Ronald Blankenborg (Assistant professor, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands)
This paper argues for the interpretation of the words on well-known Attic red-figure column crater Basel, Antikensammlung und Sammlung Ludwig BS 415 (CVA Basel 3, 22) as the markers not only of the song’ content, but equally of its musical notation. Predating the reform ascribed to Damon (Wallace 2015; West 1992, 246-9), the inscribed syllables reflect language’s priority over music, as opposed to Damon’s alleged reversal of these priorities (Brancacci 2018; Blankenborg 2021).
The six performers constituting the choir on Basel BS 415 are commonly considered as masked youths performing in a tragedy: