without a striker. One of its peculiarities was that the sound-box was on the upper side. FIG. 1.—TKIGONUM OK SAMBITCA. Smaller sizes with nine or even five strings were sometimes made. Examples of such miniature harps are seen in some of the wall-paintings now in the Naples Museum: one of these, played by a Cupid, is here illustrated. (Fig. I)14 Another stringed instrument of the same class, more like a zither, became popular in the Roman Age. But, while the use of the harp called for great skill, and gave full scope for rich and splendid effects, the zither can only have yielded a thin and twanging tone, especially as the ancient instrument often had no sound-box. This instrument is nearly always played by women, who often wear a carelessly sumptuous dress, suited rather to paid performers than to freewomen. Examples are again seen in Roman wall-paintings. In 8 Duris ap. Athen. iv. 84, 184 D, where it is speaks of the Pectis. said that the famous flute-player Pronomus was 13 Telestes 4 (5j (Bergk) TO! 8' o^vcpdi/ots Alcibiades' master. vrjuriSav ij/aA./*o(<s> Kpt/cov AiSiov VJXVOV. 9 Cf. Paus. iii. 12. 8. 14 For other examples cf.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Brief History of the Lyre
    A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LYRE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LYRE AND THE HARP The lyre seems to have been an evolution from the even more ancient harp, and what I think drove this evolution, was the desire by specifically nomadic cultures in the ancient Middle East, to create a harp-like instrument which unlike the larger harp, was portable. The harp is an incredibly ancient instrument and the very first illustrations of the harp can be found from c.3300BCE – 3000BCE, in rock etchings found in Megiddo, in the North Western Valley of Jezreel in ancient Israel: Further details about of this ancient etching of the first known depiction of the fully evolved triangular harp, complete with harmonic curve, can be seen in of Joachim Braun's highly informative book, available from Amazon: Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine - Archaeological, written & Comparative Sources (Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing Company, 2002) These rock etchings date from an incredibly ancient era, before the Bronze Age, and before the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt. This remote era in archaeology, is known as the "Chalcolithic" period (4000 - 3200 BCE) - the "Copper Age". The triangular harp depicted in the Megiddo etchings is so fully evolved, that the history of the harp must predate even this ancient illustration by at least a few thousand years! The ultimate ancient evolution of the harp, may have been the result of a long, progressive series of developments in refining the plucked sound made by the basic strung bow and arrow of the Stone Age... Incredibly, this Mesolithic ancestor of both the harp & lyre, the basic musical bow, is still very much alive & well today in Africa - a continuous musical tradition, dating back at least 60,000 years or more..
    [Show full text]
  • The Music of the Bible, with Some Account of the Development Of
    . BOUGHT WITH THE INCOl^E .. FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUlSfD THE GIFT OF Henrg W. Sage 1891 ,. A>.3ooq..i.i... /fiMJA MUSIC LIBRARY Cornell University Library ML 166.S78 1914 The music of the Bible with some account 3 1924 021 773 290 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021773290 Frontispiece. Sounding the Shophar. (p. 224/ THE MUSIC OF THE BIBLE WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS FROM ANCIENT TYPES BY JOHN STAINER M.A., MUS. DOC, MAGD. COLL., OXON. NEW EDITION : With Additional Illustrations and Supplementary Notes BY the Rev. F. W. GALPIN, M.A., F.L.S. London : NOVELLO AND COMPANY, Limited. New York: THE H. W. GRAY CO., Sole Agents for the U.S.A. [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.] 5 ORIGINAL PREFACE. No apology is needed, I hope, for issuing in this form the substance of the series of articles which I contributed to the Bible Educator. Some of the statements which I brought forward in that work have received further confirmation by wider reading; but some others I have ventured to qualify or alter. Much new matter will be found here which I trust may be of interest to the general reader, if not of use to the professional. I fully anticipate a criticism to the effect that such a subject as the development of musical instruments should rather have been allowed to stand alone than have been associated with Bible music.
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief History of the Lyre
    A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LYRE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LYRE AND THE HARP The lyre seems to have been an evolution from the even more ancient harp, and what I think drove this evolution, was the desire by specifically nomadic cultures in the ancient Middle East, to create a harp-like instrument which unlike the larger harp, was portable. The harp is an incredibly ancient instrument and the very first illustrations of the harp can be found from c.3300BCE – 3000BCE, in rock etchings found in Megiddo, in the North Western Valley of Jezreel in ancient Israel: Further details about of this ancient etching of the first known depiction of the fully evolved triangular harp, complete with harmonic curve, can be seen in of Joachim Braun's highly informative book, available from Amazon: Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine - Archaeological, written & Comparative Sources (Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing Company, 2002) These rock etchings date from an incredibly ancient era, before the Bronze Age, and before the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt. This remote era in archaeology, is known as the "Chalcolithic" period (4000 - 3200 BCE) - the "Copper Age". The triangular harp depicted in the Megiddo etchings is so fully evolved, that the history of the harp must predate even this ancient illustration by at least a few thousand years! The ultimate ancient evolution of the harp, may have been the result of a long, progressive series of developments in refining the plucked sound made by the basic strung bow and arrow of the Stone Age... Incredibly, this Mesolithic ancestor of both the harp & lyre, the basic musical bow, is still very much alive & well today in Africa - a continuous musical tradition, dating back at least 60,000 years or more..
    [Show full text]
  • 'Tuning the Lyre, Tuning the Soul'
    Greek and Roman Musical Studies 8 (2020) 111-155 brill.com/grms ‘Tuning the Lyre, Tuning the Soul’ Harmonia, Justice and the Kosmos of the Soul in Plato’s Republic and Timaeus Tosca A.C. Lynch Jesus College, University of Oxford, Turl Street, Oxford, OX1 3DW [email protected] Abstract This paper will focus on Plato’s thought-provoking depiction of justice as special kind of harmonia (Resp. 4.443c-444a) that epitomises the best possible organisation of the soul, exploring his nuanced use of the model of lyre tunings in performative, theoreti- cal as well as educational terms. By comparing Plato’s use of harmonic imagery with technical discussions of lyre tunings and their key role in educational settings, I will show how Plato exploited distinctive features of traditional Greek lyre harmoniai to give shape to his innovative understanding of the structure of the soul and the harmo- nious, but not strifeless, relationship between its individual components. In the sec- ond part of this paper, I will look at how the model outlined in the Republic sheds light on the musical structure that gives shape to the World Soul in the Timaeus, advancing a new interpretation of its elusive harmonic organisation. Keywords Plato’s harmonics – harmonia – justice – lyre tunings – musical education – Republic – Timaeus – Philolaus Plato’s dialogues offer many revealing discussions of the ethical, political, psy- chological and educational importance that music had for the Greeks. This is especially true in the case of the Republic and the Laws, works which describe in detail the political set-up of two ideal constitutions as well as the lifestyle and ethical values embraced by their citizens.
    [Show full text]
  • ~HARP (203).Docx
    Copyright © 2006 - By Jerome Cameron Goodwin – All Rights Reserved ~HARP (203) [Hebrews, kin-nohr', Greek, ki-tha'ra] · The name of the first musical instrument mentioned in Scripture. AS, Fn, Kx, NW, Yg, Da · And the name of his brother was Jubal. He proved to be the founder of all those who handle the harp and the pipe. (Genesis 4:21) · The Hebrew word kin-nohr,' harp, is also rendered lyre in a number of Bible translations. JB, Mo, Ro, RS · In about half of the 42 occurrences of kin-nohr' in the Bible, the translators of the Septuagint rendered it by the Greek ki-tha'ra. · The ki-tha'ra was an instrument resembling the lyre Greek, ly'ra, but it had a more shallow sounding board. Modern translations generally render ki-tha'ra in the Christian Greek Scriptures as harp. · As it is, the inanimate things give off sound, whether a flute or a harp, unless it makes an interval to the tones, how will it be known what is being played on the flute or on the harp? (1 Corinthians 14:7) · And when he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls that were full of incense, and the incense means the prayers of the holy ones. (Revelation 5:8) · Pictorial representations on Egyptian monuments indicate that ancient harps were of many styles and shapes, with a varying number of strings. In view of those points, some have suggested that kin-nohr' may have been a somewhat general term designating any instrument incorporating basic features of the ancient harp.
    [Show full text]
  • Contes Bretons De La Harpe Celtique Yvon Le Quellec
    Sommaire 32 HARPES D'EXIL BROCELIANDE le Festival Un chapitre du livre Musiciens, changez de "De la Source à l'Océan" Hubert, métier ! un loup en hiver Édito, par DS Aziliz Le Gallo The Mc Peake Family of Belfast Par Paul Wright Myrias Un nouveau duo pour Ameylia et Marie Contes Bretons de la Harpe Celtique Yvon Le Quellec Célébration du triangle Par AMADIS Harpes dans L'Ennedi Une chanson et une harpe par jour, avec François Pernel Cahier de musique : Les vertus du carbone Camac Odyssey Guillaume, Antoine et Pierre Par Jakez François Pour jouer léger ! Rêve pour demain Noël du Jura Alix Colin Pastiche de Nedeleg Yvon Le Quellec Port an deorai Se fath mo bhuartha François Hascoët Lemoni Peggy of Letermore Audrey Pierre Quel grand bruit ! Eva Fogelgesang Soazig Noblet Making Progress on the Irish Harp quelques liens Ma barre-lyre Reidun Lynch Yaouen le marin Khyunghee Kim Sutre Tianjin Academy Searching for the celtic spirit Daniel Perret Yoka Boka Jeff Mayors Elisabeth Collard La harpe au sein de l'orchestre Édito 32 : Musiciens, vous n'avez qu'à changer de métier ! Alors qu’une récente étude indiquait qu’un tiers des musiciens professionnels britanniques ont l’intention d’abandonner complètement leur carrière en raison des difficultés financières auxquelles ils sont confrontés depuis le début de la pandémie de coronavirus, Rishi Sunak le Chancelier de l’échiquier, au lieu de les rassurer, leur conseille de chercher du travail dans d’autres secteurs. Près de 400 musiciens britanniques, parmi lesquels la célèbre violoniste écossaise Nicola Benedetti, la clarinettiste Emma Johnson ou le violoncelliste Bill Barkley, ont manifesté ce matin devant le Palais de Westminster, siège du Parlement à Londres.
    [Show full text]
  • TITLE Pages 160518
    Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/64500 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Young, R.C. Title: La Cetra Cornuta : the horned lyre of the Christian World Issue Date: 2018-06-13 La Cetra Cornuta : the Horned Lyre of the Christian World Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof.mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op 13 juni 2018 klokke 15.00 uur door Robert Crawford Young Born in New York (USA) in 1952 Promotores Prof. dr. h.c. Ton Koopman Universiteit Leiden Prof. Frans de Ruiter Universiteit Leiden Prof. dr. Dinko Fabris Universita Basilicata, Potenza; Conservatorio di Musica ‘San Pietro a Majella’ di Napoli Promotiecommissie Prof.dr. Henk Borgdorff Universiteit Leiden Dr. Camilla Cavicchi Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Université de Tours Prof.dr. Victor Coelho School of Music, Boston University Dr. Paul van Heck Universiteit Leiden Prof.dr. Martin Kirnbauer Universität Basel en Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Dr. Jed Wentz Universiteit Leiden Disclaimer: The author has made every effort to trace the copyright and owners of the illustrations reproduced in this dissertation. Please contact the author if anyone has rights which have not been acknowledged. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Foreword ix Glossary xi Introduction xix (DE INVENTIONE / Heritage, Idea and Form) 1 1. Inventing a Christian Cithara 2 1.1 Defining
    [Show full text]
  • Orthodox Friendship Meeting
    Orthodox Friendship Meeting “Dancing” as a mean of self- expression, and communication is one of the most important human manifestations, and it is directly related to the history, the civilisation and the progress of one's society. Traditional dancing in Greece - “Horos” In Greece, the term traditional or folk dancing applies mostly to the dances of rural areas, and for the most part it is a 'product' of oral tradition rather than a written culture. In addition, Hellenic dances are characterised by “anonymity and collectivity”. Greek dancing along with music and singing, it is strongly connected to the time when Greece was under the Ottoman Occupation, lasting from the mid-15th century until the successful Greece's War of Independence. During the Ottoman Occupation, Hellenes have never stopped dancing and singing, and in this way they preserved their language and their traditional music and choreography both of which particularly blossomed during the 18th and 19thcentury. Among the limited privileges that invaders granted to enslaved Greeks, was the right to practise their religion. Folk dancing and folk songs together with festivals and the practice of the Greek Orthodox religion were decisive factors for the preservation of the Greek national and social identity. The Greek Music Greek musical history extends far back into the ancient Greece, and it is also strongly connected to the Byzantine period. Music, songs, poetry and dancing (horos), are the inseparable forms that have become synonymous to Ancient Greek civilization. The Great Ancient Greek Philosophers have once considered 'music' as the supreme form of education. Plato believed that: “Music is a moral law.
    [Show full text]
  • Fomrhi-110.Pdf
    v^uaneny INO. nu, iNovcmDer ^uuo FoMRHI Quarterly BULLETIN 110 Christopher Goodwin 2 COMMUNICATIONS 1815 On frets and barring; some useful ideas David E McConnell 5 1816 Modifications to recorder blocks to improve sound production Peter N Madge 9 1817 What is wrong with Vermeer's guitar Peter Forrester 20 1818 A new addition to the instruments of the Mary Rose Jeremy Montagu 24 181*9 Oud or lute? - a study J Downing 25 1820 Some parallels in the ancestry of the viol and violin Ephraim Segerman 30 1821 Notes on the polyphont Ephraim Segerman 31 1822 The 'English' in English violette Ephraim Segerman 34 1823 The identity of tlie lirone Ephraim Segerman 35 1824 On the origins of the tuning peg and some early instrument name:s E Segerman 36 1825 'Twined' strings for clavichords Peter Bavington 38 1826 Wood fit for a king? An investigation J Downing 43 1827 Temperaments for gut-strung and gut-fretted instruments John R Catch 48 1828 Reply to Hebbert's Comm. 1803 on early bending method Ephraim Segerman 58 1829 Reply to Peruffo's Comm. 1804 on gut strings Ephraim Segerman 59 1830 Reply to Downing's Comm. 1805 on silk/catgut Ephraim Segerman 71 1831 On stringing of lutes (Comm. 1807) and guitars (Comms 1797, 8) E Segerman 73 1832 Tapered lute strings and added mas C J Coakley 74 1833 Review: A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance by Douglas Alton Smith (Lute Society of America, 2002) Ephraim Segerman 77 1834 Review: Die Renaissanceblockfloeten der Sammlung Alter Musikinstrumenten des Kunsthistorisches Museums (Vienna, 2006) Jan Bouterse 83 The next issue, Quarterly 111, will appear in February 2009.
    [Show full text]
  • Elul3830.Pdf
    Cover by D A N I E L R OTHBART www.danielrothbart.org 1 MY NAME IS JOSEPH 2 FIRE TO A GOLDEN WINDOW 3 CAESAR WASN'T ABLE 4 THEY BURNT EVERY SOUL 5 EXTINGUISHED 6 IF I FORGET THEE, O JERUSALEM 7 ALL 8 EPILOGUE: AND TRULY SO IT HAPPENED 9 ZUM LETZENMAL PSYCHOLOGIE! VIOLIN: HAIM FABRIZIO CIPRIANI WORDS: FRANZ KAFKA, DIE ZÜRAUER APHORISMEN 10 LEKHAH DODI SINGLE WORDS (RADIX, MATRIZ AND ET NOS AMOURS) BY PAUL CELAN AND GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE. SONG BY SHLOMO HALEVI ALKABETZ JOSEPH TALKS: A TWO-PART INVENTION FROM TITUS FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS (ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY WILLIAM WHISTON) An antique Latin policy was used to say that ROMA is AMOR. It means that Rome is Love. Well, one cannot honestly say that plenty of ART is a plague RAT. LOVE and ART are vibrant. Jerusalem and the Second Temple fell in September 70: Elul 3830 in the Hebrew calendar. 1950 years ago ROMA's violence decided to destroy Jerusalem. That was not AMOR. 1950 years after, this album is dedicated to the ancient siege and massacre of Elul 3830. That's for sure. But we know that a transnational & transhistorical community of victims is calling us. Lots of eerie imperia - the empires - act impiously on the dashboard of history. Our music is but the memory of these events. And not only of a singular event. JOSEPH TALKS MY NAME IS JOSEPH, the son of Matthias. By birth a Hebrew… a priest also. I am who at first fought against the Romans, and was forced to be present at what was done afterwards.
    [Show full text]
  • Kithara of the Golden Age
    KITHARA OF THE GOLDEN AGE The kithara was the highly advanced, large wooden lyre favoured by only the true professional musicians of ancient Greece, which reached its pinnacle of perfection during the “Golden Age” of Classical Antiquity, circa 5th century BCE. My album "The Ancient Greek Kithara of Classical Antiquity" features the wonderfully recreated Kithara of the Golden Age of Classical Greece - hand-made in modern Greece by Luthieros: http://en.luthieros.com/ Since late 2014, I have been collaborating with Luthieros in their inspirational "Lyre 2.0 Project" - dedicated to reintroducing the wonderful lyres of antiquity back into the modern world, to make these beautiful instruments accessible to each and every modern musician. This new series of recordings hopefully demonstrate why the kithara was so venerated in antiquity, as the instrument of the professional musician - perfect for both accompanying the human voice and for as an incredibly versatile solo instrument. In particular, I attempt to demonstrate the wonderfully reconstructed 2500 year old vibrato mechanism, for which there is an almost overwhelming body of visual evidence to support this theory. THE OVERWHELMING BODY OF VISUAL EVIDENCE FOR THE VIBRATO MECHANISM All original illustrations of the ancient Greek kithara clearly show what appear to be 2 tiers of inverted ‘U’ shaped curved springs beneath the yoke to which the strings are attached, with the top of the arms carved almost wafer thin, (often with projections which could certainly be interpreted as actual articulated hinges), which almost certainly was to allow for lateral movement of the yoke and the attached strings, complete with 2 vertical levers either side of the yoke, which if light lateral pressure was applied, would certainly have an eerie vocal vibrato effect.
    [Show full text]
  • A Response to Laywine on Hagel, Ancient Greek Music ⋆
    A Response to Laywine on Hagel, Ancient Greek Music ⋆ Stefan Hagel Austrian Academy of Sciences [email protected] I am sad that as intelligent a reviewer as Alison Laywine was so deeply dissatisfied with my book. On the one hand she has convinced me that there are issues which deserve her harsh criticism, even if part of her dis- appointment (I hope) might perhaps be ascribed to the fact that the title misled the renowned Kantian scholar to expect an introduction to the study of ancient music, which she apparently came to embrace only recently. On the other hand, I find my argument so severely misrepresented both overall and sometimes in detail that I decided to write this response, in the hope that in this way the readers of Aestimatio will know better what to expect to find in the book. To begin, Laywine could not locate ‘a single, self-contained, coherent state- ment of [my] overall motivations’ [168] and therefore embarks upon con- struing one on the basis of my doctoral thesis, published a decade earlier. Turning the volume around, she might instead have found the statement, ‘This book endeavors to pinpoint the relations between musical, and espe- cially instrumental, practice and the evolving conceptions of pitch systems.’ This, I think, covers it nicely. I will give one example of the internal cohesion of the argument which Laywine is missing.Towards the end of my book, the necessary ingredients are collected (I trust) for tuning a lyre to the same pitch (within a semitone) and the same intervals (within a small fraction of a tone) as ancient lyres had been in the second century, in order to accompany a tune that had actually been composed for such a lyre.To accomplish this we need to understand the pitch range of the cithara [ch.
    [Show full text]