30393 - Greek Metrics and Music (1) (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will know in detail Greek metrics and its relationship with ancient Greek music.

Course contents

Special focus course

a) Between melic poetry and tragedy: Bacchylides' Theseus (18 M.)

Core course

b) Fundamentals of Greek metrics and rhythmics

Lectures hours: Monday 13-15, Tuesday 15-17, Thursday 13-15, Aula Seminari (via Zamboni 32, 1st floor)

Beginning of the lectures: 9.11.2020

Readings/Bibliography

a) Class notes. For the text of Bacchylides, the standard edition is H. Maehler, Bacchylidis carmina cum fragmentis, Monachii-Lipsiae, Teubner, 2003¹¹ (see also H. Maehler, Die Lieder des Bakchylides, II. Die Dithyramben und Fragmente, Leiden, Brill, 1997, with German transl. and an useful detailed commentary); other critical editions will be taken into account during the lectures, esp. J. Irigoin-J. Duchemin-L. Bardollet, Bacchylide. Dithyrambes, Épinicies, Fragments, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1993, with French transl. and exegetical notes. Good Italian translations with notes are M. Giuseppetti, Bacchilide. Odi e frammenti, Milano, BUR, 2015 (based on Irigoin’s edition) e di R. Sevieri, Bacchilide. Ditirambi, Milano, La Vita Felice, 2010 (based on Maehler’s edition). For a good English translation, see D.A. Campbell, Greek Lyric, IV. Bacchylides, Corinna, and Others, Cambridge, Mass.-London, Loeb, 1992.

b) I. For the fundamental notions of Greek metrics the study of one of the following handbooks is requested: M.L. West, Greek metre, Oxford, OUP, 1982; M.C. Martinelli, Gli strumenti del poeta. Elementi di metrica greca, Bologna, 1997; D. Korzeniewski, Metrica greca, trad. it. Palermo, L’Epos, 1998 (ed. or. Darmstadt 1968); B. Gentili-L. Lomiento, Metrica e ritmica. Storia delle forme poetiche nella Grecia antica, Milano 2003. II. The poetic texts which students must analyse from a metrical point of view are those of Tyrtaeus, Mimnermus, Solon, Archilochus, Hipponax, Alcaeus, Sappho, Anacreon, Alcman, Stesichorus, Bacchylides included in one of the following anthologies: E. Degani-G. Burzacchini, Lirici greci, Bologna, Pàtron, 2005²; C. Neri, Lirici greci. Età arcaica e classica, Roma, Carocci, 2011. III. The relationship between the poetic text and the musical rhythm will be taken into consideration during the lessons, but students are strongly recommended to study the chapter 5 (Rhythm and Tempo) in M.L. West, Ancient Greek Music, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992, as a supplement to class notes. For a comprehensive account of ancient Greek music, interested students can consult G. Comotti, La musica nella cultura greca e romana, Torino, EDT, 1991 (esp. chapters I, II, IV, VI), or the above quoted M.L. West, Ancient Greek Music, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992 (esp. chapters I-V, X-XI).

Students who cannot attend the course are invited to talk with the teacher in order to define an alternative bibliography. In particular, they will be requested to study the texts quoted above under b.III.

Teaching methods

The first and most extensive part of the course will include both theoretical lessons (during which the main ancient and modern metrical theories will be illustrated and the problem of the relationship between poetic text and musical rhythm will be addressed), as well as workshop-like lessons (during which the main ancient Greek rhythms and meters of Greek will be treated and the students will be involved in the rhythmic reading of the verses).

The second part of the course, which will occupy the last lessons, will be focused on the metrical and stylistic analysis of a poem or a poetic fragment, in order to apply to it the skills acquired during the previous lessons and to examine the relationship between the metrical and the semantic level. After a brief introduction, these last meetings will have the form of a seminar.

 

NB If there are no relevant changes related to the Covid-19 emergency, the first week of class will be online for everyone (through Teams); from the second week on, a blended teaching mode will be adopted, with students attending online and in class at the same time. Shifts of attendance will be organized in case the request to attend is higher than the capacity of the classroom.

Assessment methods

Students will have the opportunity to self-evaluate their learning during the seminar-like lessons of the course, where they will be invited to scan some verses and to recognise the metrical pattern.

The conclusive examination is oral and consists in an interview, in which the students will be asked to analyze - according to the methodology already experienced during the workshop-like lessons - some verses, both recited and lyric (among those provided in photocopy), as well as the poem/poetic fragment examined during the second part of the course.

In particular, the student should demonstrate that she/he has acquired an adequate knowledge (1) of prosody, (2) of the main recited and sung meters, (3) of the theoretic fundamentals of metrics and ancient Greek music.

The exam will be considered passed if the candidate gives proof of a solid knowledge of the three points listed above and of an adequate ability to analyze the poetic texts treated in class. A rhythmic reading of both recited and lyric verses is required.

In this case, the evaluation ranges from 18 to 30 cum laude depending on how sure, well-founded, precise and rigorous will be the answers of the candidate.

Teaching tools

PC, photocopied handouts, IOL, Power point.

Links to further information

https://ficlit.unibo.it/it

Office hours

See the website of Marco Ercoles