Interpreting and Staging Music in Ancient Southwest Asia and Beyond. Review Article of "The Study of Musical Performance in Antiquity: Archaeology and Written Sources"

Abstract

The contents of The Study of Musical Performance in Antiquity: Archaeology and Written Sources (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018) are discussed in depth in this review article, including some preliminary methodological considerations about the notion of ‘performance’. Some lines of research advanced in the reviewed volume are encouraged to continue in the future. The reviewer also discusses the question of ‘musical performance’ as ‘musical staging’: may we talk about the existence of concerts already in Antiquity? Are they as recent as musicology traditionally asserts?