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We have seen that music in one form or another impinged on everyone in Greek society. There was no one who was not exposed to it, and no one who did not think that it was in principle a good thing, even if he deplored particular styles. In the earlier period, down to the fifth century BC, the level of participation in music-making was relatively high, and we cannot always draw a clear line between the professional and the amateur. |
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As regards participation there were, at the most basic level, verses and formulae that everyone sang as part of a crowd, like the paean in battle or after dinner and the hymenaeal refrain at wedding processions. From time to time one might be called upon to perform in a chorus at a festival or a private celebration. It has been mentioned that at the City Dionysia in fifth-century Athens 500 men and 500 boys were required for the dithyrambic contest alone, not to mention those who made up the tragic and comic choruses. Good singers must have been more sought after than bad; yet we hear that some were drafted who could not sing and had to keep silent.108 At the symposium, until the late fifth century, one was expected to sing something, and few were unable to meet the challenge. |
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The ability to play an instrument was naturally more restricted, but it was not restricted to professionals. As we saw, Homer represents Achilles and Paris as able to handle a lyre; so could men like Alcaeus, Damophilus, and perhaps Hiero and Arcesilaus. It was not a rare accomplishment among upper-class Athenians in the fifth century. In the earlier part of the century, according to Aristotle, many of them also learned something of the pipes, though this instrument then fell out of favour.109 |
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When we speak of professionals, it is worth making a distinction between those who possessed a special expertise and held an audience by virtue of their individual talent and those who merely provided a routine service. In the first category we must begin by mentioning the Homeric singer, who earned his keep by performing |
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108 See below, p. 47. On the selection of choruses see Pickard-Cambridge, DFA2 76f. |
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109 Arist. Pol. 1341d26-39. Alcibiades is said to have taken the lead in rejecting it (Pamphila ap. Gell. NA 15.17, Plut. Alc. 2.5-7, cf. ps.-Pl. Alc. I 106e; Duris, FGrH 76 F 29, on the other hand, says that Alcibiades learned the art from the virtuoso Pronomus). Callias and Critias are notable Athenians of the period who did learn it (Chamaeleon fr. 5 Giordano). |
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