Translation and the sound of ancient Greek music

An online panel discussion with Dr Tosca Lynch, Prof. Samuel Dorf, and Prof. Toby Young.

Prof. Toby Young, Dr Tosca Lynch, Prof. Samuel Dorf

Here at King’s we are lucky to have a strong relationship with the British School at Athens. As part of our collaboration we hold annual online panel discussions organised around the broad theme of translation. In 2024 Pavlos Avlamis and I - Emily Pillinger - organised two sessions to create a series we called ‘Translation and the sonic worlds of Greek literature’. Pavlos’ first session included some wonderful reflections by poets, translators, and scholars: A. E. Stallings, Karen Emmerich, and Tim Whitmarsh.

In the second session, ‘Translation and the sound of ancient Greek music’ we discussed what we know about ancient Greek music, how and why people have been so eager to reconstruct it, and how modern music has responded to the challenge of creating something new that still honours ancient soundscapes. What do we want to hear and feel, and what do we mean when we describe music-making as ‘authentic’ or ‘inauthentic’ in this context? We were joined by three interdisciplinary scholars and musicians: Tosca Lynch, Sam Dorf, and Toby Young.

Tosca Lynch is a musician and classicist with unparalleled expertise in ancient Greek music, who co-edited with Eleonora Rocconi the invaluable handbook to ancient music: the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Greek and Roman Music (2020). She continues to publish a stream of cutting edge articles and regularly updates a fantastic website that is accessible to all: https://www.emousike.com. In the discussion Tosca introduces us to what we know about how ancient Greek music sounded, and how we know it (from 12:21).

Samuel Dorf is a Professor of Musicology at the University of Dayton, Ohio. His 2018 monograph, Performing Antiquity, focuses on the music and dance used in performing hypothetical reconstructions of Greek lyric poetry in the early 20th century, embracing not only musicology but also dance studies, performance studies, queer studies, archaeology, Classics, and art history. Sam is now working on what he calls ‘Extreme Early Music’ – that is, on the contemporary practice of reconstructing the sounds of ancient music and the meaning of claims to ‘authenticity’ in this context. In the panel Sam contextualises the practice of reconstructing ancient music, and explains a little about why people feel compelled to do this (from 31:20).

Toby Young is an experienced and versatile composer who is particularly interested in the voice, in the relationship between music and social justice, and in questions associated with the delineation of musical genre or with the drawing of boundaries between so-called classical music and pop music. He also teaches music composition as a Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In the panel Toby offers some reflections on how he approaches the job of composing music associated with a specific historical period, culture, or story (from 48.32).