The Modes of Ancient Greek Music. D. B. Monro

      megaloprepes kai axiômatikon apodidôsin, hê de to pathêtikon, memiktai de dia toutôn tragôdia). It is worth noticing that this relation obtained in the scheme of the musicians who did not arrange the keys according to the diatonic scale, but in some way suggested by the form of the flute (hoi pros tên tôn aulôn trypêsin blepontes). It may therefore be supposed to have been established before the relative pitch of other keys had been settled.

      So far the passage of Plutarch goes to confirm the view of the Platonic modes according to which they were distinguished chiefly, if not wholly, by difference of pitch. We come now, however, to a statement which apparently tends in the opposite direction, viz. that a certain Lamprocles of Athens noticed that in the Mixo-lydian mode the Disjunctive Tone (diazeuxis) was at the upper end of the scale (epi to oxy), and reformed the scale accordingly. This must refer to an octave scale of the form b c d e f g a b, consisting of the two tetrachords b-e and e-a, and the tone a-b. Such an octave may or may not be in the Mixo-lydian key: it is certainly of the Mixo-lydian species (p. 57).

      In estimating the value of this piece of evidence it is necessary to remark, in the first place, that the authority is no longer that of Aristoxenus, but of a certain Lysis, of whom nothing else seems to be known. That he was later than Aristoxenus is made probable by his way of describing the Mixo-lydian octave, viz. by reference to the notes in the Perfect System by which it is exemplified (Hypatê Hypatôn to Paramesê). In Aristoxenus, as we shall see (p. 31), the primitive octave (from Hypatê to Nêtê) is the only scale the notes of which are mentioned by name. But even if the notice is comparatively early, it is worth observing that the Mixo-lydian scale thus ascribed to Lamprocles consists of two tetrachords of the normal type, viz. with the semitone or pyknon at the lower end of the scale (Diatonic e f g a, Enharmonic e e* f a). The difference is that they are conjunct, whereas in the primitive standard octave (e—e) the tetrachords are disjunct (e-a b-e). This, however, is a variety which is provided for by the tetrachord Synêmmenôn in the Perfect System, and which may have been allowed in the less complete scales of earlier times. In any case the existence of a scale of this particular form does not prove that the octaves of other species were recognised in the same way.

      (2) In another passage (c. 6) Plutarch says of the ancient music of the cithara that it was characterised by perfect simplicity. It was not allowed, he tells us, to change the mode (metapherein tas harmonias) or the rhythm: for in the primitive lyrical compositions called 'Nomes' (nomoi) they preserved in each its proper pitch (tên oikeian tasin). Here the word tasis indicates that by harmoniai Plutarch (or the older author from whom he was quoting) meant particular keys. This is fully confirmed by the use of tonos in a passage a little further on (c. 8), where Plutarch gives an account of an innovation in this matter made by Sacadas of Argos (fl. 590 B.C.). 'There being three keys (tonoi) in the time of Polymnastus and Sacadas, viz. the Dorian, Phrygian and Lydian, it is said that Sacadas composed a strophe in each of these keys, and taught the chorus to sing them, the first in the Dorian, the second in the Phrygian, and the third in the Lydian key: and this composition was called the "three-part Nome" (nomos trimerês) on account of the change of key.' In Westphal's Harmonik und Melopöie (ed. 1863, p. 76, cp. p. 62) he explains this notice of the ancient modes (harmoniai, Tonarten), observing that the word tonos is there used improperly for what the technical writers call eidos tou dia pasôn.

      (3) In a somewhat similar passage of the same work (c. 19) Plutarch is contending that the fewness of the notes in the scales used by the early musicians did not arise from ignorance, but was characteristic of their art, and necessary to its peculiar ethos. Among other points he notices that the tetrachord Hypatôn was not used in Dorian music (en tois Dôriois), and this, he says, was not because they did not know of that tetrachord—for they used it in other keys (tonoi)—but they left it out in the Dorian key for the sake of preserving its ethos, the beauty of which they valued (dia dê tên tou êthous phylakên aphêroun tou Dôriou tonou, timôntes to kalon autou). Here again Westphal (Aristoxenus, p. 476) has to take tonos to mean harmonia or 'mode' (in his language Tonart, not Transpositionsscala). For in the view of those who distinguish harmonia from tonos it is the harmonia upon which the ethos of music depends. Plutarch himself had just been saying (in c. 17) that Plato preferred the Dorian harmonia on account of its grave and elevated character (epei poly to semnon estin en tê Dôristi, tautên proutimêsen). On the other hand the usual sense of tonos is supported by the consideration that the want of the tetrachord Hypatôn would affect the pitch of the scale rather than the succession of its intervals.

It seems to follow from a comparison of these three passages that Plutarch was not aware of any difference of meaning between the words tonos and harmonia, or any distinction in the scales of Greek music such as has been supposed to be conveyed by these words. Another synonym of tonos which becomes very common in the later writers on music is the word tropos. [6] In the course of the passage of Plutarch already referred to (De Mus. c. 17) it is applied to the Dorian mode, which Plutarch has just called harmonia. As tropos is always used in the later writers of the keys (tonoi) of Aristoxenus, this may be added to the places in which harmonia has the same meaning.