A. P. David
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199292400
- eISBN:
- 9780191711855
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199292400.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book develops an authentic and revolutionary musical analysis of ancient Greek poetry. It brings the interpretation of ancient verse into step with the sorts of analyses customarily enjoyed by ...
More
This book develops an authentic and revolutionary musical analysis of ancient Greek poetry. It brings the interpretation of ancient verse into step with the sorts of analyses customarily enjoyed by works in all the more recent poetical and musical traditions. It departs from the abstract metrical analyses of the past in that it conceives the rhythmic and harmonic elements of poetry as integral to the whole expression, and decisive in the interpretation of its meaning. Such an analysis is now possible because of a new theory of the Greek tonic accent, set out in the third chapter, and its application to Greek poetry understood as choreia — the proper name for the art and work of ancient poets in both epic and lyric, described by Plato as a synthesis of dance rhythm and vocal harmony, in disagreement moving toward agreement. The book offers a thorough-going treatment of Homeric poetics: here some remarkable discoveries in the harmonic movement of epic verse, when combined with some neglected facts about the origin of the hexameter in a ‘dance of the Muses’, lead to essential new thinking about the genesis and the form of Homeric poetry. The book also gives a foretaste of the fruits to be harvested in lyric by a musical analysis, applying the new theory of the accent and considering concretely the role of dance in performance.Less
This book develops an authentic and revolutionary musical analysis of ancient Greek poetry. It brings the interpretation of ancient verse into step with the sorts of analyses customarily enjoyed by works in all the more recent poetical and musical traditions. It departs from the abstract metrical analyses of the past in that it conceives the rhythmic and harmonic elements of poetry as integral to the whole expression, and decisive in the interpretation of its meaning. Such an analysis is now possible because of a new theory of the Greek tonic accent, set out in the third chapter, and its application to Greek poetry understood as choreia — the proper name for the art and work of ancient poets in both epic and lyric, described by Plato as a synthesis of dance rhythm and vocal harmony, in disagreement moving toward agreement. The book offers a thorough-going treatment of Homeric poetics: here some remarkable discoveries in the harmonic movement of epic verse, when combined with some neglected facts about the origin of the hexameter in a ‘dance of the Muses’, lead to essential new thinking about the genesis and the form of Homeric poetry. The book also gives a foretaste of the fruits to be harvested in lyric by a musical analysis, applying the new theory of the accent and considering concretely the role of dance in performance.
A. P. David
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199292400
- eISBN:
- 9780191711855
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199292400.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter develops the notion of χορεία, according to Plato’s usage of the term, as the proper, restored rubric within which to understand the rhythm and harmony of ancient Greek poetry in both ...
More
This chapter develops the notion of χορεία, according to Plato’s usage of the term, as the proper, restored rubric within which to understand the rhythm and harmony of ancient Greek poetry in both its stichic and lyric forms. The approach to such poetry via the ancient dictum, ‘art is imitation’, is given a brief developmental history and then critiqued. The importance of dance origins for Greek metres is discussed, with comparisons to examples of modern European ‘survivors’ of danced epic verse as preparation for a new accounting of such peculiar phenomena in Homeric poetry as noun-and-epithet phrases (understood to be analogous to ‘signature lines’ in opera) and ring composition. A case is made that Homeric and other Greek texts are not language in themselves, but musical scores instructing the production of performed speech.Less
This chapter develops the notion of χορεία, according to Plato’s usage of the term, as the proper, restored rubric within which to understand the rhythm and harmony of ancient Greek poetry in both its stichic and lyric forms. The approach to such poetry via the ancient dictum, ‘art is imitation’, is given a brief developmental history and then critiqued. The importance of dance origins for Greek metres is discussed, with comparisons to examples of modern European ‘survivors’ of danced epic verse as preparation for a new accounting of such peculiar phenomena in Homeric poetry as noun-and-epithet phrases (understood to be analogous to ‘signature lines’ in opera) and ring composition. A case is made that Homeric and other Greek texts are not language in themselves, but musical scores instructing the production of performed speech.
P. J. Finglass, C. Collard, and N. J. Richardson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199285686
- eISBN:
- 9780191713958
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199285686.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Martin West is widely recognized as one of the most significant classicists of all time. Over nearly half a century his publications have transformed our understanding of Greek poetry. This book ...
More
Martin West is widely recognized as one of the most significant classicists of all time. Over nearly half a century his publications have transformed our understanding of Greek poetry. This book celebrates his achievement with twenty-five chapters on different areas of the subject which he has illuminated, written by distinguished scholars from four continents. It also includes West's Balzan Prize acceptance speech, ‘Forward into the Past’, in which he explains his approach to literary scholarship, and a complete bibliography of his academic publications.Less
Martin West is widely recognized as one of the most significant classicists of all time. Over nearly half a century his publications have transformed our understanding of Greek poetry. This book celebrates his achievement with twenty-five chapters on different areas of the subject which he has illuminated, written by distinguished scholars from four continents. It also includes West's Balzan Prize acceptance speech, ‘Forward into the Past’, in which he explains his approach to literary scholarship, and a complete bibliography of his academic publications.
Michael Silk
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198810803
- eISBN:
- 9780191847912
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198810803.003.0017
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Poetic language in the Western traditions subsumes two distinct categories of usage: elevation (whereby usage conforms to a conventional ‘high style’) and heightening (whereby meaning is enriched, ...
More
Poetic language in the Western traditions subsumes two distinct categories of usage: elevation (whereby usage conforms to a conventional ‘high style’) and heightening (whereby meaning is enriched, often by mechanisms of defamiliarization). How should a historical dictionary of a dead language deal with literary, especially poetic, language? This chapter attempts to clarify the issues and sets out some principles for ‘literary lexicography’, with special reference to Liddell and Scott (LSJ) and ancient Greek poetry, and to Greek usage in the early and classical periods. The issues dealt with apply equally to Liddell and Scott and the Revised Supplement; for the most part the discussion will subsume both.Less
Poetic language in the Western traditions subsumes two distinct categories of usage: elevation (whereby usage conforms to a conventional ‘high style’) and heightening (whereby meaning is enriched, often by mechanisms of defamiliarization). How should a historical dictionary of a dead language deal with literary, especially poetic, language? This chapter attempts to clarify the issues and sets out some principles for ‘literary lexicography’, with special reference to Liddell and Scott (LSJ) and ancient Greek poetry, and to Greek usage in the early and classical periods. The issues dealt with apply equally to Liddell and Scott and the Revised Supplement; for the most part the discussion will subsume both.
Roger Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198754473
- eISBN:
- 9780191816130
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198754473.003.0021
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, Poetry
This chapter examines Vigny’s first collection of poems, tracing its evolution through several editions and discussing its illustration of a tripartite history of poetry that extends from the poetry ...
More
This chapter examines Vigny’s first collection of poems, tracing its evolution through several editions and discussing its illustration of a tripartite history of poetry that extends from the poetry of ancient Greece, through biblical poetry of the kind championed by Chateaubriand and the early Lamartine, to a poetry expressive of the modern world. Where Lamartine had revived the elegy and Hugo the ode, Vigny’s preference was for the ‘poème’, a form of narrative verse in which compassionate accounts of human suffering support the poet-lawgiver’s overt agenda of stoical acceptance and human self-sufficiency. For Vigny’s poet there is no God, no transcendent realm, just a world of literal fact to be interpreted by human reason for the moral guidance of others. Poetry as a form of pity thus lends a purpose to sadness.Less
This chapter examines Vigny’s first collection of poems, tracing its evolution through several editions and discussing its illustration of a tripartite history of poetry that extends from the poetry of ancient Greece, through biblical poetry of the kind championed by Chateaubriand and the early Lamartine, to a poetry expressive of the modern world. Where Lamartine had revived the elegy and Hugo the ode, Vigny’s preference was for the ‘poème’, a form of narrative verse in which compassionate accounts of human suffering support the poet-lawgiver’s overt agenda of stoical acceptance and human self-sufficiency. For Vigny’s poet there is no God, no transcendent realm, just a world of literal fact to be interpreted by human reason for the moral guidance of others. Poetry as a form of pity thus lends a purpose to sadness.
