Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Samuel N. Dorf (Assistant Professor of Musicology, Assistant Professor of Musicology, University of Dayton)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 22.60cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 16.00cm
Weight:   0.295kg
ISBN:  

9780197766576

ISBN 10:   0197766579
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   17 January 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

"Epigraph Acknowledgements List of Figures List of Music Examples Chapter 1. Introduction: Musicology, Archaeology, Performance: Models and Methods Chapter 2. Gabriel Fauré and Théodore Reinach: Hidden Pianos and L'Hymne à Apollon Chapter 3. Performing Sappho's Fractured Archive, or Listening for the Queer Sounds in the Life and Works of Natalie Clifford Barney Chapter 4. Performing Scholarship for the Paris Opéra: Maurice Emmanuel's Salamine (1929) Chapter 5. ""To Give Greece Back to the Greeks:"" Archeology, Ethnography and Eva Palmer Sikelianos' Prometheus Bound Chapter 6. Scholars and Their Objects of Study; or, Loving Your Subject Notes Bibliography Index"

Reviews

Dorf considers carefully the first Delphic hymn and the way Th'eodore Reinach edited it... this book sheds light on a particular small world of scientists and artists, who shared a passion for Antiquity and who regularly met in the Parisian salons... well documented and stimulating analyses. * Sylvain Perrot, CNRS, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Recommended. * K.J. Wetmore Jr., CHOICE * His book assembles an archive and lends it voice, allowing a history to sing. This performance shocks me — to action, to activism, and to repair. * Campbell Shiflett, Notes * The past cannot be revived. Lost works are lost, which is a good thing, Samuel Dorf argues, because they can only live again in the imagination. New performances feed on the fears, the hopes, and the love of musicians, dancers, and scholars alike. Dorf's conclusion is sublime, his chapter on Greek music and dance in queer salons deeply affecting. Plus his reflections on the history of musicology and the nature and purpose of archival research prove unsettling. A provocative, unique, and essential read. * Simon Morrison, Professor of Music and Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University * Deeply engaged, fascinating portrait of the Belle Epoque attraction to the ancient world. Here the star is not Isadora Duncan, a shadowy presence, but an interconnected group of enthusiasts linked by a similar passion for modern reenactments. Framed by the scholarly interests and agendas of the Reinach brothers, Salomon and Th'eodore, the book explores their collaborations with composers Gabriel Faur'e and Maurice Emmanuel, Natalie Barney's backyard, Sapphic performances for tout Paris, and the first Delphic Festivals in Greece (late 1920s). One can't help but sense a little of the author in these charming, empathetic stories of archival 'voyeurism.' As insightful and sophisticated as pleasurable to read with its rare, period photographs. * Jann Pasler, Distinguished Professor of Music, University of California, San Diego * Like a sudden aerolith alighting in some historian's surprised garden, Dorf's glowing book gives us an alternative history of turn-of-the-century Europe filled with earnest lesbians and archaeologists, hidden pianos in neo-Delian villas, visionary dancers, and an exuberant arc of musical and artistic fantasy about ancient Greece that returns us to the wonder of a period a hundred years behind us, yet which still invites us to ask who we are and what we love. * Carlo Caballero, Associate Professor of Music, Erma Mantey Faculty Fellow *

Dorf considers carefully the first Delphic hymn and the way Th'eodore Reinach edited it... this book sheds light on a particular small world of scientists and artists, who shared a passion for Antiquity and who regularly met in the Parisian salons... well documented and stimulating analyses. * Sylvain Perrot, CNRS, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Recommended. * K.J. Wetmore Jr., CHOICE * His book assembles an archive and lends it voice, allowing a history to sing. This performance shocks me DL to action, to activism, and to repair. * Campbell Shiflett, Notes * The past cannot be revived. Lost works are lost, which is a good thing, Samuel Dorf argues, because they can only live again in the imagination. New performances feed on the fears, the hopes, and the love of musicians, dancers, and scholars alike. Dorf's conclusion is sublime, his chapter on Greek music and dance in queer salons deeply affecting. Plus his reflections on the history of musicology and the nature and purpose of archival research prove unsettling. A provocative, unique, and essential read. * Simon Morrison, Professor of Music and Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University * Deeply engaged, fascinating portrait of the Belle Epoque attraction to the ancient world. Here the star is not Isadora Duncan, a shadowy presence, but an interconnected group of enthusiasts linked by a similar passion for modern reenactments. Framed by the scholarly interests and agendas of the Reinach brothers, Salomon and Th'eodore, the book explores their collaborations with composers Gabriel Faur'e and Maurice Emmanuel, Natalie Barney's backyard, Sapphic performances for tout Paris, and the first Delphic Festivals in Greece (late 1920s). One can't help but sense a little of the author in these charming, empathetic stories of archival 'voyeurism.' As insightful and sophisticated as pleasurable to read with its rare, period photographs. * Jann Pasler, Distinguished Professor of Music, University of California, San Diego * Like a sudden aerolith alighting in some historian's surprised garden, Dorf's glowing book gives us an alternative history of turn-of-the-century Europe filled with earnest lesbians and archaeologists, hidden pianos in neo-Delian villas, visionary dancers, and an exuberant arc of musical and artistic fantasy about ancient Greece that returns us to the wonder of a period a hundred years behind us, yet which still invites us to ask who we are and what we love. * Carlo Caballero, Associate Professor of Music, Erma Mantey Faculty Fellow *

Dorf considers carefully the first Delphic hymn and the way Théodore Reinach edited it... this book sheds light on a particular small world of scientists and artists, who shared a passion for Antiquity and who regularly met in the Parisian salons... well documented and stimulating analyses. * Sylvain Perrot, CNRS, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Recommended. * K.J. Wetmore Jr., CHOICE * His book assembles an archive and lends it voice, allowing a history to sing. This performance shocks me — to action, to activism, and to repair. * Campbell Shiflett, Notes * The past cannot be revived. Lost works are lost, which is a good thing, Samuel Dorf argues, because they can only live again in the imagination. New performances feed on the fears, the hopes, and the love of musicians, dancers, and scholars alike. Dorf's conclusion is sublime, his chapter on Greek music and dance in queer salons deeply affecting. Plus his reflections on the history of musicology and the nature and purpose of archival research prove unsettling. A provocative, unique, and essential read. * Simon Morrison, Professor of Music and Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University * Deeply engaged, fascinating portrait of the Belle Epoque attraction to the ancient world. Here the star is not Isadora Duncan, a shadowy presence, but an interconnected group of enthusiasts linked by a similar passion for modern reenactments. Framed by the scholarly interests and agendas of the Reinach brothers, Salomon and Théodore, the book explores their collaborations with composers Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Emmanuel, Natalie Barney's backyard, Sapphic performances for tout Paris, and the first Delphic Festivals in Greece (late 1920s). One can't help but sense a little of the author in these charming, empathetic stories of archival 'voyeurism.' As insightful and sophisticated as pleasurable to read with its rare, period photographs. * Jann Pasler, Distinguished Professor of Music, University of California, San Diego * Like a sudden aerolith alighting in some historian's surprised garden, Dorf's glowing book gives us an alternative history of turn-of-the-century Europe filled with earnest lesbians and archaeologists, hidden pianos in neo-Delian villas, visionary dancers, and an exuberant arc of musical and artistic fantasy about ancient Greece that returns us to the wonder of a period a hundred years behind us, yet which still invites us to ask who we are and what we love. * Carlo Caballero, Associate Professor of Music, Erma Mantey Faculty Fellow *

Author Information

Dr. Samuel N. Dorf is a musicologist and dance historian. His research areas include intersections between musicology and dance studies and the history of technology, studies of antiquity, reception studies, queer studies, and the history of performance practice. He teaches at the University of Dayton.

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