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
It does not, however, follow that the Greeks knew of no musical forms
analogous to our Major and Minor modes, or to the mediaeval Tones. On
the contrary, the course of the discussion has led us to recognise
distinctions of this kind in more than one instance. The doctrine
against which the argument has been mainly directed is not that
ancient scales were of more than one species or 'mode' (as it is now
called), but that difference of species was the basis of the ancient
Greek Modes. This will become clear if we bring together all the
indications which we have observed of scales differing from each
other in species, that is, in the _order_ of the intervals in the
octave. In doing so it will be especially important to be guided by
the principle which we laid down at the outset, of arranging our
materials according to chronology, and judging of each piece of
evidence strictly with reference to the period to which it belongs.
It is only thus that we can hope to gain a conception of Greek music
as the living and changing thing that we know it must have been.
1. The principal scale of Greek music is undoubtedly of the
Hypo-dorian or common species. This is sufficiently proved by the
facts (1) that two octaves of this species (_a-a_) constitute the
scale known as the Greater Perfect System, and (2) that the central
_a_ of this system, called the Mesê, is said to have been the
key-note, or at least to have had the kind of importance in the scale
which we connect with the key-note (Arist. _Probl._ xix. 20). This
mode, it is obvious, is based on the scale which is the descending
scale of the modern Minor mode. It may therefore be identified with
the Minor, except that it does not admit the leading note.
It should be observed that this mode is to be recognised not merely
in the Perfect System but equally in the primitive octave, of the
form _e - e_, out of which the Perfect System grew. The important
point is the tonic character of the Mesê (_a_), and this, as it
happens, rests upon the testimony of an author who knows the
primitive octave only. The fact that that octave is of the so-called
Dorian species does not alter the _mode_ (as we are now using that
term), but only the compass of the notes employed.
The Hypo-dorian octave is seen in two of the scales of the cithara
given by Ptolemy (p. 85), viz. those called [Greek: tritai] and
[Greek: tropoi], and the Dorian octave (_e - e_) in two scales,
[Greek: parupatai] and [Greek: ludia]. It is very possible (as was
observed in commenting on them) that the two latter scales were in
the key of _a_, and therefore Hypo-dorian in respect of mode. The
Hypo-dorian mode is also exemplified by three at least of the
instrumental passages given by the _Anonymus_ (_supra_, p. 89).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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