Sips & Scholars: Pythagoras and the Invention of Musical Theory with Bruce M. King

Class is in session this summer! We’re partnering with the Brooklyn Institute of Social Research to offer the second annual Sips & Scholars series, free lectures set in bars, parks, cafes, and restaurants all over Brooklyn. This session, entitled: “Pythagoras and the Invention of Musical Theory" will be led by Bruce M. King.

Greek lore holds that Pythagoras, in the late sixth century BCE, turned the overheard cacophony of a blacksmith's shop into the system of ratios that organize the western scale. The harmony of that scale then became a model, for Pythagoras and his followers, for a new attunement of the political and social order. Is Pythagoras' musical ordering of the city (and the cosmos) a liberatory model of a musical utopia or an especially sinister model of tyranny by the numbers?

Food and refreshments will be available! Please RSVP in advance. 

Everyone is welcome! Come ready to learn and open to discuss interesting questions together. Advanced reading is not required, but we encourage you to check out the suggested booklist. 

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PARTICIPANT

 

Bruce M. King teaches ancient literature at the Brooklyn institute for Social Research, where he is the director of the Language Learning and Critique Program, His research interests include Homeric poetry, pre-Socratic philosophy, Attic tragedy, and religious and philosophical histories of Magna Graecia. He is currently finishing a book on the Iliad, which will be entitled Akhilleus All-Unheroic.

 

 

 

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About The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

The Brooklyn Institute for Social Researchis an interdisciplinary teaching and research institute that offers critical, community-based education in the humanities and social sciences. Working in partnership with local businesses and cultural organizations, we integrate rigorous but accessible scholarly study with the everyday lives of working adults and re-imagine scholarship for the 21st century.