The Call Of Kinnaru

John Franklin is Professor of Classics at the University of Vermont. He has specialized in ancient music scholarship and performance for 30 years. The Call of Kinnaru—here with Rachel Fickes (Middlebury College) and Abigail Bradford (University of Mary Washington)—consists of voice, lyres, and double-pipe. Their repertoire includes actual notated music surviving from antiquity, and ‘new ancient music’ for songs from Euripides and Aristophanes. The latter are original compositions according to ancient principles: careful interpretation of the ancient poets’ metrical schemes and new melodies that follow the Greek pitch-accent contours according to customs observable in ancient scores, all performed on replica ancient instruments. Some of the songs are accompanied by animated ‘new ancient art’ by new Yorker cartoonist Glynnis Fawkes. The Call of Kinnaru have performed at many universities, museums, conferences, and schools in the United States, Italy, and the UK.

This performance is presented as a part of the Ancient Music at Oxford Mousikē Technē: The Art of the Muses in Thought, Word, Sound, and Stage seminar series.