[36] The statement of Aristotle, that certain low-pitched modes suited the failing voices of old men, is misleading, as it assumes a fixed pitch for the modes, which at least in classic times they had not, and which was not their essential quality. It may be that in Aristotle’s time the ethical conception of modes had been lost and that they had all become practically transposition scales. But the theory advanced by H. S. Macran in 'Grove’s Dictionary,’ which gives each mode an 'intrinsic’ pitch character according to the high or low position of its _mese_, or tonic, is interesting. According to the laws of Greek music, this 'tonic’ must be the predominating or constantly recurring note in every melody. [37] The b♭ is known to have been the first chromatic string added to the kithara, or lyre, thus enabling players to use several modes without tuning the instrument especially for them. [38] The distinction of an older and younger Olympus which was made by Pratinas, the Greek poet and historian, is no longer credited. At any rate, the older (whom Pratinas places before the Trojan War) is the one to whom the chief merits accrue, and therefore the only one to be considered here. [39] During the first auletic contest in connection with these festivals, which took place in 586 B. C., a certain Sakadas was awarded the victor’s wreath for the performance of another _Nomos Pythicos_, composed by himself, which, from all accounts, may be looked upon as a sort of program music, describing the event in realistic manner. [40] The word Pæan (Gr. [Greek: paian]) originally signified physician. It was the name given to a choral address, usually of thanksgiving, to Apollo or Diana. [41] Dithyrambic composition continued, of course, to flourish beside the drama, as did also the writing of nomes, but both were corrupted by the introduction of solo interpolations (in the case of the former) and choral numbers (in the latter), so that they finally approached each other in a sort of cantata form. [42] Hence the expression 'magadizing’ for singing in octaves. CHAPTER V THE AGE OF PLAIN-SONG Music in the Roman empire--Sources of early Christian music; the hymns of St. Ambrose--Hebrew traditions--Psalmody, responses, antiphons; the liturgy; the Gregorian tradition; the antiphonary and the gradual; sequences and tropes--Ecclesiastical modes; early notation. I