NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/music/classica/19199

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-22 | 2.6 KB

Xref: sparky rec.music.classical:19199 rec.music.early:1813
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical,rec.music.early
Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu!velde2
From: [e-mail] (Francois Velde)
Subject: *Very* early music
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Summary: Ancient Greek and Roman music
Organization: HAC - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 18:01:13 GMT
Lines: 39

Talk about early music on period instruments, this goes pretty far.

The following is a loose translation of an article in the French
"Journal du CNRS", dec. 1992. It describes a concert of 2d cent. BC music
given recently in Athens.

"The Greeks were crying, everyone was very moved. Me too." And for a
good reason: last September, Annie Belis conducted, for the first time,
the two great hymns to Apollo engraved on the walls of the Treasure of the
Athenians in Delphi in 128 B.C.  "And on the site of their creation..."
It took this young musical archaeologist 15 years of work to reach her
goal: play the true pieces of music from the Greek and Roman Antiquity,
and on copies of period instruments. A real marathon for this musican,
specialized in musical notation and ancient scores, which took her through
ancient history, ceramology [sic], iconography, epigraphy, organology [sic],
and even Greek mathematics and philosophy; all of which allowed her not only
to read the scores and rediscover the vocal techniques, but also to recreate
the instruments with the help of the luthier Jean-Claude Condi. Relying on
contemporary depictions, and using the same media and the assembling techniques as in Antique times, they recreated Greek lyres, two large kitharas, a
kroupeza (foot-activated percussion) and a tympanon, a large drum based on a
Pompei fresco. All that remained was to listen to this music, ranging from the
5th century BC to the second century AD.  Annie Belis now conducts a vocal
and instrumental ensemble, Kerylos. The group was the one playing in Delphi.
"There were 25 of us, playing and singing in unisson. A difficult exercise,
for a very peculiar music, sometimes with five beats and unusual intervals.
The singers must be vocal athletes. But it is not just a tour de force:
this music is beautiful and the texts are magnificent!" To have an idea
of what this music sounds like ("it is like nothing else, except perhaps
Alban Berg when he is really great...") no recording, but a concert in
Metz on June 6, and a show on France Musique on December 13.
Contact:
Annie Belis, Institut de Recherche et d'histoire des textes, Metz, France.
    phone: [phone].


--

    Francois Velde