Citharode
Professional musician in Classical antiquity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A kitharode (Latinized citharode)[a][1] (Ancient Greek: κιθαρῳδός [kitʰarɔː'dós];[2] Latin: citharoedus) was a professional performer in Classical antiquity who sang and played cithara to accompany their singing. A citharist was a performer who only played, and did not sing.[2] Famous Greek citharodes included Terpander, Sappho, and Arion.
Bronze cast figure of a kithara player from Crete. | |
| Occupation | |
|---|---|
Occupation type | professional performer |
Activity sectors | self-accompanied musical performance |
| Description | |
| Competencies | singing, strummed string instrument (lyre family),[b] music theory, music notation[c] |
Related jobs | Aulete / aulist (aulos player, "piper"), Citharist (non-singing kithara player) |
Citharodes remained common from classical Greece into the Roman imperial period and throughout antiquity; Roman emperor Nero was famously a citharode himself. In his day, a citharode sang a tragic monologue in full theatrical costume, including a mask.[3]
"Citharoedus" or "Citharede" was also an epithet of Apollo (Apollo Citharede), and the term is used to refer to statues which portray Apollo with his lyre.
See also
- Relevant musical instruments
- Related type of statuary
Footnotes
- There are an elaborate variety of spellings, each altered to pronounce correctly in different languages, and to incorporate partial translations; since there is no modern form of kithara, that is typically left un-translated. (Strictly speaking, kitharoedos / citharoedus translates to "zitherist", but that seems to never be used.) Variants include:
- Ancient Greek: κιθαρῳδός [kitʰarɔː'dós]
- Latin: citharoedus (translit. Greek)
- citharode (Anglicised translit. Latin)
- kitharode (Anglicised translit. Greek)
- citharede (rare)
- citharoede (rare)
- It is unclear how far back Greek musical notation goes. It may have only been a competency of kitharodes during the late classical period; from some point, both kitharodes and auletes would have required to simultaneously read two separate systems of notation: One for instrumental music and the other for sung music.
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