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Seminarium i grekiska/bysantinologi
Ons 16 maj 2012, kl 14:15 i 9-1017
Sean Gurd (Concordia University, Montreal): Rethinking the ’new’ music: the late fifth century theory and practice of harmony
In a series of articles published around the turn of the millenium, Eric Csapo drew attention to developments in musical practice at the end of the fifth century, particularly (but not exclusively) at Athens. His model of these developments relied on two postulates: that the music was “new” and innovative, almost to the point of constituting a revolution; and that this innovation was driven primarily by cultural and economic developments, particularly at Athens, where it was intimately linked to democratic and popular culture. Ten years on, it is increasingly clear that this groundbreaking and in many ways superb account needs to be rethought. I will argue that the “new music” was new only in the extremely limited sense that it used an expanded tonal language; the musical poetics which informed this tonal language had been in place since at least the end of the sixth century (and probably before). This tonal language was developed in close concert with technical developments in musical theory, which in turn was in unremitting dialogue with acoustics, medicine, and natural philosophy. In defending these related claims, I attend especially to the theory of harmony as it developed in presocratic, sophistic, medical, and musical sources throughout the fifth century.