The Modes Of Ancient Greek Music - free ebook by D. B. (David Binning) Monro

MONRO

London HENRY FROWDE Oxford University Press Warehouse Amen Corner, E.C. Sheild New York MACMILLAN &amp; CO., 66, FIFTH AVENUE ...

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D. B. MONRO, M.A.

PROVOST OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD HONORARY DOCTOR OF LETTERS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1894 PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY DEDICATED TO THE PROVOST AND FELLOWS OF TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN xeinosynês heneka...

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PREFACE

The present essay is the sequel of an article on Greek music which the author contributed to the new edition of Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (London, 1890-91, art. Musica ). In that article the long-standing controversy regarding the nature of the ancient musical Modes was briefly noticed, and some reasons were given for dissenting from the views maintained by Westphal, and now very generally accepted. A full discussion of the subject would have taken up more space than was

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§ 1. Introductory.

The modes of ancient Greek music are of interest to us, not only as the forms under which the Fine Art of Music was developed by a people of extraordinary artistic capability, but also on account of the peculiar ethical influence ascribed to them by the greatest ancient philosophers. It appears from a well-known passage in the Republic of Plato, as well as from many other references, that in ancient Greece there were certain kinds or forms of music, which were known by national or tribal names—D

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§ 2. Statement of the question.

What then are the musical forms to which Plato and Aristotle ascribe this remarkable efficacy? And what is the source of their influence on human emotion and character? There are two obvious relations in which the scales employed in any system of music may stand to each other. They may be related as two keys of the same mode in modern music: that is to say, we may have to do with a scale consisting of a fixed succession of intervals, which may vary in pitch—may be 'transposed,' as we say, from o

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§ 3. The Authorities.

The sources of our knowledge are the various systematic treatises upon music which have come down to us from Greek antiquity, together with incidental references in other authors, chiefly poets and philosophers. Of the systematic or 'technical' writers the earliest and most important is Aristoxenus, a pupil of Aristotle. His treatise on Harmonics ( harmonikê ) has reached us in a fragmentary condition, but may be supplemented to some extent from later works of the same school. Among the incident

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§ 4. The Early Poets.

The earliest of the passages now in question comes from the poet Pratinas, a contemporary of Aeschylus. It is quoted by Heraclides Ponticus, in the course of a long fragment preserved by Athenaeus (xiv. cc. 19-21, p. 624 c -626 a ). The words are: 'Follow neither a highly-strung music nor the low-pitched Ionian, but turning over the middle plough-land be an Aeolian in your melody.' Westphal takes the word 'Iasti with syntonon as well as with aneimenan , and infers that there were two kinds of Io

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§ 5. Plato.

Following the order of time, we come next to the passage in the Republic (p. 398), where Socrates is endeavouring to determine the kinds of music to be admitted for the use of his future 'guardians,' in accordance with the general principles which are to govern their education. First among these principles is the condemnation of all undue expression of grief. 'What modes of music ( harmoniai ),' he asks, are plaintive ( thrênôdeis )?' 'The Mixo-lydian ,' Glaucon replies, 'and the Syntono-lydian

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§ 6. Heraclides Ponticus.

The chief doctrine maintained by Heraclides Ponticus is that there are three modes ( harmoniai ), belonging to the three Greek races—Dorian, Aeolian, Ionian. The Phrygian and Lydian, in his view, had no right to the name of mode or 'harmony' ( oud' harmonian phêsi dein kaleisthai tên Phrygion, kathaper oude tên Lydion ). The three which he recognized had each a marked ethos. The Dorian reflected the military traditions and temper of Sparta. The Aeolian, which Heraclides identified with the Hypo-

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§ 7. Aristotle—the Politics.

Of the writers who deal with music from the point of view of the cultivated layman, Aristotle is undoubtedly the most instructive. The chapters in his Politics which treat of music in its relation to the state and to morality go much more deeply than Plato does into the grounds of the influence which musical forms exert upon temper and feeling. Moreover, Aristotle's scope is wider, not being confined to the education of the young; and his treatment is evidently a more faithful reflexion of the o

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§ 8. The Aristotelian Problems.

Some further notices of the harmoniai or modes are contained in the so-called Problems ,—a collection which is probably not the work of Aristotle himself, but can hardly be later than the Aristotelian age. What is said in it of the modes is clearly of the period before the reform of Aristoxenus. In one place ( Probl. xix. 48) the question is asked why the Hypo-dorian and Hypo-phrygian are not used in the chorus of tragedy. One answer is that the Hypo-phrygian has the ethos of action ( êthos eche

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§ 9. The Rhetoric.

The word tonos occurs several times in Aristotle with the sense of 'pitch,' but is not applied by him to the keys of music. The nearest approach to such a use may be found in a passage of the Rhetoric (iii. 1, p. 1403 b 27). Speaking of the rise of acting ( hypokrisis ), which was originally the business of the poet himself, but had grown into a distinct art, capable of theoretical as well as practical treatment, he observes that a similar art might be formed for oratory. 'Such an art would lay

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§ 10. Aristoxenus.

Our next source of information is the technical writer Aristoxenus, a contemporary and pupil of Aristotle. Of his many works on the subject of music three books only have survived, bearing the title harmonika otoicheia [2] . In the treatment adopted by Aristoxenus the chapter on keys follows the chapter on 'systems' ( systêmata ). By a systêma he means a scale consisting of a certain succession of intervals: in other words, a series of notes whose relative pitch is determined. Such a system may

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§ 11. Names of Keys (hypo-).

A point that deserves special notice at this place is the use of the prefix Hypo- ( hypo- ) in the names of keys. In the final Aristoxenean system Hypo- implies that a key is lower by the interval of a Fourth than the key to whose name it is prefixed. This convention served to bring out the special relation between the two keys, viz. to show that they are related (to use modern language) as the keys of a tonic and dominant. In the scheme of keys now in question there is only one instance of this

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§ 12. Plutarch's Dialogue on Music.

After the time of Aristoxenus the technical writers on music make little or no use of the term harmonia . Their word for 'key' is tonos ; and the octachord scales which are distinguished by the succession of their intervals are called 'species of the octave' ( eidê tou dia pasôn ). The modes of the classical period, however, were still objects of antiquarian and philosophic interest, and authors who treated them from this point of view naturally kept up the old designation. A good specimen of th

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§ 13. Modes employed on different Instruments.

In the anonymous treatise on music published by Bellermann [7] (c. 28), we find the following statement regarding the use of the modes or keys in the scales of different instruments: 'The Phrygian mode ( harmonia ) has the first place on wind-instruments: witness the first discoverers—Marsyas, Hyagnis, Olympus—who were Phrygians. Players on the water-organ ( hydraulai ) use only six modes ( tropoi ), viz. Hyper-lydian, Hyper-ionian, Lydian, Phrygian, Hypo-lydian, Hypo-phrygian. Players on the ci

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§ 14. Recapitulation— harmonia and tonos.

The inquiry has now reached a stage at which we may stop to consider what result has been reached, especially in regard to the question whether the two words harmonia and tonos denote two sets of musical forms, or are merely two different names for the same thing. The latter alternative appears to be supported by several considerations. 1. From various passages, especially in Plato and Aristotle, it has been shown that the modes anciently called harmoniai differed in pitch, and that this differe

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§ 15. The Systems of Greek Music.

The arguments in favour of identifying the primitive national Modes ( harmoniai ) with the tonoi or keys may be reinforced by some considerations drawn from the history and use of another ancient term, namely systêma . A System ( systêma ) is defined by the Greek technical writers as a group or complex of intervals ( to ek pleionôn ê henos diastêmatôn synkeimenon Ps. Eucl.). That is to say, any three or more notes whose relative pitch is fixed may be regarded as forming a particular System. If t

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§ 16. The Standard Octachord System.

In the age of the great melic poets the lyre had no more than seven strings: but the octave was completed in the earliest times of which we have accurate information. The scale which is assumed as matter of common knowledge in the Aristotelian Problems and the Harmonics of Aristoxenus consists of eight notes, named as follows from their place on the lyre: Nêtê ( neatê or nêtê , lit. 'lowest,' our 'highest'). Paranêtê ( paranêtê , 'next to Nêtê'). Tritê ( tritê , i.e. 'third' string). Par

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§ 17. Earlier Heptachord Scales.

Regarding the earlier seven-stringed scales which preceded this octave our information is scanty and somewhat obscure. The chief notice on the subject is the following passage of the Aristotelian Problems : Probl. xix. 47 dia ti hoi archaioi heptachordous poiountes tas harmonias tên hypatên all' ou tên nêtên katelipon: hê ou tên hypatên (leg. nêtên ), alla tên nyn paramesên kaloumenên aphêroun kai to toniaion diastêma; echrônto de tê eschatê mesê tou epi to oxy pyknou; did kai mesên autên prosêl

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§ 18. The Perfect System.

The term 'Perfect System' ( systêma teleion ) is applied by the technical writers to a scale which is evidently formed by successive additions to the heptachord and octachord scales explained in the preceding chapter. It may be described as a combination of two scales, called the Greater and Lesser Perfect System. The Greater Perfect System ( systêma teleion meizon ) consists of two octaves formed from the primitive octachord System by adding a tetrachord at each end of the scale. The new notes

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§ 19. Relation of System and Key.

Let us now consider the relation between this fixed or standard scale and the varieties denoted by the terms harmonia and tonos . With regard to the tonoi or Keys of Aristoxenus we are not left in doubt. A system, as we have seen, is a series of notes whose relative pitch is fixed. The key in which the System is taken fixes the absolute pitch of the series. As Aristoxenus expresses it, the Systems are melodies set at the pitch of the different keys ( tous tonous, eph' hôn tithemena ta systêmata

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§ 20. Tonality of the Greek musical scale.

It may be said here that the value of a series of notes as the basis of a distinct mode—in the modern sense of the word—depends essentially upon the tonality . A single scale might yield music of different modes if the key-note were different. It is necessary therefore to collect the scanty notices which we possess bearing upon the tonality of Greek music. The chief evidence on the subject is a passage of the Problems , the importance of which was first pointed out by Helmholtz [17] . It is as f

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§ 21. The Species of a Scale.

The object of the preceding discussion has been to make it clear that the theory of a system of modes—in the modern sense of the word—finds no support from the earlier authorities on Greek music. There is, however, evidence to show that Aristoxenus, and perhaps other writers of the time, gave much thought to the varieties to be obtained by taking the intervals of a scale in different order. These varieties they spoke of as the forms or species ( schêmata, eidê ) of the interval which measured th

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§ 22. The Scales as treated by Aristoxenus.

The subject of the musical scales ( systêmata ) is treated by Aristoxenus as a general problem, without reference to the scales in actual use. He complains that his predecessors dealt only with the octave scale, and only with the Enharmonic genus, and did not address themselves to the real question of the melodious sequence of intervals. Accordingly, instead of beginning with a particular scale, such as the octave, he supposes a scale of indefinite compass,—just as a mathematician postulates lin

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§ 23. The Seven Species.

( See the Appendix, Table I. ) In the Harmonics of Aristoxenus an account of the seven species of the Octave followed the elaborate theory of Systems already referred to ( p. 48 ), and doubtless exhibited the application of that general theory to the particular cases of the Fourth, Fifth, and Octave. Unfortunately the existing manuscripts have only preserved the first few lines of this chapter of the Aristoxenean work (p. 74, ll. 10-24 Meib.). The next source from which we learn anything of this

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§ 24. Relation of the Species to the Keys.

Looking at the octaves which on our key-board, as on the Greek scale, exhibit the several species, we cannot but be struck with the peculiar relation in which they stand to the Keys. In the tables given above the keys stand in the order of their pitch, from the Mixo-lydian down to the Hypo-dorian: the species of the same names follow the reverse order, from b-b upwards to a-a . This, it is obvious, cannot be an accidental coincidence. The two uses of this famous series of names cannot have origi

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§ 25. The Ethos of Music.

From Plato and Aristotle we have learned some elements of what may be called the gamut of sensibility. Between the higher keys which in Greece, as in Oriental countries generally, were the familiar vehicle of passion, especially of the passion of grief, and the lower keys which were regarded, by Plato at least, as the natural language of ease and license, there were keys expressive of calm and balanced states of mind, free from the violent extremes of pain and pleasure. In some later writers on

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§ 26. The Ethos of the Genera and Species.

Although the pitch of a musical composition—as these passages confirm us in believing—was the chief ground of its ethical character, it cannot be said that no other element entered into the case. In the passage quoted above from Aristides Quintilianus (p. 13 Meib.) it is said that ethos depends first on pitch ( hetera êthê tois oxyterois, hetera tois baryterois ), and secondly on the moveable notes, that is to say, on the genus . For that is evidently involved in the words that follow: kai heter

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§ 27. The Musical Notation.

As the preceding argument turns very much upon the practical importance of the scale which we have been discussing, first as the single octave from the original Hypatê to Nêtê, then in its enlarged form as the Perfect System, it may be worth while to show that some such scale is implied in the history of the Greek musical notation. The use of written characters ( sêmeia ) to represent the sounds of music appears to date from a comparatively early period in Greece. In the time of Aristoxenus the

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§ 28. Traces of the Species in the Notation.

Before leaving this part of the subject it will be well to notice the attempt which Westphal makes to connect the species of the Octave with the form of the musical notation. The basis of the notation, as has been explained ( p. 69 ), is formed by two Diatonic octaves, denoted by the letters of the alphabet from α to ν , as follows: In this scale, as has been pointed out ( p. 71 ), the notes which are at the distance of an octave from each other are always expressed by two successive letters of

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§ 29. Ptolemy's Scheme of Modes.

The first writer who takes the Species of the Octave as the basis of the musical scales is the mathematician Claudius Ptolemaeus (fl. 140-160 A.D. ). In his Harmonics he virtually sets aside the scheme of keys elaborated by Aristoxenus and his school, and adopts in their place a system of scales answering in their main features to the mediaeval Tones or Modes. The object of difference of key, he says, is not that the music as a whole may be of a higher or lower pitch, but that a melody may be br

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§ 30. Nomenclature by Position.

Two passages of Aristoxenus are quoted by Westphal in support of his contention. The first (p. 6 Meib.) is one in which Aristoxenus announces his intention to treat of Systems, their number and nature: 'setting out their differences in respect of compass ( megethos ), and for each compass the differences in form and composition and position ( tas te kata schêma kai kata synthesin kai kata thesin ), so that no element of melody,—either compass or form or composition or position,—may be unexplaine

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§ 31. Scales of the Lyre and Cithara.

The earliest evidence in practical music of any octaves other than those of the standard System is to be found in the account given by Ptolemy of certain scales employed on the lyre and cithara. According to this account the scales of the lyre (the simpler and commoner instrument) were of two kinds. One was Diatonic, of the 'colour' or variety which Ptolemy recognises as the prevailing one, viz. the 'Middle Soft' or 'Tonic' ( diatonon toniaion ) [34] . The other was a 'mixture' of this Diatonic

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§ 32. Remains of Greek Music.

The extant specimens of Greek music are mostly of the second century A.D. , and therefore nearly contemporary with Ptolemy. The most considerable are the melodies of three lyrical pieces or hymns, viz. (1) a hymn to Calliope, (2) a hymn to Apollo (or Helios),—both ascribed to a certain Dionysius,—and (3) a hymn to Nemesis, ascribed to Mesomedes [38] . Besides these there are (4) some short instrumental passages or exercises given by Bellermann's Anonymus (pp. 94-96). And quite recently the list

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§ 33. Modes of Aristides Quintilianus.

The most direct testimony in support of the view that the ancient Modes were differentiated by the succession of their intervals has still to be considered. It is the account given by Aristides Quintilianus (p. 21 Meib.) of the six Modes ( harmoniai ) of Plato's Republic . After describing the genera and their varieties the 'colours,' he goes on to say that there were other divisions of the tetrachord ( tetrachordikai diaireseis ) which the most ancient musicians used for the harmoniai , and tha

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§ 34. Credibility of Aristides Quintilianus.

But what weight can be given to Aristides as an authority on the music of the time of Plato? The answer to this question depends upon several considerations. 1. The date of Aristides is unknown. He is certainly later than Cicero, since he quotes the De Republica (p. 70 Meib.). From the circumstance that he makes no reference to the musical innovations of Ptolemy it has been supposed that he was earlier than that writer. But, as Aristides usually confines himself to the theory of Aristoxenus and

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§ 35. Evidence for Scales of different species.

The object of the foregoing discussion has been to show, in the first place, that there was no such distinction in ancient Greek music as that which scholars have drawn between Modes ( harmoniai ) and Keys ( tonoi or tropoi ): and, in the second place, that the musical scales denoted by these terms were primarily distinguished by difference of pitch ,—that in fact they were so many keys of the standard scale known in its final form as the Perfect System. The evidence now brought forward in suppo

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§ 36. Conclusion.

The considerations set forth in the last chapter seem to show that if difference of mode or species cannot be entirely denied of the classical period of Greek music, it occupied a subordinate and almost unrecognised place. The main elements of the art were, (1) difference of genus ,—the sub-divisions of the tetrachord which Aristoxenus and Ptolemy alike recognise, though with important discrepancies in detail; (2) difference of pitch or key ; and (3) rhythm . Passing over the last, as not belong

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§ 37. Epilogue—Speech and Song.

Several indications combine to make it probable that singing and speaking were not so widely separated from each other in Greek as in the modern languages with which we are most familiar. (1) The teaching of the grammarians on the subject of accent points to this conclusion. Our habit of using Latin translations of the terms of Greek grammar has tended to obscure the fact that they belong in almost every case to the ordinary vocabulary of music. The word for 'accent' ( tonos ) is simply the musi

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APPENDIX

Table I. Scales of the seven oldest Keys, with the species of the same name. Seven Scales Table II. The fifteen Keys. Fifteen Keys Fifteen Keys The moveable notes ( phthongoi kinoumenoi ) are distinguished by being printed as crotchets. The two highest of these keys—the Hyper-lydian and the Hyper-aeolian—appear to have been added in the time of the Empire. The remaining thirteen are attributed to Aristoxenus in the pseudo-Euclidean Introductio ( p. 19 , l. 30), and by Aristides Quintilianus (

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THE END

Note on the Seikilos Inscription ( pp. 89-91, 133 ). Since the publication of this work, the Seikilos inscription has been examined afresh by Mr. J. A. R. Munro (of Lincoln College, Oxford). The result of his examination is to show that the last note of the melody has been misread. From a squeeze which he has kindly placed at my disposal it appears that the word apaitei is written— Sympols The line drawn under the three notes triad10 has caused the last to be read as reversegamma , which has no

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e f♯ g a b c♯ d e

If, as I ventured to suggest on p. 90 , the mode is the Hypo-phrygian (the scale of our Major mode, but with a flat Seventh), the key-note will be a . The close on the Dominant e will then have to be noted as a fact supporting the belief that in Greek music the close on the Dominant or Hypatê was the usual one ( see p. 45 ). The line drawn under the three symbols triad11 is found in several other cases where the melody gives more than one note for a syllable. So diad01 (l. 2), and diad02 (l. 3),

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