Sponsored by MOISA
Eirene Visvardi (Wesleyan University) and Pauline LeVen (Yale University), Organizers
Ancient Greek and Roman music and ancient emotions are two topics that have witnessed an explosion of scholarship in recent years. Building on this momentum, we want to bring together the two subjects and reflect on their intersection. We invite papers dealing with any aspect of the ancient practice and theory of music and its connection with the emotions. Possible questions to be investigated, and topics to discuss include (but are not limited to):
- how do various musical media (lyric, drama, instrumental performances) represent their own musicality broadly construed and their appeal to particular emotions?
- to what extent is ancient art concerned with depicting emotions in scenes of music performance?
- how did ancient science account for the anatomy of musical emotions?
- new views on the ethos of musical modes and their theoretical / philosophical underpinnings
- which senses are engaged in musical experience and how do they relate to particular types of emotional response?
- is the idea of “musical emotion” historically grounded?
- ancient music therapy
- how do performer and audience relate to each other in terms of emotional experience?
- how does musical pleasure mediate painful emotion and for what purpose?
- music, imagination, and emotional response
- correspondence of musical genres/performances to particular emotions: connections, tensions, ideology
In an effort to showcase the best papers and the most innovative research in the field of ancient music, we also welcome abstracts that deal with other aspects of Greek and Roman music and its cultural heritage.
Abstracts for 20-minute papers to be presented at the 2016 SCS annual meeting should observe the instructions for the format of individual abstracts that appear on the SCS web site. Please note: the new deadline for submission is March 1st, 2015, and all prospective presenters should be SCS members in good standing at the time of submission (i.e.: dues must be paid for 2015). Please address your abstract or any question related to the panel to both pauline.leven@yale.edu and evisvardi@wesleyan.edu. In accordance with SCS regulations, all abstracts for papers will be read anonymously by two referees.