Contributions of the Ancients
Survivng instruments, depictions of musicians in art, fragments of music score and, later, writings on the subject offer our only insight into the music of the ancient world. Even the hard evidence in hand is not helpful; scholars still work to decipher the music notation. Little is known, then, about how the music of the ancient world actually sounded. Even with its limitations, however, the evidence affords authentic glimpses into the life, culture, and music of very distant times.
The Singer of Amon, Zedkonsaufankh, Plays the Harp Before the God Marmakhis, Egypt, New Kingdom (c1400 B.C.) Painted Wood (Louvre)
Alkiaos and Sappho with Lyres,
Greece, Detail red-figure Clay Vase
(c450 B.C.) (Antiken Sammiun, Munich).
Throughout the intervening centuries, artists have made drawings, by studying ancient renderings, to identify the instruments imortant to the ancients and to show their aspects. For the Greeks, the lyre, the kithara, and the aulos were central to music-making. The lyre was a plucked string instrument whose invention has been ascribed to Apollo. Its basic acoustic principle exists today in both the harp and necked-string instruments such as the guitar. Another ancient Greek instrument, the aulos, featured a double reed. The modern oboe is the instrument that most closely resembles it in its properties. The two instruments, along with the kithara, a close relative of the lyre, were among the most important in ancient Greek music. Drums and pipes were also known, but the lyre, with its associations with the revered poet, and the aristocratic aulos remained central to Greek music.
aulos
lyre
Western culture does not begin in ancient
The subsequent entries identify the most important contributors to the scientific study of music and the formulation of a music theory discipline. They also address the powerful philosphical polarities at work in our species, and hence our music. The entries describe the contributions of each figure, and the overview of the ancient Greeks will serve as a portal into the study of music of later times.
The earliest contributor to a systematic, scientific, and arithmetic study of music was Pythagoras or, more likely, the members of the cult that surrounded him during the sixth century B.C.E. In the view of Pythagoras and his followers, numerical ratios could be applied to explain the natural phenomenon of the universe. The concept that all aspects of the universe were regulated by numbers and their ratios, called harmonia, informs the general approach of the ancient Greeks to their world. It at once embraces early arithmetic and the pragmatic and logic-driven methodology that would profoundly inform Western civilization, especially in the late Medieval formualtion of Humanism.
Pythaogoras' exploration, or more accurately the explorations by members of his cult, of fundamental realtionships of sound led to the generation of the modern natural major scale. To this end, the investigation moved forward using a purpose built "musical" instrument called a monochord. The monochord consisted of a single long string pulled taut enough to produce sound. He divided the string in consecutively smaller ratios by damping measured portions of the string. For example, the first division, in which half the string was stopped from vibrating, yielded a pitch higher than the original in a relationship called in modern terms the interval of an octave.
One can experience first-hand the phenomenon by first pressing a key on the piano and then pressing the correspondent key elsewhere on the keyboard. Similarly, the guitar will yield the same experience if one first plucks a string without placing a finger on the neck. To hear the octave, one squeezes the string at the twelfth fret and plucks again.
Two other divisions of the monochord critical to Western music are the next two ratios in the sequence of division. These ratios are 3:2, called the interval of a fifth, and 4:3, interval of a fourth. The two intervals became critical later in Western music in the division of the octave and the evolution of harmony. In a stepwise sequence of notes beginning on C, G is the note that relates to C as its fifth (C D E F G). Note that the C note is counted as "1." In the same sequence, F is the note that relates to C as its fourth. Conversely, the C note can also relate as the fifth of the F note if the F note is used as the starting point (F G A B C). Likewise, C note can relate as the fourth of G note if the G note is used as the starting point (G A B C).
By using the three ratios (2:1, 3:2, and 4:3) in subtraction and addition, Pythagoras and his follows were able to generate the pattern of notes known today as the natural major scale, a series of notes that begins on the note C and is bound at the lower and higher ends by the octave. The notes are, in order from lowest to highest, C D E F G A B C. In his construct using ratios, the E and A notes sound sour to modern ears.
The process of addition and subtraction embodies the use of fractions. For example, Pythagoras was able to determine the difference between the interval of a fifth and the interval of a fourth by converting them to fractions and subtracting one from the other: 3/2 - 4/3 = 9:8. The ratio 9:8 expresses the interval of a second, precisely the ratio of the scale notes F and G but also the ratios of C-D, G-A, and A-B. Although also consecutive, the notes E-F and B-C do not exist in the same ratio as F-G. The intervals between E-F and B-C represent the smallest between notes in Western music, are called half-steps, and are reckoned in a ratio smaller than 9:8. All Western musical instruments reflect the half-step in their construction. The distance occurs in the movement on the piano from a white key to the nearest black key or from one fret to the next nearest on the neck of the guitar. The pattern of whole steps and half-steps found in of Pythagoras' scale, and hence the modern natural major scale, is w-w-h-w-w-w-h.
The remaining intervals of the second (C-D, D-E, F-G, G-A, and A-B) occur in the ratio 9:8 and are called whole steps. Other cultures, especially those of the
The octave pattern of notes identified by Pythagoras stood for centuries as the model to be taught in music education, though the natural major scale did not come into actual common use until the mid-sixteenth century! The natural major scale is still in use today as the starting point for musical composition and musical training.
In identifying the tones of the natural major scale and assigning ratio values to them, Pythagoras formulated the model that later Western musicians used first as a standard in teaching and finally as a standard in making music. The exclusion of microtones from practical music did not occur in ancient times, but somewhat later as the musical liturgy of the young Church evolved a European, rather than Middle Eastern, identity.
Scales used by in early Christian times in Europe did not replicate the natural major scale of Pythagoras but derived from it, using the same fixed pitches in sequences starting on different notes (i.e. D E F G A B C D or E F G A B A D E). The resulting scales are called modes . The use of a single set of eight, immutable pitches are critical in the development in ninth-century
The Doctrine of Ethos was the result of the observations and thinking of two fourth-century B.C. E. philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. They believed that music had an effect not only on behavior, but also upon shaping personality. Hence, listening to certain scales and types of music could determine the basic characteristics of a person. For example, continued exposure to martial music could produce a soldier. The Doctrine of Ethos seems a little extreme to the modern reader, yet music can have immediate though temporary effects upon the listener. Music can calm, stimulate, and affect moods.
Aristotle and Plato also felt strongly the music was necessary to proper and complete education. They regarded music study as belonging to the sciences rather than to the arts, a feature that would be retained until the Renaissance. The study of music also came with an admonition: music should be studied in moderation. The development of virtuostic skills was not regarded as desirable since it came that the cost of the development of other areas of expertise and learning. Today their thinking is reflected in the inclusion of music study as part of a broader education, yet it is regarded, as is the study of other arts and literature, as essential to the development of personal refinement and human enrichment.
The next great strides in Western music came with the codification by Ptolemy and Cleonides (c.2th century C.E.) of octave species. An octave species is an eight-note scale. Ptolemy called these octave scales "tonoi." Cleonides called his codification the "system of octave species." Quintillianus would also offer similar octave species in the 4th century C.E.
The octave species of Cleonides and Ptolemy differ from the model offered by Pythagoras in several respects. They are not generated by monochord division but based upon observation of actual musical practice. Although they utilize the same pitches identified by Pythagoras, the pattern of whole steps and half-steps differs from the scale of Pythagoras. The tonoi may be played on the white keys of the piano, with each consecutive mode or octave species beginning on the next white key. Names, such as Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian, associated with each scale likely refer to the poetic and musical practices of various ethnic groups. The same names were applied to the Church Modes, but it is important to note that the names found in the tonoi do not describe the same scales in the Church Modes. In the following exampel, each consecutive mode or octave species is played beginning on the next white key.
The fixed pitches of Pythagoras' scale represented the first step toward a scientific study of music. His scale's sour third and sixth notes (E and A) highlighted a problem that arose in the difference between the purely arithmetic measurement and the pitches that actually occurred in practical music. The position of Aristoxenus (c.late third century B.C.E.) stood in direct opposition to that of the cult of Pythagoras.
His approach advocated the adjustment of pitch on the basis of aural perception. To his thinking, the singer or player could adjust the note to sound "in tune" even if the note fell outside the Pythagorean model. To back up this license, Aristoxenus cited a new mathematic discipline developed by Euclid and others, geometry. Geometry could prove measurements smaller than those that result from the addition and subtraction of fractions. Aristoxenus cited the capability of geometry to measure more precisely not only as a means adjust pitch, but also to prove the existence of the adjusted pitch. Foremost to his music thinking was that empiricism, that is aural perception, should determine where the pitch was sung or played.
Additional advances in music theory are found in Aristoxenus' description of the usable range of pitches from highest to lowest, which he called the Greater Perfect System, and his division of the gamut, which included notes in this range arranged in a stepwise order, into "tetrachords." Aristoxenus gave as his lowest note the A in the lowest space of the bass clef. The highest is the A note above middle C.
The Greek gods embodied characteristics of the human psyche. Two gods, Apollo and Dionysus, possibly represent polarities of thought and behavior particularly important to art and music.
Apollo
The other symbol associated with Apollo was the lyre. He used the lyre to instruct in the merits of music, regarded in the ancient world as a mathematical discipline, poetry, and dance in elevating the human soul (and character). He called men with his lyre to ephemeral communion with the gods. Later humanist thinkers easily transferred his meaning, and applied it to encompass justice, purity, intellectual pursuit, reason, restraint, sobriety, and dispassionate and objective empiricism (i.e. scientific method). More public ramifications include Christian morality, courtly chivalric code, civic responsibility, and civil order and law.
Dionysus
Although also a son of Zeus, Dionysus personified the sensual side of human nature. Also known as Bacchus, he was associated with the life-giving fluid component of nature such as sap, juice, and lifeblood, and with fertility. To this end he ruled the satyrs and Nature as the god of vegetation and fruitfulness, as in the display of nature's fertile regeneration in springtime. In the simplest human application, he represented wine and ecstasy.
The Gods and Polarities in Western Art
The states of being embraced by each god clearly represent two profound forces in eternal competition in human nature. In Western art and music, the forces could be interpreted, regardless of time period, in "Classical" or "Romantic" terms. Beyond the catch-all label "classical music," a general term which in the twentieth century has come to signify all art music from all periods of time that is not born of popular culture, music with clear classical influences contain certain characteristics.
Classical aspects in music are apparent, as they are readily in architecture and art, as clarity of texture and form, balance, symmetry, restraint, elegance, transparency of texture, and logic in the relation of the parts to the whole and the resolution of formal problems. Although classical music might contain powerful expressive elements, it is absolute in character, that is, its value is its reason for being.
By contrast, music that displays romantic traits deliberately seeks to strongly express or represent intense emotion. The music is often programmatic, that is, narrative in its telling of a story. It contains sharp contrasts, even excesses, of timbre, tempo, dynamics, rhythm, and texture. Programmatic or romantic music is often through-composed. Furthermore, elements such as motives or unusual harmonies in the music often symbolize an idea, character, state of being, or event. The impetus to compose is not the music, but the emotion it conveys.
Although the complexity or the character of a piece of music or art can depend on the state of technical sophistication of the medium at the time of creation, the classical or romantic spirit still shines through.
posted by Richard Metzger at 5:00 PM
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