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The Harmonics of Aristoxenus Edited with Translation Notes, Introduction

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The Harmonics of Aristoxenus Edited with Translation Notes, Introduction APISTOEENOT APMONIKA 2TOIXEIA THE HARMONICS OF ARISTOXENUS EDITED WITH TRANSLATION NOTES INTRODUCTION AND INDEX OF WORDS BY HENRY S. MACRAN, MA., ' FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN AND PROFESSOR OP MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1902 HBNRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OP OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH NEW YORK WvfciLuV.Ajm**-"*v. 310 10 PREFACE The main objectof this book is to introduce,to such Englishreaders as may be curious in the matter of music, the writingsof the foremost musical theorist of Ancient Greece ; and with this objectin view I have endeavoured to supplya sound text and a clear translationof his greatwork, and to illustrateitsmore obscure passages by citationsfrom other exponents of the same science. But further,since the mind of the modern reader isapt to be beset by prejudices in respect of this subject" some of which arise from his natural but falseassumptionthat all music must follow the same laws that govern the onlymusic that he knows,while others are due to the erroneous theories of specialistswhich have been acceptedas certain truths by a publicnot in possessionof the evidence " I have thoughtitnecessary to deal at some lengthwith those prejudices; and this is the chief aim of the Introduction. The criticalapparatusdiffersfrom that of Marquard in includingthe readingsof H as givenby Westphal,and cor-recting from my own collation of the Selden MS. many incorrect reports of its readings. I wish to express my thanks to the Provost of Oriel College,Oxford,Mr. Mahaffy,and Mr. L. C. Purser,for readingthe proofs,and for many useful suggestions;to Mr. Bury for advice on many difficultpassages of the text ; and above allto another Fellow of TrinityCollege,Dublin, Mr. Goligher,for most generous and valuable aid in the preparationof the EnglishTranslation. HENRY S. MACRAN. Trinity College, Dublin. \ Sept 1902. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION- PAGE A." On the Development of Greek Music i . B." On Aristoxenus and his Extant Works 86 . bookText- I 95 II .122 " III " 149 translation- book i 165 11 187 " in " 2"9 NOTES 223 INDEX 295 INTRODUCTION A. " On the Development of Greek Music. i. Music is in no sense a universal language. Like its sister,speech,it is determined in every case to a special form by the physicaland mental character of the people among whom it has arisen,and the circumstances of their environment. The particularnature of music is no more disproved by the fact that a melody of Wagner speaks to German, French, and Englishears alike,than isthe particular nature of speech by the fact that the Latin tongue was at one time the recognized vehicle of cultivated thought throughout the civilized world. Further,this limitation which is common to music and speech leads to a more complete isolation in the case of the former. The primary function of language is to give us representations,whether of the facts of the world and the soul, or of the ideals of thought, or of the fancies of the imagination: and to appeal to our emotions through the representationof such facts,ideals,or fancies. This service,so far as we are capable of perceptionand feeling, any strange languagemay be made to render us at the cost of some study. But we are aware that our own language has another power for us ; that of waking immediatelyin us emotions in which are fused beyond all analysisthe effects of its very sounds and the feelingsthat are linked to those sounds by indissoluble association. It is here that begins the real isolation of language,the incommunicable charm of poetry that defies translation. But the whole meaning of music depends upon this immediate appeal to our emotions through the association of feelingwith sensation ; INTRODUCTION and so the strangenessof the foreignmusic of to-day,and of the dead music of the past is insuperable,for theyare the expressionsof emotions which their possessors could not analyse,and we can never expferience. 2. The same contrast appears when we consider music in relation to paintingand the other arts of imagery.These latterappealto the emotions no less than music,but they do so in the firstinstance mediately,throughthe representa-tion of certain objects.It is quitetrue that here,as in the case of the emotions indirectlyraised by language,the culti-vation of a certain mental habit is a necessary condition of our receivingthe proper impressionfrom any work of art. But in paintingand sculpturethe mental habit consists primarilyin our attitude not to the manner of the repre-sentation but to the objectrepresented,whereas in music it consists in our attitude towards the expressionitself. The incommunicable character of music finds a striking illustrationin the effectwhich th$ remnants of ancient Greek melody produceon the modern hearer. Some years ago, for example, Sir Robert Stewart delivered a lecture in TrinityCollege,Dublin, on the Music of Distant Times and Places;and illustratedit by specimensfrom various nationalities and periods,an ancient Greek hymn being included in the number. It was the unanimous verdict of all the musicians present that,while the music of the less civilized nations was often crude, barbarous,and monotonous in the highestdegree,the Greek hymn stood quite alone in its absolute lack of meaning and its unredeemed ugliness;and much surprisewas expressed that a nation which had delightedall succeedinggenera-tions by its achievements in the other arts should have failed so completelyin the art which itprizedand practised most. Yet all this criticism is an absurditybased on the fallacythat music is a universal language. It presupposes THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK MUSIC absurdlythat a melody is meaninglessif it means nothing to us, and itforgetswith equalabsurditythat the beautyof anythingfor us is conditioned by our power to appreciateitr and our power to appreciateitby our familiaritywith it 3. But thoughit isimpossiblefor us now to recover the meaning of this dead music of ancient Greece,and well-nigh impossibleto accustom our ears to appreciateits form^ we can at least studyas a matter of speculativeinterestthe laws of its accidence and syntax as theyhave been* handfed down to us by its grammafians.To this end our firststep must be to make our conceptionsclear as to the formal nature of music in general.We have alreadyseen that the function of music is to evoke certain moods in us by the association of feelingswith sensations. But the material of these sensations itdoes not find in nature, but providesfor itself, by creatingout of the chaos of infinitesounds a world of sound-relations,a system in which each member has its relation to every other determined throughthe common relation of all to a fixed centre. The idea of such a system impliestwo facts. In the firstplace,no sound is a musical sound except as perceivedin itsrelation to another sound ; in the second place,there is a direction in this relation in that one of the two related sounds must be perceivedto be the inner,or nearer to the centre *. Thus in the chord flk g or in the progression3k -q~ ~Tzr the sounds / and c become musical throughtheir relation to one another,and throughthe perceptionin any particular case that one of them is more central than the other ; in the key of C for example that the c, in the key of ^B that the /is nearer the musical centre or tonic. 1 Nearer, that is,in respect of similarity,not of contiguity. In this sense, the nearest note to any given note is its octave. B 2 3 INTRODUCTION But justas the arithmetical intuitioncannot apprehendall relations with equalease, but finds for examplethe relation \ more intelligiblethan $fa ; and as the sightapprehends the relation of a line to its perpendicularmore readilythan the relation between two lines at an angleof 87 degrees, so there stand out from among the infinitepossiblesound- relationsa limited class,commonly called concords,which the ear grasps and recognizeswithout effortand immediately, and these form the elements of every musical system. Not indeed that all musical systems are founded on the same elementaryrelations. Universallyrecognizedas belonging to this class are the relations between any sound and its octave above or below,either beingregardedas tonic ; the relation between a sound and its Fourth above,the latter beingregardedas tonic ; the relation between a note and its Fifth above,the former beingregardedas tonic. But the relation of the Major Third which playssuch a pro-minent part in modern music has no placeas an elementary relation in the system of Ancient Greece. 4. But evidentlythese few relations would go but a little way in the constitution of a system,and music to extend its spherehas recourse to the mediate perceptionof relations. Thus there are sound-relations,which the ear, unable to grasp them immediately,can apprehendby resolvingthem into the elementaryconcords. In our diatonic scale of "c for example, the relation of d to c is resolved into the relation of d to g, and of g to c. Thus there enter into a musical system,besides the elementaryconcords,allthose sound-relations which result from their composition; and to the complexityof such compound relations there seems to be no limit either in theoryor in practice.There is no chord,no progressionhowever complex,however unpleasant at first hearing,of which we can assert that it is musically impossible.The one thingneedful to make it musical is 4 THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK MUSIC that the relation of its parts to one another and to the precedingand succeedingsounds be comprehensible. It is also possible,though perhapsa signof imperfect development,that a note may enter into a musical system throughbeingrelated indeterminatelyto a member of that system. Thus we might admit a passingnote as leading to or from a fixed note, without the positionof the former beingexactlydetermined.
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