Ancient Greek Music: A New Technical History - Softcover

Hagel, Stefan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1316610896 ISBN 13: 9781316610893

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2016

Synopsis

This book endeavours to pinpoint the relations between musical, and especially instrumental, practice and the evolving conceptions of pitch systems. It traces the development of ancient melodic notation from reconstructed origins, through various adaptations necessitated by changing musical styles and newly invented instruments, to its final canonical form. It thus emerges how closely ancient harmonic theory depended on the culturally dominant instruments, the lyre and the aulos. These threads are followed down to late antiquity, when details recorded by Ptolemy permit an exceptionally clear view. Dr Hagel discusses the textual and pictorial evidence, introducing mathematical approaches wherever feasible, but also contributes to the interpretation of instruments in the archaeological record and occasionally is able to outline the general features of instruments not directly attested. The book will be indispensable to all those interested in Greek music, technology and performance culture and the general history of musicology.

About this title

Review:

'This is a stunning achievement, and when scholars have had time to absorb its contents the study of Greek music and musical theory will never be the same again ... Its innovative, complex and multi-faceted methodology may be beyond what most others can hope to emulate at this level of sophistication, but once they have seen it in action no one will have any excuse for neglecting its potential, and we shall all have to absorb from it what lessons we can. In short, I believe that Hagel's book will revolutionise the discipline.' Andrew Barker, University of Birmingham

'I have no hesitation in pronouncing it a work of the highest originality and importance which future investigators will acknowledge as a landmark in the field.' Martin West, University of Oxford

Book Description:

This book offers a fundamental reworking of the history of Greek music from the classical period to Roman times. It explains anew the development of ancient melodic notation, embedding it in a context of professional music-making, in a musical culture determined mainly by the dominant instruments, the lyre and the aulos.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1316610896
• ISBN 13: 9781316610893
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 506