Amoebaean singing is a type of

singing Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

competition originating in

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

. In it, a first party sings according to a topic and verse structure of their choosing. A second singer then responds with the same verse structure and on a related topic. This repeats until one side concedes or a third party can determine the winner.

History

The form is believed to have been used by Greek

shepherd A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' 'herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, i ...

s to entertain themselves. Later, it would evolve into a judged competition, consisting of multiple rounds of singing between competitors. Competitors would be judged more favorably if they could continue a theme through multiple rounds. The poet

Theocritus Theocritus (; grc-gre, Θεόκριτος, ''Theokritos''; born c. 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry. Life Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from hi ...

relied heavily on Amoebaean singing, with it becoming his and his successors' "hallmark", according to

David M. Halperin David M. Halperin (born April 2, 1952) is an American theorist in the fields of gender studies, queer theory, critical theory, material culture and visual culture. He is the cofounder of '' GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'', and autho ...

Usage

Amoebaean singing can be seen in Theocritus' ''

Idyll An idyll (, ; from Greek , ''eidullion'', "short poem"; occasionally spelt ''idyl'' in American English) is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, written in the style of Theocritus' short pastoral poems, the ''Idylls'' (Εἰδύλλια). U ...

5: The Goatherd and the Shepherd'', in an exchange between the

goatherd A goatherd or goatherder is a person who herds goats as a vocational activity. It is similar to a shepherd who herds sheep. Goatherds are most commonly found in regions where goat populations are significant; for instance, in Africa and South Asi ...

Comatas and the

Lacon.

References

Ancient Greek music Singing competitions {{music-stub