Performing Antiquity : Ancient Greek Music and Dance From Paris to Delphi, 1890-1930

Performing Antiquity: Ancient Greek Music and Dance from Paris to Delphi, 1890-1930 investigates collaborations between French and American scholars of Greek antiquity (archaeologists, philologists, classicists, and musicologists), and the performing artists (dancers, composers, choreographers and musicians) who brought their research to life at the birth of Modernism. The book tells the story of performances taking place at academic conferences, the Paris Opéra, ancient amphitheaters in Delphi, and private homes. These musical and dance collaborations are built on reciprocity: the performers gain new insight into their craft while learning new techniques or repertoire and the scholars gain an opportunity to bring theory into experimental practice, that is, they have a chance see/hear/experience what they have studied and imagined. The performers receive the imprimatur of scholarship, the stamp of authenticity, and validation for their creative activities. Drawing from methods and theory from musicology, dance studies, performance studies, queer studies, archaeology, classics and art history the book shows how new scholarly methods and technologies altered the performance, and, ultimately, the reception of music and dance of the past. Acknowledging and critically examining the complex relationships performers and scholars had with the pasts they studied does not undermine their work. Rather, understanding our own limits, biases, dreams, obsessions, desires, loves, and fears enriches the ways we perform the past. Performing Antiquity: Ancient Greek Music and Dance from Paris to Delphi, 1890-1930' investigates collaborations between French and American scholars of Greek antiquity (archaeologists, philologists, classicists, and musicologists), and the performing artists (dancers, composers, choreographers and musicians) who brought their research to life at the birth of Modernism. The book tells the story of performances taking place at academic conferences, the Paris Opera, ancient amphitheaters in Delphi, and private homes. These musical and dance collaborations are built on reciprocity: the performers gain new insight into their craft while learning new techniques or repertoire and the scholars gain an opportunity to bring theory into experimental practice, that is, they0have a chance see/hear/experience what they have studied and imagined. The performers receive the imprimatur of scholarship, the stamp of authenticity, and validation for their creative activities. Drawing from methods and theory from musicology, dance studies, performance studies, queer studies, archaeology, classics and art history the book shows how new scholarly methods and technologies altered the performance, and, ultimately, the reception of music and dance of the past. Acknowledging and critically examining the complex relationships performers and scholars had with the pasts they studied does not undermine their work. Rather, understanding our own limits, biases, dreams, obsessions, desires, loves, and fears enriches the ways we perform the past __Performing Antiquity__ investigates collaboration between French and American scholars of Greek antiquity (archaeologists, philologists, classicists, and musicologists) and the performing artists (dancers, composers, choreographers, and musicians) who brought their research to life at the birth of modernism. The book tells the story of performances that took place at academic conferences, the Paris Opéra, ancient amphitheaters in Delphi, and private homes. These musical and dance collaborations were built on reciprocity: the performers gained new insight into their craft while leaning new techniques or repertoire, and the scholars got to see theory become practice; that is, they had a chance to see/hear/feel what they had studied and imagined. The performers received the imprimatur of scholarship, the stamp of authenticity, and validation for their creative activities. Drawing from methods and theory from musicology, dance studies, performance studies, queer studies, archaeology, and classics, __Performing Antiquity__ shows how new scholarly methods and technologies altered the performance and ultimately the reception of music and dance of the past. Acknowledging and critically examining the complex relationship performers and scholars had with the pasts they studied does not undermine their work. Rather, understanding their own limits, dreams, obsessions, desires, loves, and fears enriched the ways they performed the past. Cover......Page 1 Performing Antiquity......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 10 List of Music Examples......Page 12 Acknowledgments......Page 14 1 Musicology, Archaeology, Performance: Models and Methods......Page 16 2 Gabriel Fauré and Théodore Reinach: Hidden Pianos and L’Hymne à Apollon......Page 36 3 Performing Sappho’s Fractured Archive, or Listening for the Queer Sounds in the Life and Works of Natalie Clifford Barney......Page 62 4 Performing Scholarship for the Paris Opéra: Maurice Emmanuel’s Salamine (1929)......Page 94 5 “To Give Greece Back to the Greeks”: Archaeology, Ethnography, and Eva Palmer Sikelianos’s Prometheus Bound......Page 122 6 Scholars and Their Objects of Study; or, Loving Your Subject......Page 154 Notes......Page 174 Bibliography......Page 210 Index......Page 228 Performing Antiquity tells the captivating story about some of the most intriguing Belle Époque personalities -archaeologists, philologists, classicists, and musicologists - and the dancers, composers, choreographers and musicians who brought their research to life at the birth of Modernism. Performing Antiquity tells the captivating story about some of the most intriguing Belle Epoque personalities -archaeologists, philologists, classicists, and musicologists - and the dancers, composers, choreographers and musicians who brought their research to life at the birth of Modernism.