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Demodokos' song about Ares and
Aphrodite: Od. 8, 267-366:
 Real Player
MP3 File (Just the beginning of the song: Od. 8, 267-299,
2.4 MB)
WAV-File (Just the very first lines: Od. 8, 267-273, 811KB)
- M. L. West, The singing of Homer and the modes of early Greek
music, Journal of Hellenic Studies 101 (1981), 113-129. [General
considerations; the tuning of the phorminx (but see: Ancient Greek
Music, Oxford 1992, 328). The given melodies do not conform to our
theory.]
- G. Danek, 'Singing Homer'. Überlegungen zu Sprechintonation
und Epengesang, Wiener Humanistische Blätter 31 (1989), 1-15. [General
considerations. The given melodies do not conform to our theory.]
- S. Hagel, Zu den Konstituenten des griechischen Hexameters,
Wiener Studien 107/108 (1994), 77-108. [Statistics, general melodic
contours]
- A. M. Devine / L. D. Stephens, The Prosody of Greek Speech,
New York / Oxford 1994. [Indispensable for everyone interested in Ancient Greek accent]
 G. Danek / S. Hagel,
Homer-Singen, Wiener Humanistische Blätter (1995), 5-20. [The novice's first guide]
- S. Hagel / G. Danek, Computergestützte Hexameter -
Hexametersingender Computer, SIMA 2 1996 111-122. [Technical background]
- G. Danek / S. Hagel, Das Geheimnis der Lieder Homers - mit
dem Computer entschlüsselt, Kremser Humanistische Blätter 3 1999, 47-55.
- Epic performance was originally sung, in Ancient Greece
(Demodokos!) as well as in many other traditions. The Greek
aoidoi sang in unison with the accompaniment of the four-stringed
phorminx, which implicates the use of only four notes for
the melody, too.
- The performance of Ancient Greek verse, as heard today, which
involves the so called ictus which overrides the word accents,
has nothing in common with the ancient pronunciation.
- Ancient Greek had a pitch accent, that is, the accent was
expressed by means of pitch, not of stress.
- Extant settings of ancient music prove that in non-strophic poetry
the melody followed the accentual contours.
- Thus, early Greek hexameter poetry is likely to have been sung to a
fixed set of four notes, the melody governed by word accent and sentence
intonation.
- There is statistical proof, that end-accented words are
avoided at caesura, but favored at metrical bridges. The melody of the
'typical' hexameter fell at the middle caesura as well as at the end of
the verse. The 'typical' melodic contour consisted of a double,
sometimes triple rise and fall.
- Less common verses have deviant melodic contours. E.g., in cases of
strong enjambement, when the sentence lacks completion at verse
end, we encounter a rising contour in the last third of the verse which
lacks its completion by a melodic fall. Sentence and melodic trajectory
are completed in the next verse.
- These results lead to a technique of Homeric song, which can
be learned. The performer has to accommodate the accentual rises and
falls of the individual words of the individual verse to the melodic
contour which results from syntactical and metrical features. With some
training anyone who is able to read Homer can achieve to improvise
the melody to any given Homeric text easily.
- Individual accents produce smaller deviations from the
overall melody, just as the extant fragments of music show. Each (major)
accent may be realized by a rise to the accented syllable, but must be
followed by a melodic fall. In the case of circumflex syllables, the
post-accentual fall may be realized on the second part of the accented
syllable, resulting in a two-note 'melisma'. The gravis accent forces
the melody to rise without any downtrend before the next accented
syllable.
- Greek hexameter poetry is stichic. Enjambement should not by
expressed by shortening or skipping the pause (instrumental interlude)
between the verses, but only by means of melody. On the other hand,
pauses in the verse are incompatible with Greek versification.
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Blind singer
Cretan geometric bronze figurine
Malibu
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