Transcript Myth in antiquity

Myths and Music, 2010
Greek and Roman myths and
instruments
Vesa Matteo Piludu
University of Helsinki
Myth in antiquity
 Myths are narratives about gods, heroes, fantastic beings who tell us
why the world is organized at it its
 Myths were sung in antiquity by epic singers
 The Ancient myths weren’t obvious but complicate: many
philosophers, including Plato, discussed on their inner meaning
 Ancient myths were deep, suitable for speculation
 Many myths told the origin of the instruments, musical rituals, notes,
scales
 Every musical scale and even pitch was connected with an aspect of
the human ethic and soul
Music in Antiquity
 Few notes preserved: it is impossible to know exactly how the music
was played
 Many instruments were found by archaeologists
 Some instrument were rebuilt and the musician have tried to discover
and play their “natural” harmony
 Same or similar instruments are still played in Southern Europe and
in the Arab world
Music and society
 In Ancient Greece music has an enormous importance for education,
religion, society
 It was mostly an oral society and music and songs helped to
remember myths, poetry, history
 the messengers sung a genre called apostoliká to remember the
contents of the messages
 Songs were a relevant mnemonic system, fundamental for
education: an ignorant in ancient Greece was called àmousous (not
trained by the muses) ie uneducated, unrefined, without taste, rude,
not trained in music, without culture
 Music is the art of Muses, deities of poetical inspiration, prophecy,
memory, music and arts
Ancient Musicology
 Greek invented musicology (it was a very speculative and
philosophical science) and many Greek world related to music are
still used in several sciences
 Analysis (análysis): melodic figure composed of tetracords, four
ascending notes followed by four descending
The aoedos or aoidòs
 The epic singers, often poet-composer, have ad a very particular
status: they were often called divine
 The epic singer was also a mourner, who sings lamentation in
funerals
 Aoidòs means also an enchanter, charmer who cured by singing
epodes (incantation)
 The status of the epic singer was somewhat similar to a shaman’s or
tietäjä’s one: it was an inspired singer, who remembered myths and
musical incantation
 The verb àdein means to sing, narrate (myths)
 It was the opposite of lègein (to speak rationally)
 The logòs was a rational speech