Papers by Eleonora Rocconi
In: A. Motta, F.M. Petrucci, eds, Isagogical Crossroads from the Early Imperial Age to the End of Antiquity, Leiden: Brill, 2022
In: Folkloricum: Archive of Ancient Folklore, 2021
Saggio che discute la possibilità di identificare il concetto di 'musica popolare' nell'ambito de... more Saggio che discute la possibilità di identificare il concetto di 'musica popolare' nell'ambito delle civiltà classiche (specialmente quella greca antica), fornendo alcuni esempi e temi di discussione.
Greek and Roman Musical Studies 8.1, 2020
In ancient Greece, harmonics fully acquires the dignity of ‘science’ thanks to Aristoxenus of Tar... more In ancient Greece, harmonics fully acquires the dignity of ‘science’ thanks to Aristoxenus of Tarentum, who first gives an account of a rigorous method of analysis of the structures underlying melodies. One of the most interesting concepts discussed in his extant writings is the notion of synthesis, which he uses to describe any orderly combination of elements (whether they are sounds, intervals or letters) into a sequence. This principle, which according to him governs the way of combining items in patterns, is described as a ‘natural’ principle (i.e. inherent in melos or lexis) and lies at the very bottom of his idea of ‘attuned melody’ (melos hērmosmenon), the specific object under investigation in his harmonics. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the pivotal significance of this notion within Aristoxenus’ thought and to identify its reception in later authors, not only within harmonics but also within the realm of rhetoric.
In 'Linguaggi, esperienze e tracce sonore sulla scena', a cura di Angela Albanese e Maria Arpaia, Ravenna, Longo editore, pp, 17-28 , 2020
In: David Wolfsdorf, ed., Early Greek Ethics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020
The belief that music can affect the human soul was deeply rooted in ancient Greece. Many philoso... more The belief that music can affect the human soul was deeply rooted in ancient Greece. Many philosophers tried to describe the sympathetic responses of human beings to musical performances and their ethical consequences, even without framing their remarks within a consistent and systematic theory. “Music and the Soul” aims at analyzing the cultural background and the contemporary intellectual milieu in which Plato operated, in order to assess earlier or alternative views of the ethical power of mousikē overshadowed by his influential theorization. To this end, the chapter focuses on the role of music in the early Pythagorean environment and the evidence for sophistic (in the broadest sense) epideixeis on the psychagogic effects of music and the anti-ethical reaction documented by the fourth-century Hibeh papyrus.
In: Music and Politics in the Ancient World: Exploring Identity, Agency, Stability and Change through the Records of Music Archaeology, ed. by Ricardo Eichmann, Mark Howell, and Graeme Lawson, Berlin, Edition Topoi 2019., Apr 29, 2019
Altgriechische Quellen sind voll von Verweisen auf die Musik von Völkern, die nicht griechisch si... more Altgriechische Quellen sind voll von Verweisen auf die Musik von Völkern, die nicht griechisch sind und deshalb stereotyp als ,Barbaren' bezeichnet werden. Merkmale wie ,verweichlicht' und ,wollüstig' werden dabei oft dem musikalischen Paradigma des Ostens zu-geschrieben, vor allem während und nach den Perserkriegen des frühen 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. Ziel des Beitrags ist, die Konstruktion hellenischer Identität mit dem Begriff der mousikē zu untersuchen, wobei in der Hauptsache diejenigen literarischen und ikonographischen Quellen analysiert werden, in welchen ,griechische' und ,fremde' Elemente als Gegensätze dargestellt werden. Sie werden versuchsweise als Kennzeichen kultureller und politischer Veränderungen der Gesellschaft interpretiert.
In ancient Greece the art of the Muses (mousike) combined word, music and dance; dance was a cent... more In ancient Greece the art of the Muses (mousike) combined word, music and dance; dance was a central component of cultural and of civic, religious and social life. Despite this, few studies have been carried out on the subject. It is not hard to understand one of the main reasons for this void, namely the considerable difficulty in reconstructing a performing art form which we only know through its reflections on literary texts, figurative works and theoretical reflections. Nevertheless it is important to tread new research paths on the topic: to highlight the main aspects only, dance in its various forms marks with public value the fundamental steps in the lives of individuals, such as the passage to a different age group, marriage and death. As an essential element of the ritual dimension, dance accompanied festivities and public occasions, such as celebrations to honour the gods and heroes, to praise athletic and military victories and to mark the agricultural calendar and other work activities. This book represents a valid and original contribution to the analysis of dance aspects between the archaic period and the end of the classical age, focusing above all from on the relations with poetry and ancient theoretical reflection. The authors introduce an inter-disciplinary discourse which provides both a good overview of different perspectives (methodological, historical-literary, lexical, religious and philosophical) and punctual, innovative interpretations of specific texts, seen in the light of the most recent critical acquisitions.
In: Douglas Cairns, ed., A Cultural History of the Emotions in Antiquity, London/New York/Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019., 2019
Dramaturgias
Ancient Greek theatre, a multimedia spectacle (originally conceived for a unique performance) whi... more Ancient Greek theatre, a multimedia spectacle (originally conceived for a unique performance) which involved words, music, gestures, and dance, has always been a challenge for scholars investigating its original performance. This paper explores the possibilities of the performative elements of the plays to be recorded during their theatrical staging, that is, before their première. More in detail, it examines the probability that — given the rhythmic and melodic nature of ancient Greek language and the descriptive and/or perlocutionary character of the scenic information within the texts — the authors could inscribe music and gestural expressiveness into the linguistic code. The high level of ‘performativity’ implied in these ancient texts probably delayed the need for a technology that could record their different multimedia components.
Submerged Literature in Ancient Greek Culture. Case Studies. Edited by Giulio Colesanti and Laura Lulli
In ancient Greece, significant cases of submersion are offered by those songs and musical events ... more In ancient Greece, significant cases of submersion are offered by those songs and musical events which had the specific function to accompany and facilitate work activities of various kinds (like reaping, grape-picking, rowing, and so on) and which are nowadays labelled as 'folk music'. This paper aims at identifying the influence of such a repertoire on a more codified genre like drama which, thanks to its inclusive character, embodied and transformed poetic traditions of different kinds. The rescue operations of the goddess in Aristophanes' Peace and the water-carrying scene in Euripides' Electra will serve as examples of work songs respectively on the comic and the tragic stage.
GRMS, 2016
In the Laws, Plato constantly uses analogies and interchanges between musical and
legislative te... more In the Laws, Plato constantly uses analogies and interchanges between musical and
legislative terminology, establishing an etymological connection between special categories of musical compositions (the nomoi) and the inviolability of their regulations.
This usage was widely echoed in later sources, providing musical and literary critics
with a law-based terminology which enabled them to describe and interpret musical
phenomena as markers for political changes, leading to a distorted image of old-time
mousikē.
Studien zur Musikarchäologie X: Klang – Objekt – Kultur – Geschichte/Sound – Object – Culture – History, ed. by Ricardo Eichmann, Lars-Christian Koch, Fang Jianjun (2016)
This paper aims at exploring that particular quality identified by the Greeks with the term ligyr... more This paper aims at exploring that particular quality identified by the Greeks with the term ligyrotēs, usually translated as "shrillness" of sounds, in order to understand what they exactly meant with this word, if and how much such a quality was appreciated and, in more general terms, which was the role played by the acoustic phenomena in ancient society.
In: P. Destrée, P. Murray (eds), A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics, 2015
Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Classe di Lettere e Filosofia, 2014
Ancient Greek music was always conceived as mimēsis of something else, like natural objects, acti... more Ancient Greek music was always conceived as mimēsis of something else, like natural objects, actions or events. Within specific musical genres, this mimēsis could be more fully realized also thanks to special instrumental effects or mechanical devices, which helped the audience to understand what music meant to ‘imitate’ and ‘represent’ when no verbal text was there.
In: Aesthetic Value in Classical Antiquity, edited by Ineke Sluiter and Ralph M. Rosen, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2012.
Elisabetta Matelli (cur.), Quaderni per la messinscena dello Ione di Euripide, Milano, EDUCatt, 2013
Carl A. Huffmann (ed.), Aristoxenus of Tarentum. Discussion, Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities vol. XVII, 2012
Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, 2011
In chapters 22–25 of the treatise On music attributed to Plutarch, the author discusses multiple ... more In chapters 22–25 of the treatise On music attributed to Plutarch, the author discusses multiple evidence (including Plato, Aristotle and other ‘Pythagorizing’ sources) on the marvelous symmetry of the musical harmonia and on its correspondence with the harmonic order of the universe. After having demonstrated the coherent assemblage of materials displayed by these chapters, some hypotheses on their common source will be discussed.
The Cambridge History of Musical Performance, 2011
Musical Perceptions, Past and Present. On Ethnographic Analogy in Music Archaeology, eds. by E. Hickmann and R. Eichmann, Studien zur Musikarchäologie VII, Rahden/Westf., Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH, 2010
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Papers by Eleonora Rocconi
legislative terminology, establishing an etymological connection between special categories of musical compositions (the nomoi) and the inviolability of their regulations.
This usage was widely echoed in later sources, providing musical and literary critics
with a law-based terminology which enabled them to describe and interpret musical
phenomena as markers for political changes, leading to a distorted image of old-time
mousikē.
legislative terminology, establishing an etymological connection between special categories of musical compositions (the nomoi) and the inviolability of their regulations.
This usage was widely echoed in later sources, providing musical and literary critics
with a law-based terminology which enabled them to describe and interpret musical
phenomena as markers for political changes, leading to a distorted image of old-time
mousikē.
The discussion is structured around the key concepts, theoretical models, and aesthetic issues at play – from the educational and therapeutic value of music to its place in the ideal of cosmic harmony and its relationship to the senses and emotions – as well as the function of music in debates around individual and cultural identity. What emerges is a timely reassessment of the paradigmatic value of the Greek model in the musical reception of antiquity in different historical periods. It highlights the ongoing contribution of mousike to modern cultural debates within the realms of classics, musicology, philosophy, aesthetics, anthropology, performance, and cultural studies, as well as in artistic environments, and offers a clear and comprehensive account of its inexhaustible source of inspiration for musicians, theorists, scholars, and antiquarians across the centuries.
diversi impegnati nel confronto storico e teorico tra differenti modalità di testualizzazione nelle arti performative (poesia, teatro, musica e loro combinazioni). L’ambiguità del termine ‘registrazione’ sollecita l’attenzione per le molteplici implicazioni concettuali delle tecnologie impiegate per salvare le testimonianze della performance nella sua complessità, dalla civiltà orale/aurale all’attuale era digitale.
I saggi contenuti in questo volume si collocano sui due versanti opposti del continuum storico: il teatro greco antico, in quanto incunabolo della tradizione teatrale e musicale occidentale, e le innovazioni artistiche e tecnologiche del Novecento, nell’ambito della poesia sonora, della
sperimentazione musicale, della popular music, della cinematografia e dell’audiovisivo.
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The widespread need to overcome the polarization text/performance requires a reflection on the historical forms of their relationship. This book aims at integrating the various disciplines engaged in the historical and theoretical comparison between different ways of textualizing performing arts (poetry, theatre, music and their combinations). The ambiguity of the term ‘recording’ prompts scholarly attention towards the conceptual implications of the technologies used to save the original complexity of the performance, from the oral/aural civilization to the current digital era.
The chapters aim at opening the discussion on cases at the opposite ends of the historical continuum: the ancient Greek theatre, incunabulum of the Western theatrical and musical tradition, and the artistic and technological innovations of the twentieth-century within sonic poetry, musical experimentation, popular music, cinema and audiovisuals.
These proceedings bring together the papers presented during the second annual meeting of MOISA-International Society for the Study of Greek and Roman Music and its Cultural Heritage, the international society incorporated in 2006 to promote the preservation, interpretation and valorization of ancient Greek and Roman music and music theory, as well as its cultural heritage to the present day (www.moisasociety.org)
In 2021, the seminar will focus on music in Vitruvius’ De architectura. Following a new webinar format, there will be five afternoon sessions, including lectures and workshops. The lectures will focus on topics related to Vitruvius’ De architectura (the presentation of the text, its role within ancient technical literature, Roman musical technology), ancient acoustics and the pseudo-Aristotelian De audibilibus, the tradition of Vitruvius’ text in the Renaissance. The workshops will include an analytical reading of selected books of Vitruvius' De architectura, in order to collect the passages of musicological interest and allow the subsequent comparison and analysis of specific passages.
We will mostly work on the Loeb edition (Loeb Classical Library 251 and 280, transl. by F. Granger). A different English translation of the text can be found online at the Perseus Digital Library (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/). The critical edition and translation recently published by the Cambridge University Press (Ten Books on Architecture, Vitruvius, transl. by I.D. Rowland; comm. and ill. by Th.N. Howe, with add. comm. by I.D. Rowland and M.J. Dewar, Cambridge 1999) and the edition directed by P. Gros published by Les Belles Lettres will be also taken into account.
The afternoon lectures (16.00-19.30 Italian time) will be delivered by Prof. Egert Pöhlmann (University of Erlangen), Dr. Stefano Rocchi (University of Pavia), Prof. Stephan Hagel (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Prof. Massimo Raffa (University of Calabria), and Prof. Vasco Zara (University of Bourgogne).
During the workshops (17.00-19.30 Italian time, 5-6 of July), the students will work in small groups, coordinated by Dr. Giovanna Casali and Dr. Silvia Tessari, in order to read selected books of Vitruvius' De architectura and to collect the passages of musicological interest. The participants will then discuss specific passages and their related problems, the 8-9 of July, with Paola Dessì (University of Padua), Angelo Meriani (University of Salerno), Sylvain Perrot (University of Strasbourg), Egert Pöhlmann (University of Erlangen), Massimo Raffa (University of Calabria), Donatella Restani (University of Bologna), Eleonora Rocconi (University of Pavia).
The Moisa Research Seminar is free previous registration. All participants should register on the following link (https://unipd.link/15moisa) in order to receive the Zoom ID to participate.
For any other information, please get in touch with the organiser at the following email address: paola.dessi@unipd.it
Lunedì 30 Marzo 2015
Mattina
09.00 – 09.30: Saluti del Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, dell’Associazione Culturale Studentesca Chiron e Apertura dei Lavori.
09.30 – 10.15: Jean-Yves Guillaumin (Université de Franche-Comté): La creazione del vocabolario latino della geometria e dell'aritmetica.
10.15 – 11.00: Fabio Gasti (Università di Pavia): Fonti tecniche e fonti letterarie nelle Etymologiae di Isidoro di Siviglia.
11.00 – 11.15: Coffee Break
11.15 – 12.00: Philippe Mudry (Univrsité de Lausanne): Scienza greca o scienza romana? L'esempio della medicina.
12.00 – 12.45: Sabrina Grimaudo (Università di Palermo): Interpretazione e uso dei sogni nella scienza greco-romana.
Pomeriggio
15.00 – 16.45: Federica Cordano (Università di Milano): Disegnare una città greca.
15.45 – 16.30: Franco Ferrari (Università di Salerno): Lo schiavo di Menone, l'esperimento geometrico e la differenza tra episteme e alethes doxa.
16.30 – 16.45: Tea Break
16.45 – 17.30: Ferruccio Franco Repellini (Università di Milano): Alcuni modi antichi di guardare il cielo.
17.30 – 18.15: Lorenzo Verderame (“Sapienza” Università di Roma): L’osservazione celeste nell’Assiria del VII sec. a.C. (previsione, osservazione, dibattito)
Martedì 31 Marzo 2015
Mattina
09.30 – 10.15: Matteo Martelli (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin): I libri alchemici pseudo democritei tra Oriente e Occidente.
10.15 – 11.00: Eleonora Rocconi (Università di Pavia): Saperi tecnici e aggettivazione dei suoni musicali: la qualità della ligyrotes.
11.00 – 11.15: Coffee Break
11.15 – 12.45: Interventi liberi: Studiare oggi i saperi tecnico-scientifici antichi e tardoantichi.
12.45 – 13.00: Chiusura dei Lavori