MUSICAL IDENTITIES, KNOWLEDGE, AND EXCHANGE IN THE ARCHAIC GREEK MEDITERRANEAN (700-480 BCE)

Description du projet

Matérialisme des objets musicaux de la Grèce antique

Le projet MIKE-AGM, financé par l’UE, mènera la première analyse approfondie du régionalisme et des échanges musicaux au cours de l’époque archaïque (700-480 avant J.-C.) en adoptant de nouvelles méthodes d’étude de la poterie figurative de la Grèce antique. Le projet se concentrera tout particulièrement sur la distribution commerciale de la poterie, qui servira d’indicateur des voies d’échange musical. En envisageant la musique comme l’une des nombreuses marchandises invisibles dans la Grèce antique, le projet utilisera les instruments de musique en tant que preuves de la vie sociale de ceux qui les fabriquaient, en jouaient et les écoutaient. En outre, il s’intéressera aux différentes significations que chaque instrument particulier revêtait dans différentes régions. Les résultats permettront de façonner un système axé sur le matérialisme des objets musicaux.

Objectif

This project is the first extended analysis of musical regionalism and exchange in the Archaic Greek Mediterranean (700-480 BCE). It employs interdisciplinary methodologies and evidence (literary analysis, epigraphy, iconography, archaeology, organology, and music cognition ). This project is possible because I approach a key body of evidence, Archaic Greek figural pottery, with new methodologies. Critiqued through the lens of new materialism and object centred analyses, this pottery depicts a wealth of music iconography across a range of regional compositions and styles. Further, with appropriate methodological considerations, the trade distribution of this pottery can be used as a proxy for routes of musical exchange. Music was one of many invisible commodities in ancient Greece. This evidence will be enhanced by an in-depth analysis of surviving musical instruments, using methodologies such as adapted object biographies to look at instruments as evidence for the social lives of those who made, played, and listened to them, and the ways that individual instruments held different meanings in different regions. In this way, I build on and move away from the ‘archaeology of contexts’ developed by recent music archaeology, and develop a system for focusing on the materialism of musical objects. These corpora are supplemented by epigraphic and literary evidence to reconstruct the extent to which the musical regionalisms recorded by poets resemble those suggested by the material evidence, or if they function more as literary devices. This body of evidence will be used for an open visual database of material relating to ancient Greek music.

Dr. Hagel’s expertise in ancient music theory and instruments and his work in creating digital tools to assist with the study of ancient music, is of vital importance for this project. In turn, I would bring expertise in Archaic Greek society, art and material culture and new methodological perspectives.