Searching for the Lost Musical Tradition of Ancient Greek Tragedy

Description:

In his paper, presented during his honorary doctorate ceremony at the University of Athens on March 1, 1999, Yorgos Sicilianos discusses the challenge of reviving the lost musical traditions of ancient Greek tragedy, specifically focusing on his composition based on Aeschylus’ “Persians.” The paper was published in the bulletin of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and later republished in the catalogue of the Benaki Museum exhibition on Sicilianos.

Sicilianos begins by acknowledging the limited knowledge we have about ancient Greek music, especially its notation and performance practice. He notes that, despite the importance of music in ancient Greek tragedy, it remains unclear how this music sounded. He emphasizes that music, along with speech and dance, was integral to Greek tragedy, and that the musicality inherent in the Greek language itself would have influenced the poets’ compositions.

To illustrate his approach, Sicilianos describes his composition Epiklesis, based on the second stasimon of Aeschylus’ “Persians.” This work, completed in 1968, involves a narrator, male choir, and instrumental ensemble, and aims to invoke the spirit of the deceased King Darius to aid the Persian people following their defeat at Salamis. Sicilianos discusses the linguistic and musical elements of the original Greek text and his efforts to capture its rhythmic and melodic qualities. He argues that using the original text, despite its archaic language, can convey a profound sense of the tragedy’s emotional and acoustic depth, which might be lost in translation.

In his composition, Sicilianos adopts the Erasmian pronunciation to better approximate the sounds of ancient Greek. This approach, he argues, offers a richer phonetic variety and allows for more intricate rhythmic and melodic structures. He believes that the original text’s rhythmic patterns and tonal variations can be directly translated into contemporary musical forms, creating a bridge between ancient and modern musical expressions. Sicilianos concludes by reflecting on the importance of preserving the musicality of the original language in contemporary interpretations of ancient Greek tragedies.

– Response by Yorgos Sicilianos during the ceremony for his honorary doctorate at the Department of Music Studies in the Great Hall of Ceremonies of the University of Athens on March 1, 1999. It was published in the bulletin of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Athina (Αθηνά), III, June 1999 issue, no. 15, pp. 47-53, and republished in the catalogue of the Benaki Museum exhibition titled Yorgos Sicilianos: The Composer in Avant-Garde of Contemporary Music, pp. 83-89. This text is an enriched version of an initial writing in the magazine Chronicle (Χρονικό ’72) (September ’71 – August ’72), pp. 210-213, an annual publication of the Artistic and Intellectual Centre Hora (Καλλιτεχνικό Πνευματικό Κέντρο Ώρα).