Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Martin L. West. "The Singing of Homer and the Modes of Early Greek Music." Journal of Hellenic Studies, 101:113-29.

A thorough consideration of terminology, the rhapsode-citharode problem, the instrument, development of scales, performance, possible patterns of melody, and the analogy to the musical structures used by Yugoslav guslari (the transcription of Salih Ugljanin's Ropstvo by Bartok in SCHS 1: pp. 437-62). Concludes that "Homeric singing' was truly singing, in that it was based on definite notes and intervals, but that it was at the same time a stylized form of speech, the rise and fall of the voice being governed by the melodic accent of the words" (115). Posits a four-stringed phorminx with the tuning e-f-a-d' used to generate regular melodic patterns that would reinforce the vocal line and continue during vocal pauses. Postulates a performance beginning with an instrumental flourish (anabolé), broken by intervals of vocal rest, and perhaps lineated by brief instrumental sections after each line; notes that these features also characterize the guslar's performance. Includes a hypothetical reconstruction of lines 1-6 of the Iliad (123-24).
Area: AG, MU