Massimo Raffa

Bio: Massimo Raffa is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Music theory & Harmonics. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 85 citations.

Music and the Muses: The Culture of ’Mousike’ in the Classical Athenian City

Abstract: Introduction PART I: MOUSIKE AND RELIGION 1. Muses and Mysteries 2. Changing choral worlds: song-dance and society in Athens and beyond 3. Song-dance and state-pilgrimage at Athens 4. Dancing the pyrrhikhe PART II: MOUSIKE ON STAGE 5. Choral prayer in Greek tragedy: euphemia or aischrologia? 6. Choral forms in Aristophanic comedy: musical mimesis and dramatic performance in classical Athens 7. Transforming the nightingale: aspects of Athenian musical discourse in the late fifth century PART III: THE POLITICS OF MOUSIKE 8. The Politics of the New Music 9. Damon of Oa: a music theorist ostracized 10. Athenian strings PART IV: MOUSIKE AND PAIDEIA 11. catharsis: the power of music in Aristotle's Politics 12. Dirty dancing: Xenophon's Symposium 13. The Muses and their arts

Greek Laughter: A Study of Cultural Psychology from Homer to Early Christianity

Abstract: The first book to offer an integrated reading of ancient Greek attitudes to laughter. Taking material from various genres and contexts, the book analyses both the theory and the practice of laughter as a revealing expression of Greek values and mentalities. Greek society developed distinctive institutions for the celebration of laughter as a capacity which could bridge the gap between humans and gods; but it also feared laughter for its power to expose individuals and groups to shame and even violence. Caught between ideas of pleasure and pain, friendship and enmity, laughter became a theme of recurrent interest in various contexts. Employing a sophisticated model of cultural history, Stephen Halliwell traces elaborations of the theme in a series of important texts: ranging far beyond modern accounts of 'humour', he shows how perceptions of laughter helped to shape Greek conceptions of the body, the mind and the meaning of life.

From Hittite to Homer: The Anatolian Background of Ancient Greek Epic

Abstract: This book provides a groundbreaking reassessment of the prehistory of Homeric epic. It argues that in the Early Iron Age bilingual poets transmitted to the Greeks a set of narrative traditions closely related to the one found at Bronze-Age Hattusa, the Hittite capital. Key drivers for Near Eastern influence on the developing Homeric tradition were the shared practices of supralocal festivals and venerating divinized ancestors, and a shared interest in creating narratives about a legendary past using a few specific storylines: theogonies, genealogies connecting local polities, long-distance travel, destruction of a famous city because it refuses to release captives, and trying to overcome death when confronted with the loss of a dear companion. Professor Bachvarova concludes by providing a fresh explanation of the origins and significance of the Greco-Anatolian legend of Troy, thereby offering a new solution to the long-debated question of the historicity of the Trojan War.

The Stagecraft and Performance of Roman Comedy

Abstract: Preface Introduction 1. The experience of Roman comedy 2. Actors and roles 3. Masks 4. Stage action 5. Music and metre 6. Improvisation Appendix conspectus metrorum Plautinorum References Indexes.

The competence of theatre audiences in fifth- and fourth-century Athens

Abstract: After dismissing various possible approaches to the question of audience competence in fifth- and fourth-century Athens, this article proposes to tackle this important and notorious problem with a novel strategy that is not ?top?down? but ?bottom?up?, starting with spectators rather than plays and focusing on the bottom-line of expertise which can be taken to be shared by the majority of audience members. An umbrella-notion of ?theatrical competence? is established before two central characteristics of drama performed in Athens are exploited: the participation of spectators in the citizen-chorus at the Great Dionysia, and the implications for the competence issue of frequent exposure to an art form which is as formally conservative as preserved Attic drama. What emerges is a model of stratified decoding by spectators (elite and non-elite) who share a considerable level of theatrical competence. In a final step, this model is applied to a number of case studies taken from fifth-century comedy.

Ancient Greek Music: A New Technical History

Abstract: Preface 1. The evolution of ancient Greek musical notation 2. Notation, instruments and the voice 3. Notation in the handbooks 4. Strings and notes 5. Fine tuning 6. Going beyond Ptolemy? 7. Assisted resonance 8. The extant musical documents 9. Aulos types and pitches 10. Before Aristoxenus 11. Synthesis Bibliography Indices.