The Modes of Ancient Greek Music Part 1

The Modes of Ancient Greek Music.

by David Binning Monro.

PREFACE

The present essay is the sequel of an article on Greek music which the author contributed to the new edition of _Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_ (London, 1890-91, art. MUSICA). In that article the long-standing controversy regarding the nature of the ancient musical Modes was briefly noticed, and some reasons were given for dissenting from the views maintained by Westphal, and now very generally accepted. A full discussion of the subject would have taken up more s.p.a.ce than was then at the author's disposal, and he accordingly proposed to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press to treat the question in a separate form. He has now to thank them for undertaking the publication of a work which is necessarily addressed to a very limited circle.

The progress of the work has been more than once delayed by the accession of materials. Much of it was written before the author had the opportunity of studying two very interesting doc.u.ments first made known in the course of last year in the _Bulletin de correspondance h.e.l.lenique_ and the _Philologus_, viz. the so-called Seikelos inscription from Tralles, and a fragment of the _Orestes_ of Euripides. But a much greater surprise was in store. The book was nearly ready for publication last November, when the newspapers reported that the French scholars engaged in excavating on the site of Delphi had found several pieces of musical notation, in particular a hymn to Apollo dating from the third century B.C. As the known remains of Greek music were either miserably brief, or so late as hardly to belong to cla.s.sical antiquity, it was thought best to wait for the publication of the new material. The French School of Athens must be congratulated upon the good fortune which has attended their enterprise, and also upon the excellent form in which its results have been placed, within a comparatively short time, at the service of students. The writer of these pages, it will be readily understood, had especial reason to be interested in the announcement of a discovery which might give an entirely new complexion to the whole argument. It will be for the reader to determine whether the main thesis of the book has gained or lost by the new evidence.

Mr. Hubert Parry prefaces his suggestive treatment of Greek music by some remarks on the difficulty of the subject. 'It still seems possible,' he observes, 'that a large portion of what has pa.s.sed into the domain of "well-authenticated fact" is complete misapprehension, as Greek scholars have not time for a thorough study of music up to the standard required to judge securely of the matters in question, and musicians as a rule are not extremely intimate with Greek' (_The Art of Music_, p. 24). To the present writer, who has no claim to the t.i.tle of musician, the scepticism expressed in these words appears to be well founded. If his interpretation of the ancient texts furnishes musicians like Mr. Parry with a somewhat more trustworthy basis for their criticism of Greek music as an art, his object will be fully attained.

-- 1. _Introductory._

The modes of ancient Greek music are of interest to us, not only as the forms under which the Fine Art of Music was developed by a people of extraordinary artistic capability, but also on account of the peculiar ethical influence ascribed to them by the greatest ancient philosophers. It appears from a well-known pa.s.sage in the _Republic_ of Plato, as well as from many other references, that in ancient Greece there were certain kinds or forms of music, which were known by national or tribal names--Dorian, Ionian, Phrygian, Lydian and the like: that each of these was believed to be capable, not only of expressing particular emotions, but of reacting on the sensibility in such a way as to exercise a powerful and specific influence in the formation of character: and consequently that the choice, among these varieties, of the musical forms to be admitted into the education of the state, was a matter of the most serious practical concern. If on a question of this kind we are inclined to distrust the imaginative temper of Plato we have only to turn to the discussion of the same subject in the _Politics_ of Aristotle, and we shall find the Platonic view criticised in some important details, but treated in the main as being beyond controversy.

The word [Greek: harmonia], 'harmony,' applied to these forms of music by Plato and Aristotle, means literally 'fitting' or 'adjustment,' hence the 'tuning' of a series of notes on any principle, the formation of a 'scale' or 'gamut.' Other ancient writers use the word [Greek: tropos], whence the Latin _modus_ and our mood or 'mode,' generally employed in this sense by English scholars. The word 'mode' is open to the objection that in modern music it has a meaning which a.s.sumes just what it is our present business to prove or disprove about the 'modes' of Greek music. The word 'harmony,' however, is still more misleading, and on the whole it seems best to abide by the established use of 'mode' as a translation of [Greek: harmonia], trusting that the context will show when the word has its distinctively modern sense, and when it simply denotes a musical scale of some particular kind.

The rhythm of music is also recognized by both Plato and Aristotle as an important element in its moral value. On this part of the subject, however, we have much less material for a judgement. Plato goes on to the rhythms after he has done with the modes, and lays down the principle that they must not be complex or varied, but must be the rhythms of a sober and brave life. But he confesses that he cannot tell which these are ([Greek: poia de poiou biou mimemata ouk echo legein]), and leaves the matter for future inquiry[1].

[Footnote 1: Plato, _Rep._ p. 400 _b_ [Greek: alla tauta men, en d'

ego, kai meta Damonos bouleusometha, tines te aneleutherias kai hybreos e manias kai alles kakias prepousai baseis, kai tinas tois enantiois leipteon rhythmous.]]

-- 2. _Statement of the question._

What then are the musical forms to which Plato and Aristotle ascribe this remarkable efficacy? And what is the source of their influence on human emotion and character?

There are two obvious relations in which the scales employed in any system of music may stand to each other. They may be related as two keys of the same mode in modern music: that is to say, we may have to do with a scale consisting of a fixed succession of intervals, which may vary in pitch--may be 'transposed,' as we say, from one pitch or key to another. Or the scales may differ as the Major mode differs from the Minor, namely in the order in which the intervals follow each other. In modern music we have these two modes, and each of them may be in any one of twelve keys. It is evidently possible, also, that a name such as Dorian or Lydian might denote a particular mode taken in a particular key--that the scale so called should possess a definite pitch as well as a definite series of intervals.

According to the theory which appears now to prevail among students of Greek music, these famous names had a double application. There was a Dorian mode as well as a Dorian key, a Phrygian mode and a Phrygian key, and so on. This is the view set forth by Boeckh in the treatise which may be said to have laid the foundations of our knowledge of Greek music (_De Metris Pindari_, lib. III. cc.

vii-xii). It is expounded, along with much subsidiary speculation, in the successive volumes which we owe to the fertile pen of Westphal; and it has been adopted in the learned and excellent _Histoire et Theorie de la Musique de l'Antiquite_ of M. Gevaert. According to these high authorities the Greeks had a system of key ([Greek: tonoi]), and also a system of modes ([Greek: harmoniai]), the former being based solely upon difference of pitch, the latter upon the 'form' or species ([Greek: eidos]) of the octave scale, that is to say, upon the order of the intervals which compose it.

-- 3. _The Authorities._

The sources of our knowledge are the various systematic treatises upon music which have come down to us from Greek antiquity, together with incidental references in other authors, chiefly poets and philosophers. Of the systematic or 'technical' writers the earliest and most important is Aristoxenus, a pupil of Aristotle. His treatise on _Harmonics_ ([Greek: harmonike]) has reached us in a fragmentary condition, but may be supplemented to some extent from later works of the same school. Among the incidental notices of music the most considerable are the pa.s.sages in the _Republic_ and the _Politics_ already referred to. To these we have to add a few other references in Plato and Aristotle; a long fragment from the Platonic philosopher Heraclides Ponticus, containing some interesting quotations from earlier poets; a number of detached observations collected in the nineteenth section of the Aristotelian _Problems_; and one or two notices preserved in lexicographical works, such as the _Onomasticon_ of Pollux.

In these groups of authorities the scholars above mentioned find the double use which they believe to have been made of the names Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian and the rest. In Aristoxenus they recognise that these names are applied to a series of keys ([Greek: tonoi]), which differed in pitch only. In Plato and Aristotle they find the same names applied to scales called [Greek: harmoniai], and these scales, they maintain, differed primarily in the order of their intervals. I shall endeavour to show that there was no such double use: that in the earlier periods of Greek music the scales in use, whether called [Greek: tonoi] or [Greek: harmoniai], differed primarily in _pitch_: that the statements of ancient authors about them, down to and including Aristoxenus, agree as closely as there is reason to expect: and that the pa.s.sages on which the opposite view is based--all of them drawn from comparatively late writers--either do not relate to these ancient scales at all, or point to the emergence in post-cla.s.sical times of some new forms or tendencies of musical art.

I propose in any case to adhere as closely as possible to a chronological treatment of the evidence which is at our command, and I hope to make it probable that the difficulties of the question may be best dealt with on this method.

-- 4. _The Early Poets._

The earliest of the pa.s.sages now in question comes from the poet Pratinas, a contemporary of Aeschylus. It is quoted by Heraclides Ponticus, in the course of a long fragment preserved by Athenaeus (xiv. cc. 19-21, p. 624 _c_-626 _a_). The words are:

[Greek: mete syntonon dioke mete tan aneimenan Iasti mousan, alla tan messan neon arouran aiolize to melei.]

'Follow neither a highly-strung music nor the low-pitched Ionian, but turning over the middle plough-land be an Aeolian in your melody.'

Westphal takes the word [Greek: 'Iasti] with [Greek: syntonon] as well as with [Greek: aneimenan], and infers that there were two kinds of Ionian, a 'highly-strung' and a 'relaxed' or low-pitched. But this is not required by the words, and seems less natural than the interpretation which I have given. All that the pa.s.sage proves is that in the time of Pratinas a composer had the choice of at least three scales: one (or more) of which the pitch was high ([Greek: syntonos]); another of low pitch ([Greek: aneimene]), which was called _Ionian_; and a third, intermediate between the others, and known as _Aeolian_. Later in the same pa.s.sage we are told that Pratinas spoke of the 'Aeolian harmony' ([Greek: prepei toi pasin aoidolabraktais Aiolis harmonia]). And the term is also found, with the epithet 'deep-sounding,' in a pa.s.sage quoted from the hymn to Demeter of a contemporary poet, Lasus of Hermione (Athen. xiv. 624 _e_):

[Greek: Damatra melpo Koran te Klymenoio alochon Meliboian, hymnon anagon Aiolid' hama barybromon harmonian.]

With regard to the Phrygian and Lydian scales Heraclides (_l. c._) quotes an interesting pa.s.sage from Telestes of Selinus, in which their introduction is ascribed to the colony that was said to have followed Pelops from Asia Minor to the Peloponnesus:

[Greek: protoi para krateras h.e.l.lenon en aulois synopadoi Pelopos matros oreias phrygion aeison nomon; toi d' oxyphonois pektidon psalmois krekon Dydion hymnon.]

'The comrades of Pelops were the first who beside the Grecian cups sang with the flute ([Greek: aulos]) the Phrygian measure of the Great Mother; and these again by shrill-voiced notes of the _pectis_ sounded a Lydian hymn.' The epithet [Greek: oxyphonos] is worth notice in connexion with other evidence of the high pitch of the music known as Lydian. The Lydian mode is mentioned by Pindar, _Nem._ 4. 45:

[Greek: exyphaine glykeia kai tod' autika phorminx Lydia syn harmonia melos pephilemenon.]

The Dorian is the subject of an elaborate jest made at the expense of Cleon in the _Knights_ of Aristophanes, ll. 985-996:

[Greek: alla kai tod' ego ge thaumazo tes hyomousias autou phasi gar auton hoi paides hoi xynephoiton ten Doristi monen enarmottesthai thama ten lyran, allen d' ouk ethelein labein; kata ton kitharisten orgisthent' apagein keleuein, hos harmonian ho pais outos ou dynatai mathein en me Dorodokesti.]

-- 5. _Plato._

Following the order of time, we come next to the pa.s.sage in the _Republic_ (p. 398), where Socrates is endeavouring to determine the kinds of music to be admitted for the use of his future 'guardians,'

in accordance with the general principles which are to govern their education. First among these principles is the condemnation of all undue expression of grief. 'What modes of music ([Greek: harmoniai]),' he asks, are plaintive ([Greek: threnodeis])?' 'The _Mixo-lydian_,' Glaucon replies, 'and the _Syntono-lydian_, and such-like.' These accordingly Socrates excludes. 'But again, drunkenness and slothfulness are no less forbidden to the guardians; which of the modes are soft and convivial ([Greek: malakai te kai sympotikai])?' '_Ionian_,' says Glaucon, 'and _Lydian_, those which are called slack ([Greek: chalarai]).' 'Which then remain?'

'Seemingly _Dorian_ and _Phrygian_.' 'I do not know the modes,' says Socrates, 'but leave me one that will imitate the tones and accents of a brave man enduring danger or distress, fighting with constancy against fortune: and also one fitted for the work of peace, for prayer heard by the G.o.ds, for the successful persuasion or exhortation of men, and generally for the sober enjoyment of ease and prosperity.' Two such modes, one for Courage and one for Temperance, are declared by Glaucon to be found in the Dorian and the Phrygian.

In the _Laches_ (p. 188) there is a pa.s.sing reference in which a similar view is expressed. Plato is speaking of the character of a brave man as being metaphorically a 'harmony,' by which his life is made consonant to reason--'a Dorian harmony,' he adds--playing upon the musical sense of the word--'not an Ionian, certainly not a Phrygian or a Lydian, but that one which only is truly h.e.l.lenic'

([Greek: atechnos Doristi, all' ouk Iasti, oiomai de oude Phrygisti oude Lydisti, all' he per mone h.e.l.lenike estin harmonia]). The exclusion of Phrygian may be due to the fact that the virtue discussed in the _Laches_ is courage; but it is in agreement with Aristotle's opinion. The absence of Aeolian from both the Platonic pa.s.sages seems to show that it had gone out of use in his time (but cp. p. 11).

The point of view from which Plato professes to determine the right modes to be used in his ideal education appears clearly in the pa.s.sage of the _Republic_. The modes first rejected are those which are high in pitch. The Syntono-lydian or 'high-strung Lydian' is shown by its name to be of this cla.s.s. The Mixo-lydian is similar, as we shall see from Aristotle and other writers. The second group which he condemns is that of the 'slack' or low-pitched. Thus it is on the profoundly h.e.l.lenic principle of choosing the mean between opposite extremes that he approves of the Dorian and Phrygian pitch. The application of this principle was not a new one, for it had been already laid down by Pratinas: [Greek: mete syntonon dioke mete tan aneimenan].

The three chapters which Aristotle devotes to a discussion of the use of music in the state (_Politics_ viii. cc. 5-7), and in which he reviews and criticises the Platonic treatment of the same subject, will be found entirely to bear out the view now taken. It is also supported by the commentary of Plutarch, in his dialogue on Music (cc. 15-17), of which we shall have something to say hereafter.

Meanwhile, following the chronological order of our authorities, we come next to the fragment of Heraclides Ponticus already mentioned (Athen. xiv. p. 624 _c_-626 _a_).

-- 6. _Heraclides Ponticus._