An Outline of The History of Western Music Grout ... - The Reel Score

(1) Cult of Apollo - lyre
(2) Cult of Dionysus - aulos
i) used to accompany dithyrambs (forerunners of Greek drama)
d) Chorus & aulos use in the Tragedies of the Classic Age
e) From 6th century B.C.E. lyre & aulos were independent solo instruments
(1) As instrumental music grew more independent
i) rise of virtuoso players
ii) music became more complex
(2) Aristotle warned against too much professional training
B. Characteristics of Greek Music
1. Surviving examples come from relatively late periods
2. Resembled the music of the early Middle Ages
a) Primarily monophonic (Melody without harmony or counterpoint)
b) Instruments often embellished the melody while soloist or ensemble sang it
(1) termed heterophony: Same melody performed simultaneously in more than
one way i.e.. simply and ornamented, vocally & instrumentally
(2) Melody & rhythm of Greek music were intimately bound up with melody &
rhythm of poetry
(3) Polyphony of independent parts was not present - it would come later
c) No evidence of continuity of practice between Greeks & early Christians
C. Greek Musical Thought
1. Greek musical theory did affect the music of western Europe in the Middle Ages - we
know more about Greek musical thought than about the music itself
2. Two kinds of Theoretical writings
a) Doctrines on the nature of Music, place in the cosmos, effects, proper use in
human society
b) Systematic descriptions of the materials and patterns of musical composition
3. These insights in the science & philosophy of music have survived to this day
a) Pythagoras (500 B.C.E.) was the legendary founder
b) Aristides Quintilianus (4th Century C.E.) the last writer
4. Music in the Greek mind was inseparable from numbers - which were thought to be
the key to the entire spiritual and physical universe
a) Plato explains in
(1) Timaeus and The Republic
(2) Profoundly influences medieval & Renaissance thought on music and its place
in education
b) Ptolemy
(1) Leading astronomer of antiquity and a systematic music theorist
(2) Mathematical laws were thought to underline the systems of both musical
intervals and heavenly bodies - given poetic form by Plato in the myth the
"music of the spheres"
5. Close union of music & poetry
a) "Lyric" poetry meant poetry sung to the lyre