The Modes of Ancient Greek MusicMonro, D. B. (David Binning)
History
The Modes of Ancient Greek Music
Monro, D. B. (David Binning)
Music, Greek and Roman
The scale which is formed by the notes of the fragment agrees, so far
as it extends, with two of the scales now in question, viz. the
Phrygian and the Dorian. Taking the view of its tonality expressed in
the last chapter (p. 93), we should describe it as the Dorian scale
of Aristides with the two highest notes omitted. The omission, in so
short a fragment, is of little weight; and the agreement in the use
of an additional lower note (Hyper-hypatê) is certainly worth notice.
On the other hand, the Dorian is precisely the mode, of those given
in the list of Aristides, which least needs defence, as it is the
most faithful copy of the Perfect System. Hence the fact that it is
verified by an actual piece of music does not go far in support of
the other scales in the same list.
If our suspicions are well-founded, it is evident that they seriously
affect the genuineness of all the antiquarian learning which
Aristides sets before his readers, and in particular of his account
of the Platonic modes. I venture to think that they go far to deprive
that account of the value which it has been supposed to have for the
history of the earliest Greek music.
For the later period, however, to which Aristides himself belongs,
these apocryphal scales are a document of some importance. The fact
that they do not agree entirely with the species of the Octave as
given by the pseudo-Euclid leads us to think that they may be
influenced by scales used in actual music. This applies especially to
the Phrygian, which (as has been shown) is really diatonic. The
Ionian, again, is perhaps merely an imperfect form of the same scale,
viz. the octave _d-d_ with lower _d_ omitted. And the Syntono-lydian
may be the Lydian diatonic octave _c-c_ with a similar omission of
the lower _c_. § 35. _Evidence for Scales of different species._
The object of the foregoing discussion has been to show, in the first
place, that there was no such distinction in ancient Greek music as
that which scholars have drawn between Modes ([Greek: harmoniai]) and
Keys ([Greek: tonoi] or [Greek: tropoi]): and, in the second place,
that the musical scales denoted by these terms were primarily
distinguished by difference of _pitch_,--that in fact they were so
many keys of the standard scale known in its final form as the
Perfect System. The evidence now brought forward in support of these
two propositions is surely as complete as that which has been allowed
to determine any question of ancient learning.
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