A-dictionary-of-greek-and-roman-antiquities-william-smith

MUSICA. MUSICA. 779
harmonics was probably unknown ; and this may
partly account for the major third escaping observ
ation. And anything like the modern system of
harmony could probably no more have been in
vented without the assistance of keyed instruments
than the Elements of Euclid could have been com
yap rmm\y, iWijr ti m'st.ufw. Maryatl(tii>
signified the tinging or playing in two parts at an
interval of an octave ; and the word is derived
from fiiyaSts, the name of a atringed instrument
which had sufficient compass to allow a succession
of octaves to be played on it. (This practice of
magadizing could not fail, of course, to arise as
soon as men and women attempted to sing the
same melody at once.) The obvious meaning of
the passage then is, that since no interval except
the octave could be magadized (the effect of any
other is well known to be intolerable), there/ore no
other interval was employed at all ; implying that
no other kind of counterpoint than magadizing was
thought of. But the words are certainly capable
of a somewhat milder interpretation.
In the next place, the constitution of the scale
was, as has been seen, very unfit for harmony, the
beauty of which depends so essentially upon the
use of thirds. The true major third was either not
discovered or not admitted to be consonant till a
very late period, Ptolemy being the earliest extant
author who speaks of the minor tone ( Burney, vol. i.
p. 448) ; a fact which is so extraordinary and so
contrary to all that could have been anticipated,
as to destroy all confidence in any a priori reason
ings on the subject, and to exclude all but actual
evidence on either side. The positive evidence in
jurour of the existence of counterpoint consists
chiefly in certain indications of two modes having
been sometimes used at once. Thus the expression
in Horace (Epod. ix. 5),
* Sonante mistum tibiis carmen Iyra
Hac Dorium, illis barbarian,"
is interpreted to mean that the lyre was played in
the Dorian mode, and the tiiiiae in the Lydian ;
so that if the ancient Dorian and Lydian octave
were employed, the former being of the fourth
species, while the latter was of the second, and
pitched two tones higher, the series of intervals
heard would consist of fourths and major thirds, or
rather double tones.
Again, there are passages such as—
AioAft'i (€aivt Auptcw KiKtvQov iipviuv
(quoted from Pindar by the Scholiast on Pytk. ii.
127), which are supposed to indicate that poetry
written in one mode and sung accordingly, was ac
companied by instruments in another. For a view
of the most that can be made of such arguments,
see Bockh, iii. 10. Our knowledge of the real
use of the modes is so very imperfect, that not
much reliance can be placed on them ; and at any
rate they would only prove the existence of a kind
of magadizing, modified by taking scales of differ
ent (instead nf the same) species for the two parts,
so as to avoid the succession of intervals absolutely
the some. This would certainly be the very lowest
kind of counterpoint ; but if any thing more had
been practised, it would be absolutely impossible
to nccount for the utter silence of the theoretical
writers, which is all but fatal even to such a
limited hypothesis. It is only necessary to add that
the influence of inttrumenti upon the development
of the art ought to be kept in view in considering
this question. The Greeks had only two kinds of
instrumental music, aCATjffis and xttipio-it. The
ai\os was always a pipe pierced with holes, so as
to have an artificial scale. The simple tube or
trumpet does not appear to have been used as a
musical instrument, so that the scale of natural
posed in the total absence of drawing materials.
For a fuller account of ancient musical instruments
see Bockh, iii. 1 1.
The chief authorities on the subject of this
article ore the "Antiquae Musicae Auctorcs
Scptem," via. : Aristoxenus, Euclid, Nicomachus,
Alypius, Gaudenlius, Bacchius, Aristidcs, Quintilianus,and
MartianusCapella, edited by Meiboniius,
in one volume (Amsterdam, 1 652), to the pages of
which the preceding quotations refer; the Har
monics of Ptolemy (with an Appendix by Wall is,
Op. Malhemat. vol. iii.) ; the Dialogue of Plutarch ;
and a section of the AristotelicProblemata; Burner,
History of Music ; Bockh, de Mttris Pindari \
Drieberg, Musikalische Wissenschaflen der Griechen;
and A n/schlusse ufjer die Musik der GriecJien ; Bode,
Gesch. der Lyrisch. IHchtkunst der Hellenen ; Fortlage.
Das Musikalische System der Griechrn, Leipzig,
1847. [W.F.D.]
2. Roman. It may well be believed that in
music as in the other arts, the genius of Greece
bad left little for Romans to do, but admire and
imitate. Yet we must not forget that another
element had been introduced into the arts of Rome,
as well as into her language and government ; one
which was derived from Etruria, and partook of
an Oriental character. Every species of musical
instrument found on Greek works of art is found
also on Etruscan. No doubt the early Roman
music was rude and coarse, still from the most
ancient times mention is made of hymns and flutes
in their triumphal processions : so Servius Tullius
in his comitia made two whole centuries of cornicines
and tiUcines ; and the Twelve Tables al
lowed at funerals ten players on the flute, and en
joined that " the praises of great men should bo
sung in mournful songs (neniae) accompanied by
the flute."
The year B. c. 365 marks an era in Roman
mnsic by its adaptation to theatrical amusements.
It is in this year we find mention of a lectistemium,
at which actors were first brought from Etruria,
who, without verses, danced in dumb show to the
sound of the flute. Some time later Livy (ix. 30)
mentions a curious tale of the desertion of certain
Roman flute-players, who were only brought back
by on amusing stratagem. We learn from Valerius
Maximus (ii. 5) that the Roman flute-players were
incorporated into a college, and Ovid (Fast vi. 657),
speaking of their ancient importance, says—
" Temporibus rcterum tibicinis usus avorum
Magnus, et in magno semper honorc fuit :
Cantabat fanis, cantabat tibia ludis,
Cantabat mocstis tibia funcribus."
Nero, as Suetonius (Arero, 24) tells us, played
on the flute, and came in a sort of triumphal pro
cession through Italy, bearing the spoils he had
won in 1800 musical contests. The same writer
informs us that the emperor, to preserve his voice,
used to lie on his back with a thin plate of lead
on his stomach ; that he took frequent emetics and
cathartics, and at lost transacted all business in
writing.
There does not appear to be any trace of a