\documentstyle[11pt,doublespace]{report}

%% This is magic!  It gets rid of the numbers in section and
%% subsection headers, and the horizontal whitespace that follows
%% them.
\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\thesection}{\hskip -1em \hskip -\z@}
\renewcommand{\thesubsection}{\hskip -1em \hskip -\z@}
\makeatother
% End of magic stuff.

\addtolength{\textwidth}{1.5in} % same here....
\addtolength{\oddsidemargin}{-.75in}    % same here....
\addtolength{\evensidemargin}{-.75in}    % same here....
\addtolength{\textheight}{1in}
\addtolength{\topmargin}{-.5in}
\title{Music in Ancient Greece}
\author{Carolyn Jean Smith}
\date{January 24, 1995\\Francis Fitch\\Reasearch and Materials}


\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\maketitle

\section{Introduction}

Ancient Greek civilization, from about 800 B.C. to 200 A.D., boasted a
rapidly-changing, sophisticated musical life.  Several fragments of
notated music as well as many theoretical and philosophical treatises
have survived to the present day, yielding a myriad of tantalizing and
often contradictory pieces of information about the details of music
and its place in everyday life. Its percieved effects upon the
listener, performer and society as a whole are also discussed.  There
is no way to completely decipher what the music actually sounded like
but there are enough clues to provide material for endless speculation
and debate.  As well as written remnants, there are also physical and
pictorial artifacts which hold interesting information.  The limited
number of instruments which have survived provide fascinating
insights.  Urns and other pottery, figurines, stone reliefs and
sculpture with depictions of musicians and their instruments also
provide a wealth of information about the contexts of various
instruments and types of music.


\section{Instruments}
The ancient Greeks used a variety of instruments in their musical
endeavors.  Often the instrument used was dependent upon the occasion
or person doing the piece.  Instruments fell into several standard
categories, including winds, strings, brass and percussion.

\subsection{Winds}

The wind family included the aulos and the syrinx.  There does not
seem to have been any kind of transverse flute, although many
translations cite flutes when they mean aulos, an error which has
taken hold so strongly that it is impossible to avoid finding.
Translations of poetic works such as the Odyssey and the Iliad are
particularly susceptible to this error, while scholarly writings that
specifically address the topic of music generally use the correct
terms.  As a result of this it is difficult to be absolutely sure of
the terms without reference to the original, untranslated source.

\subsubsection{Aulos}
The aulos was a reed pipe with 3-5 holes in earlier times; by the late
6th to early 5th centuries it had increased to 6 holes, and by the
late 5th century B.C. the number of holes had increased by several more.
The longest surviving instrument had 15.  Auloi were made from any
of a variety of materials, including reed, wood, bone, ivory, or
metal.\footnote{R.P. Winnington-Ingram,''Greece. I. Ancient,'' The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London:
MacMillan Pub., Ltd.,1980), p. 663.} It is not definitively known if they were
double or a single-reed instruments, although it is thought that they
were probably double-reeds. Often, aulos players wore leather
halters around their heads.  According to sources, this was to help
balance the pressure in their cheeks from pushing the air through the
instrument. It could also have been a device for supporting the weight
of the instrument. Auloi were usually played in pairs, although it is
unclear whether the resulting harmonies were unison, paired in
parallel intervals, a drone and a melody, the two halves of a
scale, or true polyphony. By the latest
model, with 15 holes, there was a perforated metal ring that could be
turned to close various holes to result in a particular
scale,\footnote{R.P. Winnington-Ingram,''Greece. I. Ancient,'' The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London:
MacMillan Pub., Ltd.,1980), p. 663.} thus increasing the versatility of the
instrument.  The aulos was characterized by a wavering, uncontrollable
intonation which contributed to its being considered a wild
instrument.

\subsubsection{Syrinx}
The syrinx was a set of closed pipes placed side-by-side, which was
blown directly, with plugs at graduated intervals.  Usually a syrinx
consisted of seven pipes, but sets have been found ranging from
four to twelve pipes. The syrinx is often portrayed as a peasant instrument,
although eventually it became an instrument of Apollo, second to the
lyre in his favor. 

\subsection{Strings}
The string family consisted mainly of various types of lyre.  There
was also an instrument with many strings, but there is very little
surviving information about it.  This may have been some relative of
the harp.  In the late 4th century B.C., a few references to lutes
appear, but they do not figure prominantly in the few surviving pieces
of information that we have.  All of these were plucked instruments.
Sometimes the mucisian used a plectrum, often he or she just used
his or her fingers.  There were evidently no bowed instruments in
Ancient Greece.

\subsubsection{Lyres}
By far the most important of the strings was the lyre.  It is
generally thought to have had five or seven strings, tuned
pentatonically,\footnote{Curt Sachs, The Rise of Music in the Ancient
World (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1943), p. 219.} but references to
other numbers of strings do exist so it is hard to form a definite
conclusion.  Two special forms of lyre were the kithara, a larger,
concert instrument, and the barbiton, a lower-ranged instrument.

\subsection{Brass}
There were two types of brass, a straight trumpet, called the salpinx,
which was three or four feet long, and a smaller curved horn, called
the keras.  The mouthpieces were made of horn. These instruments were
used primarily for giving signals in war.\footnote{R.P.
Winnington-Ingram,''Greece. I. Ancient,'' The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: MacMillan Pub.,
Ltd.,1980), p.663.}

\subsection{Percussion}
The percussion family consisted of tambourines, castanets, cymbals and
occasionally the sistrum (Egyptian rattle). With the exception of the
sistrum, these were all used in the orgiastic cults of Cybele and
Dionysus.  The sistrum is seen in a few pictures on pottery fragments,
but is not discussed by the musical theorists of the time.

\section{Surviving Remnants}
Very little music has actually survived from ancient times, and what
has survived consists of about 20 fragments spanning about 700 years,
so it is difficult to reconstruct what the music actually sounded
like.  We do, however, have a fair amount of information about
acoustical and harmonic theory.  

\section{The Tetrachord}
The Greeks' basic scales were built out of tetrachords, either stacked
conjunctly, with the top note of the first tetrachord the same as the
bottom note of the second tetrachord, or disjunctly, with the top note
of the first tetrachord one note below the bottom note of the second
tetrachord.  The tetrachord was basically made up of two fixed notes,
a fourth apart, with two movable notes between them.  The intervals of
these movable notes determined the type of tetrachord.
 
The Greeks' scale existed in three types, known as diatonic, chromatic
and enharmonic.  The diatonic tetrachord was made up of a half step
followed by two whole steps, e.g. E F G A. The chromatic tetrachord
was made up of two half steps followed by a minor third, e.g. E F
F$\sharp$ A.  The enharmonic tetrachord was made up of two quarter
tones followed by a major third, e.g. E E$\sharp$ F A, where E$\sharp$
is the quarter-tone between E and F.  Aristoxenus, 360 B.C., lists
several other variations on the tetrachord, called shades, with tonal
ratios from the quarter tone to one-third, three-eighths and
five-sixths of a tone.  Evidently the placement of the movable notes
was very flexible. There is much disagreement as to whether these
differences were something the Greeks could actually hear, or if this
was strictly theoretical.  At any rate, the quarter tonal system fell into
disuse at around the time of Aristoxenus, so his writings were
probably more theoretical.

\section{The Modes}
From these pitch series, the Greeks built their modes, which were the
basis of every musical piece.  Their systems, however, changed a great
deal during the 800 or so years for which we have records, and their
use of specific musical terms changed without leaving us with a clear
idea of what a given term meant at a given time. Thus, ``Lydian'' meant
one thing to one theorist and something else to another, making the
job of disentangling and understanding very difficult.  The references
that have survived are often confusing, such as the following from
Pindar: ``Take from its peg my Dorian phorminx....Him I must crown
with a horseman's strain of Aoelian song.''\footnote{Isobel Henderson,
``Ancient Greel Music,'' The New Oxford History of Music, ed. Egon
Willesz (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), p.383} It is next to
impossible to interpret this.  Perhaps the rhythm is Dorian, while the
tune is Aeolian, or perhaps the instrument is defined by where it was
made, and the music is Aeolian.  These don't really yield satisfactory
answers.  Aeolian and Dorian are often linked, for another quote from
Pindar refers to ``an Aeolian walking down the Dorian road of
hymns.''\footnote{Isobel Henderson, ``Ancient Greel Music,'' The New
Oxford History of Music, ed. Egon Willesz (London: Oxford University
Press, 1975) p.383}

The earliest combination of tetrachords yielded a heptachord which
fell short of the octave by one note.  In the 7th century B.C.,
Terpander is thought to have added the last note to complete the
octave.  He is also credited with the Myxolydian (or Hyperdorian)
scale.\footnote{Curt Sachs, The Rise of Music in the Ancient World (New
York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1943), p.217-218.} The Dorian and Hypodorian
modes also developed at about this time.  These three modes were
created out of the Dorian tetrachord.  The Dorian mode was the primary
mode, the basis for everything else.

The term harmonia appears quite often in Greek writings, and it
appears that in earlier times this term meant those modes based on the
Dorian tetrachord and that later on it expanded to include all the
modes.  Herakleides (one of the earliest Greek musical theorists,
around the 4th century BC) complains that a current (for him) usage
calls the Dorian, Phrygian and Lydian modes harmonai, while in his
opinion the only harmonai are Dorian, Aeolian and Ionian.  The
Aeolian mode was similar to the Hypodorian and the Ionian to the
Myxolydian, thus Herakleides' harmonia include solely those modes
related to the Dorian tetrachord.\footnote{Curt Sachs, The Rise of
Music in the Ancient World (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc.,
1943) p.218.} This is another illustration of the rapidly changing
definitions for the terminology in Greek literature which makes the
remnants difficult to follow.

\section{The Perfect System}
The changing definition of the mode was somewhat tied down in the 4th
century B.C. when Euclid described the Perfect System.  This was a
method for organizing the modes relative to each other to maintian
some kind of relationship between them.  The kithara, by this time,
had grown to eleven strings, which with the pentatonic tuning though
to be in use now covered two octaves, providing much greater
versatility in tonal opportunity.\footnote{Curt Sachs, The Rise of
Music in the Ancient World (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1943),
p.222.} The center octave of this two octave reange was in the original
Dorian structure, arbitrarily defined to span from e-e'.  The outer
edges were expanded to complete the two octaves from low a to high
a''. The tuning of the kithara still conformed to tetrachords rather
than octaves, with both conjunct and disjunct combinations.  Here we
also find another point of confusion in Greek music.  The terms for
high and low got switched, probably because the physical position of
the lyre was inclined, putting the higher notes nearer to the ground
and vice versa. As well as the system described above, based on the
Dorian octave, the Greeks also developed a lesser perfect system, basd
on the heptachord formed from two conjunct tetrachords.

Aristoxenus, in the 4th century B.C., lists sets of keys, which first
appeared in his time.  They first set are based on transpositions of
the Dorian scale, shifted upward and downward by tones of semitones.
His first set are called Myxolydian (on d), Lydian (on c$\sharp$),
Phrygian (on b), Dorian (on a), and Hypodorian (on g$\sharp$). He also
lists a second set of keys, using the same names, with the Lydian and
Hypodorian shifted done a quarter-tone each, the other three remaining
identical to the first set, and an additional key called the
Hypophrygian on f$\sharp$.\footnote{Curt Sachs, The Rise of Music in
the Ancient World (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1943), p.224.}

\section{Notation}
The Greeks had two forms of musical notation, designated instrumental
and vocal, although they seem rather to have been an early and a late
notational system.  The symbols for the earlier system probably
derived from the Phonecian alphabet.  They consist of various letters,
not in order, in triplicate, with each letter found upright, and in
two rotated positions, designating a sharp and double-sharp on each
note. The upright version is thought to be the diatonic system.  The
letters for the second notation system were taken from the Ionian
alphabet, still indicating a note and its sharps, but the letters ran
consecutively rather that being rotated. These systems, however, don't
seem to have been used by the musicians themselves while performing.
None of the surviving pictures of musicians, on pottery or stone,
portray any musician reading from music.


\section{Music in Greek Life}
Music figured very highly in Ancient Greek life.  Evidence for this
can be found on the surviving remnants of pottery.  The most commonly
found instruments represented on these pots are the lyre family and
the aulos, both of which figure prominantly. The demography of the
instruments and players, and the context of the scene, is also
informative about the use of music.  The aulos figures mostly in party
scenes, while the lyre is found in a wide variety of contexts. Eros is
often portrayed carrying a lyre, while satyrs most often play the
aulos. Women play the castanets, which never seem to be played by men.
Apollo and Orpheus are shown with lyres\footnote{The Boston Museum of
Fine Art, Exhibit of Ancient Greek Pottery} as is
fitting with the mythology surrounding them.  Athena is portrayed
playing the aulos, although according to legend she cast the
instrument from her after she looked in the mirror and saw how playing
it distorted her face.

The religious cults made extensive use of music in various forms of
rite, from the orgiastic rites of the Bacchian and Dioysian cults to
choral songs performed at the everyday festivities of weddings,
funerals, celebrations and so forth.  These celebrations were so
commonplace that the shield of Achilles has musical scenes among the
warlike images depicted. One such scenes is a pastoral wedding, where
``loud arose the bridal song. And young men were whirling in the
dance, and among them flutes and viols sounded
high...''\footnote{Homer, The Iliad, trans. Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf,
and Ernesst Myers, (London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd., 1927), Book XVIII
p381} This is also an illustration of the inaccuracies found in the
translations of these works, as the scholarly works claim that there
were neither flutes nor viols in Ancient Greece, and this reference is
probably to auloi and lyres.  In addition to the music attached to
ceremony, solo performance was generally popular, with renditions of
the Epics as well as competitions for new compositions on mythological
or historical themes. Music also figured prominantly in the citizen's
private life, especially in the form of the scolion, or drinking song.

\subsubsection{Choral Song}
Choral song was a prominant musical form, often accompianied by
kithara or aulos. Choruses were used in many religious rites,
including weddings and funerals as well as victory celebrations in
honor of warrior or athletes. By the 4th century B.C., these choral
celebrations had evolved into the stage comedy and tragedy which were the
origin of modern theater.

\subsubsection{Solo Performance and the Epic}
More evidence for the importance of music in the Greek culture can
found in the epics of the time. Epics were the chief form of
historical record, performed by a musician-poet who sang the story
while accompanying himself on the lyre.  These epics served a manyfold
purpose, serving as a historical record of sorts, encouragment for
youths to aspire to heroic deeds, and the reward for doing heroic
deeds. The way to achieve fame was to become a subject of a heroic
ode, such as the ones Achilles sang in the Iliad, where he was found
``taking his pleasure of a loud lyre, fair, of curious work, with a
silver crossbar upon it, one that he had taken from the
spoils...Therein he was delighting his soul, and singing the glories
of heroes.''\footnote{Homer, The Iliad, trans. Andrew Lang, Walter
Leaf, and Ernesst Myers, (London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd., 1927), Book
IX, p.166-7.} This excerpt shows that music was an acceptable form of
recreation even for a war hero like Achilles.

\subsubsection{The Competitions}
An important musical event in Greek life was the competition.  There were
several of these, consisting of a performer composing a piece (or
Nome) about a certain topic, and performing it.  There are references
to two of these in particular; a Pythian Nome, for Apollo, celebrating
his fight with the Python (Dragon), and a contest of auletes in a
``Many-Headed Nome'' depicting Perseus slaying the Gorgon.  The first
one is refered to in extant Delphic hymns and the second is refered to
by Pindar.\footnote{Isobel Henderson, ``Ancient Greek Music,'' The New
Oxford History of Music, ed. Egon Willesz (London: Oxford University
Press, 1975) p.379.} The most famous public competitions of this type were
the Pythian Games, located in Delphi, which were originally solely
music, and later included athletic competitions as
well.\footnote{Isobel Henderson, ``Ancient Greel Music,'' The New
Oxford History of Music, ed. Egon Willesz (London: Oxford University
Press, 1975), p.379.}

\subsubsection{The Scolion}
A common example of music in Greek private life is the drinking party.
which was evidently a highly organized, important aspect of Greek
personal life.  There are references to the scolion, a drinking-song
sung by Greek men at parties.  The men would pass a lyre back and
forth with each consecutive person singing a line, either of a known
scolion, or making each line up as they went around.\footnote{Edward
A.Lippman, Musical Thought in Ancient Greece (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1975), p. 61.} This implies a fairly high knowledge of
poetry among the general public, as well as enough interest in such
forms to make it a common method of relaxation and enjoyment. Plato
denigrates such practices as immoral which perhaps makes the scolion
analogous to the modern-day limerick.

\section{Music and its Effects on Man}
Many mythological heroes were musicians and their music was said to
have extremely striking effects on the world around them.  Orpheus won
back his dead wife Euridice from Hades by a moving performance on his
lyre, although he lost her again later. Amphion's music was even
stronger, causing the rocks themselves to line up around him to
listen. When his men mutineed and were going to throw him overboard,
Arion, a seacaptain, begged to be allowed to play one last time, and
was permitted to do so.  This did not prevent him from being thrown
overboard, however, a dolphin, summoned by the music, bore him safely
to land.  Then, of course, there were the Sirens who caused sailors to
jump to their deaths, by the power of their voices alone, although this
kind of power was expected of supernatural beings.

\subsection{The Philosophers and Musical Ethics}
As is evidenced by the mythologies and epics, music was thought to have
a profound effect upon the emotions of men and animals.  Plato and
Aristotle further developed this idea, claiming that different forms
of music, even the different instruments played, had lasting effects
upon the moral character of the player and the listener.  They listed
certain modes which were considered immoral or weakening of the soul,
and advised that these be banned. Certain modes were considered
proper, or morally strengthening, and it was advised that these be
used in the teaching of music to the youths of the culture, to make
them more sound of mind and soul. 

\subsubsection{Plato}
In his Republic, Plato discusses at length his beliefs about music and
it's role in education.  According to Plato, the various modes had
specific nuances.  For example, the Mixolydian and ``intense'' Lydian
modes, there was evidently more than one type of Lydian mode, were
characterized by dirge-like harmonies, while the Ionian and Lydian
were thought of as soft harmonies.  Plato advised doing away with all
of these, as they did not encourage desirable attributes in the
performer or listener.  The acceptable modes were the Dorian, which
was said to encourage bravery, and the Phrygian, which was said to be
associated with voluntary acts of peace, persuasion and
prayer\footnote{Plato, ``The Republic'' Source Readings in Music
History, ed. Oliver Strunk (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1943)}.  

Plato also has a lot to say about the instruments involved.  The
aulos, because of its wavering and uncontrollable pitch, and wild
sound, was considered unsuitable for noble persuits, and many-stringed
instruments were also considered tabboo due to the fact that they
could play in any tonality, including the forbidden ones.  The
acceptable instruments were the lyre and syrinx, both thought to be
favored by Apollo. This purification also included the rhythmic modes,
as ``good speech...good accord, and good grace, and good rhythm wait
upon a good disposition''\footnote{Plato, ``The Republic'' Source
Readings in Music History, ed. Oliver Strunk (New York: W.W. Norton
and Co., Inc., 1943)}.

Melody was divided into three aspects, the words, the harmony and the
rhythm.  Of the three, the words were considered to be the most
important and the harmony and rhythm were supposed to follow the
words.  As a result, music that was too florid was considered
undesirable, as it took away from the purity of the piece.

Plato considered the education of youths in music to be very
important, as important as the athletic training they received, for as
one created a balanced and fit body, the other contributed to the
stability of the soul. As he put it, musical education was important
``because more than anything else rhythm and harmony find their way to
the inmost soul and take strongest hold upon it, bringing with them
and imparting grace, if one is rightly trained, and otherwise the
contrary.''\footnote{Plato, ``The Republic'' Source Readings in Music
History, ed. Oliver Strunk (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc.,
1943)}

Plato believed it was necessary to educate people in good taste, so
that they would percieve it, and discount things that were in bad
taste.  He also cautioned not to overdo this study either in music or
athletics, for too much of a devotion to gymnastic while ignoring
music would promote savagery and hardness, whereas too much attention
to music, to the exclusion of gymnastics, would beget softness and
spiritlessness, for ``...some god gave to mankind music and gymnastics
for the service of the high-spirited principle and the love of
knowledge in them--not for the soul and the body except incidentally,
but for the harmonious adjustment of these two principles by the
proper degree of tension and relaxation of each.''\footnote{Plato,
``The Republic'' Source Readings in Music History, ed. Oliver Strunk
(New York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc., 1943)}

\subsubsection{Aristotle}
Aristotle continued Plato's beliefs, refining them even more.  He
claimed that the study of music was important, as Plato had said,
because ``...music has the power of producing a certain effect upon
the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this,
it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be
educated in it.''\footnote{Aristotle, ``Laws'' Source Readings in
Music History, ed. Oliver Strunk (New York: W.W. Norton and Co.,
Inc., 1943)}.  However, Aristotle further believed that the student
should take care not to carry his musical endeavors to the stage
``...for the performer does not take part in it for his own
improvement, but for his hearer's pleasure, and that a vulgar
pleasure, owing to which we do not consider performing to be proper
for free men, but somewhat menial...''\footnote{Aristotle, ``Laws''
Source Readings in Music History, ed. Oliver Strunk (New York: W.W.
Norton and Co., Inc., 1943)}

\section{Conclusion}

Through varied remnants, we can establish a basic idea of the
importance of music in Ancient Greek life.  Although it is impossible
to form exact conclusions about the music, and the majority is lost
forever, it is clear that Greek culture yielded a rich heritage of
music, in a variety of different styles.  Music invaded many aspects
of life in Ancient Greece, from recreation to ritual, from mythology
to philosophy. In peace and in war, music was thought to be a noble
persuit. By the late 4th century B.C., education in the noble musical
forms was considered to be essential for every citizen, as it was
thought to be possible to create a well-balanced and productive
citizen through education.

\end{document}




















