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traditional bounds of dithyramb. It is not surprising that two late sources refer to it as a drama. We might describe it as a chamber opera or operetta.37 |
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This was an age in which, in music as in the theatre, public enthusiasm was increasingly focused on the virtuoso skills, personality, and showmanship of the individual performer. The leading auletes, for example, enjoyed a higher status than ever before. Alcibiades engaged the Pythian champion Chrysogonus, rather than any ordinary ship's piper, to set the stroke for the crew rowing him back to Athens from exile, while a well-known tragic actor in full costume proclaimed the orders.38 The most celebrated aulete of the time was Pronomus, a Theban, like so many of the notable auletes that we hear of.39 He captivated audiences not just by his playing but by his facial expression and the whole movement of his body.40 He is depicted on a contemporary vase (now named after him), seated in an ornate robe, a garland on his head, playing in the centre of the rehearsal room, which is crowded with actors in satyric and stage costume.41 But he was more than just a charismatic performer. He was a master of his instrument who significantly extended its capabilities. Just as Phrynis and Timotheus devised kitharas and citharistic techniques for playing several different modal scales with- |
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37 cf. Arist. Poet. 1448d14; Didymus in Dem. Phil. xii 60 p. 46 Pearson-Stephens. Aristoxenus (frs. 135-6) referred to a composition by one Oenonas or Oenopas which parodied citharody and which portrayed the Cyclops warbling and Odysseus using ungrammatical language (?). This seems to be somehow related to Philoxenus' work. The citharode Nicocles of Tarentum in the early 3rd c. BC is recorded as having won a victory in a dithyramb (IG 22. 3779; see Pickard-Cambridge. DFA2 42 n. 2). |
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38 See p. 29. |
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39 From the 5th and early 4th c. we can list: Scopelinus, uncle(?) and teacher of Pindar (Vita Pindari, i. 1. 3, 4. 12 Dr.); Olympichus, who played for choruses of Pindar (CEG 509, Aristodemus, FGrH 383 F 13); Olympichus' son Potamon, who won at the Pythian festival (CEG 509); Chaeris (Cratinus fr. 126, Ar. Ach. 16, 866 with schol.): Pronomus' son Oeniades (IG 22. 3064); Olympiodorus and Orthagoras (PI. Prt. 318c, Aristox. fr. 96): Cleolas, remembered for his use of bodily gesture (Theophr. fr. 92 w.), Nicopheles (Poll. 4. 77); Diodorus (ibid. 80); Ismenias (Plut. Per. 1. 5, Pliny HN 37.6); Timotheus (Diphilus fr. 78 with Kassel-Austin, adding Lucian Harmonides 1); Antigeneidas (below); Lycus (IG 22. 3046, cf. 3071). Cf. Gevaert, ii. 568-72. |
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40 Paus. 9. 12. 6. |
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41 Naples, Museo Nazionale H 3240, cf. Pickard-Cambridge, DFA2 186 f. and pl. facing p. 188: Pl. 27. |
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