a much greater surprise was in store. The book was nearly ready for publication last November, when the newspapers reported that the French scholars engaged in excavating on the site of Delphi had found several pieces of musical notation, in particular a hymn to Apollo dating from the third century B.C. As the known remains of Greek music were either miserably brief, or so late as hardly to belong to classical antiquity, it was thought best to wait for the publication of the new material. The French School of Athens must be congratulated upon the good fortune which has attended their enterprise, and also upon the excellent form in which its results have been placed, within a comparatively short time, at the service of students. The writer of these pages, it will be readily understood, had especial reason to be interested in the announcement of a discovery which might give an entirely new complexion to the whole argument. It will be for the reader to determine whether the main thesis of the book has gained or lost by the new evidence.
Mr. Hubert Parry prefaces his suggestive treatment of Greek music by some remarks on the difficulty of the subject. 'It still seems possible,' he observes, 'that a large portion of what has passed into the domain of "well-authenticated fact" is complete misapprehension, as Greek scholars have not time for a thorough study of music up to the standard required to judge securely of the matters in question, and musicians as a rule are not extremely intimate with Greek' (The Art of Music, p. 24). To the present writer, who has no claim to the title of musician, the scepticism expressed in these words appears to be well founded. If his interpretation of the ancient texts furnishes musicians like Mr. Parry with a somewhat more trustworthy basis for their criticism of Greek music as an art, his object will be fully attained.
| Page | |
| § 1. Introductory. Musical forms called harmoniai or tropoi | 1 |
| § 2. Statement of the question. The terms Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, &c. | 3 |
| § 3. The Authorities. Aristoxenus—Plato—Aristotle—Heraclides Ponticus —the Aristotelian Problems | 4 |
| § 4. The Early Poets. Pratinas—Telestes—Aristophanes | 5 |
| § 5. Plato. The harmoniai in the Republic—The Laches | 7 |
| § 6. Heraclides Ponticus. The three Hellenic harmoniai—the Phrygian and Lydian— the Hypo-dorian, &c. | 9 |
| § 7. Aristotle—The Politics. The harmoniai in the Politics | 12 |
| § 8. The Aristotelian Problems. Hypo-dorian and Hypo-phrygian | 14 |
| § 9. The Rhetoric. The harmonia of oratory | 15 |
| § 10. Aristoxenus. The topoi or keys | 16 |
| § 11. Names of keys. The prefix Hypo-—the term tonos | 19 |
| § 12. Plutarch's Dialogue on Music. The Platonic modes—Lydian—Mixo-lydian and Syntono-lydian— the Mixo-lydian octave—the keys of Sacadas—tonos and harmonia | 20 |
| § 13. Modes employed on different instruments. Modes on wind-instruments—on the water-organ— on the cithara—on the flute | 27 |
| § 14. Recapitulation. Equivalence of harmonia and tonos | 28 |
| § 15. The Systems of Greek music. The musical System (systêma emmeles) | 30 |
| § 16. The standard Octachord System. The scale in Aristotle and Aristoxenus | 31 |
| § 17. Earlier Heptachord Scales. Seven-stringed scales in the Problems—Nicomachus | 33 |
| § 18. The Perfect System. The Greater and Lesser Perfect Systems— Aristoxenus—enlargement of the scale—Timotheus— Pronomus—the Proslambanomenos—the Hyperhypatê | 35 |
| § 19. Relation of System and Key. The standard System and the 'modes'— the multiplicity of harmoniai | 40 |
| § 20. Tonality of the Greek musical scale. The Mesê as a key-note—the close on the Hypatê—archê in the Metaphysics | 42 |
| § 21. The Species of a Scale. The seven Species (schêmata, eidê) of the Octave—connexion with the Modes | 47 |