Annie Bélis(born 1951) is a Frencharchaeologist,philologist,papyrologistand musician. She is a research director at the FrenchCNRS,specialized in music fromclassical antiquity,Ancient GreeceandAncient Rome.
Career
editA former student of theÉcole normale supérieurein Sèvres from 1972 to 1975, Bélis passed theagrégationinancient literaturein 1976. Then, Annie Bélis joined the Fondation Thiers from 1979 à 1982. She finished her PhD during her last year at Fondation Thiers and defended it atParis-Sorbonne University.The same year, she entered the French School at Athens (1982–1986). In 1986, she published her bookAristoxène de Tarente et Aristote; le Traité d'Harmoniquefor which she received the médaille Georges Perrot from theAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.She got her first position atCNRSas tenured Research Scientist (chargée de recherches) in 1986 and is still with CNRS.
She is currently a member of the AOROC laboratory atENSUlm.
Musical studies
editAnnie Bélis learned to play the piano withYvonne Lefébure,the organ andcounterpointwith Arsène Bedois, the flute with Serge Kalisky, and the cello with Jeoffrey Walz.
Research
editAnnie Bélis produced numerous papers on the music from classical antiquity. They goes from music theory, as her study on theHarmonicsofAristoxenus of Tarentum,rebuilding music instruments (Greek[1] and Roman[2]Kithara, lyre,[3] ...) or musical papyri decryption, as Oxyrhynchus papyrus n°3705,[4] Michigan papyrus n°2958,[5] or Berlin musical papyrus n°6870[6] where she established that the papyrus contains aPaeanto Apollo due written byMesomedes of Crete.In 2004, she published her work[7] on a papyrus discovered in an unusual way by Laurent Capron, at the time a study engineer at the Institute of Papyrology of the Sorbonne, at theLouvre Museum.She established the papyrus contains a version ofMedeawritten byCarcinos.This version is unusual since here Medea pretends she didn't kill her children unlike in the versions due toEuripidesorSeneca.
Direction of the Ensemble Kérylos
editAt the beginning of the 1990s, Bélis created the Ensemble Kérylos to recreate music as it was during classical antiquity as faithfully as possible. There were three components to this process. First, deciphering musical papyri from antiquity, which she did as part of her scientific work as a papyrologist. Second, reconstructing the ancient instruments needed to play the music, what she did based on archaeological evidence and with the help of French and Spanish luthiers J.-C. Condi and C. Gonzalez. Finally, performing the scores, the reason why she founded the Ensemble Kérylos. In 1996, under her direction, the Ensemble Kérylos recorded a CD:De la pierre au son: Musiques de l'Antiquité grecque et romaine.In 2016, still under the direction of Annie Bélis, the Ensemble Kérylos produced a new recording,D'Euripide aux premiers chrétiens,a new interpretation of the scores of the previous CD taking into account progress in academic research in the field. This CD has the first recording of the "Roman Kithara" reconstructed by Annie Bélis and Carlos Gonzalez and the "Paeanto Apollo "written byMesomedes of Cretein its corrected edition.[8]
Bibliography
edit- Annie Bélis,Aristoxène de Tarente et Aristote: le "Traité d'Harmonique",Paris, Klincksieck, coll. "Études et commentaires", vol. C, 1986.
- Annie Bélis,Les musiciens dans l'Antiquité,Paris, Hachette-Littératures, coll. "La vie quotidienne", 1999.
Notes
edit- ^ Bélis, Annie (2004). "De l'image à l'instrument; reconstruction de la grande cithare grecque".Revue Archéologique(in French). Fasc. 1/2000: 203–207.JSTOR41017430.
- ^ Bélis, Annie (2004)."Reconstruction de la cithare romaine de concert: des sources écrites et figurées à l'instrument".Revue des Études Grecques(in French).117:519–544.
- ^ Bélis, Annie (1985)."À propos de la construction de la lyre".Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique(in French).109:205–226.
- ^ Bélis, Annie (1988). "Interprétation du papyrus Oxyrhynchus n°3705".Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik(in French).72:53–63.JSTOR20186791.
- ^ Bélis, Annie (1996)."Nouvelle interprétation d'une partition antique (Papyrus Michigan 2958)".Revue des Études Grecques(in French).106:X–XI.
- ^ Bélis, Annie (2003)."Le 'Péan de Berlin': une relecture".Revue des études grecques(in French).116:537–558.
- ^ Bélis, Annie (2004)."Un papyrus musical inédit au Louvre".Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres(in French).148:1305–1329.
- ^Bélis, Annie (2003)."Le 'Péan de Berlin': une relecture".Revue des études grecques(in French).116:537–558.
References
edit- (in French)articleby Thomas Schlesser on Rue89 dedicated to Annie Bélis, for the exhibition "Alexandre Le Grand" at Musée du Louvre.
- (in French)interviewof Annie Bélis on Europe1 radio station (Les récits d'Europe 1 soir).
- (in French)showdedicated to ancient music on Fréquence protestante radio station (5/01/2014) with A. Bélis andMichel Petrossian.
External links
edit- (in French)Webpageof Annie Bélis
- Ensemble Kérylos,the musical group led by Annie Bélis.