Music of ancient Greece

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From the 1500s, a detail from Piero di Cosimo's version of Perseus rescuing Andromeda. In spite of the classical Greek theme, the instrument in the hands of the musician is an anachronism and appears to be an imaginary medieval combination of a plucked string instrument and bassoon.

Much of what defines western European culture in terms of philosophy, science, and the arts has origins in the culture of ancient Greece. Thus it is with music. Music played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greeks and was almost universally present in society, from marriages and funerals to religious ceremonies, staged dramas, folk music and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. There are significant fragments of actual Greek musical notation^[1][2] as well as many literary references to ancient Greek music, such that some things can be known—or reasonably surmised—about what the music sounded like, the general role of music in society, the economics of music, the importance of a professional caste of musicians, etc. Even archaeological remains reveal an abundance of depictions on ceramics, for example, of music being performed. The very word music, itself, comes from the muses, the daughters of Zeus and patron goddesses of creative and intellectual endeavours.

[edit] The difference between music and philosophy

Bust of Pythagoras in the Vatican Museum.

It is common to hear the term "music of the spheres" and read of Pythagoras and his school, who laid the foundations of our knowledge of the study of harmonics—how strings and columns of air vibrate, how they produce overtones, how the overtones are related arithmetically to one another, etc.

It is important to note that the entire study of such things by the Greeks was less a formula for the production of playable music than it was a mathematical and philosophical description of how the universe, in general, was perceived to be constructed—the stars, the sun, the planets, all vibrating in harmony. People sang and played musical instruments long before Pythagoras and continued to do so long after Pythagoras with little perception that their music was conforming to Pythagorean "rules" of consonance according to arithmetic ratios.

It is certainly the case that at least some music already conformed to such principles, with or without formal knowledge of the principles of consonance laid down by Pythagoras. People, almost universally, seem disposed to recognize as consonant, for example, intervals of octaves, fifths and fourths.^[3] They don't know--and don't care--that the arithmetic ratios that describe those intervals are 2:1, 3:2 and 3:4, respectively. Thus, Pythagoras might have simply been codifying some of what, today, are termed "music universals." Yet, it is equally true that once formal descriptions of consonant intervals were in place, there followed, rather naturally, descriptions of what notes should be played in succession to be "correct" scales from which "correct" melodies might be formed. These scales were called modes, and they were crucial to the further development of western music.

[edit] What the music sounded like

Photograph of the original stone at Delphi containing the second of the two hymns to Apollo. The music notation is the line of occasional symbols above the main, uninterrupted line of Greek lettering.

At a certain point, Plato complained about the new music:

"Our music was once divided into its proper forms...It was not permitted to exchange the melodic styles of these established forms and others. Knowledge and informed judgment penalized disobedience. There were no whistles, unmusical mob-noises, or clapping for applause. The rule was to listen silently and learn; boys, teachers, and the crowd were kept in order by threat of the stick. . . . But later, an unmusical anarchy was led by poets who had natural talent, but were ignorant of the laws of music...Through foolishness they deceived themselves into thinking that there was no right or wrong way in music, that it was to be judged good or bad by the pleasure it gave. By their works and their theories they infected the masses with the presumption to think themselves adequate judges. So our theatres, once silent, grew vocal, and aristocracy of music gave way to a pernicious theatrocracy...the criterion was not music, but a reputation for promiscuous cleverness and a spirit of law-breaking.^[4]"

From his references to "established forms" and "laws of music" we can assume that at least some of the formality of the Pythagorean system of harmonics and consonance had taken hold of Greek music, at least as it was performed by professional musicians in public, and that Plato was complaining about the falling away from such principles into a "spirit of law-breaking". Among the lawbreakers would certainly be Aristoxenus, who held that the notes of the scale are to be judged, not as the Pythagoreans held, by mathematical ratio, but by the ear. Aristoxenus said, essentially, that since you can't hear the "music of the spheres", anyway, why not just sing and play what sounds good and reasonable to us? That simple philosophy underlay the entire later movement to tempered scales and even bears comparison to the divide in 20th-century music between tonal music and atonal music.

Playing what "sounded good" violated the proper use of the established ethos of modes that had developed by the time of Plato. That is, the Greeks had developed a complex system of relating particular emotional and spiritual characteristics to certain modes (scales). The names for the various modes derived from the names of Greek tribes and peoples, the temperament and emotions of which were said to be characterized by the unique sound of each mode. Thus, Dorian modes were "harsh", Phrygian modes "sensual", and so forth. Elsewhere,^[5]Plato, indeed, talks about the proper use of various modes, the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc. It is difficult for the modern listener to relate to that concept of ethos in music except by comparing our own perceptions that a minor scale is used for melancholy and a major scale for virtually everything else, from happy to heroic music. (Today, one must look at the system of scales known as ragas in India for a better comparison, a system that prescribes certain scales for the morning, others for the evening, and so on.)

The sounds of scales vary depending on the placement of whole-tones (C to D on a modern piano keyboard) and half-tones (C to C-sharp). Where modern Western music distinguishes between relatively few kinds of scales, the Greeks used this placement of whole-tones, half-tones, and even quarter-tones ("in the cracks" on a modern keyboard) to develop a large repertoire of scales, each with a presumed "ethos". It bears noting that even if some things such as the perception of octave and fifth consonance may be universal – or at least common among widely disparate cultures – there is no strong evidence that the sequence of notes in any given scale "naturally" corresponds to a particular emotion or characteristic of personality. Yet, the Greek idea of the scale (including the names) found its way into later Roman music and then the European Middle Ages to the extent that one can find references to, for example, a "Lydian church mode", etc. in which the name is simply an historical reference with no relationship to the original Greek sound or, especially, the original Greek ethos.

From the descriptions that have come down to us through the writings of those such as Plato, Aristoxenus^[6] and, later, Boethius,^[7] we can say with some caution that the ancient Greeks, at least before Plato, heard music that was primarily monophonic; that is, music built on single melodies based on a system of modes/scales, themselves built on the concept that notes should be placed between consonant intervals. It is a commonplace of musicology to say that harmony, in the sense of a developed system of composition, in which many tones at once contribute to the listener's expectation of resolution, was invented in the European Middle Ages and that ancient cultures had no developed system of harmony--that is, for example, playing the third and seventh above the dominant, in order to create the expectation for the listener that the tritone will resolve to the third. Yet, it is obvious from the following excerpt from Plato's Republic that Greek musicians sometimes played more than one note at a time, although this was apparently considered an advanced technique. The Orestes fragment clearly calls for more than one note to be sounded at once. There is also intriguing research^[8] in the field of music from the ancient Mediterranean-- decipherings of cuneiform music script--that argue for the sounding of different pitches simultaneously and for the theoretical recognition of a "scale" many centuries before the Greeks learned to write, which of course would have been before they developed their system for notating music and recorded the written evidence for simultaneous tones. All we can say from the available evidence is that, while Greek musicians clearly employed the technique of sounding more than one note at the same time, the most basic, common texture of Greek music was monophonic.

That much seems evident from another passage from Plato ^[9]:

[edit] Music in society

Pan instructing Daphnis on the flute.

The function of music in ancient Greek society was bound up in their mythology: Amphion learned music from Hermes and then with a golden lyre built Thebes by moving the stones into place with the sound of his playing; Orpheus, the master-musician and lyre-player, played so magically that he could soothe wild beasts; the Orphic creation myths have Rhea "playing on a brazen drum, and compelling man's attention to the oracles of the goddess"^[10]; or Hermes [showing to Apollo] "...his newly-invented tortoise-shell lyre and [playing] such a ravishing tune on it with the plectrum he had also invented, at the same time singing to praise Apollo's nobility^[11] that he was forgiven at once..."; or Apollo's musical victories over Marsyas and Pan.^[12]

There are many such references that indicate that music was an integral part of the Greek perception of how their race had even come into existence and how their destinies continued to be watched over and controlled by the Gods. It is no wonder, then, that music was omnipresent at the Pythian Games, the Olympic Games, religious ceremonies, leisure activities, and even the beginnings of drama as an outgrowth of the dithyrambs performed in honor of Dionysus.^[13]

A representation from the 1500s of the Muses dancing.

It may be that the actual sounds of the music heard at rituals, games, dramas, etc. underwent a change after the traumatic fall of Athens in 404 b.c. at the end of the first Peloponnesian War. Indeed, one reads of the "revolution" in Greek culture, and Plato's lament that the new music "...used high musical talent, showmanship and virtuosity...consciosiously rejecting educated standards of judgement." ^[14] Although instrumental virtuosity was prized, this complaint included excessive attention to instrumental music such as to interfere with accompanying the human voice, and the falling away from the traditional ethos in music.

[edit] Greek musical instruments

Instruments in all music can be divided into three categories,^[15] based on how sound is produced: string, wind, and percussion . (For purposes of this description, we exclude electronic instruments. For alternate systems of classification, see Musical instruments and Hornbostel-Sachs.) Within this system, strings may be struck (ex: piano), bowed (violin) or plucked (guitar). Wind instruments may be single mechanical reed (clarinet) or double mechanical reed (oboe); also, wind instruments may be lip reed (trumpet), air reed (flute), vocal-cord reed (voice) and tuned, free reed (accordion). Percussion instruments may produce either a definite pitch (bell) or an indefinite pitch (bass drum). The following were among the instruments used in the music of ancient Greece:

• the lyre: a strummed and occasionally plucked string instrument, essentially a hand-held zither built on a tortoise-shell frame, generally with seven or more strings tuned to the notes of one of the modes. The lyre was used to accompany others or even oneself for recitation and song.

A later Roman representation of a woman playing the kithara.

• the kithara, also a strummed string instrument, more complicated than the lyre. It had a box-type frame with strings stretched from the cross-bar at the top to the sounding box at the bottom; it was held upright and played with a plectrum. The strings were tunable by adjusting wooden wedges along the cross-bar.

A representation from the 1700s of the ancient aulos.

• the aulos, usually double, consisting of two double-reed (like an oboe) pipes, not joined but generally played with a mouth-band to hold both pipes steadily between the player's lips. Modern reconstructions indicate that they produced a low, clarinet-like sound. There is some confusion about the exact nature of the instrument; alternate descriptions indicate single-reeds instead of double reeds.

the Pan pipes, or syrinx.

• the Pan pipes, also known as panflute and syrinx (Greek συριγξ), (so-called for the nymph who was changed into a reed in order to hide from Pan) is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting of a series of such pipes of gradually increasing length, tuned (by cutting) to a desired scale. Sound is produced by blowing across the top of the open pipe (like blowing across a bottle top).

Representation from the 1600s of the Greek muses, Clio, Euterpe, and Thalia. Figure on right is presumably playing the photinx, the Greek transverse flute.

• the hydraulis, a keyboard instrument, the forerunner of the modern organ. As the name indicates, the instrument used water to supply a constant flow of pressure to the pipes. Two detailed descriptions have survived: that of Vitruvius ^[16] and Heron of Alexandria^[17]. These descriptions deal primarily with the keyboard mechanism and with the device by which the instrument was supplied with air. A well-preserved model in pottery was found at Carthage in 1885. Essentially, the air to the pipes that produce the sound comes from a wind-chest connected by a pipe to a dome; air is pumped in to compress water, and the water rises in the dome, compressing the air, and causing a steady supply of air to the pipes.^[18]

The hydraulis. Note the presence of the curved trumpet, called the bukanē by the Greeks and, later, cornu by the Romans.

The conch: a sea-shell with a cut opening serving as a mouthpiece.

In the Aeneid, Virgil makes numerous references to the trumpet, most notably having to do with Aeneas' comrade, Misenus: We can assume that the Greeks and Trojans of whom Virgil speaks made use not only of the conch — a sea shell with a cut opening as a mouthpiece — but even of the brass trumpet ("...With breathing brass to kindle fierce alarms...") or salpinx. A number of sources mention this metal instrument (with a bone mouthpiece) and they appear in vase paintings.

The lyre, kithara, aulos, hydraulis and trumpet all found their way into the music of ancient Rome.

[edit] See also

• Delphic Hymns
• Oxyrhynchus hymn
• Ancient Roman music

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Aristoxenus, The Harmonics of Aristoxenus, translated by H. S. Macran (Oxford, Calrendon, 1902; facs. Hildesheim, G. Olms, 1974).
• Boethius: Fundamentals of Music. (De institutione musica), ed. C. Palisca, trans. C. Bower. Yale 1989.
• Graves, Robert (1955). The Greek Myths, Mt. Kisco, New York: Moyer Bell.
• Henderson, Isobel (1957). "Ancient Greek Music" in The New Oxford History of Music, vol.1: Ancient and Oriental Music," Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Kilmer, Anne Draffkorn and Richard L. Crocker. (1976) Sounds from Silence: Recent Discoveries in Ancient Near Eastern Music. (CD BTNK 101 plus booklet) Berkeley: Bit Enki Records.
• Olson, Harry F. (1967) Music, Physics and Engineering, New York: Dover reprint.
• Plato. Laws, (700-701a).
• Plato. Republic, (398d-399a).
• Strunk, Oliver; Leo Treitler, and Thomas Mathiesen, eds., Source Readings in Music History: Greek Views of Music. (W.W. Norton & Company; Revised edition (September 1997).
• Trehub, Sandra (2000). "Human Processing Predispositions and Musical Univsals" in The Origins of Music Wallin, Nils L. Björn Merker and Steven Brown (ed.). Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
• Ulrich, Homer and Paul Pisk (1963). A History of Music and Musical Style, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanoich.
• Virgil, The Aeneid (trans. John Dryden).
• Williams, C.F. (1903). The Story of the Organ, New York: Charles Scribner & Sons.

[edit] Further reading

• Anderson, W. (1966) Ethos and Education in Greek Music. Cambridge, HUP.
• Anderson, W. (1994) Music and Musicians in Ancient Greece. Cornell.
• Barker, Andrew (ed.), Greek Musical Writings, 2 Vols. Cambridge Readings in the Literature of Music. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984-89).
• Comotti, G. (1989) Music in Greek and Roman Culture. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.
• Mathiesen, T.J. (1974). Bibliography of Sources for the Study of Ancient Greek Music. New Jersey: Joseph Boonin, Inc.
• Michaelides, S. (1978) The Music of Ancient Greece: An Encyclopaedia. London: Faber & Faber.
• Pöhlmann, E. and West, M.L. (2001) Documents of Ancient Greek Music : The Extant Melodies and Fragments Edited and Transcribed with Commentary, OUP, ISBN 0-19-815223-X
• West, M.L. (1992) Ancient Greek Music. Oxford, OUP.

[edit] External links

• Ensemble Musica Romana. Ensemble for ancient music: reconstructed Instruments, Concerts, CDs and lectures. They play f.e. a reconstructed water-organ.
• Ensemble Kérylos, dir. Annie Bélis, who has reconstructed ancient instruments from her archæological works. This group has recorded a CD, available on his website
• Ancient Greek music at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Audio-edition of the published fragments; reconstructed instruments played.
• Daimonia Nymphe: group playing new compositions on Ancient Greek instruments
• A modern reconstruction of an ancient hydraulis.