Mesomedes

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Mesomedes was an ancient Greek kitharod and poet .

Mesomedes was from Crete and, according to Suda, was a freedman of Hadrian . Eusebius reports that his main creative period is to be set after 144. One of his poems has come down to us in the Anthologia Palatina and the Anthologia Planudea . There are also 13 remaining poems. Four of them are provided with musical notes. The poems are about animal fables , hymns , the description of a sponge and a clock and the description of the manufacture of glass. Its language suggests a Doric dialect. The meters are varied, especially anapaestic .

Around 1565, the Florentine philologist and humanist Girolamo Mei discovered the musical notes that were added to the handwritten hymns of Mesomedes and are among the few surviving examples of Greek music. Attempts to decipher these notes resulted in a discussion about the practice of Greek music that has now lasted for centuries. The scholarly discussions and musical attempts at that time are considered the beginning of the musical genre opera .

literature

  • Egert Pöhlmann : Monuments to ancient Greek music. Collection, transfer and explanation of all fragments and forgeries (= Erlangen Contributions to Linguistics and Art Studies. 31, ISSN  0425-2268 ). Carl, Nürnberg 1970, pp. 14–21, (At the same time: Erlangen-Nürnberg, University, habilitation paper, 1970).
  • Martin Litchfield West : Ancient Greek Music. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1992, ISBN 0-19-814897-6 , pp.?.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Anthologia Palatina 14, 63.
  2. ↑ Anthologia Planudea 16, 323.
  3. ↑ Egert Pöhlmann: Monuments to ancient Greek music. Collection, transfer and explanation of all fragments and forgeries . Carl, Nürnberg 1970, pp. 14-21.
  4. ↑ According to Karl H. Wörner, the discoverer of the hymns of Mesomedes was Vincenzo Galilei († 1591). See Karl H. Wörner: History of Music . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1961 (new version), § 162, p. 217.
  5. ↑ The attempts to revive Greek music led to the recitar cantando , a kind of spoken song that was accompanied by an instrument ( monody ). This is considered to be the beginning of the opera genre . Johannes Jansen: A serious misunderstanding. The birth of opera from the spirit of the Renaissance. In: Johannes Jansen: Opera. Crash course. Dumont-Verlag, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7701-4280-2 , p. 8 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Mesomedes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek poet and musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century or 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century