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Chapter
1
Music in Antiquity
Outline
  1. Music in Antiquity
    1. Only historical traces of the music from past eras survive.
      1. Physical objects, such as musical instruments
      2. Visual images of musicians and instruments
      3. Writings about music and musicians
      4. Music as preserved in notation
    2. Ancient Greek music influenced Western music.
      1. The ancient Greeks left more surviving evidence than other ancient cultures.
      2. Western music has its roots in antiquity, espe­ci­ally in ancient Greek theoretical writings.
  2. Prehistoric Music-Making
    1. Before 36,000 b.c.e.: Whistles and flutes made from animal bones survive from the Stone Age in Europe (HWM Figure 1.1).
    2. Sixth millennium b.c.e.: Images in Turkish cave paintings show drummers accompanying dancers and driving out game.
    3. Fourth millennium b.c.e.
      1. Surviving Bronze Age metal instruments include bells, cymbals, rattles, and horns.
      2. Stone carvings show plucked stringed instruments.
  3. Ancient Mesopotamia (see map, HWM Figure 1.2)
    1. Home to several cultures, the first true cities, and the first known forms of writing (cuneiform)
    2. Some clay tablets written in cuneiform mention music.
    3. Pictures show music-making with instruments.
    4. Surviving instruments include lyres and harps.
      1. Lyres (see HWM Figures 1.3 and 1.4)
        1. Strings run parallel to the resonating soundboard.
        2. A crossbar supported by two arms secures the strings.
        3. The number of strings varies.
      2. Harps
        1. Strings are perpendicular to the soundboard.
        2. A neck attached to the soundbox secures the strings.
    5. Other instruments from the period include lutes, pipes, drums, bells, and other percussion instruments.
    6. The ruling class left the most evidence because they could buy instruments and hire scribes.
    7. Most uses of music in ancient Mesopotamia were similar to those of today.
      1. For rituals, including weddings and funerals
      2. In daily life, including nursery songs, work songs, and dance music
      3. For entertainment at feasts
      4. For religious ceremonies and processions
      5. Epics sung with instrumental accompaniment
    8. Written documentation from Mesopotamia
      1. Word lists from ca. 2500 include terms for instruments, tuning procedures, performers, techniques, and genres (types of musical composition).
      2. The earliest known composer is Enheduanna (fl. ca. 2300 b.c.e.).
        1. She was a high priestess at Ur.
        2. She composed hymns (songs to a god) to the god and goddess of the moon.
        3. Only the texts of her hymns survive.
      3. Babylonian musicians began writing about music ca. 1800 b.c.e.
        1. Instructions for tuning a string instrument using a seven-note diatonic scale (playable on the white keys of a piano)
        2. Interval theory, with names of intervals used to create the earliest known notation (see HWM Figure 1.5)
          1. HWM Figure 1.5 dates from ca. 1400- 1250 b.c.e.
          2. Not enough is known about the notation to transcribe it.
          3. The poem seems to be a hymn to the wife of the moon god.
        3. Although Babylonians had a form of notation, musicians most likely performed from memory, improvised, or used notation as a recipe for reconstructing a melody.
        4. Babylonian music theory seems to have influenced later Greek theory.
  4. Other Ancient Civilizations
    1. Instruments, images, and writings about the musical cultures of India and China survive, but they seem not to have influenced Greek or European music.
    2. Egyptian sources include artifacts, paintings, and hieroglyphic writings in tombs, but scholars have not been able to determine whether there is any notated music.
    3. The Bible describes religious musical practices in ancient Israel.
  5. Ancient Greece
    1. Greek civilization encompassed a wide area, including much of Asia Minor, southern Italy, and colonies ringing the Mediterranean and Black Seas (see HWM Figure 1.6).
    2. Greece is the earliest civilization to leave enough evidence to construct a well-rounded view of musical culture.
    3. Evidence can be found in numerous images, a few surviving instruments, writings, and over forty examples of music in a notation that we can read.
  6. Greek Instruments and Their Uses
    1. Evidence of Greek instruments survives in writings, archaeological remains, and hundreds of images on pots.
    2. The aulos (see HWM Figure 1.7)
      1. A reed instrument
      2. The body consisted of two pipes with fingerholes.
      3. Images show the two pipes being fingered the same, but they could produce octaves, parallel fifths or fourths, or a drone as well as unisons.
      4. The aulos was used in the worship of Dionysus.
        1. Dionysus was the god of fertility and wine, hence the drinking scene in HWM Figure 1.7.
        2. The aulos accompanied or alternated with choruses in the great tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides that were written for Dionysian festivals.
    3. The lyre (see HWM Figure 1.8)
      1. There were several types, but they usually had seven strings and would be strummed with a plectrum, or pick.
      2. The player held the instrument in front, supporting it on the hip and from a strap around the left wrist.
      3. Both hands were free to touch the strings.
        1. The right hand strummed the strings.
        2. The fingers of the left hand touched the strings, perhaps to dampen them or to create harmonics.
      4. The lyre was associated with Apollo, god of light, prophecy, learning, and the arts (especially music and poetry).
        1. Both men and women played the lyre.
        2. Learning to play the lyre was a core element of education in Athens.
        3. The lyre was used to accompany dancing, singing, weddings, and the recitation of epic poetry such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
        4. The lyre was also played for recreation.
    4. The kithara
      1. A large lyre played standing up (see HWM Figure 1.9)
      2. Used in processions, sacred ceremonies, and in the theater
    5. Other instruments include, harps, panpipes, horns, an early form of organ, and a variety of percussion.
    6. Performance practices
      1. Despite having a well-developed form of notation, musicians primarily learned music by ear, played by memory, and improvised using formulas.
      2. By the sixth century b.c.e. or earlier, aulos and kithara were played as solo instruments.
      3. Contests and music festivals became popular after the fifth century b.c.e.
        1. Accounts of musical competitions describe performances for aulos.
        2. HWM Figure 1.9 comes from a jar (amphora) awarded as a prize in a contest.
      4. Famous artists performed for large crowds, gave concert tours, and demanded high fees from wealthy patrons.
      5. Women were excluded from competition but could perform recitals, often to critical acclaim.
      6. Other than the virtuoso soloists, the majority of professional performers were slaves or servants.
  7. Greek Musical Thought
    1. We know about Greek thought through two kinds of writings:
      1. Philosophical doctrines that describe the nature of music, its effects, and its proper uses
      2. Systematic descriptions of the materials of music (music theory)
    2. The most influential writings on the uses and effects of music are:
      1. Republic and Timaeus by Plato (ca. 429-347 b.c.e.)
      2. Politics by Aristotle (384-322 b.c.e.)
    3. Greek music theory evolved continuously during the time between two figures:
      1. Pythagoras (d. ca. 500 b.c.e.), the founder of Greek music theory
      2. Aristides Quintilianus (fourth century c.e.), the last important writer
    4. Music in Greek mythology
      1. Gods and demigods were musical practitioners.
      2. The word music (from mousiké) comes from the Muses.
    5. Music and poetry
      1. Music as a performing art was called melos (the root of the word melody).
      2. Music was monophonic, consisting of one melodic line.
      3. Instruments may have embellished the melody while a soloist or chorus sang the original version, creating heterophony, or played an independent part, creating polyphony.
      4. Music and poetry were nearly synonymous.
        1. There was no word for artful speech without music.
        2. "Lyric" poetry meant poetry sung to the lyre.
        3. "Tragedy" incorporates a noun meaning "the art of singing."
        4. Many Greek words for poetic types are musical terms—e.g., hymn.
    6. Music and number
      1. Pythagoras and his followers recognized the numerical relationships that underlay musical intervals—e.g., 2:1 results in an octave, 3:2 a fifth, and 4:3 a fourth.
      2. Harmonia was the concept of the unification of parts in an orderly whole.
        1. The term applied to the order of the universe.
        2. Music was allied to astronomy through the notion of harmonia.
        3. Mathematical laws were the underpinnings of musical intervals and the movements of heavenly bodies alike.
        4. From Plato's time until the beginning of modern astronomy, philosophers believed in a "harmony of the spheres," unheard music created by the movement of planets and other heavenly bodies.
    7. Music and ethos
      1. Greek writers believed that music could affect ethos, one's ethical character.
        1. Music's mathematical laws permeated the visible and invisible world, including the human soul.
        2. The parts of the human soul could be restored to a healthy balance (harmony) by the correct type of music.
      2. Aristotle's Politics (see HWM Source Reading, page 14)
        1. Sets out a theory of how music affects behavior
        2. Mixolydian, Dorian, and Phrygian melodies each had specific effects on the listener.
        3. The concept of specific modes probably encompassed melodic turns, style, and rhythms.
    8. Music in education
      1. Plato and Aristotle believed that education should stress gymnastics (to discipline the body) and music (to discipline the mind).
      2. Plato's Republic and Laws
        1. Urges a balance between gymnastics and music
        2. Argues that only certain types of music are suitable
        3. The Dorian and Phrygian harmoniai fostered the virtues of temperance and courage.
        4. Music should not have complex scales or mixed genres, rhythms, or instruments.
        5. Changes in musical conventions could lead to lawlessness in art and anarchy in society.
      3. Aristotle's Politics
        1. Aristotle's uses for music are less restrictive than Plato's.
        2. Music could be used for enjoyment as well as education.
        3. Music and drama can purge negative emotions.
        4. He discourages sons of free citizens from professional training or from aspiring to virtuosity.
  8. Greek Music Theory
    1. Theorists and their writings
      1. No writings by Pythagoras survive.
      2. Aristoxenus, Harmonic Elements and Rhythmic Elements (ca. 330 b.c.e.)
        1. Pupil of Aristotle
        2. Earliest surviving theoretical works
      3. Later writers
        1. Cleonides
        2. Ptolemy
        3. Aristides Quintilianus
      4. These writers defined concepts still used today.
    2. Aristoxenus
      1. Rhythmic Elements shows that musical rhythm was closely aligned with poetic rhythm.
      2. Harmonic Elements distinguishes between two types of movement.
        1. Continuous movement: gliding up and down as in speech
        2. Diastematic (or intervallic) movement: voice moves between sustained pitches separated by discrete intervals
      3. He defines note, interval, and scale.
      4. Intervals are defined abstractly (versus Babylonian definition based on specific strings of the lyre or harp).
    3. Tetrachord theory
      1. Tetrachord: four notes spanning a perfect fourth
        1. The outer notes of the tetrachord are stationary in pitch, while the inner two notes can form different intervals.
        2. Typically, the smallest intervals are at the bottom.
      2. Three genera (classes) of tetrachords (see HWM Example 1.1)
        1. Diatonic: two whole tones and a semitone
        2. Chromatic: minor third and two semitones
        3. Enharmonic: major third and two quarter tones
      3. All intervals can vary slightly, giving "shades" within each genus.
      4. Aristoxenus said the diatonic was the oldest; the enharmonic, the most difficult to hear.
    4. Greater Perfect System (see HWM Example 1.2)
      1. Tetrachords put together to cover a larger range
        1. Tetrachords with common outer notes are conjunct.
        2. Tetrachords with a tone between them are disjunct.
      2. One added note at the bottom (Proslambanomenos)
      3. The middle note was called mese.
      4. Each of the four tetrachords was named.
        1. Meson: the tetrachord beginning with mese and descending
        2. Diezeugmenon (disjunct): beginning a tone above mese and ascending
        3. Hypaton (conjunct): the tetrachord below Meson
        4. Hyperbolaion (conjunct): the tetrachord above Diezeugmenon
      5. Although the pitches had names, there was no absolute fixed pitch.
    5. Species (the ways that perfect consonances could be divided)
      1. Cleonides noted that the perfect fourth, fifth, and octave could be subdivided in a limited number of ways in the diatonic genus.
      2. The perfect fourth could be divided three ways (see HWM Example 1.3a).
        1. S - T - T (semitone - tone - tone)
        2. T - T - S
        3. T - S - T
      3. The perfect fifth has four species (see HWM Example 1.3b).
      4. The octave has seven species (see HWM Example 1.3c).
        1. Octave species result from combinations of species of fourth and fifth.
        2. Cleonides used names the "ancients" supposedly used:
          1. Mixolydian: B-b
          2. Lydian: c-c'
          3. Phrygian: d-d'
          4. Dorian: e-e'
          5. Hypolydian: f-f'
          6. Hypophrygian: g-g'
          7. Hypodorian: a-a'
        3. The Babylonians recognized the same diatonic tunings.
        4. Medieval theorists used the same names for their modes, but they do not match Cleonides' species.
    6. Other meanings for the names used by Cleonides
      1. Styles of music practiced in different regions of the Greek world (see map, HWM Figure 1.6)
      2. Harmoniai
        1. Scale types or melodic styles
        2. Plato and Aristotle used the names in the sense of scale types or melodic styles.
        3. Prefixes (such as Hypo) multiplied the number of names.
      3. Tonoi (singular: tonos)
        1. Scale or set of pitches within a specific range
        2. Associated with character and mood, the higher tonoi being more energetic.
  9. Ancient Greek Music
    1. Surviving pieces and fragments
      1. About forty-five survive.
      2. Most are from relatively late periods, i.e., from the fifth century b.c.e. to the fourth.
      3. All employ a notation that places letters above the text to indicate notes and durations.
      4. The earliest fragments are choruses from plays by Euripides (ca. 485-406 b.c.e.).
      5. Later works include hymns and an epitaph on a tombstone.
      6. The musical style is consistent with music theory of the time.
    2. NAWM 1 Epitaph of Seikilos (see HWM Figure 1.10 and Example 1.4)
      1. HWM Example 1.4 shows the Greek notation above the transcription.
        1. Alphabetical signs indicate the notes.
        2. Marks indicating doubling or tripling of the basic rhythmic unit are above the alphabetical signs.
      2. Melody
        1. Diatonic
        2. The range is an octave.
        3. The octave species is Phrygian.
        4. The tonos is Iastian, a transposed version of HWM Example 1.2.
        5. The melody balances rising and falling gestures with each line.
      3. Text
        1. In keeping with the Iastian tonos, the text suggests moderation.
        2. The epitaph urges readers to be lighthearted while acknowledging death.
    3. NAWM 2 Fragment from Euripides' Orestes
      1. Survives on a scrap of papyrus from ca. 200 b.c.e. (see HWM Figure 1.11)
      2. Only the middle portion of its seven lines of text survives.
      3. The style is consistent with descriptions of Euripides' music.
        1. Combines diatonic with either chromatic or enharmonic genus
        2. Instrumental notes are interspersed with vocal.
      4. The text is a chorus for women.
      5. The meter of the text uses dochmaic foot, used for passages of intense agitation and grief.
      6. Chromatic or enharmonic notes reinforce the ethos of the poetry.
  10. Music in Ancient Rome
    1. Less evidence survives for music of ancient Rome than for ancient Greece.
      1. No settings of texts survive.
      2. Images, written descriptions, and some instruments are all that remain.
    2. Romans took much of their musical culture from Greece.
      1. Lyric poetry was often sung.
      2. Cicero, Quintilian, and others believed cultured people should be educated in music.
      3. In the first and second centuries c.e., when other aspects of Greek culture were imported, virtuosity, choruses, and competitions became popular.
    3. Roman instruments
      1. The tibia, an instrument similar to the aulos, was used for ceremonies and theater.
      2. Other instruments included the tuba, a long straight trumpet.
      3. The most characteristic instruments were the cornu and buccina, circular horns.
      4. HWM Figure 1.12 shows tibias and cornus used in a funeral procession.
    4. Production of music declined when the Roman economy declined.
    5. Roman music seems not to have influenced later musical developments in Europe.
  11. The Greek Heritage
    1. Many characteristics of Greek music continued in later Western music.
      1. The meter and rhythm of the text influenced the music.
      2. Memory and musical conventions played an important part in many later traditions.
    2. Greek musical thought influenced later generations.
      1. Plato's idea that music can influence character persists today.
      2. Medieval music theory and church music used Greek concepts.
      3. Opera composers looked to the Greek tragedies for models of how to combine music and drama.
      4. In the twentieth century, composers looked to the Greeks for inspiration.
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