Archaeology Magazine - April 1966 - 40

MUSIC
AT
PAN

ATHEN

THE
AIC

FESTIVAL

By R. ROSS HOLLOWAY

it is good fortune that we can see something of the
musical life of Athens in its greatest age through the
medium of Attic vase-painting. A new document of
this nature was recovered in the spring of 1965 beside
the ancient Athenian Agora. It is the lower part of a
large amphora decorated in the red-figure style, the
fragments of which were found in debris used to fill
the shaft of a well that went out of use about 410
b.c. It shows scenes bearing on the high point of the
Whether it is at Salzburg or Edinburgh, Spoleto Athenian musical calendar, the competition of the
or Athens, the word "festival" brings to mind the Panathenaic Festival, which was celebrated each year
sound of music and a picture of crowds of visitors in the late summer. The first three days of the festival
gathering to hear performances of large choruses, were devoted to musical competitions. Unlike the contestants in athletics and drama, whose prizes were
small ensembles, instrumental soloists and singers.
There is a remarkable similarity between the mod- jars of olive oil, the victorious musicians,in the fourth
ern festivals and the musical life of ancient Greece. century at least, received cash.
Save in soberly athletic Olympia, musical competitions were important parts of the programs of all The new vase is a large amphora, one of the last of
the Panhellenic festivals. The crowds came and lis- the so-called one-piece amphoras, familiar in the sixth
tened with a seriousness appropriate to the importance century b.c. It was, indeed, the first type of amphora
of music in Greek life, and the atmosphere must have used for black-figured vases, a little before 600 b.c.,
had something of the intensity of the Chopin com- but the shape was employed less and less for the redpetitions in Warsaw or the Queen Elizabeth of Bel- figure technique of the late sixth and fifth centuries.
gium Prize competition in Brussels. This was a world When our vase was made, about 440 b.c., it had a
in which education began with the poetry of Homer stately and old-fashioned air about it. Its decoration is
and the lyre, and the rhythm of both was close to stately, too. The simple molding of the foot and the
the physical exercises of the gymnasium, where ath- lower part of the body are completely black. Above
these a maeander pattern supports the figured scenes.
letes and soldiers trained to the sound of the flute.
The concern for music shown by philosophers like On one side (Figure 1) a seated gentleman listens to
Plato and Pythagoras came from the feeling that mu- a musician- a figure we shall be able to restore as a
sic somehow spoke directly to the soul. Music was singer accompanying himself with a cithara (hand
everywhere. Greek literature before the fourth cen- harp) . The citharoidos, or harp player singing to his
tury B.c., we must remember, was largely poetry to own accompaniment, stands on a podium, and behind
be sung, and the explicit emotional overtones of each him a flying figure which can be restored as a Vicrhythmic and modal variation gave ancient lyric and tory bearing a wreath stretched out toward him shows
choral verse a force difficult to appreciate today. that he was the winner of this class. The opposite
Drama was born from the singing chorus, the choral side of the vase (Figure 2) shows a competition in
hymn was the liturgy of Greek religion, and an eve- the double flute. The performer faces a judge
ning party was a poor one without the lyre, a flute (athlothetes), identified by his staff. Again Victory
approaches to crown the winner.
girl and songs sung round like Italian madrigals.
The artist who drew these scenes is known from
Ancient music has almost entirely perished, and so

The BROWN UNIVERSITY ARCHAEOLOGICAL
EXPEDITION, sponsored by the University9s Department of Classics, conducted excavations during the
summer of 1965 in cooperation with the American
School of ClassicalStudies and the Greek Archaeological Service. The author was field director. A detailed report of the excavations appears in the Spring
1966 issue of the journal Hesperia.

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Archaeology Magazine - April 1966

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - April 1966