Tﬁe Mo es - Forgotten BooksPREFACE so-call ed Seikelo s inscription from Trall es and a frag ment o f the Orestes o f Euripid es But a much gr eat er surpris e was in stor e. Th

Tfie Modes

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Greek Musz'

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PROV OST OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD

HONORARY DOCTOR OF LETTERS IN THE UNIV ERSITY OF DUBLIN

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PRE FAC E

fl.

THE present essay is the seque l o f an article onGreek music which the author contributed to the new

edition o f Smith’

s Dictiona iy of Greek and Roman

Antiquities (London , 1 890—9 1 , art. MUSICA). In that

article the long-standing controversy regarding the

nature o f the ancient musical Modes was brieflynoticed

,and some reasons were given fo r dissenting

from the views maintained by Westphal,and now

very generally accepted . A full discussion o f the

subject would have taken up more space than wasthen at the author’s disposal, and he accordingly proposed to the De legates o f the Clarendon Press to treatthe question in a separate form. He has now to thankthem fo r undertaking the publication o f a work whichis necessarily addressed to a very limited circle .

The progress o f the work has been more than oncedelayed by the accession o f materials . Much o f itwas written before the author had the Opportunity o f

studying two very interesting documents first madeknown in the course o f last year in the Bulletin de

correspondance helle'

nique and the Philologus, viz . the

PREFACE .

so -called Seikelo s inscription from Tralles, and a fragment o f the Orestes o f Euripides . But a much greatersurprise was in store . The bo ok was nearly readyfo r publication last November, when the newspapersreported that the French scholars engaged in ex ca

vating on the site o f De lphi had found several pieceso f musical notation, in particular a hymn to Apollodating from the third century B. 0. As the knownremains o f Greek music were e ither miserab ly brief,or so late as hardly to be long to classical antiquity

,it

was thought best to wait fo r the publication o f the

new material . The French School o f Athens mustb e congratulated upon the good fortune which hasattended the ir enterprise , and also upon the exce llentform in which its results have been placed , within acomparative ly short time

,at the service o f students .

The writer o f these pages,it will b e readily under

stood,had especial reason to b e interested in the

announcement o f a discovery which might give an

entire ly new complexion to the whole argument . It

will b e fo r the reader to determine whether the mainthesis o f the book has gained or lost by the new

evidence .

Mr. Hubert Parry prefaces his suggestive treatmentOf Greek music by some remarks on the difficulty o f

the subject. ‘ It still seems possible,

’

he observes,

‘ that a large portion o f what has passed into the

domain o f “ we ll-authenticated fact ” is complete misapprehension , as Greek scholars have not time fo r athorough study o f music up to the standard requiredto judge securely o f the matters in question, and

PREFACE. x i

musicians as a rule a re not extreme ly intimate withGreek ’

(The A rt of Music, p . To the presentwriter

,who has no claim to the title o f musician

,the

scepticism expressed in these words appears to b e

we ll founded . If his interpretation o f the ancienttexts furnishes musicians like Mr. Parry with a somewhat more trustworthy basis fo r the ir criticism o f

Greek music as an art, his Object will b e fullyattained .

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I . Introducto ry.

Musical fo rms called dpp om'

a t o r Tpdfl'Ot2. Sta tement of the question.

The terms Do rian, Phrygian, Lydian, &c .

3. The Authon'

ties.

Aristo x enus Plato Aristo tle Heraclides Ponticus— the

Aristo telian P roblems

4. The Ea rly P oets .

Pratinas— Telestes— Aristophanes

The dppom'

a t in the Republic— The Laehes

6 . Hera clides P onticns.

The three Hellenic dpp om'

a t— the Phrygian and Lydian— the

Hypo -do rian, &c.

7. An'

stotle The Po litics.

The dpp om'

a t in the P olitics

8. The Aristo telian P roblems .

Hypo -do rian and Hyp o -phrygian

9. The Rheto ric.

The dppom'

a o f o rato ry

The 761 m o r keys

x iv CONTENTS.

PAGE

1 1 . Names of keys.

The prefix Hypo—the term rdvos

1 2. P luta rch’

s Dia logue on Music.

The Platonic modes— Lydian— Mix o -lydian and Syntono

lydian— the Mix o -lydian o ctave — the keys o f Sacadas

— 1'6vos‘ and dpp om

'

a

1 3. Modes employed on dif erent instruments.

Modes on wind-instruments— Ou the water-o rgan - o u the

cithara — ou theflute1 4. Recapitula tion.

Equivalence o f dpp om’

a and rdvos

1 5. The Systems of Greek music.

The musical System (mic -mm éppexe’

c)

1 6. The standa rd Octacho rd System.

The scale in Aristo tle and Aristo x enus

17. Ea rlier Hepta cho rd Sca les.

Seven-stringed scales in the P roblems— Nicomachus

1 8. The P erfect System.

The Greater and Lesser Perfect Systems— Aristo x enus— enlargement Of the scale — Timo theus— Pronomus

the Pro slamb anomeno s— the Hyperhypaté

1 9. Rela tion of System and Key.

The standa rd System and the ‘modes — the multiplicity Of

cipp om'

a t

2o . Tona liijz of the Greek musica l sca le.

The Mese as a key-no te — the clo se o n the Hypate

— dpx r’

, in

21 . The Species of a Sca le.

The seven Species as”) Of the Octave— connex ion

with the Modes

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/join

x vi CONTENTS.

34. Credibility of An’

stides Quintilzanus .

Date o fAristides— genuineness o f his scales

35. Evidence f or Scales of difi'

erent species.

The.

Hyp o -do rian o r commo n species— the Do rian— the

Mix o -lydian— the Phrygian and the Hypo -phrygi

Aristo tle on Do rian and Phrygian— the dithyramb

36. Conclusion.

Early impo rtance o f genus and key only— change in

Pto lemy’

s time in the direction o f the mediaeval Tones

37. Epilogue— Speech and Song.

Musical nature o f Greek accent— re latio n o f musical and

o rdinary utterance— agre ement o f melody and accent in

the Seikelo s inscription— rhythm Of music and Of pro se

— the stress accent (ictus)— music influenced by Ian

guage— wo rds and melody— want Of harmony

— the

non-diatonic sca les

APPENDIX .

Tab le I. Scales o f the seven Oldest Keys,with the species

o f the same name

Tab le II. The fifteen Keys

Music Of the Orestes Of EuripidesMusica l part Of the Seik elo s inscription

The hymns recently disco vered at DelphiHymn to Ap o llo the sca le — the changes Of genus

and key— the ‘mode ’

identica lwith the modernMino r— the o ther fragments— the agreement Of melody and

a ccent

Index Of passages discussed o r referred to

PAGE

THE MODES OF ANCIENT GREEK

MUSIC.

THE modes Of ancient Greek music are o f interest tous, not only as the forms under which the Fine Art o fMusic was developed by a people o f extraordinarya rtistic capability, but also on account o f the peculiare thical influence ascribed to them by the greatest ancientphilosophers. It appears from a well-known passagein the Republic o f Plato, a s we ll as from many otherreferences, that in ancient Greece there were certainkinds or forms o f music, which were known bynationalor tribal names— Dorian , Ionian, Phrygian , Lydian andthe like : that each o f these was be lieved to b e capable ,not only o f expressing particular emotions, but o f re

acting on the sensibility in such a way as to exercisea powerful and specific influence in the formation o f

character : and consequently that the choice , amongthese varieties, o f the musical forms to b e admitted intothe education o f the state , was a matter o f the mostserious practical concern . If on a question o f this kindwe are inclined to distrust the imaginative temper o f

THE MODES OF ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC.

Plato we have only to turn to the discussion o f the samesubject in the P o litics o f Aristotle , and we shall find thePlatonic view criticised in some important details, buttreated in the main as be ing beyond controversy.

The word dpp om’

a,harmony

,

"applied to these forms

o f music by Plato and Aristotle , means literally ‘ fittingor ‘ adjustment

,

’ hence the ‘ tuning Of a series Of noteson any principlef

'

the formation o f a scale or gamut .’

her ancient Writers use the word Tp61 ros, whencethe Latin modus and our mood or mode ,

’ generallyemployed in this sense by English scholars .LThe word‘mode ’ is open to the Objection that in modern musicit has a meaning which assumes just what it is ourpresent business to prove or disprove about the ‘modeso f Greek musicflThe wo rd harmony,’"however:[isl‘still moré1 misleaclihg, and on the whole it

"seems best

to abide y the established use o f ‘mode ’

as a translation o f dpp om

’

a,trusting that the context will show

when the word has its distinctive ly modern sense , andwhen it simply denotes a musical scale Of someparticular kind .

The rhythm o f music is also recognized by both Platoand Aristotle as an important e lement in its moralvalue . On this part o f the subject, however, we havemuch less material fo r a judgement . Plato goes on tothe rhythms after he has done with the modes

,and

lays down the principle tha t they must not b e complexor varied, but must b e the rhythms o f a sober and bravelife . But he confesses that he cannot tell which theseare ( 1 rOi

'

a 8b n oiov Biou famili a r} obit é’

xa) Aéyew), andleaves the matter fo r future inquiry 1 .

1 Pla to , Rep. p . 400 b an d r a iim uév, iv 8’

£761 , Ita l nerd Adp awo s

BovAeva bp eGa , f ives 1'

s dvek evaepia s Ita l 68pm»:flp a t/{a s Ita l 51 mm x a x ia s

wpfvrova a cBéa ecs, ua i viva : r o i‘

s éva v'rio cs Aa r réo v h epatic.

STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION . 3

2. Sta tement of the question.

What then are the musical forms to which Plato andAristotle ascribe this remarkable efficacy ? And whatis the source o f the ir influence on human emotion andcharacter ?There are two obvious re lations in which the scales

employed in any system Of music may stand to eacho ther. They may b e re lated a s two keys o f the samemode in modern music that is to say,we may' have todo with a scale consisting o f a fixed succession o f interva ls, which may vary in pitch— may b e transposed,

’as

we say, from one pitch or key to another. Or the scalesmay differ as the Major mode differs from the Minor,name ly in the order in which the intervals follow eachother. In modern music we ha ve these two modes ,and each o f them may b e in any o ne Of twe lve keys .It is evidently possible , also, that a name such as Dorianor Lydian might denote a particular mode taken in aparticular key that the scale so called should possessa definite pitch as we ll as a definite series o f intervals.

According to the theory which appears now to prevail among students Of Greek music

,these famous

names had a double application. There was a Dorianmode as we ll as a Dorian key, a

'

Phrygian mode and

a Phrygian key, and so on . This is the view set forthby Bo eckh in the treatise which may b e said to havela id the founda tions o f our knowledge o f Greek music(DeMetris P inda ri

,lib . I I I . cc . vii—xii). It is expounded,

along withmuch subsidiary speculation,in the successive

volumes wh ich we owe to the fertile pen o fWestphal ;and it has been adopted in the learned and exce llentH isto ire et The

'

arie de la Musique de l’

Antiquite'

o f

B 2

4 THE MODES OF ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC.

M . Gevaert. Acco rding to these high authorities theGreeks had a system o f keys‘ trbvq c), and also a systemo f modes (aipp o via c), the former be ing based so lely upondifference o f pitch, the la tter upon the form ’ or species(457809) o f the octave scale , that Is to say, upon the ordero f the intervals which compose it.

3. The Authorities.

The sources o f our knowledge are the varioussystematic treatises upon music which have come downto us from Greek antiquity, toge ther with incidenta lreferences in other authors

,chiefly poets and philo

sophers. Of the systema tic or technical ’ writers theearliest and most important is Aristo x enus, a pupil o fAristotle . His treatise on Ha rmonics (app an ni) hasreached us in a fragmentary condition, but may b e

supplemented to some extent from later works o f thesame school. Among the incidental notices o f musicthe most considerable are the passages in the Republicand the P olitics already referred to . To these we haveto add a few other references in Plato and Aristotle ;a long fragment from . the Platonic philosopher Heraclides Po nticus, containing some interesting quotationsfrom earlier poets ; a number Of detached Observationscollected in the nine teenth section o f the Aristote lianP roblems ; and o ne or two notices preserved in lex icographical works, such as the Onomasticon Of Pollux .

In these groups o f authorities the scholars abovementioned find the double use which they be lieve tohave been made o f the names Dorian

,Phrygian

,Lydian

and the rest. In Aristo x enus they recognise that thesenames are applied to a series o f keys whichdiffered in pitch only. In Plato and Aristotle they find

THE‘

APMONIAI. 5

the same names applied to scales called a'

pp om'

a t,and

these scales, they maintain , differed primarily in the

o rder o f the ir intervals I shall endeavour to showthat there was no such double use : that in the earlierperiods o f Greek music the scales in use , whethercalled 1

'6v0t o r dpp om’

a t,differed primarily in pitch : that

the statements o f ancient authors about them,down to

and including Aristo x enus,agree as close ly as there is

reason to expect : and that the passages on which theo pposite view is based— all o f them drawn from compara tively late writers— either do not re late to theseancient scales at all

, or point to the emergence inpost-classical times o f some new forms or tendencieso f musical art. I propose in any case to adhere as

close ly as possible to a chronological treatment o f theevidence which is at our command

,and I hope to make

it probable that the difficulties o f the question may b eb est dealt with on this method.

§ 4. The Ea rly P oets.

The earliest o f the passages now in question comesfrom the poet Pra tinas, a contemporary o f Aeschylus.It is quoted by Heraclides Po nticus, in the course o f

a long fragment preserved by Athenaeus (xiv. cc . 1 9- 2 1 ,

p . 624c— 626 a ). The words are :

mire mi

m'

ovo v bla me wire rc‘

w dveme’va v

’

Ia o '

ri. pto iio-a v, m a rc

‘

w p éo o a v veéiv

dpovpa v a ldAcfe rq'

i ye'

k et.

‘Follow ne ither a highly-strung music nor the lowpitched Ionian

,but turning over the middle plough-land

b e an Aeolian in yo ur me lody.

’ Westphal takes theWord ’

Ia a"n' with aflwovov as we ll as with dam p en/a v, and

infers that there were two kinds o f Ionian, a ‘ highly


strung ’ and a ‘ re laxed ’ or low-pitched . But this is notrequired by the words, and seems less natural than theinterpretation which I have given . All tha t the passageproves is that in the time o f Pratinas a composer hadthe choice o f at least three scales : o ne (or more) o fwhich the pitch was high another o f lowpitch which was called Ionian ; and a third,intermediate between the others

,and known as Aeo lian.

Later in the same passage we are told that Pra tinasspoke o f the

‘Aeolian harmony ’

(upén-a f or ”em

cimdoh afipaim'

a ts AloAis app om’

a ). And the term is alsofound

,with the epithet ‘ deep-sounding

,

’ in a passagequoted from the hymn to Deme ter o f a contemporarypoet

,Lasus o f Hermione (Athen . xiv. 624 e)

Adp a'

rpa pte'

Amo Ko’

pau re KAvpte'

vow dk oxov Mek ffio ca v,{invwv &vdywv AZOMO

’

&ptaflaptiflpottov &pp ovfa v.

With regard to the Phrygian and Lydian scalesHeraclides (l. c.) quotes an interesting passage fromTelestes o f Selinus, in which the ir introduction isa scribed to the colony that was said to have followedPelops from Asia Minor to the Peloponnesus :

upéi'

ro r. uapc‘

z xpa'

rfipa s‘

EMvjvwv év abAo i’

s

o vvo'na bo i IIe’

o ro s ya rpos dpefa s (bpti

ytov dewav minor

r oi 6’

dfv¢c6v0ts mx rfbwv VraApIo i’

s e'

x o v

Maw» iipwov.

‘The comrades o f Pe lops were the first who besidethe Grecian cups sang with the flute (atoms) the Phrygianmeasure o f the Great Mother ; and these again by shrillvoiced notes o f the pectis sounded a Lydian hymn .

’

The epithet 656mm is worth notice in connexion withother evidence o f the high pitch o f the music known asLydian .



against fortune : and also one fitted fo r the work o f

peace , fo r prayer heard by the gods, fo r the successfulpersuasion or exhortation o f men, and generally fo r thesober enjoyment o f ease and prosperity.

’ Two suchmodes, one fo r Courage and one fo r Temperance, aredeclared by Glaucon to b e found in the Dorian and thePhrygian . In the La ches (p . 1 88) there is a passingreference in which a similar view is expressed . Platois speaking o f the character o f a brave man as be ingmetaphorically a ‘ harmony,

’ by which his life is madeconsonant to reason— ‘

a Dorian harmony,’

he addsplaying upon the musical sense o f the word not anIonian

,certa inly not a Phrygian or a Lydian, but that

one which only is truly Hellenic (dr exvéis' Ampw‘

rt'

, &AA’

015K oiop a t 83 0682: (bpvyw'

r i code (DOV 7rep

pom)‘

Ehkqmmje’

o'

rwdpyom’

a ). The exclusion o f Phrygianmay be due to the fact that the virtue discussed in theLa ches is courage ; but it is in agreement with Aristotle’

s

opinion . The absence o f Aeolian from both the Platonicpassages seems to show that it had gone out o f usein his time (but cp . p .

The point o f V iew from which Plato professes todetermine the right modes to b e used in his idealeducation appears clearly in the passage o f the Republic.

The modes first rejected a re those which a re high inpitch . The SyntonO

-lydian or high-strung Lydianis shown by its name to b e o f this class . ThefMix olydian is similar, as we shall see from Aristotle and

other writers . The second group which he condemnsis that o f the slack or low-pitched. Thus it is on theprofoundly He llenic principle Of choosing the meanbetween Opposite extremes that he approves o f theDorian and Phrygian pitch . The application o f thisprinciple was not a new o ne , fo r it had been already

THE‘

APMONIAIJ— HERACLIDES PONTICUS. 9

laid down by Pratinas :mir e mfwovov dim/( e mir e r a‘

w

avetp éva v .

The three chapters which Aristotle devotes to a discussion o f the use o f music in the state (P olitics viii .cc. 5 and in which he reviews and criticises thePlatonic treatment o f the same subject

,will b e found

entire ly to bear out the view now taken . It is alsosupported by the commentary Of Plutarch

,in his dia

logue on Music (cc. 1 5 o f which we shall havesomething to say hereafter. Meanwhile , followingthe chronological order o f our authorities

,we come

next to the fragment o f Heraclides Ponticus alreadymentioned (Athen . xiv. p . 6240

- 626 a ).

6 . Hera clides P onticus.

The chief doctrine mainta ined by Heraclides Ponticus

is that there are three modes (app ovia c), be longing tothe three Greek races— Dorian, Aeolian, Ionian . The

Phrygian and Lydian,in his view, had no right to the

name o f mode o r‘ harmony ’

(068’

app ovfa v gbqo-i Seiv

Ka h eiafla t (bpv'

ytov, a ai‘n'

ep 0682 Ti p Auth or ). The

three which he recognized had each a marked ethos .The Dorian reflected the military traditions and tempero f Sparta. The Aeolian, which Heraclides identifiedwith the Hypo-dorian o f his own time , answered to thenational character o f the ‘Thessalians, which was b oldand gay, somewhat overweening and self-indulgent, buthospitable and chiva lrous. Some said that it was calledHypo-dorian because it was be low the Dorian on theas or flute ; but Heraclides thinks that the namemerely expressed likeness to the Dorian character(Aa

’

Iptov newa bn’woz} vap ifew, upoa'

epqSepfi 66 mos ex et'

vy).The Ionian, again,was harsh and severe , expressive o f

1 0 THE MODES OF ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC.

the unkindly disposition fostered amid the pride andmaterial welfare o f Miletus . Heraclides is inclined tosay that it was not properly a distinct musical scale o r‘ harmony

,

’ but a strange aberration in the form o f the

musical scale ( 1706701 , 86 rwa Ga vp a a'

r bv o xfip a r os ap

He goes on to protest against those who donot appreciate differences o f kind (r a

‘

zs x a r’

eibos 8ta ¢opais),and are guided only by the high or low pitch o f the

notes (Tfi 765V 6567171 1 Ka i Ba pfirnn ) ; so thatthey make a Hyper-mixolydian, and another againabove that. ‘ I do not see ,

’

he adds, ‘ that the Hyperphrygian has a distinct ethos ; and yet some say thatthey have discovered a newmode the Hypophrygian . But a mode ought to have a distinct moralo r emotional character (ciao: E

'

x ewnew 7) miOovs), asthe Locrian , which was in use in the time o f Simonidesand Pindar

,but went out o f fashion again .

’

The

Phrygian and Lydian,as we have seen, were said to

have been brought to the Peloponnesus by the followerso f Pe lops .The tone as we ll as the substance o f this extractmakes it evident that the opinions o f Heraclides onquestions o f theoretical music must b e accepted withconsiderable reserve . The notion that the Phrygianand Lydian scales were ‘ barbarous ’ and opposed toHe llenic ethos was apparently common enough, thoughlargely due (as we may gather from several indications)to national prejudice . But no o ne , except Heraclides,

goes so far as to deny them the name o f app ovla . The

threefold division into'

Do rian,Aeolian and Ionian must

also b e arbitrary. It is to b e observed that Heraclides

obtains his Aeolian by identifying the Aeolian o f Pratinasand other early poets with the mode called Hypo-dorianin his own time . The circumstance that Plato mentions

THE‘

APMON/AI— HERACLIDES PONTICUS. u

ne ither Aeolian nor Hypo-dorian suggests rather thatAeolian had gone out o f use before Hypo-dorian camein . The conjecture o f Bo eckh that Ionian was the

same as the later Hypo-phrygian (DeMetr . P ind. iii. 8)is open to a similar objection . The Ionian mode wasat least as Old as Pra tinas, whereas the Hypo-phrygianwas

‘

a nove lty in the time o f Heraclides. The protestwhich Heraclides makes against classifying modesmere ly according to the ir pitch is chiefly valuable as

proving that the modes were as a matter o f fact usuallyclassified from that point o f view. It is far from provingthat there was any other principle which Heraclides

wished to adopt— such, fo r example , as difference in theintervals employed, or in the ir succession . His ‘differences o f kind (ragx a -r

’

eib‘

os 8ta ¢opcis) a re not necessarilyto b e explained from the technical use o f smog fo r the‘ Species ’

o f the octave . What he complains o f seemsto b e the multiplication o f modes— Hyper-mixolydian,Hyper-phrygian

,Hypo-phrygian— beyond the legiti

mate requirements o f the art . The Mixo-lydian (e.g.)is high-pitched and plaintive : what more can the

Hyper-mixolydian b e The Hypo-phrygian is a newmode : Heraclides denies it a distinctive ethos . His

view seems to b e that the number o f modes should notb e greater than the number o f varieties in temper oremotion o f

) which music is capable . But there is

nothing to show that he did not regard pitch as thechief e lement , or o ne o f the chief e lements, o f musicalexpression .

The absence o f the name Hypo-lydian , taken withthe description o f Hypo-dorian as

‘ be low the Dorian,’

would indicate that the Hypo-dorian o f Heraclideswas

not the later mode o f that name , but was a semitonebe low the Dorian, in the place afterwards occupied by


the Hypo-lydian . This is confirmed, as we shall see ,by Aristo x enus (p .

Of the writers who deal with music from the pointo f view o f the cultivated layman

, Aristotle is un

doubtedly the most instructive . The chapters in hisP o litics which treat o f music in its relation to the stateand to Inqralitygo much more deeply than Plato doesinto the grounds o f the influencewhich musical formsexert upon temper and feeling. Moreover, Aristotle

’

s

scope is wider,-

not be ing confined to the edugwo n o f

the young ; and his treatment is evidently a morefaithful reflex ion o f the ordinary Greek notions andsentiment. He begins (P o l. viii . 5, p . 1 340 a 38) byagree ing with Plato as to the great importance o f the

subject fo r practical politics . Musical forms,he holds

,

are no t mere symbols acting through association

,but are an actual copy or reflex o f the forms o f

moral temper (rev 835Po i?flex ed-w a br o is e’

a'w pmrjp a r a Téiv

1’

70a3v) ; and this is the ground o f the different moralinfluence exercised by different modes Bysome o f them,

especially by the Mixo-lydian, we are

moved to a p laintive and depressed temper (baa -rc'

Oea-Ga c

bdvpr cxmr e’

pms Ka i o'

vveov nx brws pé hk ov) by others, suchas those which are called the ‘ relaxed (dvecp éva c),we are

disposed to softness o f mind ( p ack a xwr épo s r r‘wbui

wea r ). The Dorian, again, is the only o ne underwhoseinfluence men are in a middle and settled mood (pew s

Ka i Ka eewnx brws [edition-a ) : While the Phrygian makes

them excited (evewm am ocs). In a later Ehapter (P o l.viii . 7, p . 1 342 a he returns to the subject o f thePhrygian . Socrates, he thinks, ought not to have leftit with the Dorian, especially since he condemned the

THE‘

APMOMIAI— ARISTOTLE. 1 3

flute (a bAbs), which has the same character amonginstruments as the Phrygian among modes, both be ingorgiastic and emotional. The Dorian , as all agree , isthe most steadfast and has most o f theethosOf courage and

,as compared with other modes, it

has the characterwhich Aristotle himse lf regards as theuniversal criterion o f exce llence , viz . that o f be ing themean be tween opposite excesses. Aristotle

,therefore ,

certainly understood Plato to have approved the

Dorian and the Phrygian as representing the meanin respect o f pitch, while other modes were e ither toohigh or too low. He goes on to defend the use o f

the re laxed ’

modes on the ground that they furnish amusic that is still within the powers o f those whosevoice has failed from age , and who therefore are notable to sing the high-pitched modes (ofov7o em pqx ém

debt xpévov ob p'

q'

zb’

to v {idea l rag a'

vv'

rbvovs app ow'

a s, an d

f it s avetpeva s 1 ) 9560 1 9 {moficihk et r o is In

this passage the meaning o f the words mir ror/as anddva p évos is especially clear.In the same discussion (c . Aristotle refers to the

distinction between music that is e thical,music suited

to action, and music that inspires re ligious excitement(Ta p év heard, r a

‘

z 8enpa x rmoi, Ta 8’

evdova '

ta o-n x ai). The

last o f these kinds serves as a ‘ purification (xeoa pm ).The excitement is calmed by giving it vent ; and themorbid condition o f the ethos is met by music o f highpitch and exceptional ‘ colour ’

(f ewapp oma’

bvwa pexfié a-ets

Ka i7631/ p eltb’

wTa mirr or/a Ka i n a pa x expco a'

p éva ).

In a different connexion (P o l. iv. 3, p . 1 290 a

dealing with the opinion tha t all forms o f governmentare ultimate ly reducible to two

,viz . oligarchy and

democracy,Aristotle compares the view o f some who

he ld that there a re properly only two musical modes,


Dorian and Phrygian,— the other scales be ing merevarieties o f these two. Ra ther

,he says

,there is in

each case a right form,or two right forms at most

,

from which the rest are declensions — On

one side to ‘ high-pitched ’ and imperious oligarchies,on the other to ‘ relaxed ’ and ‘

soft ’ forms o f populargovernment (bh t ‘ya px txas new 7029 a vvr ouaor épa s Ka i

dem or txwrepa s, 7d? 6”

(b eeper/a s Ka i p a k a x ds dnp o r txds).

This is obviously the Platonic doctrine o f two rightkeys, holding the mean between high and low.

8. The Ar istotelian P roblems.

Some further notices o f the a‘

zpp om’

a i or modes are

contained in the so -called P roblems,— a collection which

is probably not the work o f Aristotle himse lf, butcan hardly b e later than the Aristotelian age . Whatis said in it o f the modes is clearly o f the period beforethe reform o f Aristo x enus. In o ne place (P robl. xix .

48) the question is asked why the Hypo-dorian andHypo-phrygian are not used in the cho rus o f tragedy .

One answer is that the Hypo-phrygian has the e thoso f action (5009 ex cl 1 rpa le‘

rue6V ), and that the Hypo-dorianis the expression o f a lofty and unshaken character ;both o f these things be ing proper to the heroicpersonages on the stage , but not to the chorus, whichrepresents the average spectator, and takes no part inthe action . Hence the music suited to the chorus isthat o f emotion venting itse lf in passive complaint — a

description which fits the other modes,but least o f all

the exciting and orgiastic Hypo-phrygian . On the

contrary (the writer adds) the passive attitude isespecially expressed by the Mixo-lydian . The view



to the pitch o f the voice , and as virtually equivalent tof orms, is especially worthy o f note .

1 0. Arzlstox enus.

Our next source o f information is the technical writerAristo x enus

,a contempora ry and pupil o f Aristotle .

Of his many works on the subject o f music three booksonly have survived, bearing the title app arel/ea a

'

Tocx eia1.

In the treatment adopted by Aristo x enus the chapteron keys follows the chapter on ‘ systems (o-vcrrfip am ).By a c om-

qua he means a scale consisting o f a certainsuccession o f intervals : in other words

,a series o f

notes whose re lative pitch is determined . Such a systemmay vary in absolute pitch

,and the or keys are

simply the different degrees o f pitch at which a particularsystem is taken (r obs Tovovs e

’

cp’

div n ee’

p eva Ta a vov fip a r a

When the system and the key are bothgiven it is evident that the whole series o f notes isde termined .

Aristo x enus is the chief authority on the keys o f

Greek music . In this department he is consideredto have done fo r Greece what Bach’s Wohltemperirtes

Cla vier did fo r modern Europe . It is true that thescheme o f keys which later writers ascribe to him

1 It is fo reign to our purpo se to discuss the critica l pro b lems presented bythe tex t o f Aristo x enus. Of the three ex tant b o o ks the first is o bvi ouslya distinct trea tise , and sh ould pro b ably b e entitled wept a

’

pxé'

m. Th e o ther

two b o o k swill then b ea r the o ld'

title dpp ommi a-rocx ei

‘

a . They dealwith thesame subjects, fo r the mo st pa rt, a s the first b o o k, and in the same o rder,

a species o f repe tition o f which th ere a re well-known instances in the

Aristo telianwritings. The co nclusio n is ab rup t, and some impo rtant to picsa re omitted. It seems an ex aggera tio n,

h oweve r, to describ e theH a nno nics

o f Aristo x enus a s a me re co llection o f ex cerpts, which is the v iew taken byMa rquard (Die ha rmonischen Fragmente des A n

'

stox enus, pp . 359 See

Westpha l’

s H a rmom'

k undMelopb‘

ie der Griechen (p . 41 , ed. and the

reply to Ma rqua rd in his A n’

stox enus van Ta rent (pp . 1 65

THE KEYS. 1 7

is not given in the Ha rmonics which we have but wefind there what is in some respects more valuable ,name ly

,a vivid account o f the state Of things in respect

o f tonality which he observed in the music o f his time .

‘ No one ,’ says Aristo x enus (p . 37 ‘ has told

us a word about the keys,e ither how they are to b e

arrived at (r im 7,06o Amwa y), or from what point o fview the ir number is to b e determined . Musiciansassign the place o f the keys very much as the differentcities regulate the days o f the month . The Corinthians ,fo r example

,will b e found counting a day as the tenth

o f the month , while with the Athenians it is the fifth,

and in some other place the e ighth . Some authoritieson music (aipp omx oi) say that the Hypo-dorian is thelowest key, the Mixo-lydian a semitone higher, theDorian again a semitone higher

,the Phrygian a tone

above the Dorian,and similarly the Lydian a tone above

the Phrygian . Others add the Hypo-phrygian flute[i. e. the scale o f the flute so called] at the lower endo f the list . Others

,again

,looking to the holes o f the

flute (mobs Thu T6 V a bhé’

wTp tfn'

qo-w Bh e

'

n o vr es), separatethe three lowest keys, viz . the Hypo-phrygian, Hypodorian

,and Dorian

,by the interval o f three-quarters o f

a tone (p 'i &éa emu), but the Phrygian from the Dorianby a tone , the Lydian from the Phrygian again bythree-quarters o f a tone , and the Mixo-lydian from the

Lydian by a like interval. But as to what de terminesthe interval between o ne key and another they havetold us nothing.

’

It will b e seen that (with one marked exception ) therewas agreement about the order o f the keys in respecto f pitch, and that some at least had reduced the intervalsto the succession o f tones and semitones which characterises the diatonic scale . The exception is the Mixo


lydian,which some ranked immediate ly be low the

Dorian , others above the Lydian . Westphal attributesthis strange discrepancy to the accidental displacingo f some words in theMSS. o f Aristo x enus 1 . Howeverthis may b e , it is plain that in the time o f Aristo x enus

considerable progress had been made towards the

scheme o f keys which was afterwards connected withhis name . This may b e represented

‘

by the followingtable , in which fo r the sake o f comparison the laterHypo-lydian and Hypo-dorian are added in brackets

Mixo-lydiansemitone

Lydian

Phrygian

Doriansemitone

Hypo-dorian [Hypo-lydian]

Hypo-phrygian

[Hypo-dorian]Ha rm . p . 37, 1 9 Me ib . 061 0: yap o f [t he rawdpp ovmé

’

wAé‘yovm Ba ptf'ra r ov

[ RV f or‘

Two bdiptov rawr bvaw,mur al/ftp at bfti'repo v 7015701 1 r bv MI£OA68¢OV , 1 06700

atwa rm/{qt ‘rbv Adipco v, 1 06 83Awpiov romp r bvq ytowtimed-revs 83no ) 706v yfov

1 61 1 Adams! {r épqa romp . Westphal (H a rmonik a nd Melopdie, p. 1 65) wo uld

transfer thewo rds fimr om’

cp . to the end o f the sentence , and inse rtbfb

—repo v b efo re r owAdipcov . The necessity fo r this insertio n sh ows tha t

Westpha l’

s transpo sitio n is no t in itself an easy one . The o nly reaso n fo r itis the difficulty o f suppo sing tha t there co uld hav e b een so grea t a difi'

erence

in the pitch o f the Mix o -lydian scale . As to this,however , see p . 23 (no te) .

The wo rds r bv‘

Ttroppb'

ytov a babv have a lso b een co ndemned byWestpha l(A ristox enus , p . He po ints o ut the curio us co ntradiction b e tweenupor 71)v 767a bAé

‘

wf pt'

mqawBAéwrov-res and the complaint 1 ! 8’ £6 1 2upds 8

v ovr es abbey elprjx a aw. But if apbs r 1)v Bk éa oweswas a marginal glo ss,asWestpha l suggests, it was doub tless a glo ss o n a bxbv

, and if so , a bx bv is

presumably sound. Since the child: wa s especially a Phrygian instrument,and regula rly a sso cia tedwith the Ph rygian mo de (a swe knowfromAristo tle ,see p . no th ing is mo re pro b ab le than tha t the re was a va rie ty o fflutecalled Hypo -

phrygian , b ecause tuned so as to yield the Hypo -

phrygian key,

either by itself o r a s a modula tion from the Phrygian .

THE KEYS. I9

In this scheme the important feature— that whichmarks it as an advance on the others referred to byAristo x enus— is the conformity which it exhibits withthe diatonic scale . The result o f this conformity isthat the keys stand in a certain re lation to each other.Taking any two,we find that certain notes are commonto them. So long as the intervals o f pitch were quitearbitrary, or were practically irrational quantities, suchas three-quarters o f a tone

,no such re lation could exist .

It now became possible to pass from o ne key to another,i. e. to employ modula tion (p eTaBoMj) as a source o f

musical effect . This new system had evidently madesome progress when Aristo x enus wrote , though itwasnot perfected

,and had not passed into general use .

1 1 . Names of Keys (inro

A point that deserves special notice at this place isthe use o f the prefix Hypo (inro in the names o f keys.In the final Aristo x enean system Hypo implies thata key is lower by the interval o f a Fourth than the keyto whose name it is prefixed. This convention servedto bring out the special relation between the two keys,viz . to show that they are re lated (to use modern language) as the keys o f a tonic and dominant. In the

scheme Of keys now in question there is only o ne

instance o f this use o f Hypo ,name ly in the Hypo

phrygian,the most recently introduced . It must have

been on the analogy o f th is name that the term Hypodorian was shifted from the key immediate ly b e low theDorian to the new key a Fourth be low it, and thatthe new term Hypo-lydian was given to the old Hypodorian in accordance with its similar re lation to theLydian . In the time o f Aristo x enus, then, this technica l

c 2


sense o f Hypo had not yet been established, but wascoming into use . It led naturally to the employmento f Hyper in the inverse sense , viz . to denote a keya Fourth higher (the key o f the sub-dominant) . Byfurther steps, o f which there is no record, the Greekmusicians arrived at the idea o f a key fo r every semitone in the octave ; and thus was formed the systemo f thirteen keys, ascribed to Aristo x enus by laterwriters. (See the scheme at the end o f this book

,

Table II.) Whe ther in fact it was entirely his workmay b e doubted. In any case he had formed a clearconception— the want o f which he noted in his predecesso rs— o f the principles on which a theoreticallycomplete scheme o f keys sho uld b e constructed .

In the discussions to which we have been referring,Aristo x enus invariably employs the word rows in thesense o f

‘ key.

’

The word app om’

a in his writings isequivalent to ‘ Enharmonic genus (yéuog e

’

va pp omov), the

genus o f music which made use o f the Enharmonicdie

'

sis or quarter-tone . Thus he never speaks,as Plato

and Aristotle do, o f the Dorian (or Phrygian or Lydian)app ovia , but only o f the r éuo c so named . There isindeed o ne passage in which certain octave scales aresaid by Aristo x enus to have been called app ouia c : butthis, as will b e shown, is a use which is to b e otherwise explained (see p .

1 2. P luta rch’

s Dia logue on Music.

After the time o f Aristo x enus the technical writerson music make little or no use o f the term app ovia .

The ir word fo r key is r éuos and the octachord scaleswhich are distinguished by the succession o f the irintervals are called ‘ species o f the octave ’

(eidn706 an

‘

APMOHM AND rows . 2

m any). The modes o f the classical pe‘

riod,however

,

were still objects o f antiquarian and philosophicinterest

,and authors who treated them from this point

o f V iew naturally kept up the old designation . A goodspecimen o f the writings o f this class has survived inthe dia logus de musica

‘

o f Plutarch . Like most productio ns o f the time

,it is mainly a compilation from

earlier works now lost . Much o f it comes from Aristo x enus

,and there is therefore a Special fitness in /

dealing with it in this place , by way o f supplementto the arguments drawn directly from the Aristo x enean

H a rmonics. The following are the chief passagesbearing on the subject o f our enquiry :( 1 ) In cc . 1 5

— 17we find a commentary o f someinterest on the Platonic treatment o f the modes .Plutarch is dwe lling on the superiority o f the Olderand simpler music

,and appeals to the opinion o f Plato .

‘The Lydian mode (app ovia ) Plato objects to becauseit is high (bfe

'

ia ) and suited to lamentation . Indeed itis said to have been originally devised fo r that purposefo r Aristo x enus te lls us, in his first book o n Music, thatO lympus first employed the Lydian mode on the flutein a dirge (e

’

mmjdecov a bxfio a t Avdwr t'

) over the Python.

But some say that Melanippides began this kind o f

music . And Pindar in his paeans says that the Lydianmode (app ovia ) was first brought in by Anthippus in anode o n the marriage o f N iobe . But others say thatTo rrhebus first used that mode , as Dionysius theIam'bus re lates .’

‘The Mixo-lydian, too, is pathetic and suitable totragedy. And Aristo x enus says that Sappho wasthe inventor o f the Mixo-lydian, and that from her

the tragic poets learned it. They combined it withthe Dorian, since that mode gives grandeur and dignity,


and the other pathos, and these are the two e lementso f tragedy. But in his Historical Trea tise on Music

(la-Topek a rfié dpp ow

’

a s {mourn/La r a ) he says that Pythoclides theflute-player was the discoverer o f it. And

Lysis says that Lampro cles the Athenian, perce ivingthat in it the disjunctive tone is not where itwas generally supposed to b e , but is at the upperend o f the scale , made the form o f it to b e that o f theoctave from Paramese to Hypate Hypaton (r owih-o va brfis dn ep

‘

yda a o da t Tb a'

xfip a oiov Tb dub n a pa pea'

qs eu i

z‘

m'

air qv irn'

a r éiv). Moreover, it is said that the relaxedLydian (en a vetp e

'

q Avdw'

ri ), which is the oppositeo f the Mixo-lydian, be ing similar to the Ionian (r ap awkna

-ia u ace-a v rfi was invented by Damon the

Athenian.

’

‘These modes then , the o ne plaintive , the otherre laxed Plato properly rejected, and chosethe Dorian, as befitting warlike and temperate men.

’

In this passage the high-pitched Lydian (Em/TovaAvé

’

m-r i ) o f Plato is called simply Lydian . There is

every reason to suppose that it is the mode calledLydian by Aristotle and Heraclides Ponticus 1 . If thisis so

,it follows almost o f necessity that the Lydian

o f Plato, called slack (x a k a pai) by him— Plutarch ’sena vetp evv) Avdwv i— is to b e identified With the later

1 An o bjection to this identifica tion ha s b een based o n the wo rds o f

Po llux , Onom. iv . 78 mi dpp ovia per a t’

uurrueh Awpwr f, v -yw

-ri, Axioms m l

Tammi, m l odwovos Avbw‘rl fiv

'

AvOcmro s bfeiipe. The source o f this sta tement,o r a t least o f the la tte r pa rt o f it, is evidently the same as tha t o f the no ticein Pluta rch . The agreementwith Pla to ’

s list makes it pro b ab le tha t th issource wa s some comment on the passage in the Republic. If so

,it can

ha rdly b e doub ted tha t Po llux gives the o riginal terms, the Pla tonic Avoi d-t iandEuwovoxubwr i, and consequently tha t the la ter Lydian is no t to b e foundin his Audios (wh ich is a relax ed mode ), but in his adv

-rovesAvbw'

rf. Thereis no dimculty in suppo sing tha t the mode was called advr ovos merely incontrast to the o ther.



p eya h onpen é Ka i dfmya rwc‘

w ain'

odidco o-w, 1 ) Se 1 ra017‘

rueov , p e’

p cx‘

ra t Se r ofir a w r pa ycpdia ). It is worthnoticing that this re lation obtained in the scheme o f the

musicians who did no t arrange the keys accordingto the diatonic scale

,but in some way suggested by

the form o f the flute (o i mobs Tin! 763V a bhé’

wrptfmya'w

BAé-zrour es). It may therefore b e supposed to havebeen established before the re lative pitch o f other keyshad been se ttled .

SO far the passage o f Plutarch goes to confirm the

V iew o f the Platonic modes according to which theywere distinguished chiefly

,if not wholly

,by difference

o f pitch . We come now,however, to a statement

which apparently tends in the opposite direction,viz.

that a certain Lampro cles o f Athens noticed that inthe Mixo-lydian mode the Disjunctive Tonewas at the upper end o f the scale (bu t 76 andreformed the scale accordingly. This must refer toan octave scale o f the form b c d efg a b , consisting o fthe two tetrachords b—e and e— a

,and the tone a —b .

Such an octave may or may not b e in the Mixo-lydiankey: it is certainly o f the Mixo-lydian species (p .

In estimating the value o f this piece o f evidence it isnecessary to remark

,in the first place

,that the authority

is no longer that o f Aristo x enus, but o f a certain Lysis,o f whom nothing e lse seems to b e known . That hewas later than Aristo x enus is made probable by hisway o f describing the Mixo- lydian octave

,viz . by

reference to the notes in the Perfect System by whichit is exemplified (Hypate Hypaton to Paramese). In

Aristo x enus, as we shall see (p . the primitiveoctave (from Hypate to Note) is the only scale the

notes o f which are mentioned by name . But even If

the notice is comparative ly early, it is worth observing

‘

APMONIA AND rows .25

that the Mixo-lydian scale thus ascribed to Lam

pro cles consists o f two te trachords o f the normal type ,viz. with the semitone or mut t/61 ! at the lower end o f

the scale (Diatonic efg a , Enharmonic e e*f a ). The

difference is that they are conjunct,whereas in the

primitive standard octave (e— e) the te trachords are

disjunct (e- a b- e). This, however, is a variety wh ichis provided fo r by the tetrachord Synemmenon in thePerfect System,

and which may have been allowedin the less complete sca les o f earlier times . In anycase the existence o f a scale o f this particular formdoes not prove that the octaves o f other species wererecognised in the same way.

(2) In another passage (c . 6) Plutarch says o f the

ancient music o f the cithara that it was characterisedby perfect simplicity. It was no t allowed, he te lls us,to change the mode (uer a cpépew r ag app o via s) or therhythm : fo r in the primitive lyrical compositionscalled ‘Nomes ’

(vbp oc) they preserved in each itsproper pitch (Thu o ix el

’

a v r a’

aw). Here the word “

raid-ts

indicates tha t . by app om’

a uPlutarch (or the older authorfrom whom he was quoting)meant particular keys . Thisis fully confirmed by the use o f r ouos in a passage alittle further on (c . where Plutarch gives an accounto f an innovation in this matter made by Sacadas o f

Argos (fl . 590 B.

‘There be ing three keys (rouo c) inthe time o f Po lymnastus and Sacadas, viz . the Dorian,Phrygian and Lydian

,it is said that Sacadas composed

a strophe in each o f these keys, and taught the chorus

to sing them,the first in the Dorian

,the second in the

Phrygian,and the third in the Lydian key : and this

composition was called the three-part Nome ”

( V é/1 09

r pcp epfis) on account o f the change o f key.

’

In West

phal’

s Ha rmonik undMelopb’

ie (ed. 1 863, p . 76, cp . p . 62)


he explains this notice Of the ancient modes (dpp om’

a i,

Tona rten), observing that the word 761 1 09 is there usedimproperly fo r what the technical writers call eidos

r od that 1 ra a c3v .

(3) In a somewhat similar passage o f the same work(c . 1 9) Plutarch is contending that the fewness o f thenotes in the scales used by the early musicians did notarise from ignorance

,but was characteristic o f the ir

art, and necessary to its peculiar ethos . Among otherpoints he notices that the te trachord Hypaton was no tused in Dorian music (e

’

u To is Awpc’

ocs), and this, he says,was not because they did no t know o f that tetrachord—fo r they used it in other keys (r évo c)— but they left itout in the Dorian key fo r the sake o f preserving itsethos

,the beauty o f which they valued (as. 81) ‘

n‘wr oi}

ij'

dovs ¢vh a x ijv dgbfipovv r ofi Acopt'

ov rot/av , r tpfbvr es ra

x aAbv a c me). Here again Westphal (Ar istox enusp . 476) has to take r bvo s to mean dpp o via or ‘mode(in his language Tona rt, no t Transpositionssca la ). Fo r

in the view o f those who distinguish app o via from r bvos

it is the dpyow’

a upon which the e thos o f music depends . Plutarch himse lf had just been saying ( in c . 1 7)that Plato preferred the Dorian app o via on account o fits grave and e levated character (e

’

1 re2vrv a ep vév

e’

a-rw e

’

u rfi Amped-Ti, r a firnu upobr t

'

pqa ev). On the otherhand the usual sense o f f ér as is supported by the conside ration that the want o f the tetrachord Hypatonwould affect the pitch o f the scale rather than the succession o f its intervals .It seems to follow from a comparison o f these threepassages that Plutarch was not aware o f any differenceo f meaning between the words r bvos and app ow

'

a, or

any distinction in the scales o f Greek music such as

has been supposed to b e conveyed by these words.

'

APMONIA AND rouo z .27

Another synonym o f r évos which becomes verycommon in the later writers on music is the wordTp61 ros

1. In the course o f the passage o f Plutarch

already referred to (DeMus. c . 17) it is applied to theDorian mode , which Plutarch has just called app ovi

’

a .

As rpbvros is always used in the later writers o f the

keys (Ton/o i) o f Aristo x enus, this may b e added to the

places in which aipp ovia has the same meaning.

1 3. Modes employed on difc rent Instruments.

In the anonymous treatise on music published byBellermann 2

(c . we find the following statementregarding the use o f o the modes or keys in the scales o fdifferent instruments

‘The Phrygian mode (dpp ow’

a ) has the first placeon m ud-instruments : witness the first discoverersMarsyas

,Hyagnis, Olympus— who were Phrygians .

Players on the water-organ (capa ax a t) use only sixmodes (Tp61 r0t), viz. Hyper-lydian, Hyper-ionian, Lydian

,Phrygian

,Hypo-lydian

,Hypo-phrygian . Players

on the cithara tune the ir instrument to these four,v iz . Hyper-ionian

,Lydian

,Hypo-lydian

,Ionian . Flute

players employ seven , viz . Hyper-aeolian,Hyper-ionian ,

Hypo-lydian, Lydian, Phrygian, Ionian, Hypo-phrygian .

Musicians who concern themse lves with orchestic(choral music) use seven, viz. Hyper -dorian , Lydian,

Aristides Quintilianus uses 1 p61 ros a s the regular wo rd fo r key : e .g.

in p . 1 36 iv f f, rdm f pbmw, ofis m l vor aus ix aAéo auev, iwéo ec. So Alypius

(p . 2 Meib .) bi eAei’

v eis r obs Ae‘yop évovs 7p61 rovs r e ml r bvovs, owns new-euo i

bex a r bv dpwpbv. Also Bacchius in his ca techism (p. 1 2Mo ih .) o i r obs 7pei’

s

rpbr ovs {ibowes r im s q'

bo vm ; Abbcov , ti‘

yiov , Aé pwv. o i 53 r obs 61n d r im s ;

MifoAIibtor , Audiov, tbpti‘yiov, Adaptor ,‘

Tnokdoi ov,‘

Tnobéipcov , r o ti'

rwv

v oids tam e bfv'

r epos ; 6 MifoMibco s, em it. And Gaudentius (p . 2 1,l. 2) a

’

Zm a r ov rpdr ovflr bvov. Cp. Dio nys. Hal . De Comp . V erb. c. 1 9 .

3 Anonymi smpfio dcMusic-a (Berlin . 1 8 4 1 )


Phrygian,Dorian

,Hypo-lydian

,Hypo-phrygian

,Hypo

dorian .

In this passage it is evident thatwe have to do withkeys o f the scheme attributed to Aristo x enus, includingthe two (Hyper-aeolian and Hyper-lydian) which weresaid to have been added after his time . The numberOf scales mentioned is sufficient to prove that the re

ference is not to the seven species o f the octave . Yet

the word asp/t one. is used o f these keys, and with it,seemingly as an equivalent

,the word Tp61 ros.

Pollux (Onom. iv. 78) gives a somewhat differentaccount o f the modes used on the flute : Ka i app o via

[rev a bhnr i x v) Acopwr i, <l>pvywr i, Audi os Ka i’

Ia wue1j, Ka i

0'

15V TOV OS‘ Avdwr i the"Avdtmro s egefipe. But this statement,

as has been already pointed out (p . is a piece o f

antiquarian learning, and therefore takes no notice o f the

more recent keys, as Hyper-aeolian and Hyper-ionian,or even Hypo-phrygian (unless that is the Ionian o f

Pollux). The absence o f Dorian from the list givenby the Anonymus is curious : but it seems that at thattime it was equally unknown to the cithara and thewater-organ . There is therefore no reason to thinkthat the two lists are framed with reference to differentthings. That is to say

,dpp o vla in Pollux has the same

meaning as dp/t om'

a in the Anonymus, and is equivalentto rovo s.

1 4. Recapitula tion— dpp ovia and r bvo s.

The inquiry has now reached a stage at which wemay stop to consider what result has been reached

,

especially in regard to the question whether the twowords a

‘

zpp om’

a and rovos denote two sets o f musicalforms, or are merely two different names fo r the same

'

APMo 1m AND TONOI .29

thing. The latter alternative appears to b e supportedby several considerations .

1 . From various passages, especially in Plato andAristotle , it has been shown that the modes ancientlycalled dp/ww

'

a t differed in pitch, and that this differencein pitchwas regarded as the chief source o f the peculiare thical character o f the modes .2. The list o f dpp ow

’

a t as gathered from the writerswho treat o f them

,viz . Plato, Aristotle , and Heraclides

Ponticus,is substantially the same as the list o f TbV Ot

described by Aristo x enus (p . and moreover, thereis an agreement in detail between the two lists whichcannot b e pure ly accidental . Thus Heraclides saysthat certain people had found out a new dpp o vla , the

Hypo-phrygian ; and Aristo x enus speaks o f the Hypophrygian Tbvo s as a comparative ly newone . Again

,the

account which Aristo x enus gives o f the Hypo-dorianrows as a key immediate ly be low the Dorian agreeswith what Heraclides says o f the Hypo-dorian apuo via ,and also with the mention o f Hypo-dorian and Hypophrygian (but not Hypo-lydian) in the Aristote lianP roblems. Once more

,the absence o f Ionian from the

list o f 75m in Aristo x enus is an exception which provesthe rule : since the name o f the Ionian dpjuom

’

a issimilarly absent from Aristotle .

3. The usage o f the words app om’

a and rovas is neversuch as to suggest that they refer to different things.In the earlier writers, down to and including Aristotle ,dpp ovia is used, never rem . In Aristo x enus and hisschool we find may, and in later writers rp61 ros, butnot bpp ouia . The fewwriters (such as Plutarch) whouse both r évo s and dpp ovia do not observe any consistentdistinction between them . Those who (like Westphal)be lieve that there was a distinction . are obliged to


admit that app ovia is occasionally used fo r TO'

V Os andconverse ly .

4. If a series o f names such as Dorian,Phrygian

,

Lydian and the rest were applied to two sets o f thingsso distinct from each other

,and at the same time so

important in the practice Of music, as what we now callmodes and keys, it is incredible that there should b eno trace o f the double usage . Yet our authors show nosense even Of possible ambiguity. Indeed, they seemto prefer, in referring to modes o r keys

,to use the

adverbial forms dwpw'

r i, ¢pvywr i

,&c .

, o r the neuterTa depu , 7a ppbyi a , &c.

,where there is nothing to show

whether ‘mode or ‘key,’

app ovia o r r bvos,is intended.

1 5. The Systems of Greek Music.

The arguments in favour Of identifying the primitivenational Modes (dp/t ovia t) with the r évo c or keys mayb e re inforced by some considerations drawn from the

history and use o f another ancient term,name ly

a do rn/t a .

A System (a do rn/t a ) is defined by the Greek technicalwriters as a group or complex o f intervals (76 ex r h eto

vco v ij e'

vbs di a o rn/zd‘

rwv o'

v'

yx et'

juevov PS. That isto say, any three or more notes whose rela tive pitchis fixed may b e regarded as forming a particularSystem. If the notes are such as might b e used inthe same me lody, they are said to form a musica lSystem (o ven-ma c; As a matter o f abstra cttheory it is evident that there are very many combinations o f intervals which in this sense form a musicalSystem. In fact

,however

, the variety Of systems recognised in the theory o f Greek music was strictly limited.

The notion o f a small number o f scales, o f a par



major tone . The lower Of the tetrachords consists o fthe notes from Hypate to Mese, the higher o f thosefrom Paramese to Nete : the interval between Meseand Paramese be ing the so -called D isjunctive Tone

(roves dragon-mos). Within each tetrachord the in

terva ls depend upon the Genus (yévo s). Thus the fournotes just mentioned— Hypate, Mese, Paramese, Nete— are the same fo r every genus, and accordingly are

called the ‘ standing ’ or ‘ immoveable ’ notes (wan e.

éo r éS-res, ex it/mo i), while the others vary with the genus,and a re therefore ‘moveable (pepbp evoc).In the ordinary Diatonic genus the intervals o f thetetrachords are, in the ascending order, semitone ! tone! tone : i.e. Parhypate is a semitone above Hypate, andLichanos a tone above Parhypate. In the Enharmonicgenus the intervals a re two successive quarter-tones(dim

-ts) followed by a ditone or major Third : conse

quently Parhypate is only a quarter o f a tone aboveHypate

,and Lichanos again a quarter o f a tone above

Parhypate. The group o f three notes separated in thisway by small intervals (viz. two successive quartertones) is called a mun/by. If we use an asterisk to

denote that a note is raised a quarter o f a tone,these

two scales may b e represented in modern notation as

follows :Enha rmonic.

9 Note

0 Paraneteb * Triteb P aramese

a Mo sef Lichanose* Parhypatee Hyp a te

THE SYSTEMS. 33

In the Chromatic genus and its varieties the divisionis o f an intermediate kind . The interval be tweenLichanos and Mese is more than o ne tone , but lessthan two : and the two other intervals, as in the enhar

monic,are equal .

The most characteristic feature o f this scale, incontrast to those o f the modern Major and Minor,is the place o f the small intervals (semitone or wo r t/61 1 ),which a re always the lowest intervals o f a tetrachord.

It is hardly necessary to quote passages from Aristotleand Aristo x enus to show that this is the succession o f

intervals assumed by them. The question is askedin the Aristote lian P roblems (xix . why Parhypate isdifficult to sing, while Hypate is easy, although there isonly a diesis between them (Ka t

’

rm dieo ts

Again (P robl. xix. speaking o f the old heptachordscale , the write r says that the Paramese was left out,and consequently the Mese became the lowest noteo f the upper mucvbv

,i. e. the group Of

‘ close ’ notesconsisting o f Mese, Trite, and Paranete. SimilarlyAristo x enus (Ha rm. p . 23) observes that the ‘ space ’

o f the Lichanos, i.e. the limit within which it varies inthe different genera, is a tone ; while the space o f the

Parhypate is only a diesis, fo r it is never nearer Hypatethan a diesis or further Off than a semitone .

17. Ea rlier Hepta cho rd Sca les.

Regarding the earlier seven-stringed scales whichpreceded this octave our information is scanty andsomewhat obscure . The chief notice on the subjectis the following passage Of the Aristote lian P roblemsP robl. x ix . 476th r i o i dpxa

'

io c euraxd Ovs wocofivr es res

&puovia s r ijv hudmv &AA’

mi rip: mjmv xa re’

Amov : i) ob rijv

D


151 1d (leg. uri'mu), M b rhu v6» napauéo-nv x ao uémjv

d¢z§povv Ka i r b r ovta'

t’

ov btdo ‘

nma ; Expé’

m‘

ro bb rfio dry

r o ii e’

7rb rb dfb m xvofi' bib Ka i p éonv adrbv upo o-

nydpeva a v‘

[ii]81 1 . viv ro fi “Ev d rerpaxdpbov r ehevnj, 706 b} sci-no dpxrj, Ita l

ut‘o ov eixe Adyov rdm réiv dxpwv ;

‘Why did the ancient seven-stringed scales includeHypa te but no t Nete? Or should we say tha t the no teomitted was no t Nete, but the present Pa ramese and the

interva l o f a tone (i. e . the disjunctive tone) ? The Mesé ,then

,was the lowest note o f the upper m xvdv : whence the

name p e’

on, because it was the end o f the upper tetrachordand beginning o f the lower one , and was in p itch the

middle between the ex tremes.

’

This clearly implies two conjunct tetrachords

e f g a afi c d

In another place (P robl. x ix . 32) the question is askedwhy the interval o f the octave is called but 1 ra a'

c3V,not be

— as the Fourth is but r ea c oipaw, the Fifth deb. uév‘

re.

The answer suggested is that there were anciently sevenstrings

,and that Terpander left out the Trite and added

the Netc. That is to say,Terpander increased the com

pass o f the scale from the ancient two tetrachords toa full Octave ; but he did not increase the number o fstrings to e ight. Thus he produced a scale like the

standard octave,but with o ne note wanting ; so that

the term 88 was inappropriate .

Among later writers who confirm this account wemay notice Nicomachus, p . 7Meib . p éo n bib

‘rea

'

a a'

pa w

1 rpbs dugbér epa e’

v r ji én r a x épb’

go Ka ra Tb u a h a cbv dceo r c'

ba a

and p . 20 r fj r o ivvv oipx a torpbmp Afipa, r ovr e’

a'

r t rfi e'

m '

a

xopdcp, Ka ra o vvagbijv e’

x 8150 r erpa xbpdwv o v veo'raia y

It appears then that two kinds o f seven-stringed

THE PERFECT SYSTEM .

scales were known, at least by tradition : v iz . ( 1 ) a scalecomposed Of two conjunct tetrachords, and therefore

i

o f a compass less than an octave by one tone ; and(2) a scale o f the compass o f an octave , but wanting ;a note , viz. the note above Mese. The existence Of

this incomple te scale is interesting as a testimony to '

l

the force o f the tradition which limited the number Ofstrings to seven .

The P erfect System.

The term ‘ Perfect System (o do rnp a r éheto v) isapplied by the technical writers to a scale which isevidently formed by successive additions to the heptachord and octachord scales explained in the precedingchapter. It may b e described as a combination o f twoscales, called the Greater and Lesser Perfect System.

The Greater Perfect System (ado-Two r éAetov p ei§ ou)consists Of two octaves formed from the primitiveoctachord System by adding a tetrachord at each end

o f the scale . The new notes are named like those o f

the adjoining tetrachord o f the original octave , but withthe name o f the tetrachord added by way o f distinction .

Thus be low the original Hypatewe have a new tetrachord Hypaton (r erpdx opb

’

ov the notes o f whicha re accordingly called Hypate Hypaton, ParhypateHypaton

,and Lichanos HypatOn : and similarly above

Netewe have a tetrachord Hyperb o la ion. Finally theoctave downwards from Mese is completed by the addition o f a note appropriately called Proslambanomenos .The Lesser Perfect System (a do rn/1 a r éAeto v e

'

Aa o o o v)is apparently based upon the ancient heptachord whichconsisted o f two ‘ conjunct ’ tetrachords meeting in the

Mese. This scale was extended downwards in the

D 2


same way as the Greater System,and thus became

a scale o f three tetrachords and a tone .

These two Systems together constitute the Perfectand ‘

unmodula ting’

System (mfcrrnua r éAecov dp erd

Bv v), which may b e represented in modern notation 1as follows

a Nete Hyperb o laion

g Paranete Hyperb o laiOnf Trite Hyperb o laiOne Nete Diezeugmenond Paranete Diezeugmenon2Tetrachordo Trite Diezeugmenon Diezeugmenonb Paramese

d Nete Synemmenonc Paranete Synemmenonb !) Trite Synemmenon

MeseLichanos Meson TetrachordParhypate MesOn MesonHypate MesonLichanos Hypaton

c Parhypate Hypatonb Hypate Hypatona Proslambanomenos

Te trachordHyperb o la iOn

TetrachordSynemmenon

Q

O

W

Q

Q

No account o f the Perfect System is given byAristo x enus

,and there is no trace in his writings o f

an extension o f the standard scale beyond the limitso f the original octave . In one place indeed (Ha rm.

p . 8,1 2 Meib .) Aristo x enus promises to treat o f Sys

tems,

‘and among them o f the perfect System ( “trepi r e

ray dAAcou r a t r od r eAeiov ). Butwe cannot assume that1 The co rrespo ndence b etween ancient andmodern musical no ta tionwas

first de te rmined in a sa tisfacto ry way by Bellermann (Die Tonla'

k rn a nd

Muszkno ten der Grier/zen) , and Fo rtlage (Dasmusica lische System der Gn'

edms) .

THE PERFECT SYSTEM. 37

the phrase here had the technical sense which it borein later writers . More probably it meant simply the

octave scale , in contrast to the tetrachord and pentachord— a sense in which it is used by AristidesQuintilianus, p . 1 1 Meib . o v vnpjuévo v be e

’

xAfidq r b axou

ova-Tryua b'

r t Tc?) upo x etp e'

vcp r eAeicp r e?) p e’

xpt jue'

a ng (rm/61 r

Ta t,

‘the whole scale was called conjunct because it

is conjoined to the complete scale that reaches up toMese ’

(i. e. the octave extending from Pro slamb ano

menos to Me

'

se). So p . 1 6 rea l 3. p bv a br é‘

we’

o r i r ék a a ,

a d’

06, dr ehfijubv r erpcix opdov , n evr oix opdo vn e’

k etou db (ir r ef

XOpdov. This 1 8 a use o f r e’

Aeto s which is like ly enoughto have come from Aristo x enus. The word was doubtless applied in each period to the most complete scalewhich musical theory had then recognised .

Little is known o f the steps by which this enlargement o f the Greek scale was brought about. We shallnot b e wrong in conjecturing that it was connectedwith the advance made from time to time in the formand compass o f musical instruments ‘. Along with thelyre , which kept its primitive simplicity as the instrument o f education and everyday use , the Greeks hadthe cithara an enlarged and improved lyre ,which

,to judge from the representations on ancient

monuments, was generally seen in the hands o f professional players (Ktea pcpdo i). The deve lopment o f thecithara showed itse lf in the increase , o f which we havegood evidence even before the time o f Plato , in the

number o f the strings . The poet Io n, the contemporaryo f Sophocles , was the author o f an epigram o n a certain

This o bserva tio n was made by ancient writers , e.g. by Adrastus ( Peripa te tic ph ilo so pher o f the seco nd cent. imq p e

'

mjs 52r ijs p ovomfis r a t

r oAvxbpbwv m2trumped-77m: ye

‘

yo vbrwv 61 :1 d 763 r po akwofivm It a l burl r b

Ba pb ml burl r b bfb r o i’

swpoDwdpx ovawbx r cb (Man o rsN ous r k eiova s, 5pm r ank .

(Theo n Smyrn. c.

38 THE MODES OF ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC .

ten-stringed lyre , which seems to have had a scaleclose ly approaching that o f the Lesser Perfect System ‘

.

A little later we hear o f the comic poet Pherecratesattacking the musician Timotheus fo r various innovations tending to the loss o f primitive simplicity, inparticular the use o f twe lve strings 3. According to

a tradition mentioned by Pausanias, the Spartans co ndemned Timotheus because in

‘

his cithara he had addedfour strings to the ancient seven . The offending instrument was hung up in the Scias (the place o f mee tingo f the Spartan assembly), and apparently was seenthere by Pausanias himse lf (Paus. iii. 1 2,A similar or still more rapid deve lopment took placein the flute (a bAbs). The flute-player Pronomus o f

Thebes,who was said to have been o ne o f the instruc

tors o f Alcibiades, invented a flute on which it waspossible to play in all the modes. ‘Up to his time ,

’

says Pausanias (ix . 1 2,

‘flute-players had threeforms o f flute : with one they played Dorian music ;a different set o f flutes served fo r the Phrygian mo de

and the so -called Lydian was played on

another kind again . Pro nomus was the first whodevised flutes fitted fo r every sort o f mode

,and played

me lodies different in mode on the same flute .

’

The

1 The epigram is quo ted in the pseudo-Euclidean Introductio , p . 1 9

6 Be(SC/ law) iv benax bpoqoAzipq. ( i. e. in a po em on the subject o f the ten-stringed

r'bv berad ova rdfw Ix ovaa

rds o vlupcwoua a s dpp ovia s rpcbbo vs°

wplv p int o’br rdr ovo v W owbid. r ic o'

apa min-es

”w aves, am via v Mo o r detpdp evoc.

The triple ways o fmusic tha t are in co nco rd must be th e three conjunctte tra cho rds tha t can b e fo rmed with ten no tes (6 c d c f g a b ‘

) c J ) .This is the sca le o f the Lesser Perfect System b efo re th e additio n o f the

Pro slambanomeno s .

Pherecra tes x eipam fr. I (quo ted by Plut. dc Mus. c. It is needless

to re fer to the o ther traditio ns o n the subject, such aswe find in Nicoma chus

(Ha rm . p . 35) and Bo e th ius.


40 THE MODES o r ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC .

The notes Of the Perfect System, with the intervalso f the scale wh ich they formed, are fully set out in thetwo treatises that pass under the name o f the geome terEuclid

,viz. the Introductio Ha rmonica and the Sectio

Canonis. Unfortunate ly the authorship o f both theseworks is do ub tful l . All that we can say is that if thePerfect System was e labora ted in the brief intervalbetween the time o f Aristotle and that o f Euclid, thematerials fo r it must have already existed in musicalpractice .

1 9. Rela tion of System and Key.

Let us now consider the relation between this fixedor standard scale and the varieties denoted by the

terms dpp om’

a and wires.

With regard to the ni

ce: or Keys o f Aristo x enusweare not left in doubt. A system,

as we have seen , isa series o f notes whose rela tive pitch is fixed . The

key in which the System is taken fixes the absolutepitch o f the series . As Aristo x enus expresses it, theSystems are me lodies set at the pitch o f the differentkeys (r obs r c

’

wovs, ego’

div r ide'

ueva r o‘

z a vo rfip a r a p ehep

def—r a t). If then we speak Of Hypate or Mese (just as1 The Introduction to Ha rmonics (ela a ‘

yam) dpp owmh) which b ea rs the

name o fEuclid inmo dern editio ns (b eginningwith J . Pena , Paris, 1 557) canno tbe his wo rk . In some MSS. it is ascrib ed to Cleo nides, in o thers to Pappus,

wh o was pro b ab ly o f the fourth century A. D. The auth o r is one o f the

app an nai o r Aristo x eneans, who ado p t the me thod o f equal temperament.He may perhaps be assigned to a compara tively ea rly period o n the ground

tha t he recognises o nly the thirteen keys a scrib ed to Aristo x enus— no t

the fifteen keys given by mo st la ter writers (Aristides Quint. , p . 22

Fo r some curious evidence co nnecting it with the name o f the o therwise unknown write r Cleo nides, see K. von J an, Die Ha rmonik dos A ris

tox enianers Kleonides (Landsb erg, The Sech'

on of the Canon (m dros

na r a r om’

y) b elo ngs to the ma thema tical o r Pythago rean scho o l, dividing the

tetra cho rd into two majo r to nes and a Minna which is somewha t les s thana semito ne. In po int o f fo rm it is decidedly Euclidean : but we do no t findit referred to by any writer be fo re the third century A . o .

— the ea rliest

testimo ny being tha t o f Po rphyry (pp . 272-276 inWa llis’editio n) .

SYSTEM AND KEY. 41

when we speak o f a moveable Do), we mean as manydifferent notes as there are keys : but the DorianHypate or the Lydian Mese has an ascertained pitch .

The Keys o f Aristo x enus, in short, are so many transpositions o f the scale called the Perfect System.

Such be ing the re lation o f the standard System tothe key, can we suppose any different re lation to havesubsisted between the standard System and the ancientmodes ’ known to Plato and Aristotle under the nameo f a

'

puovia t

It appears from the language used by Plato in the

Republic that Greek musical instruments differed verymuch in the variety o f modes or dpp o via t o f which theywere susceptible . After Socrates has determined, inthe passage quoted above (p . that he will admitonly two modes

,the Dorian and Phrygian

,he goes

on to observe that the music o f his state will not needa multitude o f strings, or an instrument o f all the modes(n a ua pybmo vfl. ‘There will b e no custom therefore fo rcraftsmen who make triangles and harps and otherinstruments o f many notes and many modes . Howthen about makers o f the flute (a bAbs) and players onthe flute ? Has not the flute the greatest number o fnotes

,and a re not the scales which admit all the modes

simply imitations o f the flute ? There remain then1 Pla to , Rep . p . 399 : OI

’

m dpa , iv 8’

£76

1,uok vx opdia s ye obdl tra va pyoviovfluiv deflate; lv r a i

‘

s qida i’

s r e x al uéAemv. Oil p o i , 3m, ¢a iver a ¢. Tpvyéwwv d'

pa

m lmxr idwv Ital ndvrwv bp‘

yd v 66 a r okdx opda na l wok va ppbvca dqmovp'yobs of:0p£¢oyev . Oi» ¢a ¢v6ue0a . Ti bi ; a bAorrocobsfla bknrds uapa défet ec’s rbv wdk cv ;r) 06 r oiir o noh vx o ; dbr a r ov , m l a I

’

rrd rd na vapubvia a bh or? r v'yxdvei o'

vr a uiq a ;

Aijha 66, fi 6’b'

s. My: 06 004, iv 8’

376 , Ita l la ddpa Aeirrer a z, Ital x ard wbh v

xpijmpa‘

tea l a ?) m r’ d'

ypobs r ois voueiio i o bpt'

yf dv r es eff) .

The a bltbswas no t ex actly aflute . It had a mo uthpiece which ga ve it thecha racter ra ther o f the mo dern o b o e o r Cla rine t : see the Dictiona ry ofAntiquities, s . v . TIBIA. The r avappbmo v is no t o therwise known , and the

passage in Pla to do es no t ena b le us to decide whether it was a rea l

instrument o r o nly a scale o r a rrangement o f no tes.


the lyre and the cithara fo r use in our city ; and fo rshepherds in the country a syrinx (pan

’s The

lyre , it is plain, did not admit o f changes o f mode .

The seven or e ight strings were tuned to furnish thescale o f one mode , not o f more . What then is the

re lation be tween the mode or a'puo via o f a lyre and thestandard scale or 01 5071 )t which (aswe have seen)wasbased upon the lyre and its primitive gamutIf a

'

p/mvia means ‘ key,’ there is no difficulty. The

scale o f a lyre was usually the standard octave fromHypate to Netc : and that octave might b e in any o nekey. But if a mode is somehow characterised by a

particular succession o f intervals, what be comes o f thestandard octave N0 o ne succession o f intervals canthen b e singled out. It may b e said that the standardoctave is in fact the scale o f a particular mode

,which

had come to b e regarded a s the type , viz . the Dorian .

But there is no trace o f any such prominence o f the

Dorianmode as this would necessitate . The philosopherswho recognise its e levation and He llenic purity are veryfar from implying that it had the chief place in popularregard . Indeed the contrary was evidently the case 1 .

20. Tana lity of the Greek musica l sca le.

It may b e said here that the value o f a series o f notesas the basis o f a distinct mode— in the modern sense o f

the word— depends essentially upon the tona lity. A

single scale might yie ld music o f different modes if thekey

-note were different . It is necessary therefore tocollect the scanty notices which we possess bearingupon the tonality o f Greek music . The chief evidence

1 The passage quo ted ab ove from the Knights o f Aristophanes (p . 7)is suffi cient to show tha t a ma rked p reference fo r the Do rian mo de wouldb e a ma tter fo r jest.

TONALITY— THE MEIH. 43

on the subject is a passage o f the P roblems, the importance o f which was first pointed out by He lmholtz 1 . It

is as follows

Arist. P robl. x ix . 20: Aid r i Edv ufu r is rijv p e'

onv n inja-

p

ijii éiv, dpp o'

o a s rbs dAAa s xopbc'

is, ita l xpfira i rq’

i dpydv ip, of: ji o'

vov

dra v ca rd rbv rfis p ious ye’mjra i (pdo

'

yyov Ava-e? x a l (pa ivera i

i’

wdpii o o rov, dAAb ita l ca rd rijv da p elt ipbia v, édv be rijv

Aixa vbv if r iva dMov dddyyo v, r o'

re (pa ivera i b ia tpe'

peiv pdvov

dra v xdx eivp r is xpfira i ; i) et’

iltdyws r otir o ovpfia ivei ; udvra

ybp rb xpno-rb ji e

'

An woldtdx is rfi p e'

ap xpfira i , ita l wdvres o i

dyado l r a inr a l rivxvd upds rijv p e'

imv dwavréio i , xdv (171 6.0i

r oxb &ua ve‘

pxo vra i , npbs bl dhAnv o iir ios obbe‘ii ia v. x adduep 3K

r éiv Adywv éviwv bfa ipede'

vrwv O'

vvbe‘o ji iov obit é'

o rw 6 Adyo st

I‘llkla jviiecis, olo v rb r e’ita l rb Ka i, 3mm. 6? obdbv Avno iio i, b id rb

r o'

is p bv dvayx a'

i’

ov elua t xpijo da i r o x is, ei fo rm. Ao’

yo s, r ois be

mi, 051 1 0 Ka i rdm(pddyywv i) uéon (ba rrep mivbeo iio'

s io r i , ita l pd

Aio-ra rdu Ka héiv,b id76whewrcix is e

’

vvmipxeiv rbv (pdo’

yyo v a irn'

js.

‘Why is it tha t if the Mesé is altered, a fter the o therstrings have been tuned, the instrument is felt to b e o ut

o f tune , no t o nly when the Mesé is so unded, b ut through

the who le o f the music,— wherea s if the Lichano s o r any

o ther no te is o ut o f tune , it seems to b e p erceived o nly

when tha t no te is struck ? Is it to b e ex p la ined o n the

gro und tha t a ll go o d melodies o ften use the Mese, and a ll

go od comp o sers reso rt to it frequently, and if they leave itso o n return aga in, b ut do no t make the same use o f any

o ther no te ? just as language canno t b e Greek if certa inco njunctio ns a re omitted, such as re and Ka i, while o thersmay b e dispensed with, because the o ne Class is necessa ry

fo r language, but no t the other : so with musica l soundsthe Mesé is a kind o f ‘

co njunctio n,

’especia lly o f beautiful

sounds, since it is mo st o ften hea rd among these .

’

1 Die Lchre von den Tonempfindungvn, p . 367, ed. 1 863.


In another place (xix. 36) the question is answered bysaying that the notes o f a scale stand in a certain re lation to the Mese

,which determines them with reference

to it (i) r oigis 1 ) éx oia'

rns fidq di’

éx ei'

mjv) : so that the losso f the Mese means the loss o f the ground and unifyinge lement o f the scale (aipde

’

vr os r oo a ir iov r o i} fipp bo-Oa i m i

7017a vve'x o vr os)1

These passages imply that in the sca le known toAristotle

,viz . the octave e e

,the Mese a had the

character o f a Tonic or key-note . This must havebeen true a jb rtio ri o f the Older seven-stringed scale ,in which the Mese united.the two conjunct tetrachords .It was quite in accordance with this state o f thingsthat the later enlargement comple ted the octaves fromMese downwards and upwards, so that the scaleconsisted o f two octaves o f the form a a . As to thequestion how the Tonic character o f the Mese wasshown

,in what parts o f the me lody it was necessarily

heard,and the like

,we can but guess . The statement

o f the P roblems is not repeated by any technical writer,and accordingly it does not appear that any rules onthe subject had been arrived at. It is significant,perhaps

,that the frequent use o f the Mese is spoken

o f as characteristic o f good me lody (fla'l/Ta rd q o'

rd

p a nwoAAaix is rfi ue’

o y xp iir a i), as though tonality werea merit rather than a necessity.

Another passage o f the P roblems has been thought toshow that in Greek music the me lody ended on the

Hypate. The words are these (P robl. xix. 33)

Aid r i ebapp oor drepo v c’

mb roi) dféo s 871 2rb Bapb ii dub r o fi

1 So in the Euclidean Sectio Canonis the pro po sitio ns which dealwith th e‘mo vab le

’no tes

,viz . Pa ranete and Lichano s (Theo r. x vii) and Parhypa te

and Trite (Theo r. x viii) , begin by po stula ting the Mese ( Z o r a: 7d}: p ie") 6B n r . k ) .

TONALITY— THE ME2H. 45

fiape'

o s brti rb mir epov 51 1 . rb d'n'b rfis dpxfis yivera i dpx e

trea t ; 1) ydp p e'

mj ital

ijyeiidv dfyr iirn rofi rerpaxdpdow rb db

of» : tin"dpxijs (LUV dub reAev‘

njs.

‘Why is a descending sca le mo re musica l than an

ascending one ? . Is it tha t in th is o rder we begin withthe b eginning,

- since the Mesé o r leading no te 1 is the

highest o f the te tracho rd,— b ut with the reverse o rder

we b egin with the end ?’

There is here no explicit sta tement that the me lodyended on the Hypate, or even that it began with theMese. In what sense , then,was the Mese a beginning

’

(dpxfi), and the Hypate an ‘end

’

? In Aristote lianlanguage the word dpxfi has various senses . It mightb e used to express the re lation o f the Mese to the othernotes as the basis or ground-work o f the scale . Otherpassages, however, point to a simpler explanation , viz .

that the order in question was mere ly conventional . In

P robl. xix . 44 it is said that the Mese is the beginning( aipxfi) o f o ne o f the two tetrachords which form the

ordinary octave scale (viz . the tetrachord Meson) ; andagain in P robl. xix . 47that in the old heptachord whichconsisted o f two conjunct tetrachords (e a d) the

Mese (a ) was the end o f the upper te trachord and thebeginning o f the lower o ne (dr i fiv r ot) [i bv diva) Terpa

xopdov r eh evr rj, r ov‘

db x iir a) dpxfi). In this last passageit is evident that there is no reference to the beginningor end o f the me lody.

1 The term h eady o r“ leading no te ’

o f the tetracho rd Meson, hereapplied to the Mese, is found in the same sense in Pluta rch, DeMus . c . 1 1 ,

where 6 r epl r ov rh eiibva x eip evos r bvos means the disjunctive to ne .

Simila rly Pto lemy (Ha rm . i. 1 6) speaks o f the to nes in a dia to nic scale

as b e ing bv r ois fiyovuévocs rdrms, the semito nes bv r o is br oyivms (so . o f the

tetracho rd) and aga in o f the ra tio 5 :4 (the majo r Third) as the lea dingo ne o f an Enha rmo nic tetra cho rd (rov br ir ér apr ov 8s ba r ir h obp evos r o ii

bva pp ovi'

ov ye'

vovs) .

46 THE MODES o r ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC.

Another instance o f the use o f dpxfi in connexion withthe musical scale is to b e found in the Metaphysics

(iv. 1 1 , p . 1 01 8 b where Aristotle is speaking o f the

different senses in which things may b e prior and

posteriorTd bb x a rd rdfiv

'

ra iira b’

bo rlv dim rts r i bi: dpio ji e‘vov

biéo rrjx e x a rd rbv Adyov, oiov rrapa o rdms rpirocrrdrov npdrepov ,

ita l napamjm mirns' bvda ubu ydp d Kopvcpa

'

ios, b'

vda db 1) fi be r)

Other things [a re prio r and po sterio r] in order : v iz .

tho se which a re a t a va rying interval from some o ne

definite thing ; as the seco nd man in the rank is prio r to

the third man, and the Pa ranete to the Nete : fo r in the

o ne case the coryphaeus is the sta rting-po int, in the o ther

the Mesé .

’

Here the Mese is again the aipx rj or b eglnmng, butthe order is the ascending o ne

,and consequently the

Netc is the end. The passage co nfirms what we havelearned o f the relative importance o f the Mese : but itcertainly negatives any inference regarding the note on

which the melody ended.

It appears, then, that the Mese o f the Greek standardSystem had the functions o f a key-note in that System .

In other words, the music was in the mode (usingthat term in the modern sense ) represented by the

octave a — a o f the natural key— the Hypo-dorian o r

Common Species. We do not indeed know how the

predominant Character o f the Mese was shownwhether, fo r example , the me lody ended on the Mese.

The supposed evidence fo r an ending on the Hypatehas been Shown to b e insufficient. But we may a t

least hold that as far as the Mese was a key-note, so

far the Greek scale was that o f the modern Minor



cession is called the Phrygian species, and so on fo rthe Lydian , Mixo-lydian , Hypo-dorian, Hypo-phrygian,and Hypo-lydian . It seems natural to conclude thatthe species or successions o f intervals so named werecharacteristic in some way o f the modes which bore thesame names, consequently that the modes were not keys,but modes in the modern sense o f the term.

In order to estimate the value o f this argument, it isnecessary to ask, 1 ) how far back we can date the use

o f these names fo r the species o f the Octave , and (2) inwhat degree the species o f the Octave can b e shown tohave entered into the practice o f music at any period.

The answer to these questions must b e gathered froma careful examination o f all that Aristo x enus and otherearly writers say o f the different musical scales inreference to the order o f the ir intervals.

22. The Sca les a s trea ted by A ristox enus.

The subject o f the musical scales (o-vor ri/i a r a ) istreated by Aristo x enus as a general problem,

withoutreference to the scales in actual use . He complainsthat his predecessors dealt only with the octave sca le ,and only with the Enharmonic genus, and did notaddress themse lves to the real question o f the me lodioussequence o f intervals . Accordingly, instead o f beginningwith a particular scale , such as the octave , he supposesa scale o f indefinite compass, —just as a mathematicianpostulates lines and surfaces o f unlimited magnitude .

His problem virtually is, given any interval knownto the particular genus supposed, to determine whatintervals can follow it on a musical scale , e ither ascending or descending. In the Diatonic genus, fo r example ,a semitone must b e followed by two tones, so as to

THE SPECIES— ARISTOX ENUS. 49

make up the interval o f a Fourth . In the Enharmonicgenus the dieses or quarter-tones can only occur twotogether, and every such pair o f dieses ( 1 rv x v6v) mustb e followed in the ascending order by a ditone , in thedescending order by a ditone or a tone . By these andsimilar rules , which he deduces mathematically fromo ne or two general principles o f me lody, Aristo x enus ineffect determines all the possible scales o f each genus

,

without restriction o f compass or pitch 1 . But wheneverhe refers fo r the purpose o f illustration to a scale inactual use

,it is always the standard octave already

described (from Hypate to Nete), or a part o f it. Thusnothing can b e clearer than the distinction which hemakes between the theoretically infinite scale , subjectonly to certain principles or laws determining the

succession o f intervals,and the e ight notes, o f fixed

re lative pitch, which constituted the gamut o f practicalmusic .The passages in which Aristo x enus dwe lls upon theadvance which he has made upon the methods o f hispredecessors are o f considerable importance fo r the

whole question o f the species o f the Octave . Therea re three or four places which it will b e worth while toquote .

I . Aristo x enus,Ha rm. p . 2, I5Meib . : rd ydp b ia ypdmi a r a

abr o'

is réiv bvapii oviiov (dpp oviéiv MSS.) bx x eira i advo v o vern

pidr iov, b ia r o'

viov b’

ij xpwua r ix é‘

wobbels 71 061 1 00’

boi

pa x ev’

Ka im i

rd biaypdpp a r ii y’

abr éiv bbvjh ov r iju nda o u rfis p eAipbia s rdfiv,bv ols uepl O

'

vo rniidrwv dx raxo'

pbwv bvappwviwv (dppioviéivMSS.)udvov bheyov, nepi db réiv dAv yevéiv re Ka i o xmidrwv bv

a im?) re rq'

i ye’vei rodr ip Ka i. ro

'

is Aomo’

is obb’birex eipei Ot

’

ibels

Ka r ap a vddveiv .

1 Th e inv estiga tio n o ccupies a co nsiderab le Spa ce in his Ha rmonics , viz .

pp . 27- 29 Mo ih . ( from the wo rds r epl dl owex eia s Ita l r ob bffis) , and aga in

pp . 58-72 Meib .


‘The diagrams o f the ea rlier writers set fo rth Systemsin the Enha rmo nic genus o nly,

never in the Dia tonic o r

Chroma tic : and yet these diagrams p ro fessed to give thewho le scheme o f their music , and in them they trea ted o f

Enha rmonic o ctave Systems o nly ; o f o ther genera and

o ther fo rms o f this o r any genus no one a ttempted to

discover anything.

’

2. Ib id. p . 6, 20Meib . : ré

’

wb’

d v x addlxov pbv x addrrep

bur po o dev el’

rrouev obbels rim-a i , bubs bb o

-vo

-rvjiia ro s

’

Epar o x ltfis

birexei’

pno e a’

bv ye’vo s bfapidufio a i rd o xrjp a ra r ob b id rra o

'éiv

drrobeix r ix éis rz'

j rrepupopd r éiv bia o rmidrwv beixmis’

oi: Ka ra

).iadbwb’

r i , ji b upo o a rrobeixde'

vrwv (qu. r éiv r e r ob b id

ne'

vre o xnudr iov ita l r éiv r ob b id r eo o dpwv upds bb r owi

rOis ita l

rfis o-vvdéo eio s abréiv r i

'

s wo r’

bur l x ad’

ijv bup ek éis o vvr i'

devra i,

woMauAdo ia ré’

wba rd o q a iveiv yiyveo da i beixvvr a i .

‘The o ther Systems no o ne has dea lt with by a genera lmetho d : but Era to cles has a ttempted in the case o f one

System , in o ne genus, to enumera te the fo rms o r species o fthe Octave , and to determine them ma thema tica lly by theperiodic recurrence o f the interva ls : no t perceiving tha tunless we ha ve first demo nstra ted the fo rms o f the Fiftha nd the Fo urth , and the manner o f their melodious com

b ina tio n, the fo rms o f the Octave will come to b e manymo re than seven.

’

The periodic recurrence o f intervals here spoken o fmay be illustrated on the key-board o f a piano. If wetake successive octaves o f white notes, a a

,b b

, and

so on, we obtain each time a different order o f intervals(i. e. the semitones occur in different places), until wereach a a again , when the series begins afresh . In

this way it is shown that only seven species o f the

Octave can b e found on any particular s cale . Aristo x enus shows how to prove this from first principles,

THE SPECIES— DIAGRAMS. 5I

v iz . by analysing the Octave as the combination o f

a Fifth with a Fourth .

3. Ibid. p . 36 , 29Meib . : rd’

m bb o vomjidrwv rds b ia cpopds

o i ubu bhws oinc bnex eipovv bfapidp e'

iv, M d uepl abréiv uo’

vov

r é’

iv bm '

ax o'

pbwv d bd o vv dpuovia s r ijv buio x edt iv buowiivr o , o i

bb brrixeiprjo a vres obbe'

va rpo'

rrov bfqpiduoiivro .

For érrr a xépdco v Meib omius and other editors reade’

rrrd bx r a xbpdwv— a correction strongly suggested by

the paralle l words o v o rnp a’

rwv bx r a xbpdo v in the firstpassage quoted.

Some did no t a ttemp t to enumera te the differences o f

the Systems, b ut confined their viewto the seven o ctacho rdSystems which they ca lled dpptovia i ; o thers who did makethe a ttempt did no t succeed.

’

It appears from these passages that before the timeo fAristo x enus musicians had framed diagrams or tablesshowing the division o f the octave scale according tothe Enharmonic genus : and that a certain Erato cleso f whom nothing e lse is known— had recognised sevenforms or species o f the octachord scale , and had shownhow the order o f the intervals in the several Speciespasses through a sort o f cycle . Finally

, if the correctionproposed in the third passage is right

,the seven species

o f the Octave were somehow Shown in the diagramso f which the first passage speaks . In what respectErato cles failed in his treatment o f the seven speciescan hardly b e conjectured .

Elsewhere the diagrams a re described byAristo x enussomewhat differently, as though they exhibited a divisioninto Enharmonic dieses or quarter-tones, without reference to the me lodious character o f the scale . Thus wefind him saying


4. Ha rm. p . 28Meib . : (nrnre‘ov bb rb o vvexbs ofix é s 01

dpji o vix o i. bv ra'

is réiv b iaypapuiir iov x a ra rrvxvaio eo iv drrob ibdva i

rreipéivr a i, r ovrovs dr o cba ivo vres r é’

w (pdo'

yyiov bffis dltlajlt iov

ice'

i’

o da i ois O'

vpfiéfinx e rb blxdx i o r ov bido rmi a b ie‘xeiv dep

’

abr éiv .

oi; ydp r b p ip biiva o da i bie‘ireis dxrdi ita l eix o o iv bffis p ehobel

’

o da i

‘n

'

js (piovijs bo r iv , dAAd r ijv rpirnv bieow rrdvra na iobo a obx old

1"bur l wpo o r ide

’

va i .

We must seek co ntinuity o f succession, no t as theo retica lmusicians do in fillingup their diagramswith small interva ls,making tho se no tes successiv e which are separa ted fromeach o ther by the lea st interva l. Fo r it is no t merely tha tthe vo ice canno t sing twenty-eigh t successive dieses : witha ll its effo rts it canno t sing a third diesis 1 .’

This representation o f the musical diagrams is borne1 This po int is o ne which Aristo x enus is fo nd o f insistingup on : cp . p . 1 0,

1 6 ob upds r 1)v x a r amiw o iv Bh ir ovr a s dio r ep o i dpuovueoi p . 38 , 3 br i bi bor iv

v) r a r amiw a is bxuehbs ita l rdvr a r pdirov d

'

q a r os ¢a vep6v p. 53, 3 Ica rd rbvr ob p ék ovs cptio iv (qr qr éo v r b bfijs ita l obx dis o i eis rhv x a r am

i

lcvwa iv Bk it ovr es

eidia iv dv o bibdva i r b bffis.

The sta tement tha t the ancient diagrams ga ve a series o f twenty-e ightsuccessive dieses o r qua rte r-to nes has no t b een e x pla ined. Th e number o f

quarter-to nes in an o ctav e is o nly twenty-four . Po ssib ly it is a mere erro r

o f transcriptio n (It—

7) fo r If no t, we may perhaps co nnect it with the

seven interva ls o f the o rdina ry o ctave scale,and the simple me thod by

which the enha rmo nic intervals were ex pressed in the instrumental no ta tion.

It has b een e x pla ined tha t ra ising a no te a qua rter o f a to ne was shown byturning it thro ugh a quarter o f a Circle . Thus , o ur c being deno ted by E,c“ wa s It] , and c# was 3 . Now the a ncient diagrams , which divided everyto ne into fo ur pa rts , must have had a chara cte r fo r of”, o r the no teth ree -qua rters o f a tone ab o v e c. Na tura lly this would b e the remaining

p o sitio n o f E,name ly rrl. Aga in , we have seen tha t when the interval

between two no tes o n the dia to nic sca le is o nly a semito ne , the resulto f the no ta tio n is to pro duce a certain numb er o f duplica tes , so to Speak.

Thus :Ksta nds fo r b, and therefo re fo r c : but c is a no te o f the o riginal

sca le,and as such is written ( 1 . It may b e tha t the diagrams to which

Aristo x enus refers made use o f these duplica tes : tha t is to say, they mayhave made use o f all fo ur po sitions o f a Cha racter (such as KS4 R )whe the r the interv al to b e filledwas a to ne o r a semito ne . If so , the seven

inte rva lswo uld give twenty-e igh t cha ra cters (b esides the upper o ctave-no te ),and appa rently therefo re twenty-e igh t dieses . Some traces o f th is use o f

cha racters in four po sitio ns have b een no ticed by Bellermann (Tonleitcm ,

p .

THE SPECIES— DIAGRAMS. 53

out by the passage in the Republic in which Platoderides the experimental study o f musicRep. p . 53 1 a rds ydp dx ovopie

'

va s a b o viicpwvia s Ka i (pdo'

yyovs

dldujltms dvauerpo iivres dmjvvra , i’

o'o

'

rrep o i do rpovo’

um, wovobo iv .

Ni) r obs bdn, ita l yelto iws ye, rrvxvibua r’

br ro dvoiidgovr es

ita l napafidlxlt ovres rd (b ra , oio v bx yeiro'

vwv (paivijv Onpevo'

ptevm,

o i p e‘v (pa o iv br i x a r a x o zieiv bv p e

'o ip r ivd rjxijv Ka i. o p ixpdra rov

elud i r o iir o b ido rnua , if) uerpnre‘ov, o i bb malt .

Here Socrates is insisting that the theory o f musicshould b e studied as a branch o f mathematics

,not by

observation o f the sounds and concords actually heard,about which musicians spend toil in vain .

‘Yes,

’ saysGlaucon

,

‘ they talk o f the close-fitting o f intervals,and

put the ir ears down to listen fo r the smallest possibleinterval

,which is then to b e the measure .

’

The smallestinterval was o f course the Enharmonic diesis o r quartero f a tone

,and this accordingly was the measure or unit

into which the scale was divided . A group o f notesseparated by a diesis was called ‘ close ’

(rrvv v,or

a wbw ji a ), and the filling up o f the scale in that waywas therefore a x a r amix vmo is r o t} dia ypa

’

up a r o s— a filling

up with ‘ close-set’ notes, by the division o f every tone

into four equal parts .An example o f a diagram o f this kind has perhapssurvived in a comparative ly late writer, viz . AristidesQuintilianus, who gives a scale o f two octaves , o ne

divided into twenty-four dieses, the next into twelvesemitones (DeMus. p . 1 5 The characters usedare not otherwise known, be ing quite different from the

ordinary notation : but the nature o f the diagram is

plain from the accompanying words a b’

r q éo-r lv 1 ) 7ra pd

r o is dpx a i’

Ois x a rd die'

o eis dp/i o via , boos Kd di éo eiov r b 1 rp6

r epo v didyova a did 7ra 0'65v , r b defir epo v did r i

'

bv hp i r o v i'

aw

a bf ijo a a a : this is the dpp ovi’

a (division o f the scale)

THE MODES OF ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC .

according to dieses in use among the ancients, carriedin the case o f the first octave as far as twenty-fourdieses

,and dividing the second into semitones 1

The phrase 1 ) mini

bi e’

creis used fo r the division o f an octave scale into quarter-tones

,serves to

explain the statement o f Aristo x enus (in the third o f

the passages above quoted) that the writers who treatedo f octave Systems called them ‘ harmonies ’

(b‘

i éx cik ovv

a‘

ipp ovia s). That statement has usually been taken torefer to the ancient Modes called a

‘

ipii ovi'

a i by Plato andAristotle , and has been used accordingly as proof thatthe scales o f these Modes were based upon the differentspecies (ei

’

dq) o f the Octave . But the form o f the reference which thqy ca lled dpji ovia i

— implies some fo rgotten o r at least unfamiliar use o f the word by theOlder technical writers . It is very much more probab le that the dpp ovia i in question are divisions o f theoctave scale , as shown in theoretical diagrams, and hadno necessary connexion with the Modes . Apparentlysome at least o f these diagrams were not musical scales,but ta bles o f all the notes in the compass o f an octave ;and the Enharmonic diesis was used, not mere ly onaccount o f the importance o f that genus, but because itwas the smallest interval, and therefore the natural unito f measurement z .

The use o f dpp ovia as an equivalent fo r ‘System or

1 The fullest account o f this curio us fragment o f no ta tion is tha t givenby Bellermann in his admirab le b o o k , Die Tonleitern a nd Musikno ten defGn

’

echen, pp . 6 1 -65. His co njectures as to its o rigin do no t cla im a high

degree o f pro bab ility. See the remarks on pp . 97-99.

1 Cp . Pla to,Rep . p . 53 1 ital a p i xpdr a r ov eiua i r oiiro bidompa , 47perprjr bm'.

It may even b e tha t this sense o f appo via was connected with!

the use

fo r the Enha rmonic genus. It is a t least wo rth no tice tha t th e phrase

d inflow dpiiovias in this passage answers to the adjective bvapiioviiw in the

passage first quo ted (compa re the wo rds r epl a br é’

iv pbvov rdmbin-d bm xbpbwv

d bxdh ovv dpuovia swith r epl womudraiv bx raxdpbwv bvapp oviam



music are the same as the r bvo i or Keys discussed byAristo x enus himse lf. The result seems to b e that wehave found nothing to set against the positive arguments fo r the identification already urged . It may

.

b e

thought,perhaps, that the variety o f senses ascribed to

the word a‘

ip/i ovi’

a goes beyond what is probable . In

itse lf however the word meant simply ‘musical scale 1

The Pythagorean use o f it in the sense o f ‘ octavescale

,

’ and the very similar use in reference to diagramswhich represented the division o f that scale

,were anti

qua ted in the time o f Aristo x enus. The sense o f‘ key

’ was doubtless limited in the first instance to theuse in conjunction with the names Dorian

,&c .,which

suggested a distinction o f pitch . From the meaning‘Dorian scale to ‘Dorian key

’

is an easy step . Finally,

in reference to genus dp/i ovia meant the Enharmonicscale . It is not surprising that a word with so manymeanings did not keep its place in technical language

,

but was replaced by unambiguous words,viz . r bvos in

o ne sense , a do rn/i d in another, ‘

yévos bva pjubmov ina third . Natura lly, too, the more precise terms wouldb e first employed by technical writers.

§ 23. The Seven Species.

(See the Appendix , Tab le I.)

In the Ha rmonics o f Aristo x enus an account o f theseven species o f the Octave followed the elaboratetheory o f Systems already referred to (p . anddoubtless exhibited the application o f that general theoryto the particular cases o f the Fourth

,Fifth

,and Octave .

Unfortunately the existing manuscripts have only1 So in Pla to , Leg. p . 665 a : rip 81) r ijs mvfio ews rdfei pvoiibs 670” bit) , rfi8

’

ad r ijs cpwvijs, r ob r e bfios duo ita l Bapéos m a epavvvp e’

vwv, dpiiovia 6 mmapo o a

'

yopeiimr o .

THE SPECIES. 57

preserved the first few lines o f this chapter o f the

Aristo x enean work (p .74, 1 1 . 1 0—24The next source from which we learn anything o f

this part o f the subject is the pseudo-Euclidean Introductio Ha rmonica . The writer enumerates the specieso f the Fourth

,the Fifth

,and the Octave

,first in the

Enharmonic and then in the Diatonic genus . He

shows that if we take Fourths on a Diatonic scale ,beginning with Hypate Hypaton (our b), we get successively b c d e (a scale with the intervals 1 1

c d e f ( 1 1 1 ) and d e f g ( 1 1 Similarly on theEnharmonic scale we get

Hypate Hypaton to Hypate Meson b b* c e ( 1 71

; 2)Parhypate Parhypate b* c e e* (2

1

,2

Lichanos Lichanos c e e*f (2 1

In the case o f the Octave the species is distinguishedon the Enharmonic scale by the place o f the tone whichseparates the tetrachords

,the so -called Disjunctive Tone

(r bvos dia fwx r ix bs). Thus in the octave from HypateHypaton to Paramese (b 6) this tone (a b) is thehighest interval ; in the next octave , from ParhypateHypaton to Trite Diezeugmenon (c c), it is the secondhighest ; and so on . These octaves, or species o f theOctave, the writer goes on to te ll us, were ancientlyca lled by the same names as the seven oldest Keys, asfollows :

Mixo-lydianLydianPhrygianDorianHypo-lydianHypo -phrygianHypo -dorian


On the Diatonic scale , according to the same writer,the species o f an Octave is distinguished by the placeso f the two semitones. Thus in the first species

,b b ,

the semitones are the first and fourth intervals (b c

and e f ) : in the second, c’

c, they are the third andthe seventh, and so on . He does no t however say,

as he does in the case o f the Enharmonic scale , thatthese species were known by the names o f the Keys .

This statement is first made by Gaudentius (p . 20

a writer o f unknown date . If we adopt it provisionally,

the species o f the Diatonic octave will b e as follows

[Mixo-lydian] b b 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

[Lydian] c c 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

[Phrygian] d d 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

[Dorian] e e 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

[Hypo-lydian] f f 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

[Hypo-phrygian] g g 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

[Hypo-dorian] a a 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

24. Rela tion of the Species to the Keys.

Looking at the octaves which on our key-board, ason the Greek scale , exhibit the several Species, wecannot but b e struck with the peculiar re lation in whichthey stand to the Keys . In the tables given above thekeys stand in the order o f the ir pitch, from the Mix olydian down to the Hypo-dorian : the species o f thesame names follow the reverse order, from b 6 up

wards to a a . This,it is obvious, cannot b e an

accidental coincidence . The two uses o f this famousseries o f names cannot have originated independently.

E ither the naming o f the species was founded on thato f the keys

,or the converse re lation obtained between

them. Which o f these two uses,then

,was the original

THE SPECIES. 59

andwhich the derived o ne Those who hold that theSpecies were the basis o f the ancient Modes or aipp o iz i

’

a i

must regard the keys as derivative . Now Aristo x enustells us

,in o ne o f the passages just quoted

,that the

seven species had long been recognised by theorists.If the scheme o f keys was founded upon the sevenspecies

,it would at once have been complete , both in

the number o f the keys and in the determination o f theintervals between them. But Aristo x enus also te lls usthat down to h is time there were only six keys, —o ne

o f them not yet generally recognised,— and that the irrelative pitch was not settled . Evidently then the

keys, which were scales in practical use , were stillincomplete when the species o f the Octave had beenworked out in the theory o fmusic .If on the other hand we regard the names Dorian,

&c. as originally applied to keys, we have only tosuppose that these names were extended to the speciesafter the number o f seven keys had been completed.

This supposition is borne out by the fact that Aristox enus

,who mentions the seven species as well known,

does not give them names,or connect them with the

keys . This step was apparently taken by somefollower Of Aristo x enus

,who wished to connect the

species o f the older theorists with the system o f keyswhich Aristo x enus had perfected .

The view now taken o f the seven species is supportedby the whole treatment o f musical sca les (o vor fip a r a ) aswe find it in Aristo x enus. That treatment from firstto last is pure ly abstract and theoretical. The ruleswhich Aristo x enus lays down serve to determine the

sequence o f interva ls, but are not confined to scales o f

any particula r compass. His Systems, accordingly, areno t scales in practical use : they are parts taken any


where on an ideal unlimited scale . And the sevenspecies o f the Octave are regarded by Aristo x enus as

a scheme o f the same abstract order. They representthe earlier teaching on which he had improved. He

condemned that teaching fo r its want o f generality,because it was confined to the compass o f the Octaveand to the Enharmonic genus, and also because itrested on no principles that would necessarily limitthe species o f the Octave to seven . On the other handthe diagrams o f the earlier musicians were unscientific ,in the opinion o f Aristo x enus, o n the ground that theydivided the scale into a succession o f quarter-tones.

Such a division,he urged

,is impossible in pra ctice and

musically wrong All this goes to Show thatthe earlier treatment o f Systems , including the sevenSpecies, had the same theoretical character as his ownexposition . The only System which he recogmses

fo r practical purposes is the o ld standard octave ,from Hypate to Nete : and that System, with the

enlargements which turned it into the Perfect System,

kept its ground with all writers o f the Aristo x enean

school .Even in the accounts o f the pseudo-Euclid and thelater writers, who treat o f the Species o f the Octaveunder the names o f the Keys

,there is much to Show

that the species existed chiefly or wholly in musicaltheory. The seven species o f the Octave are givenalong with the three species o f the Fourth and the

four species 'o f the Fifth,ne ither o f which appear to

have had any practical application . Another indicatio no f this may b e seen in the seventh or Hypo-dorianspecies, which was a lso called Locrian and Common(ps. Eucl. p . 1 6 Why should this species have

(more than o ne name ? In the Perfect System it is

THE SPECIES. 6 I

singular in be ing exemplified by two different octaves,

viz . that from Proslambanomenos to Mese,and that

from Mese to Nete Hyperb o la ion. Now we have seenthat the higher the octave which represents a species,the lower the key o f the same name . In this case

,

then,the upper o f the two octaves answers to the

Hypo-dorian key, and the lower to the Locrian . But ifthe species has its two names from these two keys

,

it follows that the names o f the species a re derivedfrom the keys . The fact that the Hypo-dorian orLocrian species was also called Common is a furtherargument to the same purpose . It was doubtlesscommon ’ in the sense that it characterised the twooctaves which made up the Perfect System. Thus thePerfect Systemwas recognised as the really importantScale .

Another consideration, which has been overlookedby Westphal and those who follow him,

is the difference between the species o f the Octave in the severalgenera

,especially the difference be tween the Diatonic

and the Enharmonic . This is not fe lt as a difficultywith all the species . Thus the so -called Dorian octavee e is in the Enharmonic genus e e*f a b b*c e, a scalewhich may b e regarded as the Diatonic with g and domitted, and the semitones divided . But the Phrygiand d cannot pass in any such way into the EnharmonicPhrygian c e e

*f a b b*c, which answers rather to theDiatonic scale o f the species c c (the Lydian). The

scholars who connect the ancient Modes with the

species generally confine themse lves to octaves o f theDiatonic genus. In this they are supported by laterGreek writers— notably, as we shall see , by Ptolemyand by the analogy o f the mediaeval Modes or Tones .But on the other side we have the repeated complaints


o f Aristo x enus that the earlier theorists confined themse lves to Enharmonic octave scales . We have also thecircumstance that the writer o r compiler o f the pseudoEuclidean treatise , who is our earliest authority fo rthe names o f the species

,gives these names fo r the

Enharmonic genus only. Here , once more , we fee lthe difference between theory and practice . Toa theorist there is no great difficulty in the termsDiatonic Phrygian and Enharmonic Phrygian meaningessentially different things . But the ‘ Phrygian Modein practical music must have been a tolerably definitemusical form.

§ 25. The Ethos of Music.

From Plato and Aristotle we have learned somee lements o f what may b e called the gamut o f sensib ility. Between the higher keys which in Greece , as inOriental countries generally

,were the familiar vehicle o f

passion,especially o f the passion o f grief, and the lowe r

keys which were regarded, by Plato at least, as thenatural language o f ease and license

,there were keys

expressive o f calm and balanced states o f mind, freefrom the violent extremes o f pain and pleasure . In

some la ter writers on music we find this classificationreduced to a more regular form

,and clothed in technical

language . We find also,what is still more to o ur

purpose , an attempt to define more precise ly the musicalforms which answered to the several states o f temper oremotion .

Among the writers in question the most instructiveis Aristides Quintilianus. He discusses the subject o fmusical ethos under the first o f the usual seven heads

,



middle (p ic-n), that bywhichwe bring round the soul

calmness .’

This passage does no t quite explicitly connect thethree kinds o f ethos— the diastaltic

,the systaltic, the

intermediate— with the three regions o f the voice ;but the connexion was evidently implied

,and is laid

down in express terms in the pseudo-Euclidean Introductio (p . 21 According to this Aristo x eneanwriter

,

‘the diastaltic ethos o f musical composition is

that which expresses grandeur and manly e levation o f

soul (p eya h orrpe'

rreia Ka i dia p/i a drvx ijs iivdpa'

ides), andheroic actions and these are employed by tragedy andall poetry that approaches the tragic type . The systa lticethos is that by which the soul is brought down intoa humble and unmanly frame ; and such a disposition willb e fitting fo r amatory effusions and dirges and lamentations and the like . And the hesychastic or tranquilly disposed ethos (fia vx a o r ix bv ij00s) o f musical composition isthat which is followed by calmness o f soul and a liberaland peaceful disposition and this temper will fit hymns

,

paeans,laudations

,didactic poetry and the like .

’

It

appears then that difference in the place (r 61 ros) o f thenotes employed in a composition— difference , that is tosay

,o f pitch— was the e lement which chiefly determined

its ethos , and (by consequence) which distinguishedthe music appropriate to the several kinds o f lyrica lpoe try .

A Slightly different version o f this piece o f theory ispreserved in the anonymous treatise edited by Be llermann 63, where the ‘ regions o f the voice ’

are

said to b e four in number,viz . the three already men

tioned, and a fourth which takes its name from the

tetrachord Hyperb o laiOn (r brros im-epBv eidfis). In the

same passage the boundaries o f the several regions

ETHOS. 65

are laid down by reference to the keys . ‘The lowestor hypa to id region reaches from the Hypo-dorianHypate Meson to the Dorian Mese the intermediateor meso id region from the Phrygian Hypate MesOnto the Lydian Mese the neto id region from the

Lydian Mese to the Nete Synemmenon ; the hyperb o lo id region embracing all above the last point.’

The text o f this passage is uncertain ; but the generalcharacter o f the r 61 r0i or regions o f the voice is clearlyenough indicated .

The three regions are mentioned in the catechism o f

Bacchius (p . 1 1 r 61 rovs (MSS. rpbrrovs) dé rfis

don/57’

s 1 r60'

ovs Aéyoiiev elud i ; rpeis. r i'

va s ; r ofir ovs' 666V ,

p e’

o-ov, pa per . The varieties o f ethos also appear (p . 1 4

1 ) db p er afloh i) Ka rd ijdos ; dr a v bx r a rreivov ei’

s

jue‘

ya h on'

perrés' ii 65 ho dx ov Ka i o dvvov ei

’

s n a pa x ex ivq x bs.

‘What is change o f ethos when a change is made fromthe humble to the magnificent ; or from the tranquiland sober to violent emotion .

’

When we compare the doctrine o f musical ethos aswe find it in these later writers with the indicationsto b e gathered from Plato and Aristotle , the chiefdifference appears to b e that we no longer hear o f

the ethos o f particular modes, but only o f that Of three or(at the most) four portions o f the scale . The principleo f the division, it is evident

,is simply difference o f

pitch . But if that was the basis o f the ethical effecto f music in later times, the circumstance goes far toconfirm us in the conclusion that it was the pitch o f

the music, rather than any difference in the successiono f the intervals

,that principally determined the ethical

character o f the Older modes.


26 . The Ethos of the Genera and Species.

Although the pitch o f a musical composition— as

these passages confirm us in be lieving— was the chiefground o f its ethical character, it cannot b e said that noother e lement entered into the case .

In the passage quoted above from Aristides Quintilianus (p . 1 3Meib .) it is said that ethos depends firston pitch (b

’

r epa lid?) r ois bgvr épOis, b’

r epa r o is

and secondly on the moveable notes, that is to say, o nthe genus. Fo r that is evidently involved in the wordsthat follow : tea l b

’

r epa [i bv n a pvn a r oeideo iv , b’

r epa db

Aix a vo eide'

a iv . By n a pvrra r o eideis and Aix a vo eideis he

means all the moveable notes (cpdb‘

y'

i pepbp evo i) : thefirst are those which hold the place o f Parhypate inthe ir tetrachord

,viz . the notes called Parhypate or

Trite the second are similarly the notes called Lichanosor Paranete. These moveable notes

,then

,give an e thos

to the music because they determine the genus o f thescale . Regarding the particular ethos be longing to thedifferent genera

,there is a statement o f the same author

(p . 1 1 1 ) to the effect that the Diatonic is masculine andaustere (dppevmrrbv d

’

ba '

r l Ka i a bo rnpbr epov), the Chromatic sweet and plaintive ( ijdia r bv r e x a l yo epbv), theEnharmonic stirring and pleasing (di eyepr ix bv d

’

éo-r i

r oor a x a l fim ou). The criticism doubtless came fromsome earlier source .

Do we ever find ethos attributed to this o r that specieso f the Octave ? I can find no passage in which thissource o f e thos is indicated . Even Ptolemy

,who is the

chief authority (as we shall see) fo r the value o f the

species , and who makes least o f mere difference o f

THE NOTATION. 67

pitch, recognises only two forms o f modulation in thecourse o f a me lody, viz . change o f genus and change o f

pitch 1 .

§ 27. The Musica l Nota tion.

As the preceding argument turns very much uponthe practical importance o f the scale which we havebeen discussing, first as the single octave from the

original Hypate to Netc, then in its enlarged form as

the Perfect System, it may b e worth while to Showthat some such scale is implied in the history o f the

Greek musical notation.

The use o f written characters (inmate ) to representthe sounds o f music appears to date from a com

paratively early period in Greece . In the time o f

Aristo x enus the art o f writing down a me lody (n a pao-

np a vr imj) had come to b e considered by some personsidentical with the science o f music —an errorwhich Aristo x enus is at some pains to refute . It istrue that the authorities from whom we derive ourknowledge o f the Greek notation a re post-classical .But the characters themse lves, as we shall presentlysee

,furnish sufficient evidence o f the ir antiquity.

The Greek musical notation is curiously complicated .

1 Pto l. H a rm . u. 6 . After drawing a distinctio n b e tween difference o f k ey

as a ffe cting the who le o f a melody o r piece o f music and a s a means o f

change in the course o f it- the distinctio n, in sho rt , b etween transpo sitio na nd modula tio n pro pe r— he says o f the la tter : a brnbl damp lnm

’

r r eiv a brfiv

(SC. rhv a'

i’

o q mv) irate? r ob o vviyOovs ita l wpo a boxwuévov p ék ovs, b’

r a v birl irk éov

p bv a vvei'

prrra i r b d d o vGov, uer aBaiv‘

y dé 1m 1 1 p b’

r epov elbos, firm na rd r b

ye'

vos 1) h a rd?r r)v rdo iv . Tha t is to say, the sense o f change is p roducedby a change o f genus o r o f p itch. A change o f species is no t suggested. So

Dionys. Ha l De Comp . V erb . c . 1 9 at be’

7: biOvpa jiBo r owl Ita l r obs r pbiro vs

(keys) uer e’

BaAo , Awpucobs r e 1c v'

yi'

ovs ita l Audio vs bv r q'

b a t’

i rd} da ita‘

r i

r a iobvr es‘ it al

rds uexqabia s bt a r r ov , r o r b ubv bvapji ovio vs m no iivr es,


There is a double set o f characters, o ne fo r the noteassigned to the singer, the other fo r those o f the lyreor other instrument . The notes fo r the voice are

obviously derived from the letters o f the ordinary Ionicalphabet

,multiplied by the use o f accents and other

diacritical marks . The instrumental notes were firstexplained less than thirty years ago by Westphal. In

his work Ha rmonik und Melopo'

ie der Gr iechen (c . viiiD ie Semantik) he Showed, in a manner as conclusive as

it is ingenious, that they were originally taken from the

first fourteen letters o f an alphabet o f archaic type , akinto the alphabe ts found in certain parts o f Pe loponnesus .Among the letters which he traces, and which point tothis conclusion

, the most Significant are the digamma,the primitive crooked iota 1

1 , and two forms o f lambda,and I the latter o f which is peculiar to the alphabe t

o f Argos . Of the other characters V I, which stands fo ralpha

,is best derived from the archaic form X] . For

be ta we find E ,which may come from an archaic form

o f the le tter 1 . The character 1 1 , as Westphal shows,is

fo r 7,o r delta with part o f o ne side left out. Similarly

the ancient when the circle was incomplete , yie ldedthe character C. The crooked iota (H) appears as h .

The two forms o f lambda serve fo r different notes,thus

bringing the number o f symbols up to fifteen. Besidesthese there are two characters, a and 6 , which cannot

1 Since this was written I hav e learned from Mr . H . S. J o nes that th efo rm C fo r b eta o ccurs on an inscrip tio n da ted ab o ut 500 n c viz . CountTysz k iewicz

’

s b ro nze pla te , pub lished simultaneously by Ro b ert in the

Monumenti Antichi pubblica ti per cura della rea le A ccademia dei Linm'

, i.

pp . 593 ff. (with pla te) , a nd Frohner in the Revue A rche'

o logiquc, 1 89 1

J uly- August, pp . 5 1 If . Pl. x ix . Mr. J o nes p o ints o ut tha t this I: co nnec ts

the crescent b eta (C) o f Nax o s, De lo s, & c . with the common fo rm, and is

evidently therefo re an ea rly fo rm o f the letter.

I take this o ppo rtunity o f tha nk ing Mr. J o nes fo r o ther help , especia lly inrega rd to the subject o f this sectio n.

THE NOTATION.69

b e derived in the same way from any alphabet. As

they stand fo r the lowest notes o f the scale , they are

probably an addition , later than the rest o f the system.

At the upper end, again, the scale is extended by thesimple device o f using the same characters fo r notes anoctave higher

,distinguishing them in this use by an

accent . The original fifteen characters,with the letters

from which they are derived,and the corresponding

notes in the modern musical scale , are as follows

H H E F F P F C K TI < C N Z V I

n i e k 1 y p f d x d h z flv § a

a b c d e f g a b c d e f g a

These notes,it will b e seen , compose two octaves o f

the Diatonic scale,identical with the two octaves o f

the Greater Perfect System. They may b e regardedas answering to the white notes o f the modern keyboard,— those which form the complete scale in the

so -called natural ’ key.

The other notes,viz . those which are required no t

only in different keys o f the Diatonic scale , but also inall Enharmonic and Chromatic scales, are representedby the same characters modified in some Simple way.

Usua lly a character is turned half round backwards toraise it by o ne small interval (as from Hypate to Parhypate), and reversed to raise it by both (Hypa te toLichano s). Thus the letter epsilon, E ,

stands fo r ourc : and accordingly [I] (E dveo rpa /z /i évov or fi‘fl'TtOV )stands fo r c*

, and 3 (E dn eo r pa /i p évov) fo r cit. The

Enharmonic scale c — c *— c $t—f is therefore writtenE hi 3 I“ , the two modifications o f the letter E repre

senting the two ‘moveable notes o f the te trachord .

Similarly we have the triads h J : H,h i. 4, F

” QW C U 3 , < V >, C U Z I. As some letters


do not admit o f this kind o f differentiation, othermethods are employed . Thus A is made to yield theforms r] (fo r 7) A A : from H (or E) a re obtained theforms H and H : and from 2 (or I ) the forms A and A .

The modifications o f N are and those o f V I are

andThe method o f writing a Chromatic tetrachord is thesame

,except that the higher o f the two moveable notes

is marked by a bar o r accent. Thus the tetrachordc cfidf is written E mIn the Diatonic genus we should have expected that

the original characters would have been used fo r thetetrachords b c d e and efg a and that in other tetrachords the second note , be ing a semitone above the

first,would have been represented by a reversed letter

(ypoi/i /i a In fact,however

,the Diatonic

Parhypate and Trite are written with the same characteras the Enharmonic . That is to say, the tetrachordb o d e is no twritten h E H

”

,but h i t- r : and d e g

is no t F -IIV F

, but tLet us now consider howthis scheme o f symbols ISre lated to the Systems already described and the Keysin which those Systems may b e set (r 6vo i e

’

cp’

div r idé

,nevai r d o v a

-r rjli a r a ueh cpdeir a i).

The fifteen characters,it has been noticed, form two

diatonic octaves. It will appear o n a little furtherexamination that the scheme must have been co n

structed with a view to these two octaves. The

successive notes a re not expressed by the letters o f thealphabet in the ir usual order (as is done in the case o fthe vocal notes). The highest note is represented bythe first letter, A : and then the remaining fourteennotes are taken in pairs

,each with its octave : and each

o f the pairs o f notes is represented by two successive



M . Gevaert meets this difficulty by supposing that theoriginal scale was in the Dorian key, and that sub sequently, from some cause the nature o f whichwe cannotguess, a change o f pitch took place by which the Dorianscale became a semitone higher. It is perhaps simplerto conjecture that the original Dorian became split up,so to speak, into two keys by difference o f local usage ,and that the lower o f the two came to b e calledHypo-dorian

,but kept the original notation . A more

serious difficulty is raised by the high antiquity whichM . Gevaert assigns to the Perfect System. He sup

poses that the inventor o f the notation made use o f an

instrument (the magadzls)which magadised’ or repeated

the notes an octave higher. But this would give us

a repetition o f the primitive octave e — e, rather than an

enlargement by the addition o f tetrachords at both ends.

M . Gevaert regards the adaptation o f the scheme tothe other keys as the result o f a gradual process o fextension . Here we may distinguish between the

recourse to the modified characters— which servedessentially the same purpose as the sharps and flats ’

in the signature o f a modern key— and the additionalnotes obtained e ither by means o f new characters (aand or by the use o f accents The Hypodorian and Hypo-phrygian

,which employ the new

characters a and 6, are known to be comparative ly

recent . The Phrygian and Lydian,it is true

, employthe accented notes ; but they do so only in the highesttetrachord which may not have beenoriginally used in these high keys. The modifiedcharacters doubtless be long to an earlier period. Theyare needed fo r the three oldest keys— Dorian

,Phrygian,

Lydian— and also fo r the Enharmonic and Chromaticgenera. If they are not part o f the original scheme ,

THE NOTATION. 73

the musician who devised them may fairly b e countedas the second inventor o f the instrumental notation .

In setting out the scales o f the severa l keys it willb e unnecessary to give more than the standing notes(¢Oéyyo ¢ éo which are nearly all represented byoriginal or unmodified letters— the moveable notes be ingrepresented by the modified forms described above .

The following list includes the standing notes, viz.Proslambanomenos

,Hypate Hypaton

,Hypate Mesc‘ m,

Mese, Paramese, Nete Diezeugmenon and Nete Hyperb o laion in the seven oldest keys : the two lowest aremarked as doubtful

Mixo-lydianLydianPhrygianDorianHypo-lydian[Hypo -phrygian[Hypo-dorian

It will be evident that th is scheme o f notation talliesfairly we ll with what we know o f the compass o f Greekinstruments about the ' end o f the fifth century, and alsowith the account which Aristo x enus gives o f the keysin use up to his time . We need only refer to what hasbeen said above on p . I7and p . 37.It would b e beyond the scope o f this essay to discuss

the date o f the Greek musica l notation . A fewremarks,however, may be made , especially with reference to thehigh antiquity assigned to it by Westphal.The alphabet from which it was d e rived was certainly

eb- eD— d — d

6 — 0

55— 6 0

M= a — a

g-

g ]

f — f l


an archaic one . It conta ined several chara cters, inparticular F fo r digamma, H fo r iota, and l fo r lambda ,which be long to the period before the introduction o fthe Ionian alphabet. Indeed if we were to judge fromthese letters alone we should b e led to assign the

instrumental notation (as Westphal does) to the time o fSolon . The three-stroke iota (H), in particular, doesno t occur in any a lphabet later than the sixth centuryB.C. On the other hand,whenwe find that the notationimplies the use o f a musica l System in advance o f any

scale recognised in Aristotle , or even in Aristo x enus,such a date becomes incredible . We can only supposee ither (I) that the use o f in the fifth century wasconfined to localities o f which we have no comple teepigraphic record

,or (2) that L

, as a form o f iota wasstill known— as archaic forms must have been— fromthe older public inscriptions, and was adopted by theinventor o f the notation as be ing better suited to hispurpose than I.With regard to the place o f origin o f the notation

the chief fact which we have to deal with is the use

o f the character I fo r lambda, which is distinctive o f the

alphabet o f Argos, along with the commoner formWestphal indeed asserts that both these forms are

found in the Argive alphabet. But the inscription(C . I. I) which he quotes 1 fo r really contains only Iin a slightly different form . We cannot therefore say

that the inventor o f the notation derived it entire lyfrom the alphabet o f Argos

,but only that he shows an

acquaintance with that alphabet. This is confirmed bythe fact that the form fo r iota is no t found a t Argos.Probably therefore the inventor drew upon more than

Ha rmonik a ndMelopéie, p. 286 (ed. The true fo rm o f the le tter isgiven byMr. Ro berts

,Greek Eptgraphy, p . 1 09.

THE NOTATION. 75

o ne alphabet fo r his purpose , the Argive alphabetbeing one .

The special fitness o f the notation fo r the scales o fthe Enharmonic genus may b e regarded as a furtherindication o f its date . We shall see presently that thatgenus he ld a peculiar predominance in the earliestperiod o f musical theory— that

,name ly, which was

brought to an end by Aristo x enus.

If the author o f the notation— o r the second author,inventor o f the modified characters— was o ne o f the

musicians whose names have come down to us,it would

b e difficult to find a more probable o ne than that o fPronomus o fThebes . One o f the most striking featureso f the notation

,at the time when it was framed, must

have been the adjustment o f the keys . Even in the timeo f Aristo x enus, as we know from the passage so oftenquoted, that adjustment was not universal . But it isprecisely what Pronomus o f Thebes is said to havedone fo r the music o f the flute (supra , p . The

circumstance that the system was only used fo r instrumental music is at least in harmony with this conjecture .

If it is thought that Thebes is too far from Argos, wemay fall back upon the notice that Sacadas o f Argoswas the chief composer fo r the flute before the time o f

Pronomus 1, and doubtless Argos was one o f the

’ firstcities to share in the advance which Pronomus made inthe technique o f his art.

28 . Tra ces of the Species in the No ta tz'

on.

Before leaving this part o f the subject it will b e we llto notice the attempt which Westphal makes to connect

1 Pausanias ( iv . 27, 4) says o f the fo unding o f Messene : elmdfovr o 53 nu){ma po vmm

'

jsm y: “ Ev ou’

iq'

is, afiAé‘

m63Bow'riwv Ita l ’

Ap7a’

ow‘ 76 r e Sa nafia

no?npovép o v p e’

Aq 7676 61) apotjx01 ) pdlua r a ( I: &mMav.


the species o f the Octave with the form o f the musicalnotation .

The basis o f the notation , as has been explained(p . is formed by two Diatonic octaves, denoted bythe le tters o f the alphabet from a to v

,as follows

17 c e h y p f flx d h fi v f a

a b c d e f g a b c d e f g a

In this scale,as has been pointed out (p . the

notes which a re at the distance o f an octave from eachother are always expressed by two successive letterso f the alphabet . Thus we find

B y is the octave e e, the Dorian Species.

8 e c c, the Lydian species .F f g g, the Hypo-phrygian species.77 0 a a

,the Hypo-dorian species .

Westphal adopts the theory o f Bo eckh (as to whichsee p . I I) that the Hypo-phrygian and Hypo -dorianspecies answered to the ancient Ionian and Aeolianmodes . On this assumption he argues that the ordero f the pairs o f letters representing the species agreeswith the order o f the Modes in the historical deve lopment o f Greek music . For the priority o f Dorian,Ionian, and Aeolian he appeals to the authority o f

Heraclides Ponticus, quoted above (p . The Lydian,

he supposes, was interposed in the second place onaccount o f its importance in education

,— recognised, as

we have seen , byAristotle in the P o litics (viii . 7adfin ).Hence he regards the notation as confirming his theoryo f the nature and history o f the Modes .The weakness o f this reasoning is manifold. Grantingthat the Hypo-dorian and Hypo-phrygian answer to theold Aeolian and Ionian respectively, we have to ask

what is the nature o f the priority which Heraclides

THE NOTATION . 77

Pontious claims fo r his three modes, and what is thevalue o f his testimony. What he says is

,in substance ,

that these are the only kinds o f music that are trulyHe llenic

,and worthy o f the name o f modes (app ovia t).

It can hardly b e thought that this is a criticism like lyto have we ighed with the inventor o f the notation .

But if it did, why did he give an equally prominentplace to Lydian

,o ne o f the modes which Heraclides

condemned ? In fact,the introduction o f Lydian goes

far to show that the coincidence— such as it is— withthe views o f Heraclides is mere accident. Apart

,

however, from these difficulties, there are at least twoconsiderations which seem fatal to Westphal’s theory :I . The notation, so far as the original two octaves areconcerned, must have been devised and worked out atsome o ne time . No part o f these two octaves can havebeen comple ted before the rest. Hence the order inwhich the letters are taken fo r the several notes has nohistorical importance .

2. The notation does not represent only the species

o f a scale , that is to say, the re lative pitch o f the notes l

which compose it, but it represents also the absolutepitch o f each note . Thus the octaves which are definedby the successive pairs o f letters

, 8 y, 8 e,and the

rest,are octaves o f definite notes . If they were framed

with a view to the ancient modes,as Westphal thinks,

theymust b e the actual scales employed in these modes.If so , the modes followed each other, in respect o f pitch,in an order exactly the reverse o f the order obse rvedin the keys . It need hardly b e said that this is quiteimpossible .


29. P tolemy’

s Sclteme of Modes.

The first writer who takes the Species o f the Octaveas the basis o f the musical scales is the mathematicianC laudius Ptolemaeus (fl . 1 40

— 1 60 In his Ha r

mom'

cs he virtually sets aside the scheme o f keyse laborated by Aristo x enus and his school

,and adopts

in the ir place a system o f scales answering in the irmain features to the mediaeval Tones or Modes . The

object o f difference o f key, he says , is not that themusic as a whole may b e o f a higher or lower pitch

,

but that a me lody may b e brought within a certaincompass . For this purpose it is necessary to vary thesuccession o f intervals (as a modern musician doesby changing the signature o f the clef). If

, fo r example ,we take the Perfect System (mfo rnp a ap er aifiok ou) in thekey o f a minor— which is its natural key,— and transpose it to the key o f d minor,we do so, according toPtolemy

,not in order to raise the general pitch o f our

music by a Fourth,but because we wish to have a scale

with 6 flat instead o f 6 natural . The flattening o f thisnote

,however

,means that the two octaves change the ir

species . They are now o f the species e — e. Thus,

instead o f transposing the Perfect System into differentkeys

,we arrive more directly at the desired result by

changing the species o f its octaves. And as there a re

seven possible species o f the Octave , we obtain sevendifferent Systems or scales . From these assumptionsit follows

,as Ptolemy shows in some detail, that any

greater number o f keys is use less . If a key is anoctave higher than another, it is superfluous becauseit gives us a mere repetition o f the same intervals ‘.

H a rm . u. 8 0262fiwepexm'

m owes 700 bed wa o é‘

n/ r obs dir'

( 1 6 1 06 7017Bidwa o é

‘

wdwwr e’

pa; wapek x éwws bwo'

n'

eewa c, r obs a t

’

rro izs dei ywop évovs r ois a po st

q p e’

vo zs.



In illustration o f his theory Ptolemy gives tablesshowing in numbers the intervals o f the octaves usedin the different keys and genera. He shows twooctaves in each key, viz . that from Hypate Meson (Ka raMo m) to Nete Diezeugmenon (called the octave c

’

m-b

mjrns), and that from Proslambanomenos to Mese (theoctave aim} p éo

-

ns). As he also gives the divisions o ffive different ‘ colours ’ or varieties o f genus

,the whole

number o f octaves is no less than seventy.

Ptolemy does not exclude difference o f pitch altogether. The whole instrument

,he says

,may b e tuned

higher or lower at pleasure 1 Thus the pitch is treatedby him as modern notation treats the tempo , viz. as

something which is not absolute ly given, but has to besupplied by the individual performer.Although the language o f Ptolemy’s exposition isstudiously impersonal

,it may b e gathered that his

reduction o f the number o f keys from fifteen to sevenwas an innovation proposed by himself2. If this is so ,

the rest o f the scheme,— the elimination o f the e lement o f

pitch, and the nomenclature by position,’ —must also b e

due to him. Here , however,we find ourse lves at issuewith Westphal and those who agree with him on themain question o f the Modes . According toWestphal thenomenclature by position is mentioned by Aristo x enus,and is implied in at least o ne important passage o f theAristote lian P roblems. We have now to examine theevidence which he adduces to support his contention.

Ha rm . n. 7npds71Wr oca ii‘rqv 8¢a¢opdv 1) 76m (Bryan t? 8v tn’

n ws Qmiterdveo ts dwaplcef.

9 This may b e traced in the o ccasiona lly co ntro versial to ne ; as Ha rm. n.7o f a ir it

’

ZAa r rov 706 btd m o inr (peda a v'

res, 026’

in’

nine p évov, of 62in) 76

mica ) ! wpo x o-nfiv flva ax ebov r o ta tfmv del 1 637wean-{pow n pd r obs

M a ter épovs Ovflvw ,drain-flowvii: r ep) rdflpp oap fvov cpiia eéws 76 ml dr o

x c-ra a 'rdo ews'flpdvp wepa ivew away/main! ion 1 1)v 78W Mayh em dxpcw 76m

bcdo raaw. We may compare c . u .

P'

ro umv’

s sc am s.8 :

§ 3o . Nomencla ture by P osition.

Two passages o fAristo x enus are quo ted byWestphalin support o f his co ntentio n . The first (p . 6Meib .) is o ne

in which Aristo x enus announces his intention to trea to f Systems, the ir number and nature : setting out the irdifferences in respect o f compass (p é-yeOos), and fo r ea chcompass the differences in fo rm and compo sition and

position (76? Te Ka ra a x ijjua Ka i Ka ra m acaw Ka i Ka ra

Oéow), so that no e lement o f me lody,— e ither compass orform or compositio n or position

,— may b e unex pla ined.

’

But the word 06cm,when applied to Systems, does no t

mea n the po sition o f single notes, but o f groups o fnotes. E lsewhere (p. 54Meib .) he speak s o f the positiono f tetrachords towards ea ch other (r a

‘

zs rawTerpa xopd'wv

1 rpos‘ dq afle'crecs), laying it down that any two tetra

chords in the same System must b e consonant e itherwith each other or with some third tetrachord . The

other passage quoted by Westphal (p . 69 Meib .) is alsoin the discussion o f Systems . Aristo x enus is pointingout the necessity o f recognising that some e lements o fmelodious succession are fixed and limited, others areunlimited :Ka ra p31: ofm76 1 1 67401 ) 76 1 ) b ta trmpdrwv Ka i. Tag 7631 ) ¢0ciyywv

rda ets cinema mo s (ha lved-a t eiva t 7a nepi ptéh o s

‘

, Ka ra 8k Tits

ovvdptets Ka i Ka ra f a £ 1 61 1 Ka i Ka ra “

rag Oe‘o ets newepa o p t’va

“

re

Ka i r er aypéva .

‘ In the siz e o f the interva ls and the pitch o f the no testhe elements o f melo dy seem to b e infinite b ut in respecto f the va lues (i. e. the rela tive pla ces o f the no tes) and inrespect o f the fo rms (i. e. the succession o f the interva ls) andin respect o f the po sitio ns they a re limited and settled.

’

Aristo x enus goes on to illustrate this by supposing thatwe wish to continue a scale downwards from a w x vév or

G


pair o f sma ll intervals (Chromatic or Enharmonic). In

this case,as the 1 rvx v6v forms the lower part o f a tetra

chord, there are two possibilities . If the next lowertetrachord is disjunct, the next interva l is a tone ; if itis conjunct, the next interval is the large interva l o f thegenus ( 1 ) ”EV yap Ka ra Touov eis dicifevéw dyec Ta701? o v a

rfi/xa r os eidos, 1 ) dé Ka ra Gui-repay dwia rmua 8 1 1 815701"é’x etp éyeeos eis o vua c/nju). Thus the succession o f intervalsis determined by the re lative position o f the two tetrachords, as to which there is a choice between two definite alternatives . This then is evidently what is meantby the words e u-ra‘z ragOe’o ets 1 . On the other hand theGe

’

a ts o f Ptolemy’s nomenclature is the absolute pitch(Ha rm. ii. 5 wor k per 1 rap

’

a im-bu Tint Oe'

aw, Ta ogflr ep ovduhéis 1) Ba pér epov, ovop cifojuev), and this is one o f the

e lements which according to Aristo x enus are indefinite .

Westphal also finds the nomenclature by positionimplied in the passage o f the Aristote lian P roblems(xix . 20) which deals with the peculiar re lation o f the

Mese to the rest o f the musical scale . The passage hasalready been quoted and discussed (supra , p . andit has been pointed out that if the Mese o f the PerfectSystem (p e

'

m) Ka ra (hiya /n u) is the key-note,the scale

must have been an octave o f the a -species. If octaveso f other species were used, as Westphal maintains

,it

becomes necessary to take the Mese o f this passage tob e the [1 3077Ka r a Geo

-w,or Mese by position . That is,

Westpha l is obliged by his theory o f the Modes to takethe term Mese in a sense o f which there is no o thertrace before the time o f Ptolemy. But( I) It is highly improbable that the names o f the

notes— Mese,Hypate

,Né te and the rest— should have

So Ba cch . p . 1 9 Meib . Oe’

o ecs 8k r erpa x épowv 01 9 76 Milo : amm i claw31 rd owaqnj, buifevfcs, fnrobtdgevfts, funk . (see the who le passage ) .



a tetrachord o f each genus. These octaves apparentlymight b e o f any species, according to the key cho sen l .

On the cithara,— which was a more elaborate form o f

lyre,confined in practice to professional musicians,

six different octave sca les were employed, each o f

a particular species and key. They are enumeratedand described by Ptolemy in two passages (Ha rm. i. 1 6and ii. which in some points serve to correcteach other2. Of the six scales two are o f the Hypo

Pto l. Ha rm . n. 1 6 wepcéx ef a c 82rd p ly iv 1&1 i aa cti/um (1 76d 76am:

r a ids {mo 706 r oma io v oca 'rovov dpwpé

'

w706 a t’

rroii 7d 82M aud. into

7651 ! iv 76) p i‘ypaflr o t? uaAa lcoiJ xptima '

ros dpcOyé’

nr 706 o h m? r owan. Here 76vo v

rwés evidently means o f a ny given key,’and 1 06 76am: o f tha t key.

’

There is either no restriction, o r none tha t Pto lemy though two rth mentioning, in the ch o ice o f the key and species.

The two passages enumera te th e scales in a sligh tly difl'erent manner .

In i. 1 6 they a re arranged in view o f the genus o r co lo ur intoPure Middle So ft Dia tonic, viz .

a rgued, o f the lyre .

mime

inréprpouao f the cithara .

Mix ture o f Chroma tic , viz .

“ a ka/rd, o f the lyre.

wo rmed, o f the cithara .

Mix ture o f So ft Dia tonic , viz .

napvndra t, o f the cithara .

Mix ture o f ocd‘rovo v o riwovov , viz .

Adam

Mama i o f the cithara .

It is added,h owever , tha t in their use o f this last mix ture ’

musicians are

in the hab it o f tuning the citha ra in the Pythago rean manner, with twoMajo r tones and a Min/4a (called btdr ovov ocr omai

‘

ov) .In the second passage (ii. 1 6) the sca les o f the lyre are given first, thentho se o f the cithara with the key o f each . The o rder is the same

,ex cep t

tha t a a pmrd'ra z comes befo re rpommi (now called and Av

'

Bca is pla ced

last. The wo rds rd 63Mi

ota 02f or? r ovta lov bca '

rovov [se. aptop ol wepcéxovm]r oiJ owpiov canno t b e co rrect, no t mere ly b ecause they co ntradict the sta tement o f the ea rlier passage tha t mam deno ted a mix ture with bad-rovov

dov‘rovo v ( o r in practice bzc

’

rrovov but a lso b ecause the sca les tha tdo no t admit mix ture are placed first in the list in b o th passages. Hence

we sh o uld doub tless read rd 83man 02(706 &a r 6vov

703 Awpiov .

SCALES IN USE. 85

dorian or Common species (a a ). One o f these, calledTpi

‘

ra t,is pure ly Diatonic o f the Middle Soft variety ;

the intervals expressed by fractions are as follows :

a % b t

The other, ca lled Tp61 ro ¢ or rpom x ai,is a mixture

,Middle

Soft Diatonic in the upper tetrachord,and Chromatic

in the lower

a -t H H l—t— cfi -tfl-tf t % a

Two scales are o f the Dorian or e-species,viz . 1 ra pu

mim e,a combination o f Soft and Middle Soft Diatonic

f'

a su b s-su d “

and mom, in which the upper tetrachord is o f the strictor ‘ highly strung ’ Diatonic (&cim vov o fiwovov — ournatura l temperament)

e fi !s e - d !’e

Westpha l (Ha rmonik a nd Melopoic, 1 863 , p .255) suppo ses a much deeper

co rrup tio n. He would resto re rd 83 A68“ : [and Mom : o f 708 p ly/t a r o: 708

avv'

rovo v 8m1 6vov 1 08 r é 83 oi 706 r outa fov 8¢a 1 6vov 1 06 Awpio v. Thisintro duces a serious discrepancy b e tweem th e two passages , as the number

o f sca les in the se co nd list is ra ised to eight (Westphal mak ingMo n a and

Ia o '

n a zoltcai‘

a distinct scales, and furthermo re inserting a new Scale , o f

unknown name) . Mo reover the (unknown) sca le o f unmix ed btdr ovov

r outa i‘

ov is o ut o f its place a t the end o f the list. Westphal’

s o bjection to

Azibza as the name o f a scale o f the Doria n Species o f course o nly ho lds go odon his theo ry o f the Mo des.

The o nly o ther difl'e rences b etween the two passages are( 1 ) In the scales o f the lyre called ”a h a/ca the admix ture , acco rding to

i. 1 6 , is o ne o f xpwpa rmbv mir ror/or , a cco rding to ii. 1 6 o f xp. “Manor . But,

as Westpha l shows, So ft Chroma tic is no t admitted by Pto lemy as in

practical use . It would seem tha t in the seco nd passage the copyist wasled astray by th e wo rd paAa xd just befo re .

( 2) The ldan a'

o f i. 1 6 is called la o 'na cok cai'

a in n. 1 6 . We need no t

suppo se the tex t to b e faulty, since the two fo rms may have b een b o th in use .

Ano ther po int o verlo oked inWestpha l’s trea tment is tha t 8c¢if ovov mi

n-over

and 8. 8¢r ov¢a fov a re no t really distinguished by Pto lemy. In o ne passage

(i. 1 6) he gives h is A68“ ; and ido n a as a mix ture with 8. adv-rover , addingtha t in practice itwas 8. 8cr omai

‘

ov. In the o ther (ii. 1 6 ) he Speaks a t once o f

8. ocr oma i‘

ov. This considera tion b rings the two places into such close agree

ment tha t any hypo thesis invo lvingdiscrepancy is mo st impro bab le .


In practice it appears that musicians tuned the tetra

chord b - e o f this scale with the Pythagorean twoMajor tones and Act/ma .

Of the remaining scales one, called éwéprpovra , is

Phrygian in species (a’ and o f the standard genus

d -S- e i-‘

rf frg -‘s- a t agre e d

One , called laio '

r ta, or t

’

a o'

r ta tol ua ia, is o f the Hypo

phrygian or g-species, the tetrachord b — e be ing‘ highly strung ’ Diatonic or (in practice) Pythagorean ,viz

-°

r f %g

Regarding the tonality o f these sca les there is no t

very much to b e said. In the case o f the Hypo-dorianand Dorian octaves it will b e generally thought probablethat the key

-note is a (the p émy Ka ra adva /u ll) . If

so , the difference between the two Species is no t o ne o f

mode ,’ —in the modern sense

,— but consists in the fact

that in the Hypo-dorian the compass o f the me lody isfrom the key

-note upwards,while in the Dorian it

extends a Fourth below the key-note . It is possible ,

however, that the lowest note (e) o f the Dorian octavewas sometimes the key-note : in which case the modewas properly Dorian. In the Phrygian octave o f

Ptolemy’s description the key-note cannot b e the

Fourth or Mese Ka ra Oéow (g), Since the interval g - c

is not consonant (gx gx if? being less than t). Possiblythe lowest note (a

’

) is the key-note if so the sca le is o fthe Phrygian mode (in the modern sense). In the

Hypo-phrygian octave there is a similar objectio n toregarding the Mese Ka ra Oe’o-w (c) as the key-note

,and

some probability in favour o f the lowest note (g). If

the Pythagorean division o f the tetrachord g c were



inscription discovered by Mr. W. M . Ramsay, whichgives a musical setting o f four Short sentences,and (6) a papyrus fragment (now in the collection o f

the Arch-duke Rainer) o f the music o f a chorus inthe Orestes o f Euripides . These two last additions toour scanty stock o f Greek music are set out and discussed by Dr. Wessely o f V ienna and M . Ruelle in theRevue desEtudes Grecques (V . 1 892, pp . 265 a lso byDr.Otto Crusius in the Philologus, V o l. LII, pp . 1 60- 200

1.

The music o f the three hymns is noted in the Lydiankey (answering to the modern sca le with one b). The

me lody o f the second hymn is o f the compass o f anoctave , the notes be ing those o f the Perfect Systemfrom Parhypate Hypaton to Trite Diezeugmenon f fwith o ne b) . The first employs the same octave witha lower note added, viz. Hypate Hypaton (e) : the thirdadds the next higher note

,Paranete Diezeugmenon (g).

Thus the Lydian key may b e said, in the case o f the

second hymn , and less exactly 1 n the case o f the twoothers, to give the Lydian or c-species o f the octavein the most convenient part o f the scale ; just as onPtolemy’s system o f Modes we should expect it to do .

This octave,however

,represents mere ly the compass

(ambitus or tessitura ) o f the me lody : it has nothing todo with its tona lity. In the first two hymns

, as Bellermann pointed out, the key-note is the Hypate Meson ;and the mode— in the modern sense o f that word— isthat o f the octave e — e (the Dorian mode o f Helmholtz

’

s

theory). In the third hymn the key-note appears to bethe Lichanos Meson , so that the mode is that o f g g,

viz. the Hypo -phrygian .

Of the instrumental passages given by the Anonymus

Of the disco very made a t Delphi, after mo st o f this b o ok was in type ,I ho pe to say some thing in the Appendix .

EXTANT SPECIMENS.89

three are clearly in the Hypo-dorian or common mode ,the Mese (a ) being the key

-note . (See Gevaert, i .p . A fourth 1 04) also ends on the Mese

,but

the key-note appears to b e the Parhypate Meson (f ) .

Accordingly Westphal and Gevaert assign it to the

Hypo-lydian species (f f ). In Westphal’s V iew the

circumstance o f the end o f the melody falling, not onthe key

-note,but on the Third or Mediant o f the octave ,

was characteristic o f the Modes distinguished by theprefix syntono and accordingly the passage in questionis pronounced by him to b e Syntono -lydian . All thosepassages

,however

,are mere fragments o f two or three

bars each,and are quoted as examples o f certain pecu

liarities o f rhythm. They can hardly be made to lendmuch support to any theory o f the Modes.The music o f Mr. Ramsay’s inscription labours under

the same defect o f excessive shortness. If, however,we regard the four brief sentences as set to a continuous me lody

,we obtain a passage consisting o f thirtySix notes in all, with a compass o f less than an octave,and ending on the lowest note o f that compass . Unlikethe other extant specimens o f Greek music it is writtenin the Ionian key— a curious fact which has not beennoticed by Dr. Wesse ly.

INSCRIPTION WITH MUSICAL NOTES.

m) 831 ! 8A 68 Av


a pos 8 A! you 71 78

78 76 Aos 8 xpé was

The notes which enter into this melody form the

scale f fi—g

— a — b — cfi- d — e which is an octaveo f the Dorian Species (e—e on the white notes). Henceif f it, on which the me lody ends

,is the key

-note,the

mode is the Dorian . On the other hand the pre

dominant notes are those o f the triad a — cfl- e, whichpoint to the key o f a major, with the difference that theSeventh is flat (g instead o f git). On this view the

music would b e in the Hypo-phrygian mode .

However this may b e , the most Singular feature o f

this fragment remains to b e mentioned, viz. the agreement be tween

,

the musical notes and the a ccentua tion

o f the words . We know from the grammarians that anacute accent signified that the vowe l was soundedwith a rise in the pitch o f the voice

,and that a circumflex denoted a rise followed on the same syllable by

a lower note— every such rise and fall being quiteindependent both o f syllabic quantity and o f stress orictus. Thus in ordinary speech the accents formeda Species o f me lody— 71 031 8869 n p e

’

Aos, as it is calledby Aristo x enus 1 . When words were sung this spo kenme lody ’was no longer heard

,being superseded by the

me lody proper. Dionysius o f Halicarnassus is at painsto explain (De Comp. V erb .

,c . that the melody to

which words are set does not usually follow or resemble1 Ha rm. p . 1 8 Meib . Aé‘yer a t yap 81) ita l A076 8£s71 “ cm ,

78 owx efp evov in

1 817vrpoo qi8cc'

bv, 78 iv r o i’

s ovdyam’

cpvoucov yap 1 8 ém'reivew Ita l dmévac iv rq?

dtak éyeofla t .



in dochmiac metre (Orestes 338 with the vocalnotation : but no Single line is entire . The key is the

Lydian . The genus is e ither Enharmonic or Chromatic . Assuming that it is Enharmonic— the alternativeadopted by Dr. Wesse ly— the characters which are

still legible may b e represented in modern notation as

follows[Ena rm s, Orestes 338

-

344.

vd (8éAa 1 ¢os 65970 -

1 1 6 $ 101 1 00 6s 1 1 vd(£as

Wan /3 d

W 5

no r ) nAv o'

er (81 1 1 1 61 1 1 71 6mm) (in 1 1 61 “ (701 1 AaBpocs x A.

J —v h c -c

It should b e observed that in the fragment the lineKa r oh ogbfipop a t x a rv cpfipop a t comes before 338 (p a r e

'

pos

Junk ), not after it, as in our texts 1 .

I need no t repea twha t is sa id byDr .Wessely andM. Ruelle in defence

o f the genuineness o f our fragment. They justly po int to the remarka b le

co incidence tha t the music o f this very play is quo ted by Dio nysius o f

Ha licarnassus (I. It would almo st seem a s if itwa s the onlywell-knownSpecimen o f music o f the classica l period o f tragedy.

The transcriptio n o f Dr . Crusius.with his conjectural resto ra tions,will b efound in the Appendix . I have o nly introduced o ne o f his corrections here,v iz . the no te o n the second syllab le o f ea r l/cho o sy.

EXTANT SPECIMENS. 93

The notes employed, according to the interpretationgiven above , give the scale g — a — a*— a # — d— e — e

*.

If the genus is Chromatic, as M . Rue lle is disposedto think

,they are g

— a - a fi— b — d — e —f . When thesescales are compared with the Perfect System we findthat they do not entirely agree with it. Whether thegenus is Enharmonic or Chromatic the notes froma to e* (orf ) answer to those o f the Perfect System(o f the same genus) from Hypate Meson to Trite Diez eugmenon. But in e ither case the lowest note (g)finds no place in the System,

since it can only b e theDiatonic Lichanos Hypaton . It is possible , however,that the scale be longs to the period when the originaloctave had been extended by the addition o f a tonebe low the Hypate— the note , in fact, which we havea lready met with under the name o f Hyper-hypate(p . Thus the complete scale may have consistedo f the disjunct tetrachords a d and e a

, with the toneg a . It may b e observed here that although the scalein question does not fit into the Perfect System

,it

conforms to the general rules laid down by Aristo x enusfo r the melodious succession o f intervals. It is un

necessary therefore to suppose (as Dr. Wesse ly andM . Rue lle do) that the scale exhibits a mix ture o f

different genera .

It must b e vain to attempt to discover the tona lity o fa Short fragment which has ne ither beginning nor end.

The only group o f notes which has the character o f

a cadence is that on the word and again onthe words c

’

v Bp o-rois, viz . the notes a il a* a (if the

genus is the Enharmonic). The same notes occurin reversed order on dx dr ov and Thisseems to bear out the common view o f the Enharmonicas produced by the intro duction o f an ‘ accidental ’ or


passing note . It will b e seen,in fact

,that the Enhar

monic notes (a * and e*) only occur before or after the‘ standing notes (a and e).Re lying on the fact that the lowest note is g, Dr.Wesse ly and M . Rue lle pronounce the mode to b e thePhrygian (g—

g in the key with one 17, or d— d in thenatural key). I have already put forward a differentexplanation o f this g,

and will only add here that itoccurs twice in the fragment

,both times on a short

syllable 1 . The important notes,so far as the evidence

goes, are a , which twice comes at the end o f a verse(with a pause in the sense), and e, which once has thatposition . If a is the key

-note, the mode— in the modern

sense— is Dorian (the e-species). If e is the key-note, it

is Mixo-lydian (the b-species).

33. Modes of A ristides Quintilianus.

The most direct testimony in support o f the V iewthatthe ancient Modes were differentiated by the successiono f the ir intervals has still to b e considered . It is the

account given by Aristides Quintilianus (p . 21 Meib .) o f

the Six Modes (dpp ow’

a c) o f Plato’s Republic. Afterdescribing the genera and the ir varieties the colours,

’

he goes on to say that there were other divisions o f

the tetrachord (Terpax opdtx a i 81 a 1 pe'

o ets) Which the mostancient musicians used fo r the cipjuouia c, and that thesewere sometimes greater in compass than the octave

,

sometimes less . He then gives the intervals o f the

scale fo r each o f the Six Modes mentioned by Plato,

1 Dr . Cm sius,however , detects a <I> (the Sign fo r g ) o ver the first sylla b le

o f x a ‘re

'

lck vo ev and the seco nd syllable o f nbvr ov. There is little tra ce o f th emin h is facsimile .



answer to this question depends upon several conSiderations.1 . The date o fAristides is unknown . He is certa inlylater than Cicero, since he quotes the De Republica(p . 70 From the circumstance that he makesno reference to the musical innovations o f Ptolemy ithas been supposed that he was earlier than thatwriter.But, as Aristides usually confines himself to the theoryo fAristo x enus and his school

,the argument from Silence

is not o f much value . On the other hand he givesa scheme o f notation containing two characters, I:and X, which extend the scale two successive semitones beyond the lowest point o f the notation givenby Alypius 1 . For this reason it is probable thatAristides is one o f the latest o f the writers on ancientmusic .2. The manner in which Aristides introduces hisinformation about the Platonic Modes is highly sus

picious . He has been describing the various divisionso f the tetrachord according to the theory o fAristo x enus,and adds that there were anciently other divisions inuse . So far Aristides is doubtless right, since Aristo x enus himself says that the divisions o f the tetrachordare theoretically infinite in number (p . 26 — thatit is possible

,fo r example , to combine the Parhypate o f

the Soft Chromatic with the Lichanos o f the Diatonic(p . 52 But all this concerns the genus o f thescale

,and has nothing to do with the species o f the

Octave,with which Aristides proceeds to connect it .

It follows e ither that there is some confusion in the

text,or thatAristideswas compiling from sources which

he did not understand .

This a rgument is used,a long with some o thers no t so cogent, in

Mr.W. Chappell’

s History of Music (p .

ARISTIDES QUINTILIANUS.

3. The Platonic Modes were a subject o f interest tothe early musical writers, and were discussed by Aristo x enus h imse lf (Plut. dc Mus. c . If Aristo x enus

had had access to such an account as we have inAristides, we must have found some trace o f it

, e itherin the extant Ha rmonics or in the quotations o f Plutarchand other compilers .4. Of the four scales which extend to the compass o fan octave , only o ne

,viz. the Dorian

,conforms to the

rules which are said by Aristo x enus to have prevailedin early Greek music. The Phrygian divides theFourth a d into four intervals instead o f three , bythe sequence a b b* c d. As has been observed, it isne ither the Enharmonic Phrygian species (c e e*fa b b* c),nor the Diatonic d— d

,but a mixture o f the two .

Similarly the Mixo-lydian div ides the Fourth b - e intofour intervals (b b* c de), by introducing the pure lyDiatonic note d. The Lydian is certainly the LydianEnharmonic species o f the pseudo-Euclid but wecan hardly suppose that it existed in practical music .Aristo x enus lays it down emphatically that a quartertone is always followed by another : and we cannotimagine a scale in which the highest and lowest notesare in no harmonic re lation to the rest.5. Two o f the scales are incomple te

,viz. the Ionian ,

which has six notes and the compass o f a Seventh, andthe Synto no -lydian , which consists o f five notes, withthe compass o f a Minor Sixth . We naturally look fo rparalle ls among the defective scales noticed in the

P roblems and in Plutarch’s dialogues . But we findlittle that even illustrates the modes o f Aristides . The

scales noticed in the P roblems (xix.7, 32, 47) are heptachord

,and generally o f the compass o f an octave . In

one passage o f Plutarch, (De Mus. c . 1 1 ) there is a

H


description— quoted fromAristo x enus— o f an older kindo f Enharmonic

,in which the semitones had not yet

been divided into quarter-tones. In another chap ter(c . 1 9) he speaks o f the omission o f the Trite and alsoo f the Nete as characteristic o f a form o f music ca lledthe a n ordeta x os rp61 ros

‘. It may b e said that in the

Ionian and Syntono -lydian o f Aristides the EnharmonicTrite (b*) and the Nete (e) are wanting. But the Paramese (b) is also wanting in both these modes . And the

Ionian is open to the observation already made withregard to the Phrygian

,viz. that the two highest notes

(c d) involve a mixture o f Diatonic with Enharmonicscale . We may add that Plutarch (who evidently wrotewith Aristo x enus before him) gives no hint that the

omission o f these notes was characteristic o f any particular modes.6 . It is impossible to decide the question o f the modes

o f Aristides without some reference to another statement o f the same author. In the chapter which treatso f Intervals (pp . 1 3

— 1 5 Meib .) he gives the ancientdivision o f two octaves, the first into dieses or quartertones, the second into semitones . The former o f these( 1 ) n a pd To is dpx a io zs x a rd 81 606 1 9 a

'

cpp ow’

a ) is as follows

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

o

1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 17 1 8 1 9 so 22 23 24

1 J : 3 e l <1 : Y 7J : 1 P G 3 I so 7 7

After every allowance has been made fo r the prob ab ility that these signs or some o f them have reached us



now in question,viz . the Phrygian and the Dorian .

Taking the view o f its tonality expressed in the lastchapter (p . we Should describe it as the Dorianscale o f Aristides with the two highest notes omitted.

The omission,in so Short a fragment, is o f little weight ;

and the agreement in the use o f an additional lowernote (Hyper-hypate) is certainly worth notice . On

the other hand,the Dorian is precise ly the mode , o f

those given in the list o f Aristides, which least needsdefence , as it is the most faithful copy o f the PerfectSystem. Hence the fact that it is verified by an actua lpiece o f music does not go far in support o f the othe rscales in the same list.If our suspicions are we ll-founded

,it is evident that

they seriously affect the genuineness o f all the antiquarian learningwhich Aristides sets before his readers,and in particular o f his account o f the Platonic modes .I venture to think that they go far to deprive thataccount o f the value which it has been supposed tohave fo r the history o f the earliest Greek music .For the later period

,however, to which Aristides

himse lf be longs, these apocryphal scales are a document o f some importance . The fact that they do no tagree entire ly with the species o f the Octave as givenby the pseudo-Euclid leads us to think that they mayb e influenced by scales used in actual music . Thisapplies especially to the Phrygian , which (as has beenShown) is really diatonic . The Ionian , again , is perhapsmere ly an imperfect form o f the same sca le

,viz. the

octave d — d with lower d omitted. And the Synto no

lydian may b e the Lydian diatonic octave c — c witha Similar omission o f the lower c.

SCALES OF DIFFERENT SPECIES. l o t

35. Evidence for Sca les of did’erent species.

The object o f the foregoing discussion has been toShow, in the first place , that there was no such distinction in ancient Greek music as that which scholars havedrawn between Modes (app o via i) and Keys (761 1 01 orTp61 r01 ) : and, in the second place , that the musical scalesdenoted by these terms were primarily distinguishedby difference o f pz

'

tclz,— that in fact they were so many

keys o f the standard scale known in its final form as

the Perfect System. The evidence now broughtforward in support o f these two propositions is sure lyas complete as that which has been allowed to determine any question o f ancient learning.

It does not, however, follow that the Greeks knew o f

no musical forms analogous to our Major and Minormodes

,or to the mediaeval Tones . On the contrary

,

the course o f the discussion has led us to recognisedistinctions o f this kind in more than one instance .

The doctrine against which the argument has beenmainly directed is not that ancient scales were o f morethan o ne species or mode (as it is now called), butthat difference o f species was the basis o f the ancientGreek Modes. This will become clear if we bringtogether all the indications which we have observed o fscales differing from each other in Species, that is, in theorder o f the intervals in the octave . In doing so it willb e especially important to be guided by the principlewhich we laid down at the outset, o f arranging ourmaterials according to chronology, and judging o f eachpiece o f evidence strictly with reference to the periodto which it be longs. It is only thus that we can hope


to gain a conception o f Greek music as the living andchanging thing that we know it must have been .

1 . The principal scale o f Greek music is undoubtedlyo f the Hypo-dorian or common species . This is suffi

ciently proved by the facts ( 1 ) that two octaves o f thisspecies (a a ) constitute the scale known as the GreaterPerfect System,

and (2) that the central a o f this system,

called the Mese,is said to have been the key-note

,or at

least to have had the kind o f importance in the scalewhich we connect with the key-note (Arist . P robl. xix .

This mode, it is obvious, is based on the scalewhich is the descending scale o f the modern Minormode . It may therefore b e identified with the Minor,except that it does no t admit the leading note .

It should b e observed that this mode is to b e recognised not merely in the Perfect System but equally inthe primitive octave

,o f the form e — e

,out o f which the

Perfect System grew. The important point is the toniccharacter o f the Mese (a ), and this, as it happens, restsupon the testimony o f an author who knows the primitive octave only. The fact that that octave is o f the

so -called Dorian species does not alter the mode (asweare now using that term), but only the compass o f thenotes employed .

The Hypo-dorian octave is seen in two o f the scale so f the cithara given by Ptolemy (p . viz . those calledrpim t and Tpo

'fl'o c,and the Dorian octave (e e) in two

scales, n a pvmim c andM81 01 . It is very possible (as wasobserved in commenting on them) that the two latte rscales were in the key o f a

,and therefore Hypo-dorian

in respect o f mode . The Hypo-dorian mode is alsoexemplified by three at least o f the instrumental passage sgiven by the Anonymus (supra , p .

2. The earliest trace o f a difference o f species appea rs



reverse , is a change o f mode in the modern sense,fo r it

is what the ancients classified as a change o f System(p e‘

ra fioltij x a -rd 01 507171 1 01 )1. Nor is it hard to determine

the two ‘modes ’ concerned, if we may trust to the

authority o f the Aristote lian P roblems (1 . c.) and regardthe Mese as always the key-note . For if a is kept asthe key

-note,the octave a — a with o ne i? is the so

called Dorian (e e on the white notes). In this waywearrive at the somewhat confusing result that the ancientDorian species (e e but with a as k ey-note) yie lds theW m modern Minor mode : while the Dorianmode o f modern scientific theory2 has its ancient prototype in the Mixo-lydian species, viz. the octave firstbrought to light by Lampro cles . The difficulty o f

course arises from the species o f the Octave be ingclassified according to the ir compass, without referenceto the tonic character o f the Mese.

The Dorian mode is amply represented in the extantremains o f Greek music . It is the mode o f the twocompositions o f Dionysius, the Hymn to Calliope andthe Hymn toApollo (p . perhaps also o fMr.Ramsay

’smusica l inscription (p . It would have been satisfactory if we could have found it in the much moreimportant fragment o f the Orestes. Such indicationsas that fragment presents seem to me to point to theDorian mode (Mixo-lydian o f Lampro cles).3 . The scales o f the cithara furnish o ne example o f

the Phrygian species (d d ), and o ne o f the Hypophrygian (g -

g) : but we have no means o f determiningwhich note o f the scale is to be treated as the key-note .

1 PS. Eucl. Introd. p . 20Me ib . lea-rd 060mm 83 8701 1 in awacpijs els 81 6051 151 1 0

4) 01 1 ,61 a p er aBoitr) yivqr a t . Ano nym. 5 65 Unempa rwal 83 (SC . p er afloha i)imbr a v in 81 a §ebfews ( is 01 1 1 1a 61 1 1 a [written78 p ék os.

As represented p rima rily by the ana lysis o f Helmho ltz , Die Tonempfindungen, p . 467, ed. 1 863 .

PHRYGIAN AND HYPO-PHRYGIAN.1 05

In the Hymn to Nemesis, however, in spite o f the

incomplete form in which it has reached us,there is

a sufficiently clear example o f the Hypo-phrygian mode .

It has been suggested as possible that the melody o f

Mr. Ramsay’s inscription is also Hypo-phrygian, and ifso the evidence fo r the mode would b e carried back tothe first century.

The Hypo-phrygian is the nearest approach made byany specimen o f Greek music to the modern Majormode , —the Lydian o r c-Species not being found evenamong the scales o f the cithara as given by Ptolemy.

It is therefore o f peculiar interest fo r musical history,and we look with eagerness fo r any indication whichwould allow us to connect it with the classical periodo f Greek art . One or two sayings o f Aristotle havebeen thought to bear upon this issue .

The most interesting is a passage in the P olitics (iv. 3,

Cp . p . where Aristotle is speaking o f the multiplicityo f forms o f government, and Showing how a greatnumber o f varieties may neverthe less b e brought undera few classes or types . He illustrates the point fromthe musical Modes, observing that all constitutionsmay b e regarded as e ither oligarchical (governmentby a minority) or democratical (government by the

majority), just as in the opinion o f some musicians( 159 (pa o t

'

rwes) all modes are essentially e ither Dorianor Phrygian. What, then , is the basis o f this groupingo f certain modes together as Dorian, while the rest arePhrygian in character According to Westphal it isa form o f the opposition be tween the true He llenicmusic

,represented by Dorian, and the fore ign music,

the Phrygian and Lydian,with the ir varieties . More

over, it is in his view virtua lly the same distinction as thatwhich obtains in modern music between the Minor and


the Major scales 1 . This account o f the matter, however,is not supported by the context o f the passage . Aristotledraws out the comparison between forms o f governmentand musical modes in such a way as to make it plainthat in the case o f the modes the distinctionwas o ne o f

pitch (rds o'

vvr o varrépa s rds 8’

a’

vecp éva s Ka i p a lta mis).

The Dorian was the best, because the highest, o f thelower keys

,— the others be ing Hypo-dorian (in the ea rlier

sense,immediate ly be low Dorian), and Hypo-phrygian

— while Phrygian was the first o f the higher serieswhich took in Lydian and Mixo-lydian . The div isionwould b e aided

,or may even have been suggested,

by the circumstance that it nearly coincided with thefavourite contrast o f He llenic and barbarous ’ modes 3.There is another passage

,however

,which can hardly b e

reconciled with a classification according to pitch alone .

In the chapters dealing with the ethica l character o fmusic Aristotle dwe lls (as will b e remembered) upon theexciting and orgiastic character o f the Phrygian mode ,and notices its especia l fitness fo r the dithyramb . Thisfitness or affinity, he says, was so marked that a po et

Ha rm onik und Melopoie, p . 356 (ed Die alteste griechische

To nart ist demnach eine Mo llto nart . . Aus Kleinasienwurden zunachst

zweiDurtona rten nach Griechenland einge ftlhrt , die lydische und phrygische .

’

In th e 1 886 edition o f the same b o o k (p . 1 89) Westphal disco vers a simila r

classifica tio n o f mo des imp lied 1 n the wo rds o f Pla to , Rep . p . 400 a rpt’

£ 1 1 1 :

£0721 1 if 81 1 1 028601 1 9 a ltéx ovrm, 8301 1 1 1 1 iv r o i‘

s 0067701 : r h rapa 6067 a t

1 1 601 1 1 dpno vim. But Pla to is evidently re ferring to some ma tter o f commonknowledge . The th ree fo rms o r e lements o f which a ll rhythms are made

up a re o f course the ra tio s 1 : 1 and 3 2, which yield the three kinds

o f rhythm,dactylic, iamb ic and cre tic (answering to commo n, triple, and

quintuple time) . Surely the fo ur elements o f a ll musical scales o f whichPla to Spea ks a re no t four kinds o f scale (Ha rm onien-Klassen) , but the fourra tio s which give the p rima ry musical inte rva ls— viz . the ra tios 2 1

, 3 2,

4 3 and 9 8 ,which give the Octave, Fifth , Fourth and To ne .

If Hypo -phrygian is the same a s the o lder Io nian (p . the co incidence

is comp le te fo r th e time o f Aristo tle . Pla to trea ts the claim o f Io nian to

rank amo ng the Hellenic mo des a s somewha t do ub tful (Laches, p .



36 . Conclusion.

The considerations set forth in the last chapte r seemto Show that if difference o f mode or species cannot b eentire ly denied o f the classical period o f Greek music,it occupied a subordinate and almost unrecognisedplace .

The main e lements o f the art were, ( 1 ) difference o f

genus,- the sub-divisions o f the tetrachord which Arist

o x enus and Ptolemy alike recognise , though withimportant discrepancies in de tail ; (2) difference o f pitchor key and (3) rhythm. Passing over the last, as notbe longing to the subject o f Ha rmonics, we may nowsay that genus and key are the only grounds o f distinotion which are evidently o f practical importance . No

others were associated with the early history o f the art,

with particular composers or periods,with particular

instruments,or with the ethos o f music. This, how

ever,is only true in the fullest sense o f Greek music

before the time o f Ptolemy. The main object o f

Ptolemy’s reform o f the keys was to provide a newset o f scales, each characterised by a particular succession o f intervals

,while the pitch was left to take care o f

itse lf. And it is clear, especially from the specimenswhich Ptolemy gives o f the scales in use in his time ,that he was only endeavouring to systematise whatalready existed

,and bring theory into harmony with

the deve lopments o f practice . We must suppose , therefore

,that the musical fee ling which sought variety in

differences o f key came to have less influence on thepractical art

,and that musicians began to discover, or to

appreciate more than they had done, the use o f differentmodes or forms o f the octave scale.

CONCLUSION .1 09

Along with this change we have to note the com

parative disuse o f the Enharmonic and ‘

Chromaticdivisions o f the tetrachord . The Enharmonic, according to Ptolemy, had ceased to b e employed . Of the

three varie ties o f Chromatic given by Aristo x enus onlyo ne remains o n Ptolemy’s list

,and that the o ne which

in the scheme o f Aristo x enus involved no interval lessthan a semitone . And although Ptolemy distinguishedat least three varieties o f Diatonic, it is worth noticethat only o ne o f these was admitted in the tuning o f

the lyre,— the others be ing confined to the more

e laborate cithara . In Ptolemy’s time,therefore

,music

was rapidly approaching the stage in which all its formsa re based upon a single scale— the natural diatonicscale o f modern Europe .

In the light o f these facts it must occur to us thatWestphal’s theory o f seven modes or Species o f the

Octave is really open to an a prio r i objection as deciSive in its nature as any o f the testimony which hasbeen brought against it. IS it possible

, we may ask,that a system o f modes analogous to the ecclesiasticalTones can have subsisted along with a system o f scalessuch as the genera and colours o f early Greek musicThe reply may b e that Ptolemy himself combines thetwo systems . He supposes five divisions o f the te trachord

,and seven modes based upon so many species o f

the Octave— in all thirty-five different scales (or seventy,ifwe bring in the distinction o f octaves 871 8 mime andaim) But when we come to the scales actuallyused on the chief Greek instrument

,the cithara

,the

number falls at once to six. Evidently the others, ormost o f them, only existed on paper

,as the mathe

matica l results o f certain assumptions which Ptolemyhad made . And if this can b e said o f Ptolemy’s

1 1 0 THE MODES OF ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC.

theory, what would b e the value o f a similar schemecombining the modes with the Enharmonic and the

different varieties o f the Chromatic genus ? The truthis, sure ly, that such a scheme tries to unite e lementswhich be long to different times, which in fact are the

fundamental ideas o f different stages o f art.The most striking characteristic o f Greek music

,

especially in its earlier periods, is the multiplicity anddelicacy o f the intervals into which the scale wasdivided. A sort o f frame -work was formed by the

division o f the octave into tetrachords, completed bythe so -called disjunctive tone ; and so far all Greekmusic was alike . But within the tetrachord the re igno f diversity was unchecked. Not only were thererecognised divisions containing intervals o f a fourth ,a third

,and even three-eighths o f a tone , but we gathe r

from several things said by Aristo x enus that the num

b e r o f possible divisions was regarded as theoreticallyunlimited . Thus he te lls us that there was a constanttendency to flatten the ‘moveable ’ notes o f the Chromatic genus, and thus diminish the small intervals, fo rthe sake o f ‘ Sweetness or in order to obtain a plaintivetone 1 ;— that the Lichanos o f a tetrachord may in theoryb e any note between the Enharmonic Lichanos (f inthe scale e — e

”“ f a ) and the Diatonic (g in the sca lee —f —

g— a )

2;— and that the magnitude o f the smaller

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ciple has never been more luminously stated thanby the illustrious physicist He lmholtz, in the th irteenthchapter o f his Tonempfindungen. I venture to thinkthat in applying that truth to the facts o f Greek musiche was materially hindered by the accepted theory o f

the Greek modes . The scales which he analyses underthat name were certainly the basis o f all music in theMiddle Ages

,and are much more inte lligible as such

than in re lation to the primitive Greek forms o f the

art 1 .

The ecclesiasticalModes rece ived their fina l Shape in the Dodecacho rdono f Gla reanus (Bale , They a re substantially the Greek modes o f

Westphal’s the o ry, although the Greek names which Glareanus ado p tedse em to have b een ch o sen a t haphaza rd. But the ecclesias tica l Mo des, asHe lmho ltz po ints out

,were develo ped under the influence o f po lyph o nic

music from the ea rlier stages represented by the Amb ro sian and Grego riansca les . It wo uld b e a singula r chance if theywere a lso , as Greek mo des ,

the source fromwhich the Amb ro sian and Grego rian sca leswere themselv esde rived.

Some further hints o n th is pa rt o f the subject may po ssib ly be derivedfrom the musical sca les in use amo ng na tions tha t have no t a tta ined to any

fo rm o f ha rmo ny,such a s the Ara b ians , the Indians, o r the Chinese .

A va luable co llectio n o f these sca les is given byMr. A . J . Ellis a t the end o f

his transla tio n o f Helmho ltz (Appendix X X . Sect . K, Non-ha rmonic Sca les) .Amo ng the mo st interesting fo r our purpo se a re the eight media eva lArab ian

sca les given o n the autho rity o f Pro fesso r Land (no s . 54 The first threeo f these— called

’

Ochaq , Nawa and Bo a sili— fo llow the Pythago rean into natio n, and a nswer respectiv ely to th e Hypo -ph rygian, Phrygian, and Mix olydian Spe cies o f the o ctav e . The nex t two — Rast and Z enk ouleh— are also

Hypo -

phrygian in species, but the Third and Six th arefla tter by ab out ane igh th o f a to ne (the Pyth ago rean comma ) . In Z enk o uleh the Fifth a lso

is simila rlyfla ttened. The last two sca les— Hho salni and Hhidjaz i— are

Phrygian : but the Second and Fifth,and in the case o f Hhidja z i a lso th e

Six th , arefla tter by the interval o f a comma . The rema ining scale,ca lled

Ra hawi, do es no t fa ll unde r any Species, Since th e semito nes a re be twe enthe Third and Fo urth , and aga in b e tween th e Fifth and Six th. Itwill b eseen tha t in genera l cha racter— th o ugh by no means in de ta ils— this series

o f sca les b ea rs a co nsiderab le resemb lance to the sca les o f the citharaas given by Pto lemy (supra , p . In b o th ca ses th e seve ral sca les a re

distinguished from ea ch o ther pa rtly by the o rder o f the inte rva ls (species ),pa rtly by the into na tio n

,o r magnitude o f the interva ls employed (genus ) .

This latter element is co nspicuously absent from the ecclesiastica lMo des .

SPEAKING AND SINGING.1 1 3

37. Epilogue— Speech and Song.

Several indications combine to make it probable thatSinging and speaking were not so wide ly separated fromeach other in Greek as in the modern languages withwhich we are most familiar.( 1 ) The teaching o f the grammarians on the subject

o f accent points to this conclusion . Our habit o f usingLatin translations o f the terms o f Greek grammar hastended to obscure the fact that they belong in almostevery case to the ordinary vocabulary o f music . The

word fo r ‘ accent ’ issimply the musical term fo r‘ pitch or ‘ key.

’

The words ‘ acute (8581 ) and‘grave ’

(ca pes) mean nothing more than ‘high ’ and ‘ low’ inpitch . A syllable may have two accents, just as inmusic a syllable may b e sung with more than o ne note .

Similarly the quantity ’

o f each syllable answers to thetime o f a musical note

,and the rule that a long syllable

is equal to two Short ones is no doubt approximatelycorrect. Consequently every Greek word (encliticsbe ing reckoned as parts o f a word) is a sort o f musicalphrase

,and every sentence is a more or less definite

me lody— Aoyé é‘e’

s 71 1 1 e m,as it is called by Aristo x enus

(p . 1 8 Moreover the accent in the modernsense

,the ictus or stress o f the voice, appears to b e

quite independent o f the pitch or ‘ tonic ’ accent : fo r inGreek poetry the ictus (d

’

pms) is determined by the

metre,with which the tonic accent evidently has nothing

to do. In singing,accordingly

,the tonic accents dis

appear ; fo r the me lody takes the ir place, and giveseach syllable a new pitch, on which (as we Sha llpresently see) the spoken pitch has no influence .


The rise and fall o f the voice in ordinary speakingis perceptible enough in English, though it is mo remarked in other European languages. Helmholtz te llsus— with tacit reference to the speech o f North Germany— that an affirmative sentence genera lly ends witha drop in the tone o f about a Fourth, while an interrogative is marked by a rise which is often as much as

a Fifth 1 . In Italian the interrogative form is regularlygiven, not by a particle or a change in the o rder o f

the words, but by a rise o f pitch. The ' Gregorianchurch music

,according to a series o f rules quo ted by

He lmholtz marked a comma by a rise o f a To ne ,a colon by a fall o f a Semitone a full stop by a Toneabove , followed by a Fourth be low, the reciting no teand an interrogation by a phrase o f the form d b c d

(c be ing the reciting note).These examples, however, do little towards enablingmodern scholars to form a notion o f the Greek systemo f accentuation . In these and similar cases it is thesentence as a whole which is modified by the tonicaccent, whereas in Greek it is the individual word. It

is true that the accent o f a word may be affected by itsplace in the sentence : as is seen in the loss o f theaccent o f oxytone words when not followed by a pause

,

in the anastrophe o f prepositions, and in the treatmento f the different classes o f enclitics. But in all theseinstances it is the intonation o f the word as such, no to f the sentence , which is primarily concerned . Whatthey really prove is that the musical accent is no t so

invariable as the stress accent in English o r German,but may depend upon the collocation o f the word,or upon the degree o f emphasis which it has in

a particular use .

1 Tonempfindungen, p . 364 (ed. 1 863)



led to do so by the influence o f feeling ( 1 1 1 1 1 1) 81 8 1 1 8009

17073 3 1’

s 701 a 1571 jv x ivno'wdva '

yx a o'déip ev 3A03fv).

According to the rhetorician Dionysius o f Halicar

nassus the interval used in the melody o f spokenutterance is approximate ly a Fifth, or three tones anda half (81 a ltéx70v [ 1 31 1 m

i

n p ék o s évi p erpefr a t 81 a 071jp a71

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interesting example (quoted above on p . 9 1 ) from the

Orestes o f Euripides,to Show that when words are set

to music no account is taken o f the accents, or spokenme lody. Not mere ly are the intervals varied ( insteado f be ing nearly uniform), but the rise and fall o f thenotes does not answer to the rise and fall o f the

syllables in ordinary Speech . This statement is ren

dered the more interesting from the circumstance thatthe inscription discovered by Mr. Ramsay (supra , pwhich is about a century later

,does exhibit precise ly

this correspondence . Apparently,then

,the melody o f

the inscription represents a new idea in music,— an

attempt to bring it into a more direct connexion withthe tones o f the speaking voice . The fact o f such an

attempt being made seems to indicate that the divergence between the two kinds o f utterancewas becomingmore marked than had formerly been the case . It mayb e compared with the invention o f recitative in the

beginning o f the seventeenth century.

Aristides Quintilianus (p . 7Meib .) recognises a thirdor intermediate movement o f the voice, viz . that whichis employed in the recitation o f poetry. It is probablethat Aristides is one o f the latest writers on the subject

,

and we may conjecture that in his time the GreekDe Compositione V erbo rum, c . 1 1 , p . 58 Reisk.

SPEAKING AND SINGING— RHYTHM.I I7

language had in great measure lost the original tonicaccents

,and with them the quasi-me lodious character

which they gave to prose utterance .

In the viewwhich these notices suggest the differencebetween speaking and Singing is reduced to o ne o f

degree . It is analysed in language such as we mightuse to express the difference between a monotonous anda varied manner o f Speaking, or between the soundso f an Aeolian harp and those o f a musical instrument.(3) What has been said o f me lody in the two spheres

o f Speech and song applies also muta tis mutandis torhythm. In English the time or quantity o f syllables isas little attended to as the pitch . But in Greek the

distinction o f long and Short furnished a prose rhythmwhich was a serious e lement in the ir rhetoric . In

the rhythm o f music, according to Dionysius, the

quantity o f syllables could b e neglected, just as theaccent was neglected in the me lody 1 . This, however,does not mean that the natural time o f the syllablescould ”

b e treated with the freedom which we see ina modern composition . The regularity o f lyric metresis sufficient to prove that the increase or diminution o f

natural quantity referred to by Dionysius was keptwithin narrow limits

,the nature o f which is to b e

gathered from the remains o f the ancient system o f

Rhythmic . From these sources we learn with something like certainty that the rhythm o f ordinary speech

,

as determined by the succession o f long or Shortsyllables, was the basis not only o f metres intended

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1 1 8 THE MODES OF ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC .

fo r recitation, such as the hexameter and the iambictrimeter, but also o f lyrical rhythm o f every kind .

(4) AS to the use o f the stress accent in Greekprose we are without direct information . In verse itappears as the metrical ictus or a rsis o f each foot, whichanswers to what English musicians call the strongbeat ’ or accented part o f the bar 1 . In the Homerichexameter the ictus is confined to long syllables, andappears to have some power o f lengthening a Shortor doubtful syllable . In the Attic poetry which waswritten in direct imitation o f colloquial Speech

,viz.

the tragic and comic trimeter, there is no necessaryconnexion between the ictus and syllabic lengt h : buton the other hand a naturally long syllable which iswithout the ictus may b e rhythmically Short . In lyricalversifica tion the ic

’

tus does not seem to have any connex ion with quantity : and on the whole we may gatherthat it was not until the Byz antine period o f Greekthat it came to b e recognised as a distinct factor inpronunciation . The chief elements o f utterance— pitch

,

time and stress— were independent in ancient Greekspeech, just as they are in music. And the fact tha tthey were independent goes a long way to prove ourmain contention , viz . that ancient Greek speech hada peculiar quasi-musical character

,consequently that

the difficulty which modern scholars fee l in under

The metrica l accent o r ictus was ma rked in ancient no ta tion by po intsplaced o ver the accented syllable . These po ints have b een preserved in

Mr. Ramsay’s musica l inscriptio n (see the Appendix , p . 1 33) and in one o r

two pla ces o f the fragment o f the Orestes (p . Hence Dr. Crusius has

b een ab le to resto re the rhythmwith to lerable certainty, and has made the

inte resting discove ry tha t in b o th pieces the ictus falls as a rule o n a sho rtsylla ble . The o nly ex cep tio ns in the inscrip tion a re circumflex ed syllab les,where the lo ng v owe l o r diphthong is set to two no tes

, the first o f which isSho rt and accented. The a ccents on the sho rt first syllables o f the do chmiacso f Eurip ides are a still mo re unex pected evidence o f the same rhythmicalt endency.



voice : so that it is most difficult, when rhythm and

melody is produced without language , to know whatit means

,or what subject worthy o f the name it

represents ( 1 3028719 301 1 33 7631 1 1 1 3 01 671 1 1 ; p tpnpdrwv). It is

utterly false taste, in Plato’s opinion

,to use the flute

or the lyre otherwise than as an accompaniment todance and so ngl . Similarly in the Aristote lian P roblems(xix. 1 0) it is asked why, although the human voice isthe most pleasing, singingwithout words, as in hummingor whistling

,is no t more agreeable than the flute or the

lyre . Shall we say, the writer answers,‘ that the human

voice too is comparative ly without charm if it does notrepresent something ? ( 1) 088

’

e’

x e‘

i,381 1 [1 1) 71 171 13701 ,

That is to say, music is expressive o f feeling,which may range from acute passion to calm and loftysentiment, but fee ling must have an object, and this canonly b e adequately given by language . Thus languageis, in the first instance a t least

,the matter to which

musical treatment gives artistic form. In modern timesthe tendency is to regard instrumenta l music as the

highest form o f the art, because in instrumental musicthe artist creates his work, not by tak ing ideas and

fee lings as he finds them already expressed in language ,but directly

,by forming an independent vehicle o f

fee ling,— a new language,as it were , o f passion and

sentiment,— out o f the absolute relations o f movementand sound .

The intimate connexion in Greek music betweenwords and me lody may b e Shown in various particulars.

The modern practice o f basing a musical compo sitio na long and e laborate chorus

,fo r example— upon a few

words, which are repeated again and again as the musicis deve loped, would have been impossible in Greece .

1 Pla to , Legg. p. 669.

LANGUAGE AND MUSIC. 1 21

It becomes natural when the words are not an integralpart o f the

.

work,but only serve to announce the idea

o n which it is based,and which the music brings out

under successive aspects . The same may b e said o f

the use o f a me lody with many different sets o f words .Greek writers regard even the repetition o f the me lodyin a strophe and antistrophe as a concession to the com

para tive weakness o f a chorus . With the Greeks,

moreover, the union in one artist o f the functions o fpoet and musician must have tended to a more exquisiteadaptation o f language and music than can b e expectedwhen the work o f art is the product o f divided labour.In Greece the principle o f the interdependence o f language , metre , and musical sound was carried very far.

The different recognised styles had each certain metricalforms and certain musical scales or keys appropriatedto them, in some cases also a certain dialect and vo cabulary. These various e lements were usually summed upin an ethnical type

,— one o f those which played so large

a part in the ir political history. Such a term as Dorianwas not applied to a particular scale at random,

butbecause that scale was distinctive o f Dorian musicand Dorian music

,again

,was o ne aspect o f Dorian

temper and institutions,Dorian literature and thought.

Whether the Greeks were acquainted with harmony— in the modern sense o f the word— is a question thathas been much discussed, and may now b e regarded assettled ‘

. It is clear that the Greeks were acquaintedwith the phenomena on which harmony depends, viz .

the effect produced by sounding certain notes together.It appears also that they made some use o f harmony,and o f dissonant as we ll as consonant intervals— in

1 On this po int I may refer to the somewha t fuller trea tment in Smith '

s

Drctionary of Antiquitzes, a rt. MUSICA (V o l. II, p . 1 99, ed. 1 890


instrumental accompaniment (mafia On the o ther

hand it was unknown in their vocal music, except inthe form o f bass and treble voices singing the samemelody. In the instrumental accompaniment it wasonly an occasional ornament

,not a necessary or regular

part o f the music . Plato speaks o f it in the Laws as

something which those who learn music as a branch o fliberal education Should not attempt 1 . The Silence o f

the technical writers, both as to the use o f harmony andas to the tonality o f the Greek scale

,points in the same

direction . Evidently there was no system o f harmony,— no notion o f the effect o f successive harmonies, or o ftwo distinct pa rts or progressions o f notes harmonisingwith each other.The want o f harmony is to b e connected not only with

the defective tonality which was probably characteristico f Greek music

,—we have seen (p . 42 ) that there is

some evidence o f tonality,— but still more with the non

harmonic quality o f many o f the intervals o f which the irscales were composed . We have repeatedly dwelt uponthe variety and strangeness (to our apprehension) o fthese intervals . Modern writers are usually disposedto underrate the ir importance , or even to explain themaway. The Enharmonic

,they point out

,was produced

by the interpolation o f a note which may have been onlya passing note or appoggia tura . The Chromatic also, itis said, was regarded as too difficult fo r ordinary performers, and most o f its varieties went out o f use at a

comparative ly early period . Yet the accounts which wefind in writers so remote in time and so opposed in the irtheoretical views as Aristo x enus and Ptolemy, bear thestrongest testimony to the reality and persistence o f

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by the ear,others to find numbers in the consonances

wh ich they heard, and both, from the Platonic pointo f view

,setting ears above inte lligence ,

’

and thereforelabouring in vain 1 .The multiplicity o f intervals, then, which surprises usin the doctrine o f the genera and

‘ colours ’ was not anaccident or excrescence . And although some o f the

finer varieties, such as the Enharmonic, belong only tothe early or classical period

,there is enough to show

that it continued to b e characteristic o f the Greekmusical system

,at least until the revival o f Hellenism

in the age o f the Antonines . The grounds o f thispeculiarity may b e sought partly in the Greek temperament. We can hardly deny the Greeks the credit o f afineness o f sensibility upon which civilisation

,to say the

least, has made no advance . We may note further howentire ly it is in accordance with the analogies o f Greekart to find a series o f artistic types created by subtlevariations within certain we ll-defined limits. For thepresent purpose , however, it will b e enough to considerhow the phenomenon is connected with other knowncharacteristics o fGreek music

,—its limited compass and

probably imperfect tonality,the thin and passionless

quality o f its chief instrument,on the other hand the

keen sense o f differences o f pitch, the fine ly constructedrhythm, and finally the natural adaptation

,on whichwe

have already dwe lt,between the musical form and the

1 The two scho o ls distinguished by Pla to seem to b e tho se which wereafterwards known as the dpyo vmoi o r Aristo x eneans, and the ”001 1 1 1 071 1 1 01 ,who ca rried o n the traditio n o f Pythago ras . The dpp omx oi rega rded a musica linterva l a s a quantity wh ich could b e measured directly by the ea r, witho utreference to the numerica l ratio upo nwhich it might be based. They praetically ado pted the system o f equal temperament. The 1 ca 1 la71 rco 1

'

sough tfo r ra tio s, but by ex periment ‘

among the consonanceswhich are hea rd,’

as

Pla to says. Hence they fa iled equa llywith tho se whose me tho d never ro seab o ve the fa cts o f sense .

CHARACTER OF GREEK MUSIC. 1 25

language . The last is perhaps the feature o f greatestsignificance , especially in a comparison o f the ancientand modern types o f the art. The beauty and even thepersuasive effect o f a voice depend, aswe are more orless aware , in the first place upon the pitch or key inwhich it is set, and in the second place upon subtlevariations o f pitch, which give emphasis

,or light and

shade . Answering to the first o f these elements ancientmusic

,if the main contention o f this essay is right, has

its system o f Modes or keys . Answering to the secondit has a series o f scales in which the delicacy andvariety o f the intervals still fill us with wonder. In

both these points modern music shows diminishedresources. We have in the Keys the same or evena greater command o f degrees o f pitch : but we seemto have lost the close re lation which once obtainedbetween a note as the result o f physical facts and thesame note as an index o f temper or emotion . A changeo f key afiects us

,generally speaking, like a change o f

colour or o f movement— not as the he ightening orsoothing o f a state o f fee ling. In respect o f the seconde lement o f vocal expression, the rise and fall o f thepitch

, Greek music possessed in the multiplicity o f itsscales a range o f expression to which there is no

modern paralle l. The nearest analogue may b e foundin the use o f modulation from a Major to a Minor key,or the reverse . But the changes o f genus and colour ’

at the disposal o f an ancient musician must have beenacoustically more striking, and must have come nearerto reproducing

,in an idealised form,

the tones andinflex ions o f the speaking voice . The tendency o f

music that is based upon harmony is to treat the voiceas one o f a number o f instruments, and accordinglyto curtail the use o f it as the great source o f dramatic


and emotional effect. The consequence is twofo ld.

On the one hand we lose sight o f the direct influenceexerted by sound o f certain degrees o f pitch o n the

human sensibility, and thus ultimately o n character.On the other hand the music becomes an independentcreation . It may still be a vehicle o f the deepestfee ling : but it no longer seeks the aid o f language ,or reaches its aim through the channels by wh ichlanguage influences the mind o f man.



TABLE II.

Thefifleen Keys.

Mesé .

Hyper-lydian.

Hyper-aeo lian.

Hyp er-phrygian.

Hyper-io nian.

Mix o -lydian.

Lydian.

Aeo lian.

Phrygian.

Io nian .

APPENDIX.1 29

Do rian. Mese.

Hypo -lydian.

Hypo -aeo lian.

Hypo -phrygian.

Hypo -ionian.

Hyp o-do rian.

The moveab le no tes xwoép em ) are distinguished byb eing printed as cro tchets .

The two highest o f these keys— the Hyper-lydian and the

Hyper-aeo lian— appea r to have been added in the timeo f the Empire . The remaining thirteen a re attributed to

Aristo x enus in the pseudo-Euclidean Introductio (p . 1 9, 1 .

and by Aristides Quintilianus (p . 22,1 . but there is

no mention o f them in the ex tant H a rmonics. It may b e

gathered, however, from the criticism o f Heraclides Ponticus

(see the passage discussed o n pp . 9— 1 2) tha t the list o f

keys was b eing co nsiderably enla rged in his time, and

Aristo x enus, though no t named, is doub tless aimed a t there .


Music of the Orestes of Eun’

pides (1 1 . 338

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first syllab le o f the iambus has the chief accent, the do chmiuswill be co rrectly ex pressed as a musical bar o f the fo rm

IJ‘

J J I J

If the first syllab le o f the cretic is accented, the do chmiusis divided b etween two bars, and b ecomes

J‘

J J‘IJ J J

The accompaniment o r xpo am c,co nsistingo f no tes interpo sed

between the phrases o f the melody, is found by Dr .Wessely

and Dr . Crusius in the fo llowing characters :1 . The character 1 appea rs a t the end o f everydo chmius

shown by the papyrus . After the first,third and fifth it is

written in the same line with the tex t. After the seventh it iswritten ab o ve that line

,b etween two vo cal no tes. Dr. Crusius

takes it to be the instrumenta l Z , ex pla ining the difference o f

shape as due to the necessity o r co nvenience o f distinguishingit from the vo ca l Z . If tha t were so the fo rm

"Lwould surely

have been permanent, and wo uld have b een given in th e

schemes o fAlypius and Aristides Quintilianus. I venture tosuggest tha t it is a mark intended to show the end o f th e

do chmius o r ba r .

2. The group 71 3 o ccurs twice, befo re and a fter the

wo rds 81 1 1 1 631 1 There is a difficulty ab out the sign

7, which Dr . Crusius takes to b e a V oflragsz eichen. The

o ther two characters may b e instrumenta l no tes.

The do ub le 10 o f (written is interesting because itshows tha t when mo re than o ne no te went with a syllab le ,

the v owel o r diphtho ngwas repeated. This agrees with th ewell-known ei-a -a -u -et-a hio a er e Of Aristo phanes (Ran.

and is amply co nfirmed by the newly discovered hymn to

Apo llo (p .

APPENDIX.

Musica l pa rt of the Seikelos inscriptzbn.

KIZ ic z z

O I ONZ H2¢ A |NOY

K C C C X

NOI AT"! AlTEI

The inscriptio n o f which these lines fo rm part was disco vered byMr . W. M. Ramsay, and was first pub lished byhim in the Bulletin dé correspondance helle

'

nique fo r 1 883,

p . 277. It pro fesses to b e the wo rk o f a certa in 21 19101 01 .

The disco very that the sma ller letters between the lines a re

musica l no tes was made by Dr . Wessely.

The Seikelo s inscriptio n, as Dr. 0. Crusius has shown

(Philologus fo r 1 893, LII. p . is especia lly va luab le fo r the

lightwhich it throws upo n ancient rhythm. The quantity o f

the syllab les and the place o f the ictus is marked in every

case , and we a re ab le therefo re to divide the melody intob ars, which may b e represented as fo llows :

A AJ u u u — u v v v v u u u u

ff)? 4M! “ ”00°

1 1 1 1 331 1 films o f: Av npbs 6M

U U U U U V U U U

701 1 £071 76 £61 1“


The hymns recently discovered a t Delph

SINCE these sheets were in type the materials fo r the studyo f ancient Greek music have received a no tab le accession.

The French archaeo logists who are now ex cava ting on the

site o f Delphi have found several impo rtant fragments o f

lyrica l po etry, some o f them with the music no ted over thewo rds, a s in the ex amples a lready known. The two largesto f these fragments have b een shown to b elong to a single

inscriptio n, conta ining a hymn to Apo llo , which dates in a ll

pro b ability from the early pa rt o f the third century B. 0. Of

the o ther fragments the mo st considerab le is plausibly re

ferred to the first century B. c . These inscriptions have b eenpub lished in the Bulletin de correspondance helle

'

nique (viii

x II. pp . 569 with two valuab le commenta ries by M.

HenriWeil andM. Theodo re Reinach . The fo rmer scho la rdea ls with the tex t, the latter chiefly with the music.

The music o f the hymn to Apo llo is written in the vo ca lno ta tio n. The metre is the cretic o r paeo nic ( 1 2 u and

the key, a s M. Reinach has shown, is the Phrygian— the

scale o f C mino r, with the co njunct tetracho rd c— d b— d— f .

In the fo llowing transcriptio n I have fo llowedM. Reinach

ex cept in a fewmino r po ints. When two no tes are sung

to the same syllab le the vowel o r diphtho ng is repeated,a s in the fragment o f the Orestes (p . but I have

tho ught it best to adhere to the modern method.

A U 1 l~ l

[T131 1 mdapfla a khv 1 61 1 1 ra'

i 80 [1 6 yd ko v [A1 69 ri

I O I'

U A U A I'

f iber s 1m]p'

ci xpo 1 1 1 433 761 1 8: mi-yo i1 , 61481 1 0089]


1 36 THE MODES OF ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC .

G IM

'

EA1 1 1 ] 1?1 1 10Ba 015 86 1 1 8p01 1 a i Adh ere A 1 83 31 1 1 ]d 1 1 01 1

I M Y M

ya-rpcs A1 [ 1 1 01 ] 1 1 6 Ae[7e] 01 1 1 1 -6 1 1 101

-1 1 01 1 i 1 1 0

! mi -Bow oi 81 12 0 1 pe'

A- ih - r e xpv- 0e - 0 - 1 1 6- 1 1 01 1

'

3 I A

0 1 1 8 81 1 1 0 pv 1 1 1 0 Hap- 1 100 0 1

'-8o s 700 86 1 1 57

‘M Y M l o l o r U A I‘

3 8p0-1 10 [pe]r 1

’

z 1 1A1 1 70'

1

'

s AeA (pi-01 1 1 K00 -7n -Ai 803

0

8I I

v po u 1 10 -1 1 07 e 1 1 1 - v1 - 0c -701

,

M I O I M

[np]61 1 1 0 1 1 01 1 01 1 3 (1 1 6- 1 1 1-1 1 1 1 10-701 1 . [1 81 ]w 0

APPENDIX.1 37

K( 1 ) A M O

p e-ya

-A6 1 ro -A1 s’

A0-01'

s, xa i 01 p6 1 rA01 0 1 1 01'

A K l'

U A U O I' M

ou 0a Tp 1 701 1 1 1'

80s 8d[1 1 68]01 1 (I 01 1 01 1 0701 1 , 6 y1'

F A K F O M I'

K M A K A

01 9 86’

Ba) 0 1 1 1"A (paw-709 a? 06 1 1 1 6

'

01 1 1

A M O K A F M U O I O I'

1 1 1) - pa paw‘

6 006 86'

1 1 1 1 1"A-p0\lr (if 6

’

s"?

O Y O M A M O Y O M A M

A K A M M Y O M A M I'

01 6 A01 9 [1 1 6'

]A6-01 1 1 qi 881 1 1 1 p6'

-1 1 6 1'

xpv 8’

K A M O Y O M A M O

d 86-0p01 1 [s 1 10-00 p 1 9 1 101 0 1 1 1 d 1 1 0 p e'

A- ir6 -701 '

0 0 A r U o r

6 86 [Gd-1 1 1 pé'

w71 1 16-1 1 09 60 -1 1 86

’

A8 Gi 80 A0x [61 1 1 ]


The no tes employed in this piece o f music co ver ab o ut ano ctave and a half

, viz . from Parypaté Hypa ton to the Chro

matic Lichano s Hyperb o la iOn. In two o f the tetracho rds,viz . Synemmenon and Hyperb o la ién, the intervals employeda re Chromatic (o r po ssib ly Enharmo nic) : in the tetracho rdDiez eugmenon they a re Diato nic

, while in the tetracho rdMeson the Lichano s, which wo uld distinguish the genus, is

wanting. On the o ther hand there are two no tes which dono t b elong to the Phrygian key as hitherto known, viz . O,

a

semito ne b elowMesé , and B, a semitone belowNete Diez eugmenon. Ifwe assume thatwe have befo re us Chromatico f the standa rd kind (xpama the complete sca le is

F ¢ Y O M I O I'

B U A X

If the interva ls a re Enharmo nic, o r Chroma tic o f a differentvariety, the mo veab le no tes (in this case A K and A 96)willb e somewha tfla tter.

M. Reinach is particularly happy in tracing the successive

changes o f genus and key in the course o f the po em. The

o pening passage, as he shows, is Diatonic. With the men

tio n o f the Gaulish invasion (PaAa-t iiv time) we come upon the

group U A >I< (g— a b— a ) o f the Chromatic tetracho rdHyperb o laion. At the b eginning o f the seco nd fragment the intervals are aga in Diatonic, up to the po intwhere the po et turnsto address the Attic pro cession (781 , xAvriz p 6y0A61 roA1 s

'

A601'

s,m at ).

From this po int the melody lies chiefly in the Chroma tictetracho rd Synemmenon M A K I

'

(c— dD— d— f )— a mo du

lation into the key o f the sub -dominant as well as a change

o f genus. At the end o f the fragment the po et returns to

the Diatonic and the o riginal key.



< t < u < u < t

7'

6’-ir

’

1 70-A60-1 1 0-1 ro 1 1 81 1 1 6-pv xA6 1 81 431 1]

1 1 6c 76 86’

[ Iti 01 01 1

<I>o i Bo y 81 1 71 1 1 76 A[0

M. Reinach co nnects this fragmentwith a sho rter one, a lsoin the Lydian key, but no t in pa eo nic metre, viz .

E u < E u < t u

X‘ Fa o o o ga-

pa x a r ‘ éx -7a o o o o U llpl‘

yfl», a -"ep o o

M. Reinach thinks that the mode may b e the so -ca lled

Hypo -lydian (the o ctave f f The ma terials are surelyto o scanty fo r any co nclusion as to this.

The fragment D, the o nly rema ining piece which M.

Reinach has found it wo rth while to transcribe, is a lso

written in the instrumenta l no tatio n o f the Lydian key. The

metre is the glyco nic. The fragment is as fo llowsZ u Z < N

781 1 1 1 01 1 70 1 1A1 1781 1 ] 15 A6O'

8 v

ypé x

8601 1 071 Kpr) 0151 1 1 1 1 01 1 1 06'

70s A6A¢6 1 1

APPENDIX . 1 41

817 701 1 9 d -

xo u [010001 1 9] 76 upo a'miAms

u F C <

1 ip-

X1‘

1 1 1 08-567'

0 71 ) pci-rcp 00A

This piece also is referred by M. Reinach to the Hypo

lydian mode . It may surely b e o bjected that o f three placesin which we may fa irly suppo se tha t we have the end o f

a metrical divisio n, v iz . tho se which end with the wo rdsA6A¢631 1 , 171 1 001 17v 1 9 and dynpdr tp, two present us With cadences

o n the Mese (d), and one on the Hypate (a ) . This seems to

po int strongly to the Mino r Mode .

On the who le it would seem that the o nly mode (in the

modern sense o f the wo rd) o fwhich the newdisco veries tellus anything is a mode practica lly identicalwith the modern

Mino r . I venture to think this a confirmatio n,as signa l

as itwas unex pected, o f the ma in contentio n o f this treatise .

It do es no t seem to have b een o bserved by M. Weil o r

M. Reinach tha t in a ll these pieces o f music there is the

same remarkab le co rrespondence b etween the melody and

the accentuatio n tha t has b een po inted o ut in the case o f

the Seikelo s inscription (pp. 90, It canno t indeed besaid tha t every acute accent co incides with a rise o f pitchbut the no te o f an accented syllab le is a lmo st a lways fo llowed by a no te o f lower pitch . Ex ceptio ns are

,1 126x01 1

,iva

(which may have practically lo st its accent, cp . the ModernGreek 1 1 ci), and pékm (if rightly resto red) . The fa ll o f pitchin the two no tes o f a circumflex ed syllab le is ex emplified in

”GW GIOV , 6 1 1 , I‘

aAa r iiv, 4108801 1 , 131 8020 1,1 1A1 170

'

1

'

9, 3 1 1 1 1 1 01 0 1 1 1 , 61 1 08 : the

o ppo site case o ccurs o nly once, in 01 10761 1 . The o bserva tionh o lds no t o nly o f the chief hymn, but o f all the fragments.

INDEX

OF PASSAGES DISCUSSED OR REFERRED TO.

AUTHOR PAGE

Anonymi Scriptio de Musica , 28 (the modes employed on

different instruments)63

- 64 (761 1 01 769 (1 1 101 159)

Aristides Quintilianus (ed. Meib .)

p . 1 0 (Lichano s)p . 1 3 (etho s o fmusic)p . 1 5 ( 1 1 07081 606 1 9 01 1 1 1 0140)p . 2 1 (Mo des in Pla to

’

s Republic)p . 28 (761701 769 (1 1 01 1 169)

Aristo phanes, Eq. 985—996 (Do rianMode )

Aristo tleMetaphysics, iv . 1 1 , p . 1 01 8 b 26 (671703) 46

P o litics , iv . 3, p . 1 290 a 20 (Do rian and Phrygian) 1 05viii. 5

-7, pp . 1 340- 1 342 (etho s o fmusic) 9, 1 2, 1 3, 1 07

v iii.7, p . 1 342 a 32 (PhrygianMode) 1 2,1 3, 1 07

P roblems, x ix . 20, p . 9 1 9 a 1 3 (Mesé ) 43, 82, 1 02, 1 0726, p . 9 1 9 b 2 1 (dpp om

’

a 55

33. p 920 a 1 9 1Hypaté ) 44

36 P 920 b7(Mesé ) 44

47, p . 922 b 3 (heptacho rd scales) 33

48, p . 922 b 1 0 modes used by cho rus; 1 4

49, p . 922 b 3 1 (high and lowpitch) 1 5Rhetoric, ill. I , p . 1 403 b 27(761 1 09 and dpp om

'

a ) 1 5



AUTHOR PAGE

Pluta rch

DeMusica , C. 6 (dpp om’

a t)cc. 1 5

- 17(Plato nic modes)0. 1 9 (761 1 09, 6pp o via )

Degener.Mundi, p . 1 029 c (Pro slamb anomeno s)

Po llux , Onom. iv .78 ( 1 1 1 1 1 1 01 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 671 1771 1 1 00Pratinas ap . Athen. x iv . p . 624f ( 1 1 1376 061 1701 01 1

Pto lemyHa rm. i. 1 3 (musica l ratio s o f Archytas)

i. 1 6 ( 1)-y6 1 1 61 1 1 =highest no te )ibid. (scales o f the citha ra )ibid. (Pythago rean division)ii. 6 (modulation)ii.7(pitch o f scales)ii. 1 6 (sca les o f the cithara )

SeikelOs inscrip tion

Telestes ap . Athen. x iv . p . 625f (Phrygian and Lydian) .

Theo n Smyrnaeus, c . 8 (enlargement o f scale)

THE END

Documents

Tﬁe Mo es - Forgotten BooksPREFACE so-call ed Seikelo s inscription from Trall es and a frag ment o f the Orestes o f Euripid es But a much gr eat er surpris e was in stor e. Th