Eighth annual seminar on ancient Greek music, The Ionian University, Corfu, Greece, 3-9 July 2011
Every summer since 2004, the Music Department at the Ionian University has held a week-long seminar on ancient Greek music. The programme follows a regular pattern: the mornings are devoted to the study of the particular text or topic chosen for that year, and in the evenings there are lectures on other topics of interest to students of the subject. This year there will also be a preliminary session, on Sunday July 3, introducing participants who are not specialists in Greek musicology to some of the basics of the subject, especially those relevant to the chosen text; and each evening there will be classes designed specifically for Greek students, taking them through the next day’s passage of text and helping them to translate it. This year the text for the morning seminars is Book 8 of Aristotle’s Politics; the seminars will be led by Dr Eleonora Rocconi (University of Pavia), Prof. Andrew Barker (University of Birmingham) and Prof. Egert Pöhlmann (University of Erlangen).
The afternoons (when it is sometimes too hot for serious work) are free for swimming, sight-seeing, sleeping or what you will. The sessions take place in the magnificent settings of the Mon Repos palace (the former summer residence of the Greek royal family) and the main university building (the Ionian Academy).
Programme
Sunday July 3, Ionian Academy 10.00: Introduction to Greek music and musicology (Andrew Barker)
Sunday July 3 to Friday July 8, Ionian Academy 18.00: translation classes for Greek students (Petros Andriotis and Andromache Batziou)
Monday July 4 to Saturday July 9, Mon Repos 10.00: seminars on Aristotle, Politics Book 8 (July 4-5 Eleonora Rocconi, 6-7 Andrew Barker, 8-9 Egert Pöhlmann)
Monday July 4 to Saturday July 9, Ionian Academy 19.00: lectures. The speakers and topics are as follows (provisionally in this order, but it may change).
Monday July 4: Massimo Raffa, University of Calabria, ‘Porphyry on voice and perception’.
Tuesday July 5: Christos Terzis, University of Athens, a discussion of Dionysius’ Technē mousikēs.
Wednesday July 6: Tosca Lynch, University of St Andrews, ‘A sophist “in disguise”: a reconstruction of Damon of Oa and his role in Plato’s dialogues’.
Thursday July 7: Andomache Batziou, Ionian University, ‘Some notes on the educational role of the aulos in the first half of the fifth century BCE’.
Friday July 8: Martin Carle, Humboldt University, Berlin, ‘Harmony to the power of melody: epistemology and computation in Aristoxenian theory’.
Saturday July 9: Stelios Psaroudakis, University of Athens, ‘How complex can a complex rhythm be?’ Stefan Hagel, University of Vienna, ‘From metre to rhythm: searching for traces of a path’.
In the past we have had participants from about a dozen different countries in Europe and the Americas; for the seminars and lectures, and for the introductory session, we obviously have to choose a language which is more or less common property, and the language we use is English. The translation classes will be conducted in modern Greek.
The fee for participation is 200 euros. Accommodation for students (both undergraduates and post-graduates) can be provided in the university dormitories at very low cost, but the number of places is limited, and it is essential to book in advance to ensure a place. Students who want to take advantage of this facility should contact one of the organizers (see below) as soon as possible, certainly by the end of May and preferably well before that. Other participants should let the organizers know that they intend to come; it would be helpful if they could get in touch soon, though there is no deadline for doing so. They will need to arrange their own accommodation, but the organizers will be happy to offer advice.
For all other information, please get in touch with one of the organizers, Dr Petros Andriotis (pandriot@ionio.gr) and Prof. Panos Vlagopoulos (pvlag@ionio.gr).
