Music in Greek Tragedy: History, Theory and Practice

Mary-Kay Gamel
Literature
UC Santa Cruz

Mark Griffith
Classics, Theater Dance and Performance Studies
UC Berkeley

In this conference, musicologists, classicists and theater practitioners addressed questions such as: What effects did music and dance have on the meaning and impact of ancient dramatic performance? In what ways was Greek theater music gendered, or otherwise marked? Which characters sing, and when and how, — and which ones don’t? How did the social context of ancient Greek drama performance influence the meaning of music and dance? How do scholars and musicians reconstruct the likely sounds and styles of ancient Greek music and dance? What can and should the role of music and dance in modern productions of Greek drama be?