Euripides Alcestis for Bradfield

<b>Performing materials for Euripides, <i>Alcestis</i>, lines 212–80, 394–415 and 860–932</b><i>by Barnaby Brown &amp; Armand D'Angour<br></i><i>Developed for performances at Bradfield College, UK, </i><i>22–27 June 2019</i><br><i>Alcestis</i> was first produced in Athens in 438 BCE. Only the words survive, but the ancient Greek language embeds a tonal contour and rhythmic information that we have respected in this new-music experiment. The vocal parts are at a pitch suitable for accompaniment on a reconstruction of the Megara "man's" aulos, an instrument probably made in the late fourth century BCE, recovered from a grave in 2005. As well as taking this superlative archaeological find and Euripides' words into account, this experiment respects the earliest written evidence concerning musical behaviour in Greek drama, notably the tonal system for aulos-based music known as the Aristides scales.<br>