ICHNEUTAI by Sophocles – the invention of (theatre) music?

Show notes

Many thanks for listening to Staging Sound!

Guests today are Dr Konstantinos Thomaidis, and Prof. Dr. Millie Taylor A full transcript of this conversation is available at https://theatermus.hypotheses.org/?p=2692

If you’d like to get in touch with the podcast, please email stagingsound@web.de

1. A freely accessible translation of the play we are dicussing can be found here: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0221

2. For the production by Mikhail Marmarinos, feel free to check the listing by the Athens and Epidaurus Festival (incl. photos and video trailer): https://aefestival.gr/festival_events/trackers/?lang=en

3. Regarding the members of the creative team and cast that collaborated on the sonic aspects of the production, you can source more information on the links below: • Music by Billy Bultheel - his website: https://billybultheel.pro/ and snippets from Ichneutai: https://billybultheel.pro/html/trackers.html • For the counter-tenor Steve Katona (who played the role of Hermes): https://www.steve-katona.com/ • The director Mikhail Marmarinos’ website: https://www.michailmarmarinos.com/

4. For Tony Harrison’s The Trackers of Oxyrynchus and productions: https://www.open.ac.uk/arts/research/greekplays/poetry/tony-harrison/plays-classical-referents/trackers-oxyrhynchus. See also the chapter by Parkyn (2022): https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198861072.003.0006

5. For the first modern staging in Bad-Lauchstädt by Carl Robert, please read Hillgruber (2011): https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/apf.2011.241/html

6. For the 1925 French opera La Naissance de la Lyre, check the score on as it is available in the public domain: http://fr.opera-scores.com/O/Albert+Roussel/La+Naissance+de+la+lyre.html. Read also the chapter by Corbier (2008).

7. On the cultural debate around new music in 5th-century-BCE Athens, see chapter by Timothy Power (2012): https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004217621/B9789004217621-s016.xml

8. For the tripartite division of modes of listening (causal, semantic, reduced) by Chion, check his book Audio-Vision (1994 / 2019).

9. For a discussion of how voice can be used to stage impossible sound, see forthcoming chapter 'Staging (Theatre) Music Reception: Voicing Unacoustics in Sophocles’ Trackers' (Thomaidis 2024). For the methodology of vocal archaeology (part of which is tracing the sonic aspects of performance in the textual fragments), see Thomaidis (2021, 2022), and previous podcast on this series.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Chion, Michel (1994 / 2019), Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, transl. C. Gorbman, Columbia University Press. Corbier, Christophe (2008) “La Naissance de la Lyre d’Albert Roussel et de Théodore Reinach: des Satyres à l’Opéra”, in Jean-Christophe Branger et Vincent Giroud (eds), Figuresde l’Antiquité dans l’Opéra Français: des Troyens de Berlioz à Œdipe d’Enesco, Publications de l’Université de Saint-Etienne, pp. 311-346. Hillgruber, Michael (2011), "„Ohne das Hinterteil kann der Pudel nicht laufen.“ Zur Aufführung der Spürhunde des Sophokles unter der Regie Carl Roberts im Goethe-Theater Bad Lauchstädt", 57: 2, pp. 241-260. Parkyn, Lottie, 'The Originality and Influence of Tony Harrison’s The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus', in Sandie Byrne (ed.), Tony Harrison and the Classics, Classical Presences, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp. 117-134. Power, Timothy (2012), "Sophocles and Music", in Andreas Markantonatos (ed.) Brill’s Companion To Sophocles. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 281-304. Thomaidis, Konstantinos (2022), “Listening Back: Training as Vocal Archaeology”, Doctoral Plenary Day, Royal College of Music, London. Thomaidis, Konstantinos (2021), “Training as Vocal Archaeology”, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Blog, Routledge: http://theatredanceperformancetraining.org/2021/04/training-as-vocal-archaeology/