Greek Musical Writings: Volume 1, The Musician and his Art

This book is the first of two volumes offering a selection of Greek writings on music, newly translated into English and equipped with an extensive commentary.

Andrew Barker (Edited by)

9780521389112, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 July 1989

352 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.531 kg

'This book … contains passages in which ancient opinions are expressed on the status, function and practice of music in Greek life … The translated passages are well supplied with explanatory notes that … give the Greekless reader as much information as can be reasonably extracted from the original … As such it is essential reading for any historian of ancient music.' The Musical Times

This book is the first of two volumes offering a selection of Greek writings on music, newly translated into English and equipped with an extensive commentary. This volume contains passages from Greek poets, historians and essayists, evoking or describing aspects of the practical activities of musical performance and composition, together with excerpts from philosophers and social critics who comment on the moral, education and aesthetic dimensions of the art. Music was of fundamental importance in the culture of ancient Greece. Its nature and significance cannot now, perhaps, be fully recaptured, but we have a rich fund of information about the Greek experience of music, its forms, its meanings, its social roles, and the practical details of its composition and performance.

List of illustrations
List of authors and passages quoted
Acknowledgements
Texts and abbreviations
Transliteration of Greek words
Introduction
1. Homer
2. Hesiod
3. The Homeric hymns
4. From Archilochus to the late sixth century
5. Pindar
6. Fifth-century tragedy
7. The musical revolution of the later fifth century
8. Aristophanes
9. Xenophon
10. Plato
Appendix A. The harmoniai
Appendix B. Damon
11. Aristotle
12. The Hibeh papyrus on music
13. Theophrastus
14. The Aristotelian problems
15. The Plutarchian treatise on music
Appendix A. The nomoi
Appendix B. The spondeion and the spondeiazon tropos
16. Athenaeus
Appendix: Athenaeus' sources
Bibliography of works by modern authors
Index.

Subject Areas: Early music [up to c 1000 CE AVGC1]