DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

GREEK MUSIC GREEK MUSIC 223
GREEK MUSIC. In treating the theory of
Ancient Greek Music we shall follow the lines
laid down by Aristoxenus, the greatest of Greek
theorists, and proceed from the sinqile musical
facts of concords to the comjilex phenomena of
scales, modes, keys, etc.
A. Concords.—The whole material of musical
art is supplied by the scales ; and a scale
is ultimately determined by concords. In the
concords, then, we touch the beginnings of all
music, and in the scales we have the potentiality
of its highest achievement.
A concord contains two elements, a relation
and a direction of the relation ; that is, in every
concord there are two related notes, and one of
them is more fundamental, more akin to the
tonic than the other. The ancient Greeks recognised
as concords or concordant intervals
{5iacrTr)/j.aTa (TviJ.(pwva) the founilation of a note
(1) on its fourth above, (2) on its fifth below,
(3) on its octave above, (4) on its octave below.
Thirds and sixths were discords {oiaipipivcL) for
the Greek ear.
B. Scales.—The elementary scale {avaTTDxa)
is the tetrachord which is built on assumption
of the following rules:— (1) The smallest concord
is the fourth (rb Sia TUTTapwv), with the
upper note as tonic ; (2) this space cannot be
divided by more than two intermediate notes ;
(3) no interval smaller than a quarter-tone
(Si'effis l\axi(TT-q) can be produced or discrimin-
ated ; (i) in the division of a fourth, when the
upper note is tonic, the lowest interval must
be equal to or less than the middle, and less
than the highest. The recognition of these
rules leaves an infinite variety of possible determination
of the inner notes of the tetrachord ;
but three are taken as typical, and the classes
represented by these types are called the gctura
(yifv) of niusic, the Enharmonic, the Chromatic,
and the Diatonic
Scheme of the Enharmonic Tetrachord Scale
of the Tonic A.
*
Scheme of the Chromatic Tetrachord Scale
^
of the Tonic A.
=**=
Scheme of the Diatonic Tetrachord Scale
of the Tonic A.
m ^
(The sign x signifies that the note to which it
is prefixed is sharpened by a quarter-tone. The
fixed bounding notes of the scale are denoted
by minims, the indeterminate passing notes by
crotchets. The three -close-lying lower notes,
occurring only in the Enharmonic and Chromatic
(marked by a bracket in the above example),
were called the Pycnum (to wvKvbv'^. At a later
period the Diatonic genus dis}ilaced the others.
The Enharmonic is no monstrosity, nor is the
smallness of its intervals in itself an objection.
We cannot appreciate them because we have
lost the habit. But its fatal defect is that its
notes cannot be determined by the principle of
concord (see Plutarch, de Musica, cap. 38,
1145 B). Starting from A we can determine
JiA by the series of concords
tlEE
but xA cannot be thus determined.
The more ample scales are produced by the
collocation of two or more of these tetrachords.
Tetrachords can be collocated— (1) by covjiniciion
(avi'afprj), in which case the highest note of
the lower tetrachord coincides with the lowest
notes of the upper tetrachord.
tachord scale
Hence the Hep-
Heptachord Scales in the Three Genera
"vvxTH THE Names OF the Individual Notes.
Enharmonic.
Chro- "!_
MATIC. >>
3=2* rJ^ =e£FE
$J^^- ^^ -^='JEEE:^
Diatonic. >>
=3^=*=
^i=§
The name Hypate signifies the ' highest ' chord
(i.e. highest in its position on the instrument),
Parhj'pate signifies 'next the highest,' Lichanns
'forehnger,' Mese 'middle,' Trite 'third,'
Paranete 'next the lowest,' Nete 'lowest.'
(2) By disjunction (Sidfeufis), in which case a
tone separates the several tetrachords from one
another. Hence the old Dorian Enharmonic
scale (see Aristides Quintilianus, ed. Meibom,
p. 21, L 15)—
E^E
(3) By alternate conjunction and disjunction.
Hence results a non-modulating scale such as
that sup]>lied by the white notes of onr keyed