The Modes of Ancient Greek Music Part 12

According to Ptolemy (i. 13) the Pythagorean philosopher Archytas was the author of a new division of the tetrachord for each of the three genera. In it the natural Major Third (5: 4) was given for the large interval of the Enharmonic, in place of the Pythagorean ditone (81: 64); and the Diatonic was the same as the Middle Soft Diatonic of Ptolemy. But, as Westphal long ago pointed out (_Harmonik und Melopoie_, p. 230, ed. 1863), this scheme is probably the work of the later Pythagorean school. It seems to be unknown to Plato and Aristoxenus,--the latter wrote a life of Archytas--and also to Euclid, as we have seen. The next scheme of musical ratios is that of Eratosthenes, who makes no use of the natural Major Third.]

In Plato's time, as we can see from a well-known pa.s.sage of the _Republic_ (quoted on p. 53), the Enharmonic and Chromatic scales were the object of much zealous study and experiment on the part of musicians of different schools,--some seeking to measure and compare the intervals directly by the ear, others to find numbers in the consonances which they heard, and both, from the Platonic point of view, 'setting ears above intelligence,' and therefore labouring in vain[1].

The multiplicity of intervals, then, which surprises us in the doctrine of the _genera_ and 'colours' was not an accident or excrescence. And although some of the finer varieties, such as the Enharmonic, belong only to the early or cla.s.sical period, there is enough to show that it continued to be characteristic of the Greek musical system, at least until the revival of h.e.l.lenism in the age of the Antonines. The grounds of this peculiarity may be sought partly in the Greek temperament. We can hardly deny the Greeks the credit of a fineness of sensibility upon which civilisation, to say the least, has made no advance. We may note further how entirely it is in accordance with the a.n.a.logies of Greek art to find a series of artistic types created by subtle variations within certain well-defined limits. For the present purpose, however, it will be enough to consider how the phenomenon is connected with other known characteristics of Greek music,--its limited compa.s.s and probably imperfect tonality, the thin and pa.s.sionless quality of its chief instrument, on the other hand the keen sense of differences of pitch, the finely constructed rhythm, and finally the natural adaptation, on which we have already dwelt, between the musical form and the language. The last is perhaps the feature of greatest significance, especially in a comparison of the ancient and modern types of the art. The beauty and even the persuasive effect of a voice depend, as we are more or less aware, in the first place upon the pitch or key in which it is set, and in the second place upon subtle variations of pitch, which give emphasis, or light and shade. Answering to the first of these elements ancient music, if the main contention of this essay is right, has its system of Modes or keys. Answering to the second it has a series of scales in which the delicacy and variety of the intervals still fill us with wonder. In both these points modern music shows diminished resources. We have in the Keys the same or even a greater command of degrees of pitch: but we seem to have lost the close relation which once obtained between a note as the result of physical facts and the same note as an index of temper or emotion.

A change of key affects us, generally speaking, like a change of colour or of movement--not as the heightening or soothing of a state of feeling. In respect of the second element of vocal expression, the rise and fall of the pitch, Greek music possessed in the multiplicity of its scales a range of expression to which there is no modern parallel. The nearest a.n.a.logue may be found in the use of modulation from a Major to a Minor key, or the reverse. But the changes of genus and 'colour' at the disposal of an ancient musician must have been acoustically more striking, and must have come nearer to reproducing, in an idealised form, the tones and inflexions of the speaking voice.

The tendency of music that is based upon harmony is to treat the voice as one of a number of instruments, and accordingly to curtail the use of it as the great source of dramatic and emotional effect.

The consequence is twofold. On the one hand we lose sight of the direct influence exerted by sound of certain degrees of pitch on the human sensibility, and thus ultimately on character. On the other hand the music becomes an independent creation. It may still be a vehicle of the deepest feeling: but it no longer seeks the aid of language, or reaches its aim through the channels by which language influences the mind of man.

[Footnote 1: The two schools distinguished by Plato seem to be those which were afterwards known as the [Greek: harmonikoi] or Aristoxeneans, and the [Greek: mathematikoi], who carried on the tradition of Pythagoras. The [Greek: harmonikoi] regarded a musical interval as a quant.i.ty which could be measured directly by the ear, without reference to the numerical ratio upon which it might be based. They practically adopted the system of equal temperament. The [Greek: mathematikoi] sought for ratios, but by experiment 'among the consonances which are heard,' as Plato says. Hence they failed equally with those whose method never rose above the facts of sense.]

APPENDIX

TABLE I.

_Scales of the seven oldest Keys, with the species of the same name._ [Music: Mixo-lydian. _b_-species.]

[Music: Lydian. _c_-species.]

[Music: Phrygian. _d_-species.]

[Music: Dorian. _e_-species.]

[Music: Hypo-lydian. _f_-species.]

[Music: Hypo-phrygian. _g_-species.]

[Music: Hypo-dorian. _a_-species.]

TABLE II.

_The fifteen Keys._ Mese.

[Music: Hyper-lydian.]

[Music: Hyper-aeolian.]

[Music: Hyper-phrygian.]

[Music: Hyper-ionian.]

[Music: Mixo-lydian.]

[Music: Lydian.]

[Music: Aeolian.]

[Music: Phrygian.]

[Music: Ionian.] Mese.

[Music: Dorian.]

[Music: Hypo-lydian.]

[Music: Hypo-aeolian.]

[Music: Hypo-phrygian.]

[Music: Hypo-ionian.]

[Music: Hypo-dorian.]

The moveable notes ([Greek: phthongoi kinoumenoi]) are distinguished by being printed as crotchets.

The two highest of these keys--the Hyper-lydian and the Hyper-aeolian--appear to have been added in the time of the Empire.

The remaining thirteen are attributed to Aristoxenus in the pseudo-Euclidean _Introductio_ (p. 19, l. 30), and by Aristides Quintilia.n.u.s (p. 22, l. 30): but there is no mention of them in the extant _Harmonics_. It may be gathered, however, from the criticism of Heraclides Ponticus (see the pa.s.sage discussed on pp. 9-12) that the list of keys was being considerably enlarged in his time, and Aristoxenus, though not named, is doubtless aimed at there. Music of the 'Orestes' of Euripides (ll. 338-344).

[Symbols: II P C. P? 40 n] [Greek: katoloPHYROMAIZMATEROS haima sas]

[Symbols: Z (?)..1' "Z E E (?)] [Greek: ho s' anab AKCHEUEIZOMEGAs...o...b..s ou]

[Symbols:-ii P C. I' Z] [Greek: monimoSEMBROTOISZANA de laiphos]

[Symbols: C P-A C p-i?. c,] [Greek: hos tiSAKATOUTHOASTINAxas dai-]

[Symbols:] [Greek: mon KATEKLYSEN deinon]

[Symbols: Z re. z?] [Greek: ponoN[Symbols:???]ooSPONT ou]

[Symbols: I C: C: Pvl(?) 40(?)] [Greek: olethrIoiSIN en kymasin]

[Music: Restoration proposed by Dr. Crusius.

[Greek: kat-o-lo-phu-ro-mai ma-te-ros ai-ma sas o s ana-bak-cheu-ei. o me-gas ol-bos ou mon-i-mos en Bro-tois a-na de lai-phos hos tis a-ka-tou tho-as ti-na-xas dai-mon kat-ek-ly-sen dei-non po-non hos pon-tou lab-rois o-leth-ri-oi-sin en ky-ma-sin]

The metre is dochmiac, each dochmius consisting of an iambus followed by a cretic, [Symbols: u--u-]. The points which seem to mark the ictus, or rhythmical accent, are found on the first syllable of each of these two feet. If we a.s.sume that the first syllable of the iambus has the chief accent, the dochmius will be correctly expressed as a musical bar of the form--

[Music]

If the first syllable of the cretic is accented, the dochmius is divided between two bars, and becomes--

[Music]

The accompaniment or [Greek: krousis], consisting of notes interposed between the phrases of the melody, is found by Dr. Wessely and Dr.

Crusius in the following characters:

1. The character [Symbols:] appears at the end of every dochmius shown by the papyrus. After the first, third and fifth it is written in the same line with the text. After the seventh it is written above that line, between two vocal notes. Dr. Crusius takes it to be the instrumental [Symbols: Z], explaining the difference of shape as due to the necessity or convenience of distinguis.h.i.+ng it from the vocal [Symbols: Z]. If that were so the form [Symbols: 1.] would surely have been permanent, and would have been given in the schemes of Alypius and Aristides Quintilia.n.u.s. I venture to suggest that it is a mark intended to show the end of the dochmius or bar.

2. The group [Symbols: 21 D] occurs twice, before and after the words [Greek: deinon ponon]. There is a difficulty about the sign [Symbols: 2], which Dr. Crusius takes to be a _Vortragszeichen_. The other two characters may be instrumental notes.

The double [Greek: o] of [Greek: hos] (written [Greek: ooS]) is interesting because it shows that when more than one note went with a syllable, the vowel or diphthong was repeated. This agrees with the well-known [Greek: hei-ei-ei-ei-ei-eilissete] of Aristophanes (_Ran._ 1314), and is amply confirmed by the newly discovered hymn to Apollo (p. 134). _Musical part of the Seikelos inscription._

[Symbols: C Z Z KIZ I] [Greek: OSONZeSPHAINOU]

[Symbols: K I Z IK O] [Greek: MeDENOLoSSY]

[Symbols: E., C O i; C K Z] [Greek: LYPOUPOSOLI]

[Symbols: I IC I K C OZ] [Greek: GONESt.i.tOZeN]

[Symbols: C K O i [.Z]] [Greek: TOTELOSOCHRO]

[Symbols: K C [=C] C [.=X]] [Greek: NOSAPAITEI]