Chapter V: Part 5

[Footnote 2: Ibid. p. 26 [Greek: noêteon gar apeirous ton arithmon tas lichanous. hou gar an stêsês tên phônên apodedeigmenon lichanô topou lichanos estai; diakenon de ouden esti tou lichanoeidous topou, oude toiouton hôste mê dechisthai lichanon]. And p. 48 [Greek: epeidê per ho tês lichanou topos eis apeirous temnetai tomas].]

[Footnote 3: Aristox. _Harm._ p. 69 Meib. [Greek: kata men oun ta megethê tôn diastêmatôn kai tas tôn phthongôn taseis apeira pôs phainetai einai ta peri to melos, kata de tas dynameis kai kata ta eidê kai kata tas theseis peperasmena te kai tetagmena.]]

The mediaeval modes or Tones, on the other hand, are essentially based on the diatonic scale,--the scale that knows only of tones and semitones. To suppose that they held in the earliest Greek music the prominent place which we find assigned to the ancient Modes or [Greek: harmoniai] is to suppose that the art of music was developed in Greece in two different directions, under the influence of different and almost opposite ideas. Yet nothing is more remarkable in all departments of Greek art than the strictness with which it confines itself within the limits given once for all in the leading types, and the consequent harmony and consistency of all the forms which it takes in the course of its growth.

The dependence of artistic forms in their manifold developments upon a central governing idea or principle has never been more luminously stated than by the illustrious physicist Helmholtz, in the thirteenth chapter of his _Tonempfindungen_. I venture to think that in applying that truth to the facts of Greek music he was materially hindered by the accepted theory of the Greek modes. The scales which he analyses under that name were certainly the basis of all music in the Middle Ages, and are much more intelligible as such than in relation to the primitive Greek forms of the art[1].

[Footnote 1: The ecclesiastical Modes received their final shape in the _Dodecachordon_ of Glareanus (Bâle, 1547). They are substantially the Greek modes of Westphal's theory, although the Greek names which Glareanus adopted seem to have been chosen at haphazard. But the ecclesiastical Modes, as Helmholtz points out, were developed under the influence of polyphonic music from the earlier stages represented by the Ambrosian and Gregorian scales. It would be a singular chance if they were also, as Greek modes, the source from which the Ambrosian and Gregorian scales were themselves derived.

Some further hints on this part of the subject may possibly be derived from the musical scales in use among nations that have not attained to any form of harmony, such as the Arabians, the Indians, or the Chinese. A valuable collection of these scales is given by Mr. A. J. Ellis at the end of his translation of Helmholtz (Appendix XX. Sect. K, _Non-harmonic Scales_). Among the most interesting for our purpose are the eight mediaeval Arabian scales given on the authority of Professor Land (nos. 54-61). The first three of these--called 'Ochaq, Nawa and Boas[=i]li--follow the Pythagorean intonation, and answer respectively to the Hypo-phrygian, Phrygian, and Mixo-lydian species of the octave. The next two--Rast and Zenkouleh--are also Hypo-phrygian in species, but the Third and Sixth are flatter by about an eighth of a tone (the Pythagorean comma). In Zenkouleh the Fifth also is similarly flattened. The last two scales--Hhosa[=i]ni and Hhidjazi--are Phrygian: but the Second and Fifth, and in the case of Hhidjazi also the Sixth, are flatter by the interval of a comma. The remaining scale, called Rahawi, does not fall under any species, since the semitones are between the Third and Fourth, and again between the Fifth and Sixth. It will be seen that in general character--though by no means in details--this series of scales bears a considerable resemblance to the 'scales of the cithara' as given by Ptolemy (_supra_, p. 85). In both cases the several scales are distinguished from each other partly by the order of the intervals (_species_), partly by the intonation, or magnitude of the intervals employed (_genus_). This latter element is conspicuously absent from the ecclesiastical Modes.]

§ 37. _Epilogue--Speech and Song._

Several indications combine to make it probable that singing and speaking were not so widely separated from each other in Greek as in the modern languages with which we are most familiar.

(1) The teaching of the grammarians on the subject of accent points to this conclusion. Our habit of using Latin translations of the terms of Greek grammar has tended to obscure the fact that they belong in almost every case to the ordinary vocabulary of music. The word for 'accent' ([Greek: tonos]) is simply the musical term for 'pitch' or 'key.' The words 'acute' ([Greek: oxys]) and 'grave' ([Greek: barys]) mean nothing more than 'high' and 'low' in pitch. A syllable may have two accents, just as in music a syllable may be sung with more than one note. Similarly the 'quantity' of each syllable answers to the time of a musical note, and the rule that a long syllable is equal to two short ones is no doubt approximately correct. Consequently every Greek word (enclitics being reckoned as parts of a word) is a sort of musical phrase, and every sentence is a more or less definite melody--[Greek: logôdes ti melos], as it is called by Aristoxenus (p. 18 Meib.). Moreover the accent in the modern sense, the _ictus_ or stress of the voice, appears to be quite independent of the pitch or 'tonic' accent: for in Greek poetry the _ictus_ ([Greek: arsis]) is determined by the metre, with which the tonic accent evidently has nothing to do. In singing, accordingly, the tonic accents disappear; for the melody takes their place, and gives each syllable a new pitch, on which (as we shall presently see) the spoken pitch has no influence. The rise and fall of the voice in ordinary speaking is perceptible enough in English, though it is more marked in other European languages. Helmholtz tells us--with tacit reference to the speech of North Germany--that an affirmative sentence generally ends with a drop in the tone of about a Fourth, while an interrogative is marked by a rise which is often as much as a Fifth[1]. In Italian the interrogative form is regularly given, not by a particle or a change in the order of the words, but by a rise of pitch. The Gregorian church music, according to a series of rules quoted by Helmholtz (_l. c._), marked a comma by a rise of a Tone, a colon by a fall of a Semitone; a full stop by a Tone above, followed by a Fourth below, the 'reciting note'; and an interrogation by a phrase of the form _d b c d_ (_c_ being the reciting note).

These examples, however, do little towards enabling modern scholars to form a notion of the Greek system of accentuation. In these and similar cases it is the _sentence as a whole_ which is modified by the tonic accent, whereas in Greek it is the individual _word_. It is true that the accent of a word may be affected by its place in the sentence: as is seen in the loss of the accent of oxytone words when not followed by a pause, in the anastrophe of prepositions, and in the treatment of the different classes of enclitics. But in all these instances it is the intonation of the word as such, not of the sentence, which is primarily concerned. What they really prove is that the musical accent is not so invariable as the stress accent in English or German, but may depend upon the collocation of the word, or upon the degree of emphasis which it has in a particular use.

[Footnote 1: _Tonempfindungen_, p. 364 (ed. 1863).]

(2) The same conclusion may be drawn from the terms in which the ancient writers on music endeavour to distinguish musical and ordinary utterance.

Aristoxenus begins his _Harmonics_ by observing that there are two movements of the voice, not properly discriminated by any previous writer; namely, the _continuous_, which is the movement characteristic of speaking, and the _discrete_ or that which proceeds by _intervals_, the movement of singing. In the latter the voice remains for a certain time on one note, and then passes by a definite interval to another. In the former it is continually gliding by imperceptible degrees from higher to lower or the reverse[1]. In this kind of movement the rise and fall of the voice is marked by the _accents_ ([Greek: prosôdiai]), which accordingly form the melody, as it may be called, of spoken utterance[2]. Later writers state the distinction in much the same language. Nicomachus tells us that the two movements were first discriminated by the Pythagoreans. He dwells especially on the ease with which we pass from one to the other. If the notes and intervals of the speaking voice are allowed to be separate and distinct, the form of utterance becomes singing[3]. Similarly Aristoxenus says that we do not rest upon a note, unless we are led to do so by the influence of feeling ([Greek: an mê dia pathos pote eis toiautên kinêsin anankasthômen elthein]).

[Footnote 1: Aristox., _Harm._ p. 3 Meib. [Greek: kineitai men gar kai dialegomenôn hêmôn kai melôdountôn tên eirêmenên kinêsin; oxy gar kai bary dêlon hôs en amphoterois toutois enestin.] Also p. 8 [Greek: dyo tines eisin ideai kinêseôs, hê te synechês kai hê diastêmatikê; kata men oun tên synechê topon tina diexienai phainetai hê phônê tê aisthêsei houtôs hôs an mêdamou histamenê, k.t.l.] And p. 9 [Greek: tên oun synechê logikên einai phanen, k.t.l.]]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. p. 18 Meib. [Greek: tou ge logôdous kechôristai tautê to mousikon melos; legetai gar dê kai logôdes ti melos, to synkeimenon ek tôn prosôdiôn tôn en tois onomasin; physikon gar to epiteinein kai anienai en tô dialegesthai.]]

[Footnote 3: Nicomachus, _Enchiridion_, p. 4 [Greek: ei gar tis ê dialegomenos ê apologoumenos tini ê anaginôskôn ge ekdêla metaxy kath' hekaston phthongon poiei ta megethê, diistanôn kai metaballôn tên phônên ap' allou eis allon, ouketi legein ho toioutos oude anaginôskein alla meleazein legetai.]]

According to the rhetorician Dionysius of Halicarnassus the interval used in the melody of spoken utterance is approximately a Fifth, or three tones and a half ([Greek: dialektou men oun melos heni metreitai diastêmati tô legomenô dia pente, hôs engista; kai oute epiteinetai pera tôn triôn tonôn kai hêmitoniou epi to oxy oute anietai tou chôriou toutou pleion epi to bary][1]). He gives an interesting example (quoted above on p. 91) from the _Orestes_ of Euripides, to show that when words are set to music no account is taken of the accents, or spoken melody. Not merely are the intervals varied (instead of being nearly uniform), but the rise and fall of the notes does not answer to the rise and fall of the syllables in ordinary speech. This statement is rendered the more interesting from the circumstance that the inscription discovered by Mr. Ramsay (_supra_, p. 89), which is about a century later, does exhibit precisely this correspondence. Apparently, then, the melody of the inscription represents a new idea in music,--an attempt to bring it into a more direct connexion with the tones of the speaking voice. The fact of such an attempt being made seems to indicate that the divergence between the two kinds of utterance was becoming more marked than had formerly been the case. It may be compared with the invention of recitative in the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Aristides Quintilianus (p. 7 Meib.) recognises a third or intermediate movement of the voice, viz. that which is employed in the recitation of poetry. It is probable that Aristides is one of the latest writers on the subject, and we may conjecture that in his time the Greek

[Footnote 1: _De Compositione Verborum_, c. 11, p. 58 Reisk.]

language had in great measure lost the original tonic accents, and with them the quasi-melodious character which they gave to prose utterance.

In the view which these notices suggest the difference between speaking and singing is reduced to one of degree. It is analysed in language such as we might use to express the difference between a monotonous and a varied manner of speaking, or between the sounds of an Aeolian harp and those of a musical instrument.

(3) What has been said of melody in the two spheres of speech and song applies also _mutatis mutandis_ to rhythm. In English the time or quantity of syllables is as little attended to as the pitch. But in Greek the distinction of long and short furnished a prose rhythm which was a serious element in their rhetoric. In the rhythm of music, according to Dionysius, the quantity of syllables could be neglected, just as the accent was neglected in the melody[1]. This, however, does not mean that the natural time of the syllables could be treated with the freedom which we see in a modern composition. The regularity of lyric metres is sufficient to prove that the increase or diminution of natural quantity referred to by Dionysius was kept within narrow limits, the nature of which is to be gathered from the remains of the ancient system of Rhythmic. From these sources we learn with something like certainty that the rhythm of ordinary speech, as determined by the succession of long or short syllables, was the basis not only of metres intended for recitation, such as the hexameter and the iambic trimeter, but also of lyrical rhythm of every kind.

[Footnote 1: _De Comp._ c. 11, p. 64 [Greek: to de auto ginetai kai peri tous rhythmous; hê men gar pezê lexis oudenos oute onomatos oute rhêmatos biazetai tous chronous oude metatithêsin, all' oias pareilêphe tê physei tas syllabas, tas te makras kai tas bracheias, toiautas phylattei; hê de mousikê te kai rhythmikê metaballousin autas meiousai kai parauxousai, ôite pollakis eis tanantia metachôrein; ou gar tais syllabais apeuthynousi tous chronous, alla tois chronois tas syllabas.]]

(4) As to the use of the stress accent in Greek prose we are without direct information. In verse it appears as the metrical _ictus_ or _arsis_ of each foot, which answers to what English musicians call the 'strong beat' or accented part of the bar[1]. In the Homeric hexameter the ictus is confined to long syllables, and appears to have some power of lengthening a short or doubtful syllable. In the Attic poetry which was written in direct imitation of colloquial speech, viz. the tragic and comic trimeter, there is no necessary connexion between the ictus and syllabic length: but on the other hand a naturally long syllable which is without the ictus may be rhythmically short. In lyrical versification the ictus does not seem to have any connexion with quantity: and on the whole we may gather that it was not until the Byzantine period of Greek that it came to be recognised as a distinct factor in pronunciation. The chief elements of utterance--pitch, time and stress--were independent in ancient Greek speech, just as they are in music. And the fact that they were independent goes a long way to prove our main contention, viz. that ancient Greek speech had a peculiar quasi-musical character, consequently that the difficulty which modern scholars feel in understanding the ancient statements on such matters as accent and quantity is simply the difficulty of conceiving a form of utterance of which no examples can now be observed.

[Footnote 1: The metrical accent or ictus was marked in ancient notation by points placed over the accented syllable. These points have been preserved in Mr. Ramsay's musical inscription (see the Appendix, p. 133) and in one or two places of the fragment of the _Orestes_ (p. 130). Hence Dr. Crusius has been able to restore the rhythm with tolerable certainty, and has made the interesting discovery that in both pieces the ictus falls as a rule on a short syllable. The only exceptions in the inscription are circumflexed syllables, where the long vowel or diphthong is set to two notes, the first of which is short and accented. The accents on the short first syllables of the dochmiacs of Euripides are a still more unexpected evidence of the same rhythmical tendency.]

* * * * *

The conception which we have thus been led to form of ancient Greek as it was spoken is not without bearing on the main subject of these pages. For if the language even in its colloquial form had qualities of rhythm and intonation which gave it this peculiar half musical character, so that singing and speaking were more closely akin than they ever are in our experience, we may expect to find that music was influenced in some measure by this state of things. What is there, then, in the special characteristics of Greek music which can be connected with the exceptional relation in which it stood to language?

Greek music was primarily and chiefly vocal. Instrumental music was looked upon as essentially subordinate,--an accompaniment or at best an imitation of singing. For in the view of the Greeks the words ([Greek: lexis]) were an integral part of the whole composition. They contained the ideas, while the music with its variations of time ([Greek: rhythmos]) and pitch ([Greek: harmonia]) furnished a natural vehicle for the appropriate feelings. Purely instrumental music could not do this, because it could not convey the ideas or impressions fitted to be the object of feeling. Hence we find Plato complaining on this ground of the separation of poetry and music which was beginning to be allowed in his time. The poets, he says, rend asunder the elements of music; they separate rhythm and dance movements from melody, putting unmusical language into metre, and again make melody and rhythm without words, employing the lyre and the flute without the voice: so that it is most difficult, when rhythm and melody is produced without language, to know what it means, or what subject worthy of the name it represents ([Greek: kai hotô eoike tôn axiologôn mimêmatôn]). It is utterly false taste, in Plato's opinion, to use the flute or the lyre otherwise than as an accompaniment to dance and song[1]. Similarly in the Aristotelian _Problems_ (xix. 10) it is asked why, although the human voice is the most pleasing, singing without words, as in humming or whistling, is not more agreeable than the flute or the lyre. Shall we say, the writer answers, 'that the human voice too is comparatively without charm if it does not _represent_ something? ([Greek: ê oud' ekei, ean mê mimêtai, homoiôs hêdy?]) That is to say, music is expressive of _feeling_, which may range from acute passion to calm and lofty sentiment, but feeling must have an object, and this can only be adequately given by language. Thus language is, in the first instance at least, the matter to which musical treatment gives artistic form. In modern times the tendency is to regard instrumental music as the highest form of the art, because in instrumental music the artist creates his work, not by taking ideas and feelings as he finds them already expressed in language, but directly, by forming an independent vehicle of feeling,--a new language, as it were, of passion and sentiment,--out of the absolute relations of movement and sound.

The intimate connexion in Greek music between words and melody may be shown in various particulars. The modern practice of basing a musical composition--a long and elaborate chorus, for example--upon a few words, which are repeated again and again as the music is developed, would have been impossible in Greece.

[Footnote 1: Plato, _Legg._ p. 669.]

It becomes natural when the words are not an integral part of the work, but only serve to announce the idea on which it is based, and which the music brings out under successive aspects. The same may be said of the use of a melody with many different sets of words. Greek writers regard even the repetition of the melody in a strophe and antistrophe as a concession to the comparative weakness of a chorus. With the Greeks, moreover, the union in one artist of the functions of poet and musician must have tended to a more exquisite adaptation of language and music than can be expected when the work of art is the product of divided labour. In Greece the principle of the interdependence of language, metre, and musical sound was carried very far. The different recognised styles had each certain metrical forms and certain musical scales or keys appropriated to them, in some cases also a certain dialect and vocabulary. These various elements were usually summed up in an ethnical type, one of those which played so large a part in their political history. Such a term as Dorian was not applied to a particular scale at random, but because that scale was distinctive of Dorian music: and Dorian music, again, was one aspect of Dorian temper and institutions, Dorian literature and thought.

Whether the Greeks were acquainted with harmony--in the modern sense of the word--is a question that has been much discussed, and may now be regarded as settled[1]. It is clear that the Greeks were acquainted with the phenomena on which harmony depends, viz. the effect produced by sounding certain notes together. It appears also that they made some use of harmony,--and of dissonant as well as consonant intervals,--in instrumental accompaniment ([Greek: krousis]). On the other hand it was unknown in their vocal music, except in the form of bass and treble voices singing the same melody. In the instrumental accompaniment it was only an occasional ornament, not a necessary or regular part of the music. Plato speaks of it in the _Laws_ as something which those who learn music as a branch of liberal education should not attempt[1]. The silence of the technical writers, both as to the use of harmony and as to the tonality of the Greek scale, points in the same direction. Evidently there was no _system_ of harmony,--no notion of the effect of _successive_ harmonies, or of two distinct _parts_ or progressions of notes harmonising with each other.

[Footnote 1: On this point I may refer to the somewhat fuller treatment in Smith's _Dictionary of Antiquities_, art. MUSICA (Vol. II, p. 199, ed. 1890-91).]

The want of harmony is to be connected not only with the defective tonality which was probably characteristic of Greek music,--we have seen (p. 42) that there is some evidence of tonality,--but still more with the non-harmonic quality of many of the intervals of which their scales were composed. We have repeatedly dwelt upon the variety and strangeness (to our apprehension) of these intervals. Modern writers are usually disposed to underrate their importance, or even to explain them away. The Enharmonic, they point out, was produced by the interpolation of a note which may have been only a passing note or _appoggiatura_. The Chromatic also, it is said, was regarded as too difficult for ordinary performers, and most of its varieties went out of use at a comparatively early period. Yet the accounts which we find in writers so remote in time and so opposed in their theoretical views as Aristoxenus and Ptolemy, bear the strongest testimony to the reality and persistence of

[Footnote 1: Plato, _Legg_. p. 812 d [Greek: panta oun ta toiauta mê prospherein tois mellousin en trisin etesi to tês mousikês chrêsimon eklêpsesthai dia tachous.]]

these non-diatonic scales. And we have the decisive fact that of the six scales of the cithara given by Ptolemy (see p. 85) not one is diatonic in the modern sense of the word. It may be alleged on the other side that the ideal scale in the _Timaeus_ of Plato is purely diatonic, and exhibits the strictest Pythagorean division. But that scale is primarily a framework of mathematical ratios, and could not take notice of intervals which had not yet been identified with ratios. It is not certain when the discovery of Pythagoras was extended to the non-diatonic scales. Even in the _Sectio Canonis_ of Euclid there is no trace of knowledge that any intervals except those of the Pythagorean diatonic scale had a numerical or (as we should say) physical basis[1].

[Footnote 1: In Euclid's _Sectio Canonis_ the Pythagorean division is assumed, and there is no hint of any other ratio than those which Pythagoras discovered. Prop. xvii shows how to find the Enharmonic Lichanos and Paranêtê by means of the Fourth and Fifth. Prop. xviii proves against Aristoxenus (of course without naming him), that a [Greek: pyknon] cannot be divided into two equal intervals; but there is no attempt to explain the nature of the Enharmonic diesis. It is worth notice that in these propositions the Lichanos and Paranêtê of the Enharmonic scale are called [Greek: lichanos] and [Greek: paranêtê] simply, as though the Enharmonic were the only genus--a usage which agrees with that of the Aristotelian _Problems_ (supra, p. 33).

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 Melopöie_, 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 passage 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 classical period, there is enough to show that it continued to be characteristic of the Greek musical system, at least until the revival of Hellenism 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 analogies 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 compass and probably imperfect tonality, the thin and passionless 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 analogue 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: mathêmatikoi], who carried on the tradition of Pythagoras. The [Greek: harmonikoi] regarded a musical interval as a quantity 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: mathêmatikoi] 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._ Mesê. [Music: Hyper-lydian.] [Music: Hyper-aeolian.] [Music: Hyper-phrygian.] [Music: Hyper-ionian.] [Music: Mixo-lydian.] [Music: Lydian.] [Music: Aeolian.] [Music: Phrygian.] [Music: Ionian.] Mesê. [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 Quintilianus (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 passage 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 olbos ou]

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

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

[Symbols:] [Greek: môn KATEKLYSEN deinôn]

[Symbols: Z re. z?] [Greek: ponôN[Symbols:???]ÔÔSPONT 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 hôs
tis a-ka-tou tho-as ti-na-xas dai-môn
kat-ek-ly-sen dei-nôn po-nôn hôs 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 assume 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 distinguishing 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 Quintilianus. 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: deinôn ponôn]. 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: ô] of [Greek: hôs] (written [Greek: ÔÔS]) 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: OSONZÊSPHAINOU]

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

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

[Symbols: I IC I K C OZ] [Greek: GONESTITOZÊN]

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

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

The inscription of which these lines form part was discovered by Mr. W. M. Ramsay, and was first published by him in the _Bulletin de correspondance hellénique_ for 1883, p. 277. It professes to be the work of a certain [Greek: Seikelos]. The discovery that the smaller letters between the lines are musical notes was made by Dr. Wessely.

The Seikelos inscription, as Dr. O. Crusius has shown (_Philologus_ for 1893, LII. p. 161), is especially valuable for the light which it throws upon ancient rhythm. The quantity of the syllables and the place of the _ictus_ is marked in every case, and we are able therefore to divide the melody into bars, which may be represented as follows:

[Symbols: V?--I v %.)..s 10-I? L, I/4 i v^%., L)? % i:\--%. i v1/4d] [Greek: hoson | zês phai-| nou; mêden | holôs sy ly-| pou; pros oli-|]

[Symbols: " \s 10 V1/4.0,? V? V V Lo V V V L.? I/4.?] [Greek: gon esti to | zên; to telos | ho chronos apai-| tei.] _The hymns recently discovered at Delphi._

Since these sheets were in type the materials for the study of ancient Greek music have received a notable accession. The French archaeologists who are now excavating on the site of Delphi have found several important fragments of lyrical poetry, some of them with the music noted over the words, as in the examples already known. The two largest of these fragments have been shown to belong to a single inscription, containing a hymn to Apollo, which dates in all probability from the early part of the third century B.C. Of the other fragments the most considerable is plausibly referred to the first century B.C. These inscriptions have been published in the _Bulletin de correspondance hellénique_ (viii-xii. pp. 569-610), with two valuable commentaries by M. Henri Weil and M. Théodore Reinach. The former scholar deals with the text, the latter chiefly with the music.

The music of the hymn to Apollo is written in the vocal notation. The metre is the cretic or paeonic ([Symbols:]), and the key, as M. Reinach has shown, is the Phrygian--the scale of C minor, with the conjunct tetrachord _c--d[Symbol: flat]--d--f_.

In the following transcription I have followed M. Reinach except in a few minor points. When two notes are sung to the same syllable the vowel or diphthong is repeated, as in the fragment of the Orestes (p. 132): but I have thought it best to adhere to the modern method.

[Music: A [Symbols: o r 4] [Greek: [Ton kithari]sei kly-ton pai-da me-ga-lou [Dios a-]]

[Symbols: oruh.u4r] [Greek: eidete pa]r' a-kro-ni-phê ton-de pa-gon, am[broth' hos]]]

[Music: [Symbols: #1? ZS A rty r M Y M] [Greek: pa-si thna-tois pro-phai-neis [logia, tr]i-po-da man-]

[Symbols: 1M I O r O 4ruh.0] [Greek: tei-on hôs hei[les, echthros hon e-phr]ou-rei dra-kôn;]

[Symbols: 4:I U!or 4 u] [Greek: ho-te te[oisi belesin e-tr]ê-sas ai-o-lon he-lik-tan[]

[Symbols: I omio r 4] [Greek:] sy-rig-math' hi-eis a-thô-pe[ut' eba;] [Symbols: U ior.t. U]

[Greek: nyn] de Ga-la-tan a-rês..n epe-ras' a-sep-t[os

[Symbols:] [Greek: sal-li-ô](?) [Greek: gen-nan..n thalos phi-lon]

[Symbols:] [Greek: da-moi-o lo....rôn e-phor..]

[Symbols:] [Greek: te-on k.. e-nai k..]]

(about 12 bars wanting.)] [Music: B [Symbols: I M G M Th I M] [Greek: Helik]ôna ba-thy-den-dron hai la[chete Dios eri]bro-mou]

[Symbols: I M U M Th Th I M I] [Greek: thy-ga-tres eu-ô-le[noi] mo-le[te] syn-o-mai-mon hi-na]

[Symbols: M U M U M W Th G W] [Greek: Phoi-bon ô-dai-si mel-psê-te chry-se-o-ko-man;]

[Symbols: Th Ô Ps Ô Th Ô Th I M Th] [Greek: hos a-na di-ko-ry-ni-a Par-nas-si-dos tas-de pet-]

[Symbols: I M U M U M I Th I Th G Ô Ps G] [Greek:-ras he-dra-na [me]ta kly-tais Del-phi-sin Kas-ta-li-dos]

[Symbols: Ô Ps Ô Th G L M] [Greek: eu-u-drou na-mat' e-pi-ni-se-tai, Del-phon a-na]

[Symbols: G M I Th I M Ph G] [Greek: [pr]ô-na man-tei-on e-phe-pôn pa-gon. [ithi] klyta]] [Music: [Symbols:] [Greek: me-ga-lo-po-lis Ath-this, eu-chai-si phe-ro-ploi-o nai-]

[Symbols:] [Greek:-ou-sa Tri-tô-ni-dos da[ped]on a-thrauston, ha-gi-]

[Symbols:] [Greek:-ois de bô-moi-sin Ha-phais-tos ai-thei ne-ôn]

[Symbols:] [Greek: mê-ra tau-rôn; ho-mou de nin A-raps at-mos es Y-

[Symbols:] [Greek:-lym-pon a-na-kid-na-tai; li-gy de lô-tos bre-môn]

[Symbols:] [Greek: ai-o-lois [me]le-sin ô-dan kre-kei; chry-sea d']

[Symbols:] [Greek: ha-dy-throu[s ki]-tha-ris hym-noi-sin a-na-mel-pe-tai;]

[Symbols:] [Greek: ho de [the]-ô-rôn pro-pas es-mos Ath-thi-da lach[ôn]]] The notes employed in this piece of music cover about an octave and a half, viz. from Parypatê Hypatôn to the Chromatic Lichanos Hyperbolaiôn. In two of the tetrachords, viz. Synemmenôn and Hyperbolaiôn, the intervals employed are Chromatic (or possibly Enharmonic): in the tetrachord Diezeugmenôn they are Diatonic, while in the tetrachord Mesôn the Lichanos, which would distinguish the genus, is wanting. On the other hand there are two notes which do not belong to the Phrygian key as hitherto known, viz. [Symbol: O], a semitone below Mesê, and [Symbol: B], a semitone below Nêtê Diezeugmenôn. If we assume that we have before us Chromatic of the standard kind ([Greek: chrôma toniaion]), the complete scale is--

[Music: [Symbols:]]

If the intervals are Enharmonic, or Chromatic of a different variety, the moveable notes (in this case [Symbols: A K] and [Symbols: 4 3E]) will be somewhat flatter.

M. Reinach is particularly happy in tracing the successive changes of genus and key in the course of the poem. The opening passage, as he shows, is Diatonic. With the mention of the Gaulish invasion ([Greek: Galatan arês]) we come upon the group [Symbols: U 4] (_g--a[Symbol: b]--a_) of the Chromatic tetrachord Hyperbolaiôn. At the beginning of the second fragment the intervals are again Diatonic, up to the point where the poet turns to address the Attic procession ([Greek: ithi, klyta megalopolis Aththis, k.t.l.]). From this point the melody lies chiefly in the Chromatic tetrachord Synemmenôn [Symbols: M AK r] (_c--d[Symbol: o]--d--f_)--a modulation into the key of the sub-dominant as well as a change of genus. At the end of the fragment the poet returns to the Diatonic and the original key. With regard to the _mode_--the question which mainly concerns us at present--M. Reinach's exposition is clear and convincing. He appeals to three criteria,--(1) the impression which the music makes on a modern ear; (2) the endings of the several phrases and divisions; and (3) the note which recurs most frequently. All these criteria point to a Minor mode. The general impression made by the Diatonic parts of the melody is that of the key of _C_ minor: the rhythmical periods end on one or other of the notes _c-e[Symbol: flat]-g_, which form the chord of that key: and the note _c_ distinctly predominates. This conclusion, it need hardly be said, is in entire agreement with the main thesis of the preceding pages.

The symbols [Symbol: O] and [Symbol: B], which do not belong to the Phrygian scale, are explained by M. Reinach in a way that is in a high degree plausible and suggestive. In other keys, he observes, the symbol [Symbol: O] stands for the note _b_ (natural). Thus it holds the place of 'leading-note' (_note sensible_) to the keynote, _c_. It has hitherto been supposed that the standard scale of Greek music, the octave _a-a_, differed from the modern Minor in the want of a leading note. Here, however, we find evidence that such a note was known in practice, if not as a matter of theory, to Greek musicians. If this is so, it strongly confirms the view that _c_ was in fact the key-note of the Phrygian scale. The symbol [Symbol: B], which occurs only once, answers to our _g_[Symbol: flat], and may be similarly explained as a leading note to _g_, the dominant of the key. We infer, with M. Reinach, that the scale employed in the hymn is not only like, but identical with, the scale of our Minor.

The fragment marked C by M. Weil resembles the hymn to Apollo in subject, and also in metre, but cannot belong to the same work. The melody is written in the Lydian key, with the notation which we have hitherto known as the instrumental, but which is now shown to have been used, occasionally at least, for vocal music. The fragment is as follows:[Music: [Symbols]

[Greek: t' e-pi tê-les-ko-pon tan[de] di-ko-ry-phon klei-tyn hym[in] Pi-erides ai ni-pho-bo-lous mel-pe-te de Py-thi-on Phoi-bon on e-tik-te L[a-tô]]

M. Reinach connects this fragment with a shorter one, also in the Lydian key, but not in paeonic metre, viz.--

[Music: [Symbols]

[Greek:.. thon es-che ma ... thê-ra kat-ek-ta.... syrigm' a-per..]]

M. Reinach thinks that the mode may be the so-called Hypo-lydian (the octave _f - f_). The materials are surely too scanty for any conclusion as to this.

The fragment D, the only remaining piece which M. Reinach has found it worth while to transcribe, is also written in the instrumental notation of the Lydian key. The metre is the glyconic. The fragment is as follows:--

[Music: [Symbols]

[Greek: ton man-to-sy[na klyton] ô-leth' hy-gra ch ... despoti Krê-siôn.. ai nae-tas Delphôn]] [Music: [Symbols]

[Greek: ...in ap-tais-tous Bak-chou [thiasous] ...te prospolois]]

[Symbols] [Greek: tan te do[u]ri[klytôn ar-chan au-xet' a-gê-ra-tô thal ...]]

This piece also is referred by M. Reinach to the Hypo-lydian mode. It may surely be objected that of three places in which we may fairly suppose that we have the end of a metrical division, viz. those which end with the words [Greek: Delphôn, prospolois] and [Greek: agêratô], two present us with cadences on the Mesê (_d_), and one on the Hypatê (_a_). This seems to point strongly to the Minor Mode.

On the whole it would seem that the only _mode_ (in the modern sense of the word) of which the new discoveries tell us anything is a mode practically identical with the modern Minor. I venture to think this a confirmation, as signal as it was unexpected, of the main contention of this treatise.

It does not seem to have been observed by M. Weil or M. Reinach that in all these pieces of music there is the same remarkable correspondence between the melody and the accentuation that has been pointed out in the case of the Seikelos inscription (pp. 90, 91). It cannot indeed be said that every acute accent coincides with a rise of pitch: but the note of an accented syllable is almost always followed by a note of lower pitch. Exceptions are, [Greek: aiolon, hina] (which may have practically lost its accent, cp. the Modern Greek [Greek: na]), and [Greek: molete] (if rightly restored). The fall of pitch in the two notes of a circumflexed syllable is exemplified in [Greek: manteion, heilen, Galatan, Phoibon, ôdaisi, klytais, bômoisin, homou]: the opposite case occurs only once, in [Greek: thnatois]. The observation holds not only of the chief hymn, but of all the fragments.

INDEX OF PASSAGES DISCUSSED OR REFERRED TO.

AUTHOR PAGE

_Anonymi Scriptio de Musica_, § 28 (the modes employed on different instruments), 27 §§ 63-64 ([Greek: topoi tês phônês]), 64

Aristides Quintilianus (ed. Meib.):
p. 10 (Lichanos), 31
p. 13 (ethos of music), 63, 66
p. 15 ([Greek: kata dieseis harmonia]), 53, 98
p. 21 (Modes in Plato's _Republic_), 94-100
p. 28 ([Greek: topoi tês phônês]), 63

Aristophanes, _Eq._ 985-996 (Dorian Mode), 7, 42

Aristotle:
_Metaphysics_, iv. 11, p. 1018 _b_ 26 ([Greek: archê]), 46
Politics, iv. 3, p. 1290 a 20 (Dorian and Phrygian), 105
viii. 5-7, pp. 1340-1342 (ethos of music), 9, 12, 13, 107
viii. 7, p. 1342 _a_ 32 (Phrygian Mode), 12, 13, 107
Problems, xix. 20, p. 919 a 13 (Mesê), 43, 82, 102, 107
26, p. 919 _b_ 21 ([Greek: harmonia]=System), 55
33, p. 920 _a_ 19 (Hypatê), 44
36, p. 920 _b_ 7 (Mesê), 44
47, p. 922 _b_ 3 (heptachord scales), 33
48, p. 922 _b_ 10 (modes used by chorus), 14
49, p. 922 _b_ 31 (high and low pitch), 15

_Rhetoric_, iii. 1, p. 1403 b 27 ([Greek: tonos] and
[Greek: harmonia]), 15
Aristoxenus (ed. Meib.):
_Harm._ p. 2, l. 15 (diagrams of [Greek: harmoniai]), 49
p. 3 (melody of speech), 115
p. 6 (nomenclature by [Greek: thesis] or position), 81
p. 6, l. 20 (species of the Octave), 50
p. 8 (speaking and singing), 115
p. 8, l. 12 (perfect System), 36
p. 18 (melody of speech), 90, 115
p. 23 (Chromatic and Enharmonic), 110
p. 26, l. 14 (Lichanos indefinite), 110
p. 27, l. 34 (diagrams), 52
p. 36, l. 29 (seven [Greek: harmoniai]), 51, 54
p. 37 ([Greek: tonoi] or keys), 17-19
p. 48, l. 13 (Lichanos indefinite), 110
p. 69, l. 6 (nomenclature by position), 81
_ibid._ (indefinite element in music), 111

Bacchius (ed. Meib.), p. 11 (topoi tês phônês), 65
p. 19 (theseis tetrachordôn), 82

Dionysius Hal.:
c. 11, p. 58 Reisk. (accent and melody), 90, 115
c. 11, p. 64 Reisk. (rhythm and quantity), 115

Euclid (ed. Meib.):
_Introductio_, p. 19 (ten-stringed lyre), 38
p. 20 (modulation), 104
_Sectio Canonis_, Prop. xvii, xviii, 123

Euripides, _Orest._ 338-343 (musical setting), 92, 130

Heraclides Ponticus ap. Athen. xiv. pp. 624-626 (modes), 9-11, 76

Lasus ap. Athen. xiv. p. 624 _e_ ([Greek: Aiolis harmonia]), 6

Nicomachus (ed. Meib), p. 4 (speaking and singing), 115
p. 7 (heptachord scales), 34

Pausanias, iv. 27, 4 (Sacadas and Pronomus), 75

Pherecrates ap. Plut. _de Mus._ c. 30, 38

Pindar, _Nem._ iv. 45 (Lydian), 7

Plato:
_Phileb._ p. 17 ([Greek: harmonia] = System), 55
_Laches_, p. 188 (Dorian, Ionian, Phrygian, Lydian), 8
_Repub._ p. 398 (use of modes in education), 7, 8
p. 399 ([Greek: aulos--poluchordia])., 39, 41
p. 531 A (study of music), 53, 123
_Laws_, p. 669 (instrumental music), 120
p. 812 D (harmony), 122
Plutarch:
_De Musica_, c. 6 ([Greek: harmoniai]), 25
cc. 15-17 (Platonic modes), 21-25, 103
c. 19 ([Greek: tonos, harmonia]), 26

_De gener. Mundi_, p. 1029 _c_ (Proslambanomenos), 39

Pollux, _Onom._ iv. 78 ([Greek: harmoniai aulêtikai]), 22, 28

Pratinas ap. Athen. xiv. p. 624 _f_ ([Greek: mête syntonon k.t.l.]), 5

Ptolemy:
Harm. i. 13 (musical ratios of Archytas), 123
i. 16 ([Greek: hêgemôn]=highest note), 45
_ibid._ (scales of the cithara), 84-86, 102, 123
_ibid._ (Pythagorean division), 87
ii. 6 (modulation), 67
ii. 7 (pitch of scales), 80
ii. 16 (scales of the cithara), 84-86, 102

Seikelos inscription, 89, 132

Telestes ap. Athen. xiv. p. 625 _f_ (Phrygian and Lydian), 6

Theon Smyrnaeus, c. 8 (enlargement of scale), 37

THE END

_Note on the Seikilos Inscription_ (pp. 89-91, 133).

Since the publication of this work, the Seikilos inscription has been examined afresh by Mr. J. A. R. Munro (of Lincoln College, Oxford). The result of his examination is to show that the last note of the melody has been misread. From a squeeze which he has kindly placed at my disposal it appears that the word [Greek: apaitei] is written--

[Symbols: c x] [Greek: APAITEI]

The line drawn under the three notes [Symbols: C X I] has caused the last to be read as [Symbol: 3], which has no meaning here. In fact it is a reversed Gamma ([Greek: g apestrammenon]), and answers to our _e_ natural.

Hence the last line of the transcription on pp. 89-90 should be as follows:

[Music: [Greek: to te-los ho chro-nos a-pai--tei]]

The importance of this correction is obvious. The scale employed is now seen to be the octave--

_e f# g a b c# d e_

If, as I ventured to suggest on p. 90, the mode is the Hypo-phrygian (the scale of our Major mode, but with a flat Seventh), the key-note will be _a_. The close on the Dominant _e_ will then have to be noted as a fact supporting the belief that in Greek music the close on the Dominant or Hypatê was the usual one (see p. 45).

The line drawn under the three symbols [Symbols: C N1] is found in several other cases where the melody gives more than one note for a syllable. So [Symbols: 1K] (l. 2), and [Symbols: 04)] (l. 3), [Symbols: K1] and [Symbols: 04)] (l. 4). It does not appear however under [Symbols: K I Z] (l. 1).

D. B. M.