58 What Did the World's First Pop Star Sound like? | Euripides and Ancient Music w/ Claire Catenaccio

About this episode

This episode explores the sounds of ancient music and features insights from expert Claire Catenaccio on Euripides and monody.

What did ancient music sound like? In this episode, you will hear three songs that are over 2000 years old! Few people in the world today know more about ancient music than our guest in this episode. Claire Catenaccio is an assistant professor of classics at Georgetown University who specializes in the study of ancient drama and its modern reception. Her recent book "Monody in Euripides" explores monody – namely solo actor's song – in the tragedies of Euripides. Her scholarship is informed by her experience as a director and historical consultant in many modern productions of ancient Greek theater plays. Contents of the episode, with timestamps: [02:07] What evidence do we have for ancient music? [13:05] What kind of musical notation did the ancient Greeks use? [13:51] The Song of Seikilos (oldest surviving song with musical score) [20:30] What the aulos (the main musical instrument on stage) sounded like [23:21] The origins of music in Greek tragedy [31:30] Cash prizes and the professionalization of acting/singing [34:45] The incredible popularity of Euripides' new music [37:20] How and Why Euripides' "Orestes" completely rewrites Aeschylus' "Eumenides" [52:30] What Euripides'…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Lantern Jack

Guest: Claire Catenaccio

Topics covered

• ancient music
• Euripides
• Greek tragedy
• musical notation
• historical music
• monody

Keywords

• ancient music
• Euripides
• monody
• Greek tragedy
• musical notation
• Song of Seikilos
• aulos
• historical music

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Monody in Euripides, Orestes, Eumenides

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