Alexander the Great’s Travels and Musical Encounters

This paper presents the first stage of a project which examines Alexander the Great’s travels focusing on their musical and anthropological legacy. I will focus on some examples from Greek and Latin texts, especially chronicles and historical and literary tales concerning Alexander’s deeds. As it is well known, the Macedonian king spent about twelve years travelling (334 - 323 BC). During that period Alexander crossed many borders – geographical and musical too. This project aims at collecting systematically accounts on musicians, performances, and musical traditions of “other” peoples Alexander met, as well as at examining the functions of musical instruments in different groups and societies. Tales of sound events will be contextualized at different times and in different places. What I am interested in is primarily the meaning that writers attached to sound and music in giving shape to Alexander’s imagery.