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the sound sone of the commonest sounds in the Greek language and his reason is said to have been that it was 'harsh and unsuitable for the aulos', meaning presumably that it did not in his opinion sound distinctly against the aulos accompaniment.4 |
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Besides singing, there was a technique of reciting verse with instrumental accompaniment. This was called parakataloge ('parallel recital'). Its invention is attributed to Archilochus, which implies that it was used (or believed to have been used) in the performance of the Ionian iambus.5 It was also used in drama: we cannot always be sure in which passages, but probably (a) where the metre is anapaestic of the non-lyric ('marching') type, as for example in many choral entries and exits; (b) where iambic trimeter or dactylic hexameter lines in the Attic dialect (i.e. without the Doric colouring typical of tragic song) occur in a lyric context; (c) in some scenes composed in trochaic or iambic tetrameters.6 One would guess that the verses were recited in a more stylized manner when accompanied by music than in ordinary dialogue scenes. Perhaps 'chanted' would be an appropriate term.7 The instrumentalistan aulete in the case of dramamust have followed the same metrical pattern, but what kind of melodic line he pursued it is impossible to say.8 |
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Choruses were either male (men or boys) or female. There is some early evidence for mixed dancing,9 but not for men and women singing in unison.10 Men's and boys' choruses too were usually separate, though we do hear of men and boys singing together, an octave apart.11 As it is common in many cultures for different voices to sing |
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4 Ath. 455 c (Herachd. Pont. fr. 161, PMG 702 and 704); 467 a (Aristox. fr. 87). |
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5 Ps.-Plut. De mus. 1141 a. |
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6 See Pickard-Cambridge, DFA2 156-65, who collects the ancient evidence and discusses at length the question of the use of parakataloge in drama; also A. W. Gomme and F. H. Sandbach, A Commentary on Menander (Oxford, 1973), 37; my Greek Metre (Oxford, 1982), 77-9, 98. |
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7 Aristid. Quint. p. 6. 3ff. speaks of a type of delivery used in reading poetry, intermediate between ordinary speech and song. Cf. Nicom. Ench. p. 239. 13-17. |
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8 Pickard-Cambridge's statement (157) that the accompaniment was on higher notes than the recitation is based on a misconception, not peculiar to him, about the phrase hypo ten oiden; see p. 206 below, n. 41. In any case, in the sentence in question the author is no longer speaking about parakataloge. One source, Psell. De trag. 9, recognizes a kind of 'exclamation' (anaboema) in tragedy that is intermediate between singing and recital but almost belongs in the sung category. |
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9 Webster, 5f., 46-8. |
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10 References to this appear in later sources: ps.-Arist. Mund. 399d 16 (late Hellenistic), Sen. Ep, 84. 9 (copied by Macrob. Sat. praef. 9). |
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11 Aristox. fr. 99 (Pind. fr. 125): ps.-Arist. Pr. 19. 39a. |
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