1. The wife of Phocion the just was always wont to maintain that her
chiefest glory consisted in the warlike achievements of her husband.
For my part, I am of opinion that all my glory, not only that peculiar
to myself, but also what is common to all my familiar friends and
relations, flows from the care and diligence of my master that taught
me learning. For the most renowned performances of great commanders
tend only to the preservation of some few private soldiers or the
safety of a single city or nation, but make neither the soldiers nor
the citizens nor the people any thing the better. But true learning,
being the essence and body of felicity and the source of prudence, we
find to be profitable and beneficial, not only to one house or city or
nation, but to all the race of men. Therefore by how much the more the
benefit and advantage of learning transcends the profits of military
performances, by so much the more is it to be remembered and mentioned,
as most worthy your study and esteem.
2. For this reason, upon the second day of the Saturnalian festival,
the famous Onesicrates invited certain persons, the best skilled in
music, to a banquet; by name Soterichus of Alexandria, and Lysias,
one of those to whom he gave a yearly pension. After all had done and
the table was cleared,—To dive, said he, most worthy friends, into
the nature and reason of the human voice is not an argument proper
for this merry meeting, as being a subject that requires a more sober
scrutiny. But because our chiefest grammarians define the voice to be
a percussion of the air made sensible to the ear, and for that we were
yesterday discoursing of Grammar,—which is an art that can give the
voice form and shape by means of letters, and store it up in the memory
as a magazine,—let us consider what is the next science to this which
may be said to relate to the voice. In my opinion, it must be music.
For it is one of the chiefest and most religious duties belonging to
man, to celebrate the praise of the Gods, who gave to him alone the
most excelling advantage of articulate discourse, as Homer has observed
in the following verses:—
With sacred hymns and songs that sweetly please,
The Grecian youth all day the Gods appease;
Their lofty paeans bright Apollo hears,
And still the charming sounds delight his ears.[52]
Now then, you that are of the grand musical chorus, tell your friends,
who was the first that brought music into use; what time has added for
the advantage of the science; who have been the most famous of its
professors; and lastly, for what and how far it may be beneficial to
mankind.
3. This the scholar propounded; to which Lysias made reply. Noble
Onesicrates, said he, you desire the solution of a hard question, that
has been by many already proposed. For of the Platonics the most, of
the Peripatetic philosophers the best, have made it their business to
compile several treatises concerning the ancient music and the reasons
why it came to lose its pristine perfection. Nay, the very grammarians
and musicians themselves who arrived to the height of education have
expended much time and study upon the same subject, whence has arisen
great variety of discording opinions among the several writers.
Heraclides in his Compendium of Music asserts, that Amphion, the son
of Jupiter and Antiope, was the first that invented playing on the
harp and lyric poesy, being first instructed by his father; which is
confirmed by a small manuscript, preserved in the city of Sicyon,
wherein is set down a catalogue of the priests, poets, and musicians
of Argos. In the same age, he tells us, Linus the Euboean composed
several elegies; Anthes of Anthedon in Boeotia was the first author of
hymns, and Pierus of Pieria the first that wrote in the praise of the
Muses. Philammon also, the Delphian, set forth in verse a poem in honor
of the nativity of Latona, Diana, and Apollo, and was the first that
instituted dancing about the temple of Delphi. Thamyras, of Thracian
extraction, had the best voice and the neatest manner of singing of
any of his time; so that the poets feigned him to be a contender with
the Muses. He is said to have described in a poem the Titans’ war
against the Gods. There was also Demodocus the Corcyraean, who is said
to have written the Destruction of Troy, and the Nuptials of Vulcan
and Venus; and then Phemius of Ithaca composed a poem, entitled The
Return of those who came back with Agamemnon from Troy. Not that any
of these stories before cited were compiled in a style like prose
without metre; they were rather like the poems of Stesichorus and other
ancient lyric poets, who composed in heroic verse and added a musical
accompaniment. The same Heraclides writes that Terpander, the first
that instituted the lyric _nomes_,[53] set verses of Homer as well as
his own to music according to each of these nomes, and sang them at
public trials of skill. He also was the first to give names to the
lyric nomes. In imitation of Terpander, Clonas, an elegiac and epic
poet, first instituted nomes for flute-music, and also the songs called
Prosodia.[54] And Polymnestus the Colophonian in later times used the
same measure in his compositions.
4. Now the measures appointed by these persons, noble Onesicrates,
in reference to such songs as are to be sung to the flutes or pipes,
were distinguished by these names,—Apothetus, Elegiac, Comarchius,
Schoenion, Cepion, Tenedius, and Trimeles (or of three parts).
To these succeeding ages added another sort, which were called
Polymnastia. But the measures set down for those that played and
sung to the harp, being the invention of Terpander, were much more
ancient than the former. To these he gave the several appellations
of Boeotian, Aeolian, Trochaean, the Acute, Cepion, Terpandrian, and
Tetraoedian.[55] And Terpander made preludes to be sung to the lyre in
heroic verse. Besides, Timotheus testifies how that the lyric nomes
were anciently appropriated to epic verses. For Timotheus merely
intermixed the dithyrambic style with the ancient nomes in heroic
measure, and thus sang them, that he might not seem to make too sudden
an innovation upon the ancient music. But as for Terpander, he seems to
have been the most excellent composer to the harp of his age, for he is
recorded to have been four times in succession a victor at the Pythian
games. And certainly he was one of the most ancient musicians in the
world; for Glaucus the Italian in his treatise of the ancient poets and
musicians asserts him to have lived before Archilochus, affirming him
to be the second next to those that first invented wind-music.
5. Alexander in his Collections of Phrygia says, that Olympus was the
first that brought into Greece the manner of touching the strings
with a quill; and next to him were the Idaean Dactyli; Hyagnis was
the first that sang to the pipe; after him his son Marsyas, then
Olympus; that Terpander imitated Homer in his verses and Orpheus in his
musical compositions; but that Orpheus never imitated any one, since
in his time there were none but such as composed to the pipe, which
was a manner quite different from that of Orpheus. Clonas, a composer
of nomes for flute-music, and somewhat later than Terpander, as the
Arcadians affirm, was born in Tegea or, as the Boeotians allege, at
Thebes. After Terpander and Clonas flourished Archilochus; yet there
are some writers who affirm, that Ardalus the Troezenian taught the
manner of composing to wind-music before Clonas. There was also the
poet Polymnestus, the son of Meles the Colophonian, who invented the
Polymnestian measures. They farther write that Clonas invented the
nomes Apothetus and Schoenion. Of Polymnestus mention is made by Pindar
and Alcman, both lyric poets; but of several of the lyric nomes said to
be instituted by Terpander they make Philammon (the ancient Delphian)
author.
6. Now the music appropriated to the harp, such as it was in the time
of Terpander, continued in all its simplicity, till Phrynis grew into
esteem. For it was not the ancient custom to make lyric poems in the
present style, or to intermix measures and rhythms. For in each nome
they were careful to observe its own proper pitch; whence came the
expression _nome_ (from νόμος, _law_), because it was unlawful to
alter the pitch appointed for each one. At length, falling from their
devotion to the Gods, they began to sing the verses of Homer and other
poets. This is manifest by the proems of Terpander. Then for the form
of the harp, it was such as Cepion, one of Terpander’s scholars, first
caused to be made, and it was called the Asian harp, because the
Lesbian harpers bordering upon Asia always made use of it. And it is
said that Periclitus, a Lesbian by birth, was the last harper who won a
prize by his skill, which he did at one of the Spartan festivals called
Carneia; but he being dead, that succession of skilful musicians, which
had so long continued among the Lesbians, expired. Some there are who
erroneously believe that Hipponax was contemporary with Terpander, when
it is plain that Hipponax lived after Periclitus.
7. Having thus discoursed of the several nomes appropriated to the
stringed as well as to the wind instruments, we will now speak
something in particular concerning those peculiar to the wind
instruments. First they say, that Olympus, a Phrygian player upon
the flute, invented a certain nome in honor of Apollo, which he
called Polycephalus,[56] or of many heads. This Olympus, they say,
was descended from the first Olympus, the scholar of Marsyas, who
invented several forms of composition in honor of the Gods; and he,
being a boy beloved of Marsyas, and by him taught to play upon the
flute, first brought into Greece the laws of harmony. Others ascribe
the Polycephalus to Crates, the scholar of Olympus; though Pratinas
will have Olympus the younger to be the author of it. The Harmatian
nome is also said to be invented by Olympus, the scholar of Marsyas.
This Marsyas was by some said to be called Masses; which others deny,
not allowing him any other name but that of Marsyas, the son of that
Hyagnis who invented the art of playing upon the pipe. But that
Olympus was the author of the Harmatian nome is plainly to be seen in
Glaucus’s treatise of the ancient poets; and that Stesichorus of Himera
imitated neither Orpheus nor Terpander nor Antilochus nor Thales, but
Olympus, and that he made use of the Harmatian nome and the dactylic
dance, which some rather apply to the Orthian mood, while others aver
it to have been the invention of the Mysians, for that some of the
ancient pipers were Mysians.
8. There was also another mood in use among the ancients, called
Cradias, which Hipponax says Mimnermus always delighted in. For
formerly they that played upon the flute sang also elegies at the same
time set to notes. Which the description of the Panathenaea concerning
the musical combat makes manifest. Among the rest, Sacadas of Argos
set several odes and elegies to music, he himself being also a good
flute-player and thrice a victor at the Pythian games. Of him Pindar
makes mention. Now whereas in the time of Polymnestus and Sacadas there
existed three musical moods, the Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian, it is
said that Sacadas composed a strophe in every one of those moods, and
then taught the choruses to sing the first after the Dorian manner,
the second according to the Phrygian, and the third after the Lydian
manner; and this nome was called Trimeres (or threefold) by reason of
the shifting of the moods, although in the Sicyonian catalogue of the
poets Clonas is said to be the inventor of this name.
9. Music then received its first constitution from Terpander at Sparta.
Of the second constitution, Thaletas the Gortinean, Xenodamus the
Cytherean, Xenocritus the Locrian, Polymnestus the Colophonian, and
Sacadas the Argive were deservedly acknowledged to be the authors. For
these, having introduced the Gymnopaediae into Lacedaemon, settled the
so-called Apodeixeis (or Exhibitions) among the Arcadians, and the
Endymatia in Argos. Now Thaletas, Xenodamus, and Xenocritus, and their
scholars, were poets that addicted themselves altogether to making
of paeans; Polymnestus was all for the Orthian or military strain,
and Sacadas for elegies. Others, and among the rest Pratinas, affirm
Xenodamus to have been a maker of songs for dances (Hyporchemes), and
not of paeans; and a tune of Xenodamus is preserved, which plainly
appears to have been composed for a dance. Now that a paean differs
from a song made for a dance is manifest from the poems of Pindar, who
made both.
10. Polymnestus also composed nomes for flute-music; but in the
Orthian nome he made use of his lyric vein, as the students in harmony
declare. But in this we cannot be positive, because we have nothing
of certainty concerning it from antiquity; and whether Thaletas of
Crete was a composer of hymns is much doubted. For Glaucus, asserting
Thaletas to be born after Archilochus, says that he imitated the odes
of Archilochus, only he made them longer, and used the Paeonic and
Cretic rhythm, which neither Archilochus nor Orpheus nor Terpander
ever did; for Thaletas learned these from Olympus, and became a good
poet besides. As for Xenocritus the Locrian from Italy, it is much
questioned whether he was a maker of paeans or not, as being one that
always took heroic subjects with dramatic action for his verses, for
which reason some there were who called his arguments Dithyrambic.
Moreover, Glaucus asserts Thaletas to have preceded him in time.
11. Olympus, by the report of Aristoxenus, is supposed by the musicians
to have been the inventor of the enharmonic species of music; for
before him there was no other than the diatonic and chromatic. And
it is thought that the invention of the enharmonic species was thus
brought to pass:[57] for that Olympus before altogether composing
and playing in the diatonic species, and having frequent occasion
to shift to the diatonic parhypate, sometimes from the paramese and
sometimes from the mese, skipping the diatonic lichanos, he found
the beauty that appeared in the new character; and thus, admiring a
conjunction or scheme so agreeable to proportion, he made this new
species in the Doric mood. For now he held no longer to what belonged
either to the diatonic or to the chromatic, but he was already come to
the enharmonic. And the first foundations of enharmonic music which
he laid were these: in enharmonics the first thing that appears is
the spondiasmus,[58] to which none of the divisions of the tetrachord
seems properly to belong, unless any one will take the more intense
spondiasmus to be diatonic. But he that maintained this would maintain
a falsehood and an absurdity in harmony; a falsehood, because it would
be less by a diesis than is required by the leading note; an absurdity
in harmony, because, even if we should place the proper nature of the
more intense spondiasmus in the simple chromatic, it would then come to
pass, that two double tones would follow in order, the one compounded,
the other uncompounded. For the thick enharmonic now used in the middle
notes does not seem to be the invention of the fore-mentioned author.
But this is more easily understood by hearing any musician play in the
ancient style; for then you shall find the semi-tone in the middle
parts to be uncompounded.
These were the beginnings of enharmonic music; afterwards the semitone
was also divided, as well in the Phrygian as Lydian moods. But Olympus
seems to have advanced music by producing something never known or
heard of before, and to have gained to himself the honor of being the
most excellent, not only in the Grecian but in all other music.
12. Let us now proceed to rhythms; for there were several varieties
of these, as well in musical as in rhythmical composition. And here
Terpander, among all those novelties with which he adorned music,
introduced an elegant manner, that gave it much life. After him, beside
the Terpandrian, which he did not relinquish, Polymnestus brought in
use another of his own, retaining however the former elegant manner,
as did also Thaletas and Sacadas. Other innovations were also made by
Alkman and Stesichorus, who nevertheless receded not from the ancient
forms. But Crexus, Timotheus, and Philoxenus, and those other poets of
the same age, growing more arrogant and studious of novelty, affected
those other manners now called Philanthropic and Thematic. For now the
fewness of strings and the plainness and majesty of the old music are
looked upon as absolutely out of date.
13. And now, having discoursed to the best of my ability of the ancient
music and the first inventors of it, and how succeeding ages brought
it to more and more perfection, I shall make an end, and give way to
my friend Soterichus, not only greatly skilled in music but in all
the rest of the sciences. For we have always labored rather on the
practical than the contemplative part. Which when Lysias had said, he
forbare speaking any farther; but then Soterichus thus began.
14. Most noble Onesicrates, said he, since you have engaged us to
speak our knowledge concerning the most venerable excellencies of
music, which is most pleasing to the Gods, I cannot but approve the
learning of our master Lysias, and his great memory in reciting all the
inventors of the ancient music, and those who have written concerning
it. But I must needs say, that he has given us this account, trusting
only to what he has found recorded. We on the other side have not
heard of any man that was the inventor of the benefits of music, but
of the God Apollo, adorned with all manner of virtue. The flute was
neither the invention of Marsyas nor Olympus nor Hyagnis; nor was the
harp Apollo’s invention only, but as a God he was the inventor of all
the music both of the flute and harp. This is manifest from the dances
and sacrifices which were solemnized to Apollo, as Alcaeus and others
in their hymns relate. His statue also placed in the Temple of Delos
holds in his right hand a bow; at his left the Graces stand, with every
one a musical instrument in her hands, one carrying a harp, another a
flute, another with a shepherd’s pipe set to her lips. And that this
is no conceit of mine appears from this, that Anticles and Ister have
testified the same in their commentaries upon these things. And the
statue is reported to be so ancient, that the artificers were said to
have lived in the time of Hercules. The youth also that carries the
Tempic laurel into Delphi is accompanied by one playing upon the flute.
And the sacred presents of the Hyperboreans were sent of old to Delos,
attended with flutes, pipes, and harps. Some have thought that the God
himself played upon the flute, as the best of lyrics, Alcman, relates.
Corinna also asserts that Apollo was by Minerva taught to pipe.
Venerable is therefore music altogether, as being the invention of the
Gods.
15. The ancients made use of it for its worth, as they did all other
beneficial sciences. But our men of art, contemning its ancient
majesty, instead of that manly, grave, heaven-born music, so acceptable
to the Gods, have brought into the theatres a sort of effeminate
musical tattling, mere sound without substance; which Plato utterly
rejects in the third book of his commonwealth, refusing the Lydian
harmony as fit only for lamentations. And they say that this was first
instituted for doleful songs. Aristoxenus, in his first book of music,
tells us how that Olympus sang an elegy upon the death of Python in the
Lydian mood, though some will have Menalippides to be the author of
that song. Pindar, in his paean on the nuptials of Niobe, asserts that
the Lydian harmony was first used by Anthippus. Others affirm, that
Torebus was the first that made use of that sort of harmony; among the
rest, Dionysius the iambic writer.
16. The mixed Lydian moves the affections, and is fit for tragedies.
This mood, as Aristoxenus alleges, was invented by Sappho, from whom
the tragedians learned it and joined it with the Doric. The one becomes
a majestic, lofty style, the other mollifies and stirs to pity; both
which are the properties of tragedy. The history of music, however,
made Pythoclides the flute-player to be the author of it; and Lysis
reports that Lamprocles the Athenian, finding that the diazeuxis (or
separation of two tetrachords) was not where almost all others thought
it had been, but toward the treble, made such a scheme as is now from
paramese to the highest hypate. But for the softer Lydian, being
contrary to the mixed Lydian and like the Ionian, they say it was
invented by Damon the Athenian.
17. But as for those sorts of harmony, the one being sad and doleful,
the other loose and effeminate, Plato deservedly rejected them, and
made choice of the Dorian, as more proper for sober and warlike men;
not being ignorant, however (as Aristoxenus discourses in his second
book of music), that there might be something advantageous in the rest
to a circumspect and wary commonwealth. For Plato gave much attention
to the art of music, as being the hearer of Draco the Athenian and
Metellus the Agrigentine; but considering, as we have intimated before,
that there was much more majesty in the Dorian mood, it was that
he preferred. He knew moreover that Aleman, Pindar, Simonides, and
Bacchylides had composed several Parthenia in the Doric mood; and that
several Prosodia (or supplications to the Gods), several hymns and
tragical lamentations, and now and then love verses, were composed to
the same melody. But he contented himself with such songs as were made
in honor of Mars or Minerva, or else such as were to be sung at solemn
offerings, called Spondeia. For these he thought sufficient to fortify
and raise the mind of a sober person; not being at all ignorant in the
mean time of the Lydian and Ionian, of which he knew the tragedians
made use.
18. Moreover, the ancients well understood all the sorts of styles,
although they used but few. For it was not their ignorance that
confined them to such narrow instruments and so few strings; nor was it
out of ignorance that Olympus and Terpander and those that came after
them would not admit of larger instruments and more variety of strings.
This is manifest from the poems of Olympus and Terpander and all those
that were their imitators. For, being plain and without any more than
three strings, these so far excelled those that were more numerously
strung, insomuch that none could imitate Olympus’s play; and they were
all inferior to him when they betook themselves to their polychords.
19. Then again, that the ancients did not through ignorance abstain
from the third string in the spondaic style, their use of it in play
makes apparent. For had they not known the use of it, they would never
have struck it in harmony with parhypate; but the elegancy and gravity
that attended the spondaic style by omitting the third string induced
them to transfer the music to paranete. The same reason may serve for
nete; for this in play they struck in concord to mese, but in discord
to paranete, although in song it did not seem to them proper to the
slow spondaic motion. And not only did they do this, but they did the
same with nete of the conjunct heptachords; for in play they struck
it in concord to mese and lichanos, and in discord to paranete and
parhypate;[59] but in singing those touches were no way allowable, as
being ungrateful to the ear and shaming the performer. As certain it is
from the Phrygians that Olympus and his followers were not ignorant of
the third string; for they made use of it not only in pulsation, but in
their hymns to the Mother of the Gods and several other Phrygian songs.
Nor is it less apparent, with regard to the ὑπάται, that they never
abstained for want of skill from that tetrachord in the Dorian mood;
indeed in other moods they knowingly made use of it, but removed it
from the Dorian mood to preserve its elegant gravity.
20. The same thing was done also by the tragedians. For the tragedians
have never to this day used either the chromatic or the enharmonic
scale; while the lyre, many generations older than tragedy, used them
from the very beginning. Now that the chromatic was more ancient than
the enharmonic is plain. For we must necessarily account it of greater
antiquity, according to the custom and use of men themselves; otherwise
it cannot be said that any of the differences and distinctions were
ancienter the one than the other. Therefore, if any one should allege
that Aeschylus or Phrynichus abstained from the chromatic out of
ignorance, would he not be thought to maintain a very great absurdity?
Such a one might as well aver that Pancrates lay under the same
blindness, who avoided it in most, but made use of it in some things;
therefore he forebore not out of ignorance, but judgment, imitating
Pindar and Simonides and that which is at present called the ancient
manner.
21. The same may be said of Tyrtaeus the Mantinean, Andreas the
Corinthian, Thrasyllus the Phliasian, and several others, who, as we
well know, abstained by choice from the chromatic, from transition,
from the increased number of strings, and many other common forms of
rhythms, tunes, diction, composition, and expression. Telephanes of
Megara was so great an enemy to the pipe made of reed (called syrinx),
that he would not suffer the instrument maker to join it to the flute
(pipe made of wood or horn), and chiefly for that reason forbore to
go to the Pythian games. In short, if a man should be thought to be
ignorant of that which he makes no use of, there would be found a great
number of ignorant persons in this age. For we see that the admirers of
the Dorian composition make no use of the Antiginedian; the followers
of the Antiginedian reject the Dorian; and other musicians refuse to
imitate Timotheus, being almost all bewitched with the trifles and the
idle poems of Polyidus. On the other side, if we dive into the business
of variety and compare antiquity with the present times, we shall find
there was great variety then, and that frequently made use of. For then
the variation of rhythm was more highly esteemed, and the change of
their manner of play more frequent. We are now lovers of fables, they
were then lovers of rhythm. Plain it is therefore, that the ancients
did not refrain from broken measures out of ignorance, but out of
judgment. And yet what wonder is this, when there are so many other
things necessary to human life which are not unknown, though not made
use of by those who have no occasion to use them? But they are refused,
and the use of them is altogether neglected, as not being found proper
on many occasions.
22. Having already shown that Plato neither for want of skill nor
for ignorance blamed all the other moods and casts of composition,
we now proceed to show that he really was skilled in harmony. For in
his discourse concerning the procreation of the soul, inserted into
Timaeus, he has made known his great knowledge in all the sciences,
and of music among the rest, in this manner: “After this,” saith he,
“he filled up the double and treble intervals, taking parts from
thence, and adding them to the midst between them, so that there were
in every interval two middle terms.”[60] This proem was the effect of
his experience in music, as we shall presently make out. The means
from whence every mean is taken are three, arithmetical, enharmonical,
geometrical. Of these the first exceeds and is exceeded in number,
the second in proportion, the third neither in number nor proportion.
Plato therefore, desirous to show the harmony of the four elements in
the soul, and harmonically also to explain the reason of that mutual
concord arising from discording and jarring principles, undertakes to
make out two middle terms of the soul in every interval, according to
harmonical proportion. Thus in a musical octave there happen to be
two middle distances, whose proportion we shall explain. As for the
octaves, they keep a double proportion between their two extremes. For
example, let the double arithmetical proportion be 6 and 12, this being
the interval between the ὑπάτη μέσων and the νήτη διεζευγμένων; 6
therefore and 12 being the two extremes, the former note contains the
number 6, and the latter 12. To these are to be added the intermediate
numbers, to which the extremes must hold the proportion, the one of one
and a third, and the other of one and a half. These are the numbers 8
and 9. For as 8 contains one and a third of 6, so 9 contains one and
a half of 6; thus you have one extreme. The other is 12, containing 9
and a third part of 9, and 8 and half 8. These then being the numbers
between 6 and 12, and the interval of the octave consisting of a
diatessaron and diapente, it is plain that the number 8 belongs to
mese, and the number 9 to paramese; which being so, it follows that
hypate is to mese as paramese to nete of the disjunct tetrachords; for
it is a fourth from the first term to the second of this proportion,
and the same interval from the third term to the fourth. The same
proportion will be also found in the numbers. For as 6 is to 8, so is 9
to 12; and as 6 is to 9, so is 8 to 12. For 8 is one and a third part
of 6, and 12 of 9; while 9 is one and a half part of 6, and 12 of 8.
What has been said may suffice to show how great was Plato’s zeal and
learning in the liberal sciences.
23. Now that there is something of majesty, something great and
divine in music, Aristotle, who was Plato’s scholar, thus labors to
convince the world: “Harmony,” saith he, “descended from heaven, and
is of a divine, noble, and angelic nature; but being fourfold as to
its efficacy, it has two means,—the one arithmetical, the other
enharmonical. As for its members, its dimensions, and its excesses of
intervals, they are best discovered by number and equality of measure,
the whole art being contained in two tetrachords.” These are his
words. The body of it, he saith, consists of discording parts, yet
concording one with another; whose means nevertheless agree according
to arithmetical proportion. For the upper string being fitted to the
lowest in the ratio of two to one produces a perfect diapason. Thus, as
we said before, nete consisting of twelve units, and hypate of six, the
paramese accords with hypate according to the sesquialter proportion,
and has nine units, whilst mese has eight units. So that the chiefest
intervals through the whole scale are the diatessaron (which is the
proportion of 4:3), the diapente (which is the proportion of 3:2), and
the diapason (which is the proportion of 2:1); while the proportion
of 9:8 appears in the interval of a tone. With the same inequalities
of excess or diminution, all the extremes are differenced one from
another, and the means from the means, either according to the quantity
of the numbers or the measure of geometry; which Aristotle thus
explains, observing that nete exceeds mese by a third part of itself,
and hypate is exceeded by paramese in the same proportion, so that the
excesses stand in proportion. For by the same parts of themselves they
exceed and are exceeded; that is, the extremes (nete and hypate) exceed
and are exceeded by mese and paramese in the same proportions, those
of 4:3 and of 3:2. Now these excesses are in what is called harmonic
progression. But the distances of nete from mese and of paramese from
hypate, expressed in numbers, are in the same proportion (12:8 = 9:6);
for paramese exceeds mese by one-eighth of the latter. Again, nete is
to hypate as 2:1; paramese to hypate as 3:2; and mese to hypate as 4:3.
This, according to Aristotle, is the natural constitution of harmony,
as regards its parts and its numbers.
24. But, according to natural philosophy, both harmony and its parts
consist of even, odd, and also even-odd. Altogether it is even, as
consisting of four terms; but its parts and proportions are even, odd,
and even-odd. So nete is even, as consisting of twelve units; paramese
is odd, of nine; mese even, of eight; and hypate even-odd, of six
(i.e., 2 x 3). Whence it comes to pass, that music—herself and her
parts—being thus constituted as to excesses and proportion, the whole
accords with the whole, and also with each one of the parts.
25. But now as for the senses that are created within the body,
such as are of celestial and heavenly extraction, and which by
divine assistance affect the understanding of men by means of
harmony,—namely, sight and hearing,—do by the very light and voice
express harmony. And others which are their attendants, so far as they
are senses, likewise exist by harmony; for they perform none of their
effects without harmony; and although they are inferior to the other
two, they are not independent of them. Nay, those two also, since they
enter into human bodies at the very same time with God himself, claim
by reason a vigorous and incomparable nature.
26. Manifest from hence therefore it is, why the ancient Greeks, with
more reason than others, were so careful to teach their children music.
For they deemed it requisite by the assistance of music to form and
compose the minds of youth to what was decent, sober, and virtuous;
believing the use of music beneficially efficacious to incite to all
serious actions, especially to the adventuring upon warlike dangers.
To which purpose they made use of pipes or flutes when they advanced
in battle array against their enemies; like the Lacedaemonians, who
upon the same occasion caused the Castorean melody to be played before
their battalions. Others inflamed their courage with harps, playing the
same sort of harmony when they went to look danger in the face, as the
Cretans did for a long time. Others, even to our own times, continue
to use the trumpet. The Argives made use of flutes at their wrestling
matches called Stheneia; which sort of sport was first instituted in
honor of Danaus, but afterwards consecrated to Jupiter Sthenius, or
Jupiter the Mighty. And now at this day it is the custom to make use
of flutes at the games called Pentathla, although there is now nothing
exquisite or antique, nothing like what was customary among men of old
time, like the song composed by Hierax for this very game; still, even
though it is sorry stuff and nothing exquisite, it is accompanied by
flute-music.
27. But among the more ancient Greeks, music in theatres was never
known, for they employed their whole musical skill in the worship of
the Gods and the education of youth; at which time, there being no
theatres erected, music was yet confined within the walls of their
temples, as being that with which they worshipped the supreme Deity
and sang the praises of virtuous men. And it is probable that the word
θέατρον, at a later period, and θεωρεῖν (_to behold_) much earlier,
were derived from θεός (_God_). But in our age is such another face of
new inventions, that there is not the least remembrance or care of that
use of music which related to education; for all our musicians make
it their business to court the theatre Muses, and study nothing but
compositions for the stage.
28. But some will say, Did the ancients invent nothing themselves?
Yes, say I, they did invent, but their inventions were grave and
decent. For they who have written the history of music attribute to
Terpander the addition of the Dorian nete, which before was not in
use. Even the whole Mixolydian mood is a new invention. Such were
also the Orthian manner of melody with Orthian rhythms, and also the
Trochaeus Semantus.[61] And if we believe Pindar, Terpander was the
inventor of the Scolion (or roundelay). Archilochus also invented the
rhythmic composition of the iambic trimeter, the change to rhythms
of different character, the melo-dramatic delivery,[62] and the
accompaniment proper to each of these. He is also presumed to be the
author of epodes, tetrameters, the Cretic and the prosodiac rhythms,
and the augmentation of the heroic verse. Some make him author also of
the elegiac measure, as likewise of the extending the iambic to the
paeon epibatus, the prolonged and heroic to the prosodiac and Cretic.
And Archilochus is first said to have taught how iambics could be
partly recited to the stroke of the lyre and partly sung; from him the
tragedians learned it, and from them Crexus took it, and made use of
it in dithyrambics. It is thought that he invented also playing on the
lyre at intervals in the song, whereas the ancients played only during
the singing.
29. Of the Hypolydian mood they make Polymnestus the inventor, and
the first that taught the lowering and raising of the voice (ἔκλυσις
and ἐκβολή). To the same Olympus to whom they also ascribe the first
invention of Grecian and well-regulated nomic music they attribute
likewise the finding out the enharmonic music, the prosodiac measure
to which is composed the hymn to Mars, and the chorean measure which
he used in the hymns to the Mother of the Gods. Some report him to be
the author also of the bacchius. And every one of the ancient songs
show that this is so. But Lasus of Hermione, transferring the rhythms
to suit the dithyrambic time, and making use of an instrument with many
notes, made an absolute innovation upon the ancient music, by the use
of more notes, and those more widely distributed.
30. In like manner Menalippides the lyric poet, Philoxenus and
Timotheus, all forsook the ancient music. For whereas until the time of
Terpander the Antissaean the harp had only seven strings, he[63] added
a greater number, and gave its notes a wider range. The wind-music
also exchanged its ancient plainness for a more copious variety. For
in ancient times, till Menalippides the dithyrambic came into request,
the wind-music received salaries from the poets, poetry holding
the first rank and the musicians being in the service of the poet.
Afterwards that custom grew out of date; insomuch that Pherecrates the
comedian brings in Music in woman’s habit, all bruised and battered,
and then introduces Justice asking the reason; to which Music thus
replies:—
MUSIC. ’Tis mine to speak, thy part to hear,
And therefore lend a willing ear;
Much have I suffered, long opprest
By Menalippides, that beast;
He haled me from Parnassus’ springs,
And plagued me with a dozen strings.
His rage howe’er sufficed not yet,
To make my miseries complete.
Cinesias, that cursed Attic,
A mere poetical pragmatic,
Such horrid strophes in mangled verse
Made the unharmonious stage rehearse,
That I, tormented with the pains
Of cruel dithyrambic strains,
Distorted lay, that you would swear
The right side now the left side were.
Nor did my miseries end here;
For Phrynis with his whirlwind brains,
Wringing and racking all my veins,
Ruined me quite, while nine small wires
With harmonies twice six he tires.
Yet might not he so much be blamed,
From all his errors soon reclaimed;
But then Timotheus with his freaks
Furrowed my face, and ploughed my cheeks.
JUSTICE. Say which of them so vile could be?
MUSIC. Milesian Pyrrhias, that was he,
Whose fury tortured me much more
Than all that I have named before;
Where’er I walk the streets alone,
If met by him, the angry clown,
With his twelve cat-guts strongly bound,
He leaves me helpless on the ground.[64]
Aristophanes the comic poet, making mention of Philoxenus, complains of
his introducing lyric verses among the cyclic choruses, where he brings
in Music thus speaking:—
He filled me with discordant measures airy,
Wicked Hyperbolaei and Niglari;
And to uphold the follies of his play,
Like a lank radish bowed me every way.
Other comedians have since set forth the absurdity of those who have
been slicers and manglers of music.
31. Now that the right moulding or ruin of ingenuous manners and civil
conduct lies in a well-grounded musical education, Aristoxenus has made
apparent. For, of those that were contemporary with him, he gives an
account of Telesias the Theban, who in his youth was bred up in the
noblest excellences of music, and moreover studied the works of the
most famous lyrics, Pindar, Dionysius the Theban, Lamprus, Pratinas,
and all the rest who were accounted most eminent; who played also to
perfection upon the flute, and was not a little industrious to furnish
himself with all those other accomplishments of learning; but being
past the prime of his age, he was so bewitched with the theatre’s
new fangles and the innovations of multiplied notes, that despising
those noble precepts and that solid practice to which he had been
educated, he betook himself to Philoxenus and Timotheus, and among
those delighted chiefly in such as were most depraved with diversity
of notes and baneful innovation. And yet, when he made it his business
to make verses and labor both ways, as well in that of Pindar as that
of Philoxenus, he could have no success in the latter. And the reason
proceeded from the truth and exactness of his first education.
32. Therefore, if it be the aim of any person to practise music with
skill and judgment, let him imitate the ancient manner; let him also
adorn it with those other sciences and make philosophy his tutor,
which is sufficient to judge what is in music decent and useful. For
music being generally divided into three parts, diatonic, chromatic,
and enharmonie, it behooves one who comes to learn music to understand
poetry, which uses these three parts, and to know how to express his
poetical inventions in proper musical form.
First therefore we are to consider that all musical learning is a sort
of habituation, which does not teach the reason of her precepts at
one and the same time to the learner. Moreover, we are to understand
that to such an education there is not requisite an enumeration of
its several divisions, but every one learns by chance what either
the master or scholar, according to the authority of the one and the
liberty of the other, has most affection for. But the more prudent sort
reject this chance-medley way of learning, as the Lacedaemonians of
old, the Mantineans, and Pallenians, who, making choice either of one
single method or else but very few styles, used only that sort of music
which they deemed most proper to regulate the inclinations of youths.
33. This will be apparent, if any one shall examine every one of the
parts, and see what is the subject of their several contemplations. For
harmony takes cognizance of intervals, systems, classes of harmonious
sounds, notes, tones, and systematical transmutations. Farther than
this it goes not. And therefore it would be in vain to enquire of
harmony, whether the poet have rightly and (so to speak) musically
chosen the Dorian for the beginning, the mixed Lydian and Dorian for
the end, or the Hypophrygian and Phrygian for the middle. For the
industry of harmony reaches not to these, and it is defective in many
other things, as not understanding the force and extent of elegant
aptness and proper concinnity. Neither did ever the chromatic or
enharmonic species arrive to such force of aptitude as to discover
the nature and genius of the poem; for that is the work of the poet.
It is as plain, that the sound of the system is different from the
sound of the descant sung in the same system; which, however, does not
belong to the consideration of harmonical studies. There is the same
to be said concerning rhythms, for no rhythm can claim to itself the
force of perfect aptitude. For we call a thing apt and proper when
we consider the nature of it. The reason of this, we say, is either
a certain plain and mixed composure, or both; like the enharmonic
species of Olympus, by him set in the Phrygian mood and mixed with
the paeon epibatos, which rendered the beginning of the key naturally
elegant in what is called the nome of Minerva. For having made choice
of his key and measure, he only changed the paeon epibatos for the
trochee, which produced his enharmonic species. However, the enharmonic
species and Phrygian tone remaining together with the whole system,
the elegancy of the character was greatly altered. For that which was
called harmony in the nome of Minerva was quite another thing from that
in the introduction. He then that has both judgment as well as skill
is to be accounted the most accurate musician. For he that understands
the Dorian mood, not being able withal to discern by his judgment what
is proper to it and when it is fit to be made use of, shall never know
what he does; nay, he shall quite mistake the nature and custom of the
key. Indeed it is much questioned among the Dorians themselves, whether
the enharmonic composers be competent judges of the Dorian songs. The
same is to be said concerning the knowledge of rhythm. For he that
understands a paeon may not understand the proper use of it, though
he know the measure of which it consists. Because it is much doubted
among those that make use of paeons, whether the bare knowledge make a
man capable to determine concerning the proper use of those rhythms;
or, as others say, whether it aspire to presume so far. Therefore it
behooves that person to have two sorts of knowledge, who will undertake
to judge of what is proper and what improper; first, of the custom
and manner of elegancy for which such a composition was intended, and
next of those things of which the composition consists. And thus, that
neither the bare knowledge of harmony, nor of rhythm, nor of any other
things that singly by themselves are but a part of the whole body of
music, is sufficient to judge and determine either of the one or the
other, what has been already said may suffice to prove.
34. [Now then, there being three species into which all harmony is
divided, equal in the magnitude of systems or intervals and force
of notes and tetrachords, we find that the ancients never disputed
about any more than one; for they never troubled themselves with the
chromatic or diatonic, but differed only about the enharmonic; and
there no farther than about the great interval called the diapason. The
further subdivision indeed caused some little variance, but they nearly
all agreed that harmony itself is but one.[65]] Therefore he must never
think to be a true artist in the understanding and practice of music,
who advances no farther than the single knowledge of this or that
particular; but it behooves him to trace through all the particular
members of it, and so to be master of the whole body, by understanding
how to mix and join all the divided members. For he that understands
only harmony is confined to a single manner. Wherefore, in short, it is
requisite that the sense and understanding concur in judging the parts
of music; and that they should neither be too hasty, like those senses
which are rash and forward, nor too slow, like those which are dull
and heavy; though it may happen sometimes, through the inequality of
Nature, that the same senses may be too slow and too quick at the same
time. Which things are to be avoided by a sense and judgment that would
run an equal course.
35. For there are three things at least that at the same instant strike
the ear,—the note, the time, and the word or syllable. By the note we
judge of the harmony, by the time of the rhythm, and by the word of the
matter or subject of the song. As these proceed forth altogether, it
is requisite the sense should give them entrance at the same moment.
But this is certain, where the sense is not able to separate every one
of these and consider the effects of each apart, there it can never
apprehend what is well or what is amiss in any. First therefore let
us discourse concerning coherence. For it is necessary that coherence
accompany the discerning faculty. For judgment of good or bad is not
to be made from notes disjoined, broken time, and shattered words, but
from coherence. For there is in practice a certain commixture of parts
which commonly are not compounded. So much as to coherence.
36. We are next to consider whether the masters of music are
sufficiently capable of being judges of it. Now I aver the negative.
For it is impossible to be a perfect musician and a good judge of music
by the knowledge of those things that seem to be but parts of the whole
body, as by excellency of hand upon the instrument, or singing readily
at first sight, or exquisiteness of the ear, so far as this extends to
the understanding of harmony and time. Neither does the knowledge of
time and harmony, pulsation or elocution, or whatever else falls under
the same consideration, perfect their judgment. Now for the reasons why
a musician cannot gain a perfect judgment from any of these, we must
endeavor to make them clear. First then it must be granted that, of
things about which judgment is to be made, some are perfect and others
imperfect. Those things which are perfect are the compositions in
general, whether sung or played, and the expression of those, whether
upon the instruments or by the voice, with the rest of the same nature.
The imperfect are the things to these appertaining, and for whose sake
they are made use of. Such are the parts of expression. A second reason
may be found in poetry, with which the case is the same. For a man that
hears a consort of voices or instruments can judge whether they sing or
play in tune, and whether the language be plain or not. But every one
of these are only parts of instrumental and vocal expression; not the
end itself, but for the sake of the end. For by these and things of the
same nature shall the elegancy of elocution be judged, whether it be
proper to the poem which the performer undertakes to sing. The same is
to be said of the several passions expressed in the poetry.
37. The ancients now made principal account of the moral impression,
and therefore preferred that fashion of the antique music which was
grave and least affected. Therefore the Argives are said to have
punished deviation from the ancient music, and to have imposed a fine
upon such as first adventured to play with more than seven strings,
and to introduce the Mixolydian mood.[66] Pythagoras, that grave
philosopher, rejected the judging of music by the senses, affirming
that the virtue of music could be appreciated only by the intellect.
And therefore he did not judge of music by the ear, but by the
harmonical proportion, and thought it sufficient to fix the knowledge
of music within the compass of the diapason.
38. But our musicians nowadays have so utterly exploded the most noble
of all the moods, which the ancients greatly admired for its majesty,
that hardly any among them make the least account of enharmonic
distances. And so negligent and lazy are they grown, as to believe
the enharmonic diesis to be too contemptible to fall under the
apprehension of sense, and they therefore exterminate it out of their
compositions, deeming those to be triflers that have any esteem for
it or make use of the mood itself. For proof of which they think they
bring a most powerful argument, which rather appears to be the dulness
of their own senses; as if whatever fled their apprehensions were to
be rejected as useless and of no value. And then again they urge that
its magnitude cannot be perceived through its concord, like that of
the semitone, tone, and other distances; not understanding, that at
the same time they throw out the third, fifth, and seventh, of which
the one consists of three, the other of five, and the last of seven
dieses. And on the same principle all the intervals that are odd should
be rejected as useless, inasmuch as none of them is perceptible through
concord; and this would include all which by means of even the smallest
diesis are measured by odd numbers. Whence it necessarily follows, that
no division of the tetrachord would be of use but that which is to be
measured by all even intervals, as in the syntonic diatonic, and in the
toniaean chromatic.
39. But these opinions are not only contrary to appearance, but
repugnant one to another. For they themselves chiefly make use of
those divisions of tetrachords in which most of the intervals are
either unequal or irrational. To which purpose they always soften both
lichanos and paranete, and lower even some of the standing sounds by an
irrational interval, bringing the trite and paranete to approach them.
And especially they applaud the use of those systems in which most of
the intervals are irrational, by relaxing not only those tones which
are by nature movable, but also some which are properly fixed; as it is
plain to those that rightly understand these things.
40. Now for the advantages that accrue to men from the use of music,
the famous Homer has taught it us, introducing Achilles, in the height
of his fury toward Agamemnon, appeased by the music which he learned
from Chiron, a person of great wisdom. For thus says he:—
Amused at ease, the god-like man they found,
Pleased with the solemn harp’s harmonious sound.
The well-wrought harp from conquered Thebe came;
Of polished silver was its costly frame.
With this he soothes his angry soul, and sings
The immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.[67]
Learn, says Homer, from hence the true use of music. For it became
Achilles, the son of Peleus the Just, to sing the famous acts and
achievements of great and valiant men. Also, in teaching the most
proper time to make use of it, he found out a profitable and pleasing
pastime for one’s leisure hours. For Achilles, being both valiant
and active, by reason of the disgust he had taken against Agamemnon
withdrew from the war. Homer therefore thought he could not do better
than by the laudable incitements of music and poetry to inflame the
hero’s courage for those achievements which he afterwards performed.
And this he did, calling to mind the great actions of former ages.
Such was then the ancient music, and such the advantages that made it
profitable. To which end and purpose we read that Hercules, Achilles,
and many others made use of it; whose master, wisest Chiron, is
recorded to have taught not only music, but morality and physic.
41. In brief therefore, a rational person will not blame the sciences
themselves, if any one make use of them amiss, but will adjudge such a
failing to be the error of those that abuse them. So that whoever he
be that shall give his mind to the study of music in his youth, if he
meet with a musical education, proper for the forming and regulating
his inclinations, he will be sure to applaud and embrace that which is
noble and generous, and to rebuke and blame the contrary, as well in
other things as in what belongs to music. And by that means he will
become clear from all reproachful actions, for now having reaped the
noblest fruit of music, he may be of great use, not only to himself
but to the commonwealth; while music teaches him to abstain from
every thing indecent both in word and deed, and to observe decorum,
temperance, and regularity.
42. Now that those cities which were governed by the best laws took
care always of a generous education in music, many testimonies may be
produced. But for us it shall suffice to have instanced Terpander, who
appeased a sedition among the Lacedaemonians, and Thaletas the Cretan,
of whom Pratinas writes that, being sent for by the Lacedaemonians by
advice of the oracle, he freed the city from a raging pestilence. Homer
tells that the Grecians stopped the fury of another noisome pestilence
by the power and charms of the same noble science:—
With sacred hymns and songs that sweetly please,
The Grecian youth all day the Gods appease.
Their lofty paeans bright Apollo hears,
And still the charming sounds delight his ears.
These verses, most excellent master, I thought requisite to add as
the finishing stone to my musical discourse, which were by you cited
before[68] to show the force of harmony. For indeed the chiefest and
sublimest end of music is the graceful return of our thanks to the
Gods, and the next is to purify and bring our minds to a sober and
harmonious temper. Thus, said Soterichus, most excellent master, I have
given you what may be called an encyclic discourse of music.
43. Nor was Soterichus a little admired for what he had spoken, as
one that both by his countenance and speech had shown his zeal and
affection for that noble science. After all, said Onesicrates, I must
needs applaud this in both of you, that you have kept within your own
spheres and observed your proper limits. For Lysias, not insisting any
further, undertook only to show us what was necessary to the making a
good hand, as being an excellent performer himself. But Soterichus has
feasted us with a discovery of the benefit, the theory, the force, and
right end of music. But one thing I think they have willingly left for
me to say; for I cannot think them guilty of so much bashfulness that
they should be ashamed to bring music into banquets, where certainly,
if anywhere, it cannot but be very useful, which Homer also confirms to
be true:—