The Greeks Lived Their Music—The Romans Used Greek Patterns
The Greeks “dwelt with beauty” and believed it to be a part of being
good, and they strove to make everything beautiful. Beauty to the Greeks
was a religion. Had this not been so, we would not have the Venus de
Milo, the Parthenon in Athens, the Hermes, the Winged Victory (Niké of
Samothrace) and all the other Greek masterpieces which no modern
sculptor or builder has surpassed.
It is interesting to see a nation 400 years before the time of Christ
and even earlier, making glorious art works in stone, and writing the
greatest plays the world has ever had, being more grown up than modern
nations, and yet as far as we know an infant in the art of music. We
have only the slightest idea of how their music sounded as they had no
accurate way of writing it, and had only very primitive instruments.
Although when compared to their other arts their music was not great,
still it was very important to them and they used it constantly with
poetry, dancing, and in the drama.
The word music was first used by the Greeks and has been carried into
nearly every language; we find _musique_ in French, _Musik_ in German,
_musica_ in Italian, and so on.
Music, according to the Greeks, was an art which combined not only the
playing of instruments, singing and dancing, but also all the arts and
sciences, including mathematics and everything in the universe. It took
its name from the Muses, and they believed that it led to the beautiful
accord and harmony of the world.
The nine Muses were daughters of Jupiter, and each presided over some
particular department of literature, art and science.
Clio: Muse of History and Epic Poetry. She is shown in statues and
pictures holding a half open scroll.
Thalia: Muse of Joy and Comedy (drama) with a comic mask in one hand and
a crooked staff in the other.
Erato: Muse of Lyric Poetry, inspired those who wrote of love. She plays
on a nine-stringed lyre.
Euterpe: Muse of Lyric Song, patroness of music especially of flute
players. She holds two flutes (_auloi_).
Polyhymnia: Muse of Sacred Song. She holds her forefinger to her lips or
carries a scroll.
Calliope: Muse of Eloquence and Epic Poetry, holds a roll of parchment,
or a trumpet.
Terpsichore: Muse of the Dance, presiding over choral, dance and song.
She appears dancing with a seven-stringed lyre.
Urania: Muse of Astronomy, holds the globe and traces mathematical
figures with a wand.
Melpomene: Muse of Tragedy (drama), leans on a club and holds a tragic
mask.
MYTHS AND LEGENDS
The myths and legends of the ancient Greeks read like fairy tales, but
to the Greeks they were what our Bible stories are to us. In their rich
mythology we find many stories about the beginnings of music.
To Pan, the god of woods and fields, of flocks and shepherds, is given
the credit of inventing the shepherd’s pipe, or Pan’s Pipes. He lived in
grottoes, wandered on the mountains and in the valleys, and amused
himself hunting, leading the dances of the nymphs, and playing on his
pipes.
PAN’S PIPES
A beautiful nymph named Syrinx was loved by Pan, but every time that he
tried to tell her of his love, she became frightened and ran away, for
Pan was a funny looking lover with goat’s legs, a man’s body, and long
pointed ears. One day he chased her through the woods to the bank of a
river; she called out in fright, and was suddenly changed by her friends
the Water Nymphs, into a clump of tall reeds. When he reached out to
embrace her, instead of Syrinx, he had the clump of reeds in his arms!
As he sighed in disappointment, his breath passing through the reeds,
produced a sad wail. Pan, hearing in it a plaintive song, broke off the
reeds in unequal lengths, bound them together, and made the first
musical instrument, which he called a syrinx in memory of his lost
sweetheart. These pipes comforted Pan, and he played many tender
melodies, and often without being seen, was known to be near by his
lovely music.
Pan, although adored, was feared. At one time, Brennus, a warrior, with
a company of Gauls (a tribe from ancient France), attacked the Temple of
Delphi (in Greece), and was about to destroy it, when suddenly they
turned and fled in fear although no one pursued them. Their terror was
supposed to have been of Pan’s making, and to this day we use the word
“panic” (Pan-ic) for all sudden overpowering fright.
APOLLO
Pan is supposed to have taught music to Apollo, the god of Music and of
the Sun. You have seen statues of him with a lyre in his hands. As Pan’s
pupil he learned to play the syrinx so beautifully that he won a prize
in a contest with Marsyas, a mortal who played the flute invented
(according to the Greek legend), by Pallas Athene. This goddess was
sometimes known as Musica or Musician. When Cupid saw her play the flute
he laughed at her because she made such queer faces. This angered her,
and she flung her flute away. It fell down from Mt. Olympus to the
earth, and Marsyas picked it up and became such a skilful player that he
challenged the god Apollo to a contest for flute championship of the
world! The day came and Apollo won the prize, but put Marsyas to death
for daring to challenge him—a god. Apollo afterwards was very sorry and
broke all the strings of his lyre and placed it with his flutes in a
haunt of Dionysus (god of Wine), to whom he consecrated these
instruments.
These stories are not only a part of the ancient Greek religion but they
have become, on account of their beauty, a rich source of plot and story
for the works of musicians, artists and writers from the days of
antiquity to our own time.
ORPHEUS
One of the favorite Greek stories has been that of Orpheus, who went
down to Hades to bring his dead wife whom he adored, back to earth, and
about whom Peri, Gluck, and others wrote operas. He was son of Apollo
and of Calliope, the Muse of Epic Poetry, and became such a fine
performer on all instruments, that he charmed all things animate and
inanimate. He tamed wild birds and beasts, and even the trees and rocks
followed him as he played, the winds and the waves obeyed him, and he
soothed and made the Dragon, who guarded the Golden Fleece, gentle and
harmless.
On the cruise of the _Argo_ in search of the Golden Fleece, Orpheus not
only succeeded in launching the boat when the strength of the heroes had
failed in the task, but when they were passing the islands of the
Sirens, he sang so loudly and so sweetly that the Sirens’ songs could
not be heard and the crew were saved.
MUSIC IN THEIR DAILY LIFE
When a people have legends about music you may know that they love it.
Such was the case with the Greeks. They did not call their schools high
schools and colleges but Music schools, and everything that we call
learning they included under the name of music. Every morning the little
Greek boy was sent to the Music school where he was taught the things
that were considered necessary for a citizen to know. Here he learned
gymnastics, poetry, and music. At home too, music was quite as important
as in school, and we know that they had folk songs which had to do with
the deeds of ordinary life, such as farming and winemaking and
grape-picking, and the effect and beauty of the seasons of the year.
(See Chap. IX.) They can well be divided into songs of joy and songs of
sorrow, and seem to have existed even before Homer the Blind Bard. If
you ever have tried to dance or do your daily dozen without music, you
will understand at once how much help music always has been to people as
they worked.
HARVEST SONGS
All harvest songs in Greece had the name of Lytiersis. Lytiersis was the
son of King Midas, known as the richest king in the world. Lytiersis was
a king himself but also a mighty reaper, and according to Countess
Martinengo-Cesaresco who has written a book called _Essays in the Study
of Folk-Songs_ it was his “habit to indulge in trials of strength with
his companions and with strangers who were passing by. He tied the
vanquished up in sheaves and beat them. One day he defied an unknown
stranger, who proved too strong for him and by whom he was slain.” The
first harvest song was composed to console King Midas for the death of
his son. We can make a fable from this story which means that Nature and
Man are always struggling against each other.
The harvest festivals founded in Greece led to others in Brittany,
France, North Germany and England. So does the deed of one race affect
other races.
THE LITURGIES
Among the taxes, or five special liturgies, that the Greeks had to pay,
was the obligation for certain rich citizens to supply the Greek
tragedies with the chorus. Every Greek play had its chorus and every
chorus had to have its structures; a choregic monument to celebrate it;
one or more flute players, costumes, crowns, decorations, teachers for
the chorus and everything else to make it succeed. This cost, which
would equal many thousands of dollars, was undertaken as a duty quite as
easily as our men of wealth pay their income taxes. You can see a
greatly enlarged copy of a choregic monument, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’
monument at 89th Street and Riverside Drive, in New York City, and also
one at the Metropolitan Museum.
In old Greece the musicians were also poets. Homer, Hesiod, Pindar,
Æschylus, Sophocles, Sappho, Euripides, Plato, not only wrote their
dramas but knew what music should be played with them. In fact no play
was complete without its chorus and its music and its flute-player. You
have heard of the Greek chorus. Don’t for a moment think it was like our
chorus. It consisted of a group of masked actors (all actors in those
days wore masks), who appeared between the acts and intoned (chanted)
the meaning of the play and subsequent events. In fact the chorus took
the place of a libretto,—“words and music of the opera,” for it
explained to the audience what it should expect. It spoke and sang some
of the most important lines of the play and danced in appropriate
rhythms. So it brought together word, action and music, and was a remote
ancestor of opera, oratorio and ballet.
FESTIVALS
Besides the occupational songs and those for the drama festivals, the
Greeks had the great game festivals where in some, not only competitions
in sports took place but also flute playing and singing. The oldest of
these festivals was the Olympic games, first held in 776 B.C. and every
four years thereafter. These games played so important a part in the
lives of the Greeks that their calendar was divided into Olympiads
instead of years. While music was evident in the Olympic games, music
and poetry were never among the competitions.
The Pythian games were chiefly musical and poetic contests and were
started in Delphi, 586 B.C., where they were held every nine years in
honor of the Delphian Apollo whose shrine was at Delphi. The Isthmian
and Nemean games were also based on poetic and musical contests.
Warriors, statesmen, philosophers, artists and writers went to these
games and took part in them. Maybe some time we will realize the power
of music as did the Greeks nearly one thousand years before the birth of
Jesus.
THE GREEK SCALES
While, as we said before, we know very little about the melodies of the
Greeks, we do know something about their scales, upon which the church
music of the Middle Ages was based, as are our own major and minor
scales. In fact the most important contribution Greece made to our music
was the scale. They had a very complicated system and no one is quite
sure how it worked.
We have the two modes or kinds of scales, major and minor, which we use
in different keys, but the Greeks had at least seven different modes
used in many different ways. They used one mode for martial or military
music, another for funeral ceremonies, another for their temple music,
and curiously enough, our own C major scale they used for their popular
music, for drinking songs, and light festivities.
The Greek scales were based on _tetrachords_, from the Greek words
tetra-four, chord-string that is, a group of four strings. If you play
on the piano B C D E and C D E F and D E F G you will find the three
tetrachords that formed the _primary modes_ of the Greeks:—Dorian,
Phrygian and Lydian.
Perhaps you have heard in Greek architecture of the Doric column which
came from Doria, a province in Greece, and the Ionic column, from Ionia,
and so on. In the same way the scales were named for sections of the
country from which they first came, Dorian mode, Ionian, Æolian,
Phrygian, Lydian, etc.
The Greek tetrachord was formed on the interval of a fourth, for example
from E to A—these were called _standing tones_, because the intervals
between the two standing tones or permanent tones could be changed but
the first and the fourth always remained the same—
Dorian, ⏜E F⏜ G A: Phrygian, E ⏜F G⏜ A ⏜G# A⏜
½ ½ ½
step step step
By putting two tetrachords together all the other Greek scales were
formed. These fell into two classes, and according to Cecil Forsyth in
his _History of Music_ these classes were called the _join_ and the
_break_. When the second tetrachord began on the fourth tone of the
first tetrachord, Mr. Forsyth calls it the _joining_ method, thus.
[Illustration: ⎴E͡FGA⎴——⎴A͡B♭CD⎴]
When the second tetrachord began on the tone above the fourth tone of
the first tetrachord, he calls it the _breaking_ method, thus:
[Illustration: ⎴E͡FGA⎴ ⎴B͡CDE⎴]
By using the _join_ and the _break_ with each of the three modes,
Dorian, Phrygian and Lydian, you can see to what a great variety of
scales and names this would lead. The Greeks spoke of their scales from
the top note down, instead of from the lowest note up, as we do.
The first _kithara_ was supposed to have been an instrument of four
strings that could be tuned in any of these different ways, with the
half-step either between the first and second strings, or between the
second and third, or between the third and fourth. Two instruments tuned
differently formed the complete scale, but it did not take long to add
strings to their lyres and kitharas so that they could play an entire
scale on one instrument.
The little Greek boy was taught in school to tune the scale according to
the fourth string of his lyre, which was the _home tone_ or what we
should call _tonic_. Our tonic falls on the first degree of the scale,
but in the _primary modes_ of the Greeks, the tonic fell on the fourth
degree, and was called the _final_. When the final was on pitch all the
other strings had to be tuned to it.
These tetrachords are supposed to have been perfected by Terpander, in
the six hundreds before Christ. His melodies were called _nomes_ and
were supposed to have had a fine moral effect on the Spartan youth in
giving him spirit and courage. The Greeks thought that all music and
that every one of their modes had a special effect on conduct and
character.
After the Messenian war, Sparta was in such a state of upheaval that the
Delphian oracle was consulted. The answer was:
“When Terpander’s Cithar shall sound
Contention in Sparta shall cease.”
So the Spartans called upon Terpander to help them, and through the
power of his song all was peace again.
Terpander collected Asiatic, Egyptian, Æolian and Bœotian melodies all
of which are unfortunately lost; he invented a new notation and enlarged
the kithara from four strings to seven. Arion, Alcæus and the great
poetess Sappho were his pupils, and Sappho is often shown in statues
with a six stringed kithara.
Most of these poet singers were called “lyric poets” because they sang
to the accompaniment of the lyre.
PYTHAGORAS
The Greeks were the first to write down their music, or to make a
musical notation whereby the singers and players knew what tones to use.
Their system was their alphabet with certain alterations. They had names
describing each tone not unlike our use of the word _tonic_ for the
first degree of the scale, and _dominant_ for the fifth and so on.
Of course they did not have the _staff_ and _treble_ and _bass clefs_ as
we have, but they were groping for some way of recording music in those
far away days.
Pythagoras as far back as 584–504 B.C., not only influenced the music in
the classical Greek period (400 B.C.), but down to and throughout the
Middle Ages to the Renaissance (1500s). To this day music is based on
his mathematical discovery. He worked out a theory of numbers based on
the idea that all nature was governed by the law of numbers and modern
scientists have proven that he was correct in many of his ideas. In fact
our orchestras and pianos are tuned in accordance with his theories.
He invented an instrument called the monochord which consisted of a
hollow wooden box with one string and movable fret. He discovered that
when he divided the string exactly in half by means of the fret, the
tone produced was an octave higher than the tone given out by striking
the entire string; one-third of the string produced the interval of a
fifth above the octave; one-fourth the length of the string produced a
fourth above the fifth; one-fifth produced a third (large or major)
above the fourth; one-sixth produced a third (small or minor);
one-seventh produced a slightly smaller third and one-eighth produced a
large second, three octaves above the sound of the entire string:
[Illustration: (FUNDAMENTAL TONE)]
The truth of Pythagoras’ theory of tone relationship has been proven by
an experiment in physics showing that all of the above tones belong to
the same tone family. An amusing experiment can be made by pressing
silently any one of the tones marked 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 8, and striking
the fundamental tone sharply, the key you are pressing silently will
sound so that you can distinctly hear its pitch.
The Greeks seem to have had no harmony (that is, combining of two or
more tones in chords) outside of the natural result of men’s voices and
women’s singing together. But they had groups of singers answering each
other in what is called _antiphony_ (anti-against, phony-sound). Even
our American Indians have their song leader and chorus answering each
other.
Greek rhythm followed the rhythm of the spoken word and was considered a
part of their poetic system.
GREEK INSTRUMENTS
We have already spoken of the _syrinx_, Pan’s Pipes, the instrument of
Pan, the satyrs and of the shepherds; the _monochord_, Pythagoras’
invention; the _lyre_ and _kithara_; and the flute or _aulos_.
The lyre, of the family of stringed instruments, was the Greek national
instrument. It was the first to be used in their musical competitions,
and helped in the forming of the Greek modes. These were of two types,
the lyre and the kithara. The first lyres which came down from the age
of myths and fables were originally made of the shell of a tortoise and
had four strings (the tetrachord) and later seven and even more strings.
This form of the lyre was called _chelys_, or the tortoise, and was used
for accompanying drinking songs and popular love songs.
The _kithara_ was also called lyre, but was not made of the body of the
tortoise, and it became the Greek concert instrument, and was only used
by professionals, while the _chelys_ was used in the home. It came
originally from Asia Minor and Egypt. It had four strings at first but
these were gradually added to, until there were fifteen and eighteen
strings. It was sometimes small and sometimes large, and was held to the
body by means of a sling and was played with a plectrum or pick.
The Greek flute or _aulos_ was a wood-wind instrument more like our oboe
than our flute. It was usually played in pairs, that is, one person
played two flutes or _auloi_ of different sizes at one time, and they
were V shaped. There was a group of _auloi_ differing in range like the
human voice differs, and covering three octaves from the bass _aulos_ to
the soprano.
The _aulos_ was first a single wooden pipe with three or four finger
holes which later were increased to fifteen or sixteen so that the three
modes Dorian, Phrygian and Lydian, could be played on one pair of
_auloi_. About six centuries before the Christian era, the double flute
became the instrument of the Delphian and Pythian musical competitions.
In the chorus too, we read that for each drama there was a special
_aulos_ soloist who always played the double flute.
There were other type instruments such as the war trumpets, trumpets
used in the temple services, and harps (_magadis_) that were brought
from Egypt, but the real instruments of the Greeks pictured in their
sculpture and on their vases and urns, and spoken of in their
literature, are the lyres and auloi.
ROMAN MUSIC
The Romans, law givers, world conquerors and road builders, gave little
new to music, for they did not show a great talent for art. They were
influenced by Greek ideals and Greek methods. They were warlike by
nature, and from defenders of their state they became conquerors. As
they grew nationally stronger and more secure, they learned music,
oratory, architecture and sculpture from Greek teachers. Many Romans
well known in history were singers and gifted players on the Greek
kithara, lyre, and flute (aulos).
The Romans seemed to have cared more about the performing of music than
for the composing of it, and “offered prizes to those who had the
greatest dexterity, could blow the loudest or play the fastest.”
(Familiar Talks on History of Music.—Gantvoort.)
As they come to America today the musicians of other lands flocked to
Rome, especially those who played or sang, because they were received
with honor and were richly paid.
The Romans, among them Boethius (6th century B.C.), wrote treatises on
the Greek modes, were very much interested in the theory of music, and
built their scales like the Greeks. To each of the seven tones within an
octave they gave the name of a planet, and to every fourth tone which
was the beginning of a new tetrachord, the name of a day of the week
which is named for the planet.
B C D E F G A
Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon
Saturday Sunday Monday
B C D E F G A
Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon
Tuesday Wednesday
B C D E F G A
Saturn Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon
Thursday Friday
The days of the week in French show much more clearly than in English
the names of the planets, in the case of Tuesday—mardi, (Mars);
Wednesday—mercredi (Mercury); Thursday—jeudi, (Jupiter);
Friday—vendredi, (Venus).
The Greeks brought their instrument, the _kithara_, to Rome, and with it
a style of song called a _kitharoedic chant_, which was usually a hymn
sung to some god or goddess. The words, until three hundred years after
the birth of Jesus, were in the Greek language; the Latin kitharoedic
songs like those of the poets Horace and Catullus were sung at banquets
and private parties, Cicero too, was musical.
[Illustration:
_Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art._
_Chinese Instruments._
_Fig. 5.—Trumpets._
_Fig. 6.—Te’ch’ing—sonorous stone._
_Fig. 7.—Yang-Ch’in or Dulcimer._
]
[Illustration:
_Fiddles from Arabia (Fig. 8, Rebab); Japan (Fig. 9, Kokin); Corea
(Fig. 10, Haggrine) and Siam (Fig. 11, See Saw Duang)._
]
Edward MacDowell in _Critical and Historical Essays_, says that
instrumental music was no longer used merely to accompany voices and had
become quite independent. The flute (aulos) players performed better
than the lyre and kithara players and were liked better. They played
“dressed in long feminine, saffron (yellow)-colored robes, with veiled
faces, and straps around their cheeks to support the muscles of the
mouth.” They played with an astonishing amount of technical skill. “Even
women became flute players, although this was considered disgraceful.”
The prices paid to these flute players were higher than the amounts
received by our opera singers.
The Roman theatre, unlike the Greek, was not a place to honor their
gods. Greek plays, both tragedy and comedy, were replaced with
pantomime, usually accompanied by orchestra and singing. The orchestra
was made up of “cymbals, gongs, castanets, foot castanets, rattles,
flutes, bagpipes, gigantic lyres, and a kind of shell or crockery
cymbals, which were clashed together.”
The Roman _tibia_ or bagpipe is still popular today with the peasants of
Italy. Although the bagpipe is first mentioned in Rome, there are some
Persian terra cotta figures made before the Roman era, showing players
of the bagpipes. It is always said that Nero played the fiddle while
Rome burned and even our motion pictures show him playing the violin to
the accompaniment of flames. How could he have played on a violin when
it had not as yet been invented? If he played any instrument while Rome
burned, it was probably the tibia.