Peter Jones

No mumbling allowed

Correctness and clarity and euphony were highly valued across the ancient world

issue 04 March 2017

In the audience-free world of TV, where ‘acting’ and visuals have become of far greater importance than the actual words, it is no surprise that mumbling has become the fashion. Any ancient Greek actor engaging in such self-indulgent behaviour would quickly learn all about it.

Tragedies and comedies were performed by masked actors, required both to speak and sing, and for the ‘choral’ parts to dance and sing to music, with a script that could veer linguistically from sublime limpidity to the most intense complexity.

As a result, the highest premium was placed on voice training and the correctness, clarity and euphony of the actor’s delivery. Technical incompetence was simply not accepted: an Athenian actor mumbling a part would have been booed, whistled at and hissed off to the accompaniment of drumming heels.

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