Annie Bélis (born 1951) is a French

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

papyrologist Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...

and musician. She is a research director at the French

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

, specialized in music from

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

and

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

Career

A former student of the

École normale supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

in Sèvres from 1972 to 1975, Bélis passed the

agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...

ancient literature Ancient literature comprises religious and scientific documents, tales, poetry and plays, royal edicts and declarations, and other forms of writing that were recorded on a variety of media, including stone, Clay tablet, clay tablets, Papyrus, pa ...

in 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 at

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; ) was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Paris. In 2018, it m ...

. The same year, she entered the French School at Athens (1982–1986). In 1986, she published her book ''Aristoxène de Tarente et Aristote ; le Traité d'Harmonique'' for which she received the médaille Georges Perrot from the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

. She got her first position at

as tenured Research Scientist (''chargée de recherches'') in 1986 and is still with CNRS. She is currently a member of the AOROC laboratory at ENS Ulm.

Musical studies

Annie Bélis learned to play the piano with

Yvonne Lefébure Yvonne Lefébure (29 June 1898, Ermont – 23 January 1986, Paris) was a French pianist and teacher. Born in Ermont, she studied with Alfred Cortot at the Conservatoire de Paris, taking a ''premier prix'' in piano and numerous other subjects. She ...

, the organ and

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

with Arsène Bedois, the flute with Serge Kalisky, and the cello with Jeoffrey Walz.

Research

Annie Bélis produced numerous papers on the music from classical antiquity. They goes from music theory, as her study on the ''Harmonics'' of Aristoxenus of Tarentum, rebuilding music instruments (Greek and Roman

Kithara The kithara (), Latinized as cithara, was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. It was a seven-stringed professional version of the lyre, which was regarded as a rustic, or folk instrument, appropriate for teaching mu ...

lyre The lyre () (from Greek λύρα and Latin ''lyra)'' is a string instrument, stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the History of lute-family instruments, lute family of instruments. In organology, a ...

, ...) or musical papyri decryption, as Oxyrhynchus papyrus n°3705, Michigan papyrus n°2958, or Berlin musical papyrus n°6870 where she established that the papyrus contains a

Paean A paean () is a song or lyric poem expressing triumph or thanksgiving. In classical antiquity, it is usually performed by a chorus, but some examples seem intended for an individual voice ( monody). It comes from the Greek (also or ), "song ...

to Apollo due written by Mesomedes of Crete. In 2004, she published her work 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 the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. She established the papyrus contains a version of

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; ; ) is the daughter of Aeëtes, King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress, an accomplished "wiktionary:φαρμακεία, pharmakeía" (medicinal magic), and is often depicted as a high- ...

written by Carcinos. This version is unusual since here Medea pretends she didn't kill her children unlike in the versions due to

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

or Seneca.

Direction of the Ensemble Kérylos

At 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 "

to Apollo" written by Mesomedes of Crete in its corrected edition.

Bibliography

* Annie Bélis, ''Aristoxène de Tarente et Aristote : le " Traité d'Harmonique "'', Paris, Klincksieck, coll. " Études et commentaires ", , 1986. * Annie Bélis, ''Les musiciens dans l'Antiquité'', Paris, Hachette-Littératures, coll. " La vie quotidienne ", 1999.

Notes

References

*
article
by Thomas Schlesser on Rue89 dedicated to Annie Bélis, for the exhibition "Alexandre Le Grand" at Musée du Louvre. *
interview
of Annie Bélis on Europe1 radio station (Les récits d'Europe 1 soir). *
show
dedicated to ancient music on Fréquence protestante radio station (5/01/2014) with A. Bélis and Michel Petrossian.

External links

*
Webpage
of Annie Bélis
Ensemble Kérylos
the musical group led by Annie Bélis. {{DEFAULTSORT:Belis, Annie Paris-Sorbonne University alumni French papyrologists French hellenists French archaeologists French women archaeologists French philologists Women philologists 20th-century French musicologists 21st-century French musicologists French women musicologists Living people 20th-century French women writers 21st-century French women writers French women historians 1951 births