When we think of Greece, it is Athens, the centre of Greek art and
culture, that comes to mind. An ancient city, Athens, as history
teaches us. The record is that it was founded by Cecrops, who brought
a colony from Egypt, in 1556 B. C., a period when Egypt was a centre
of power, wealth, education and science. Therefore we infer that these
colonists brought with them to Greece the ordinary, popular music and
instruments to which they had become accustomed in their home. But
there was an older Greece; for late discoveries show that there were
five cities, each built upon the ruins of an older city, the first
one going back to 2500 B. C. These earlier inhabitants, themselves an
offshoot of the great Aryan race, were absorbed by the colonists.
=Music and Myth in Greece=.—The beginnings of music in Greece are
mingled with myths: Pan, Apollo, Mercury, Athene and others appear as
the patrons and exemplars of the musical art. Aside from the names of
the mythical gods and goddesses, there are names of human beings that
stand out with clearness. These early musicians were singers or bards
who chanted the songs composed in honor of chiefs and tribal heroes.
Such were Hyagnis, 1506 B. C., Marsyas, his son, and Olympus the elder,
Orpheus, Musæus (1426 B. C.), chief of the Eleusinian mysteries, Linus,
Amphion, Thaletes, whose songs were favorites of Pythagoras; the
greatest of these bards was the blind Homer, to whom the date 900 B.
C. is assigned. “By the Greeks, music as an art was considered an aid
in regulating by rule the inflections of the voice, to mark the places
of emphasis, and to define the pauses in the recitation of their epic
poetry; and the rhythm of their songs followed strictly laws that had
been laid down; innovation was reprehended, and even prohibited.”[4]
=Early Greek Musicians and Writers=.—The earliest musician’s name
met with in the annals of music is that of =Terpander= (676 B. C),
who is said to have increased the number of strings on the lyre from
four to seven. Next in order was =Pythagoras= (585-505 B. C.), who
added an eighth string to the lyre. He was called the discoverer of
the Tetrachord, which is still known by this name, the inventor or
discoverer of the Octave Scale, also the discoverer of the ratios of
the consonances; but there is no doubt that he learned all these things
during his sojourn in Egypt. He is also credited with the invention of
the Canon or Monochord with movable bridges, a contrivance still in use
for investigating the ratios of intervals. Unfortunately none of the
writings—if any ever existed—of Pythagoras have come down to us. Our
knowledge of his theories is second-hand, gathered from the writings
of his disciples. Pythagoras seems to have studied sound more in the
manner of the acoustician than of the musician; hence his followers,
or rather those who called themselves by his name, were more concerned
with the ratios of sounds than with their musical effects.
Among the great philosophers who treated on music, =Aristotle= (384 B.
C.) holds an important place. We find his theories expressed in one
of his works called “Problems.” A pupil of his—=Aristoxenus= (350-320
B. C.), has left the most valuable treatise on music, of any of the
ancients, the oldest musical work known at the present time; it is,
unfortunately, not complete. Aristoxenus was a practical, in addition
to being a theoretical musician; he thought that the ear was the final
court of appeal in matters musical. Hence the musical world was divided
into two factions: the Pythagoreans, who held that music was purely
a matter for arithmetical investigation, and the Aristoxenians, who
claimed that the chief end of music was to be listened to. This dispute
lasted for many centuries. =Boethius=, the Roman philosopher, in his
writings takes sides with the Pythagoreans and pours contempt on the
mere musician. The successors of the Pythagoreans are even yet not
extinct, as every now and again some wiseacre turns up with a scheme
to secure just intonation, at the price of losing all that music has
gained under our present system. =Plato= (430 B. C.), the greatest
of philosophers, has much to say about music; but these sayings are
largely incomprehensible to modern understandings. =Euclid= (323 B.
C.), the great mathematician, treated largely of music.[5] =Aristides
Quintilianus= was another author of great weight. =Plutarch=, in
his _Symposia_, has one devoted to music, but unfortunately the
meaning of these authors is often so obscure that it cannot now be
discovered. Alexandria, in Egypt, came into prominence in music when
the great library was founded there by Alexander the Great, in 332
B. C. =Eratosthenes= (276-196 B. C.), the librarian, figures in the
mathematics of music. When we reach the Christian Era, we meet with two
more writers, =Didymus= (A. D. 60), who introduced the “minor”[6] tone
into the scale, and =Claudius Ptolemy= (A. D. 130).
=The Music of Ancient Greece the Foundation of Modern European
Music=.—Although the history of European music properly begins with the
music of Ancient Greece, we are still very ignorant of the subject,
owing to the fact that there is not in existence a note of music
anterior to the Christian Era. But lately, in the ancient treasure
house at Delphi, a hymn was found inscribed in marble on the inner
wall. Mr. J. P. Mahaffy, an authority in matters pertaining to Greek
literature, says: “The time is given by the metre, a long syllable
and three short, variously placed, or two long and a short between
them, in every case 5-8 in a measure.... As regards the accompaniment
or harmonizing of the air, there is none extant. [As to the melody]
although there is rhythm and even a recurrence of phrases to mark the
close of the period, nothing worthy of being called melody in any
modern sense is to be found.” The inscription dates from the third
century before Christ, is a hymn to Apollo and the Muses, and consists
of phrases equal to eighty measures in our modern reckoning. The blank
spaces in the measure were filled in by an instrument, probably the
cithara. Our knowledge is confined to the treatises of mathematicians
and musicians, previously mentioned, and these works are often so
obscure that there is much uncertainty as to their meaning. Besides,
these writings are scattered over a period of about 800 years; that
is, from 585 B. C., the date of Pythagoras, to 130 A. D., the date
of Claudius Ptolemy. Numberless changes took place in the art in
the course of this long period; hence the attempt to elucidate a
homogeneous system by comparing these writings is about as hopeless
as would be the attempt to deduce the modern system of music from the
collocation of the works of Guido and Hucbald of the 10th century with
those of Richter and Prout in the 19th.
[Illustration: Music HYMN TO APOLLO AND THE MUSES.]
We owe much to the labors of these bygone writers; in fact, the
Greek system of music is the foundation upon which the modern system
is the superstructure. No attempt will be made here to settle the
many disputed points that have puzzled the learned for ten or more
centuries, but a clear and concise account of all that is necessary
to an understanding of the place of this system in the historical
development of music will be given.
=Formation of the Greek Scale=.—The Greek Scale was founded on a
tetrachord or succession of four sounds, arranged as follows: