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42	Charles W. L. Johnson.	[1899.

IV. — The Motion of the Voice, rj tt/9 (jxovrj^ Kivr)Gi<$> in the

Theory of Ancient Music.

bY dR. charles w. l. johnson,

YALE UNIVERSITY.

Many of the Greek treatises on music begin the develop-
ment of the subject proper by describing and analyzing the
changes in pitch which take place in the course of human
utterance. The term applied to these changes was f) rrj9
(jxuvrjs /cLvrja-L9. Ipropose in this paper to consider the
nature of this 'motion/ the merits and defects of thg ancient
Analysis, and the object of introducing the subject in treatises
"on musical theory, and then to show what light is thereby
thrown for us upon the nature of ancient Greek music.

In almost every sound there is present to a se ri sibledegree
the property or quality ofjrnusical pitchy Pitch, regarded as
a physical phenomenon, may be defined as regularity or
periodicity in the vibrations 6f some suitable medium, sucli
as air or water. Every set of regular or periodic vibrations
constitutes what is technically called a simple sound, and the
degree of the pitch of this sound depends upon the. rapidity
of the vibrations. A simple sound of this nature will seldom,
if ever, occur in the ordinary course of events. Those sounds
which appear to our senses the purest and simplest are in
reality compound sounds in almost every instance. The
material objects which generate the vibrations in the air are
usually of such a nature that not one set of vibrations only,
but a number of sets at various rates is produced at one and
the same time. Now the effect upon the ear of such a com-
pound sound depends upon the interrelationship of the con-
stituent pitches. If these pitches are not related to one
another on certain numerical principles, the sound is a npi&e.
If, on the other hand, a certain relationship exists betweeny
them, the sound is a musical sound. For a musical sound istn*,	i

Vol. xxx.] Motion of the Voice in Ancient Music.	43

a complex, formed by a series of simple sounds. Of these
the lowest in pitch is generally the loudest. Superimposed
upon this lowest pitch there will be found a group of fainter
pitches, standing at certain definite distances from one
another. These are the so-called overtones, and it is their
presence which determines the 'quality' of the sound as a
whole. Simple though the sound may seem to the ear, it is,

in reality, as it were, a chord, in which all but one of the
notes are faint. It is easy to see what a large number of
combinations can be formed by varying the intensity of the
several overtones, by omitting some and strengthening others.

In this way physicists account for the great variety of quality
^ j observable in the tones of instruments and voices.	*>A/ 7°

In a musical sound, then, of the constituent related pitches
\ ^	que is predominant. This gives the note its name and posi- ^|f n

tion. But in a noise, instead of order among the pitches we	~

/ Have confusion, instead of one predominaBl pitch, many	*

pitches of considerable intensity.	A

Now evidently the line between musical sounds and noises
Ulikv"" cannot always be drawn with certaintyr Many sounds, if not
strictly musical in the technical sense, yet have one pitch
p of slightly greater intensity than any of the others. For
%l:us. example, a rap on a table has such a pitch, and many articles
, t ' I of wood, glass, and metal give sounds with recognizable
pitches. Particularly is it true of all vocal utterances that
a height or position on the scale of acuteness and graveness
can be assigned to them. This is the case not only with
such inarticulate sounds as coughing and laughing, but to a
special degree with the sounds of articulate speech. This
fact then must be emphasized. All speech, spoken as well ) ^

as sung, is characterized by the presence of pitch.	y^'fan

Now the tones of the voice in singing and in ordinary con-	^

versation are obviously different. In what does th^ differs.,/,- r
ence consist ?	y/u ? m

/ Y

In the first place it would seem that the difference is due^^~7 #

J< very largely to the differed	clearness with which

, 1 the predominant pitch is brought out. The loudness of the	\ l

/n-yl(^est °f the constituent pitches is made greater in singing * t/c ^ j -■«

(tn jwdtf ihi/tni h mtsff ifit <x n t\f

44

Charles W. L. Johnson.

[1899.

0
!aL>



#114

/-

*V*V



than, in speaking. A second difference, but little less im«
portant, is due to the different manner in which thejpjtch
changq^fmrnJamfi. to time, and it is these changes which the
ancient treatises on music consider under the term rj tt)? cjxovrjs
fcCvrjaft, the primary object being to differentiate the speak-
^u^^^"tEe^inging voice,

f _Aristoxenus, if we may trust his own statement, was the
^ fij^to^reat of this subjegtjof...thejmorionof the voice in a
satisfactory way. At any rate his method is more or less
closely followed by a number of subsequent writers. Such
are ^ristides Quintilianus, Pseudo-JguclicL(the author of the
Introductio Harmonica), and Gaudentius, Other writers on
the theory of music employ ^another method of effecting the
differentiation of the two kinds of utterance. Chief among
these is the geographer and astronomer, Qaudius Ptolemy,
His method is to analyze and classify sounds so as to show
the position which musical sounds occupy among sounds in
general. But the classification of Aristoxenus is not a classi-
fication of sounds at all, but of the ways in which a certain
property found in certain sounds, though not in all, may
behave during the existence of the sounds in question. This
property is, of course, pitch, andj:he sounds are the articulate
sounds of the human voice. If the tones of musical instru-
ments are sometimes included in the term cjxavrj (Aristoxenus
has the phrase cjycovr) opyavi/crj re teal avOpwrracrj), it is by
analogy with the tones of the human voice.

Now pitch can vary'in one respect only, that is, in respect
to its degree of acuteness, or graveness. There is only one
dimension, and this is indicated "By the metaphorical use of
the terms ' high' and	as applied to pitch. If, then, we

desire to indicate graphically on a plane surface the nature
of any pitch changes under consideration, we can do so by
supposing variation in pitch to take place vertically, and by
combining with this motion a horizontal motion, as from left
— to righyto reprejtf^	~

By the term tcii'rjcris rfjs (fxovfjs Aristoxenus means the
movement of the pitch of the voice from high to low and
| viceversd, and by the term craw; the absence of any such

4 ' V

7

| (J lA t (<h(c/A*	he\f*

Vol. xxx.] Motion of the Voice in Ancient Music.	45

motion in the pitch. Another term for the latter conception
is npefiia, fy&vrp.. Of the movement there are two forms, the
coimnuous,	• and the intervallar, hiaarqiiaTiicri. Says

Aristoxenus, Harmonica, I. § 26, p. 8 Meib. : "In the con-
tinuous^ movement the voice appears to the senses to traverse
a certain space in such a way that it rests nowhere, not even,
so far as our conception of the sensation goes, at the bounds,
but is borne along continuously until the sound ceases. In
^he_ other movement, which we call interYalJar, the voice
appears to move in a contrary manner. Yn its course it rests
on one pitch and then again on another, and doing so con-
tinually (<7twe%ft)?), — I mean continually in point of time, —
passing over the spaces included by the pitches, but resting
on the pitches themselves and sounding these alone, it is
said to sing (fieXaSeiv), and to move in the intervallar
manner." And a little further on (§ 27): "For, in general,
when the voice moves in such a way that it seems to the
ear to rest nowhere, we call the movemgjat .

But when, after seeming to rest at a place, the voice then
appears to traverse a certain space, and having done this
seems to rest again on another pitch and continually keeps on
doing this alternately, we call such a movement intervallar."

On a chart of the nature indicated above continuous motion
is represented by oblique lines or by wavy lines of which no
part is horizontal, except instantaneously; intervallar motion
is shown by a series of horizontal lines, disconnected, with
no part of one over another. Thus :

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

At this point it seems best to remark that the musical
phenomenon denoted by the term portamento is evidently
a combination of these two sorts of motion: first a "steady"
^souiTJ w rpiout variation in pitch, tEen a rapid passage from
yr	this original height, upward or downward as the case may46	Charles IV. L. Johnson.	[^99-

be, to a certain new height, and finally ^gain a steady sound
at the new height. This process is represented by the
following figure:

Fig. 3.



It appears, then, that in the continuous style of motion
not only is the variation in pitch continuous, but the pitch
never ceases to vary until the sound stops, while in the
! intervallar-style change takes place by leaps and in no other
way! In thlTone case there is never steadiness in the pitch,
even for a moment; in the other there is a series of steady

Pitches-

In what sense, then, can one speak of motion in a case>
where, as in the intervallar motion of Aristoxenus, the
moving object takes no positions intermediate to the initial
and final positions ? The change from one pitch to another
is in the nature of a transformation rather than a transfer-
ence. Is not the sense of identity of sound lost in this
change from one degree of pitch to another ? Why should

we not call the new prtch a new sound? For, if the second

pitch began before the first had ended, we should be com-
pelled to call the two pitches two sounds.

In regard to these difficulties, we must remember in the
first place that the classification of Aristoxenus does not deal
with separate sounds, but with the whole body of sound pro-
ceeding from a single source. It was natural to consider one
voice alone, when part-singing was practically unknown. In
the second place, the words /civeco and icivrjcris seem to have
had a^signification^ brgader than that of physical motion,
^	whether used literdlywlnetaphorically. This is clear from

{ft	a passage in the Theaetetus. Socrates, in discussing the

iJil w	doctrine of Heraclitus that all things are in motion, asks

L	(Theaet. 181 d) if there are not two kinds of tdvqais. One

f £>/ JJ	is gowett's translation) " when a thing changes from one

'/)Vol. xxx.] Motion of the Voice in Ancient Music.	47

place to another, or gols^^und in the same place." The
other is "when a thing grows old, or becomes black from
being white, or hard from being soft, or undergoes any other
change, while remaining in the same place. . . . There are
then these two kinds of motion, 'change/ and 'motion in
place' (aWotGxu? and 1repHpopa)." K(prjo-is, it would then
seem, has a broader meaning than simply physical motion,
namely 'change/ whether of position or of condition and
nature. It covers transformation as well as transference.
In this view idvrjais hiaaT^fiariKr) can be regarded as /civrjais
in this broadest sense.

The identification of iclvqa^	with conversational

speech and of idvrjo-is hia<jTr\\xaTiicY) with the singing voice is
made by Aristoxenus in the following terms {Harm. I. § 28,
p. 8. M.): "Now the continuous movement is, we assert, the
movement of conversational speech (Xojlktjv elvai), for when
we converse, the voice moves through a space in such a
manner as to seem to rest nowhere. In the other movement,
which we call intervallar, the contrary process takes place.
For the voice seems to rest [at various pitches], and all
say of a man who seems to do this, that he no longer speaks,
but sings. Therefore in conversing we avoid having the
voice rest unless we are forced at times by reason of emotion
to resort to this style of movement [we make the same criti-
cism when we say of a person that he speaks or reads in a
sing-song voice] ; but in singing we do the reverse, for we
avoid the continuous and strive to make the voice rest as
much as possible. For the more we make each of the sounds
one and stationary and the same, so much the more accurate
does the singing seem to the senses. It is fairly plain from
the above that of the two movements of the voice in respect
to space, the continuous belongs to conversational speech,
the intervallar to song."

Such is the scheme of pitch-variations as we, have it in
Aristoxenus. In spite of its faults it has unquestionably
considerable value in that it is based on the evident differ-
ence in the manner in which pitch affects human utteranr?
as spoken and as sung.

tit

6

48	Charles W. L. Johnson.	tl899*

Perhaps^Ptolemy^felt the objections which may be brought
against the Aristoxenean classification. At any rate his
classification is a classification not of kinds oi voice-move-
ments, but of kinds of sounds. According to him sounds,
are eitlier,.unch^angeable in regard to their pitch, laorovoi, or
changeable. amaorovoL. The latter in turn are continuous,
(Tvvex&y or discrete, Sioopccrfjievoi.

Thus:	\l/6<boi < » t ((Twcvcts

T r ) avtaoTovoL < A ,

(. OLO)pL(TlJLeVOL= cfiQoyyOL.

#

This classification too, on examination, turns out to be
illogical in one respect. The trouble in Ptolemy's arrange-
ment is that one sort of sounds appears twice. Are not
yjrdffioi avLcrorovoi Slcopierfievoi really icrorovoi, or at any rate a
group of iaoTovoi ? The description of such sounds seems-to
show that this is so. One thing is clear, that the subdivision
into avve^ek and Sioopiapevoi is simply the^ Aristoxenean
Kivrjo-n Trjs (fxovrji in another garb.

Aristides Quintilianus makes a decided improvement^ on
Aristoxenus' treatment of the KivqGis. First he distin-
guishes. two qlg&s§aj)f fCLvr]Gi<;, icivqais airXrj and
*a7r\rj. Of the latter there are three species, avvex^y Smmtttj-
liarmrjf and fiearj.

( awXyj

Kwrjcris •<	f (rvvtxys

( opx wrXrj -< fX€(TYi

(. Siao-rrifiaTiKr}.

The first two, continuous motion and intervallar motion, are
so described as to leave no doubt that they correspond exactly
to the motions so named by Aristoxenus. In regard to the
' intermediate' motion, it would appear that it is composed
of both the other species (e£ a/x(j>0Lv av^icetfievrj), and we are
further informed that it is used when we read poetry (fiear)
Se, 77 ra9 tmv TTOLrjiidrcDV avayvaxrets nroiovfieOa). Referring
back to our figures, in which we represented the two Aris-
toxenean motions, let us combine their characteristics, TheVol. xxx.] Motion of the Voice in Ancient Music.

49





result must show, on the one hand, pitch-variation taking
place while the sound is actually being produced, on the
other, sounds of a steady pitch. The combination is pre-
cisely that which is effected by the phenomenon of porta-
mento. We may conclude, therefore, l:h at /ctvrjaris pear), that
lorncTof pitch-movement which accompanies the recitation of
poetry, as observed by Aristides, consist not only of a
musical intonation of the syllables at various degrees of
itch, but also_j)fjglides in pitch from degree to degree.
}/ Such a style of utterance is more ■musical"Than conversational
speecii in respect to the employment in it of sounds whose
pitclTls constant, or steady, and more conversational than
music proper in respect to the free use of fluctuating pitch.
Without running into the danger of drawing conclusions
unwarranted by the facts, we may assume that the element
of pitch was brought out much more clearly in the kind of
motion we are considering than in ordinary conversational
speech; and further, that, if the pitch of the voice rested,
remained steady, at certain degrees, it must have done so
during an appreciable interval of time, and if so, the^metrical
quantity of the syllables must have been made more evident
than ls^possible in the case of the spoken sentence.

Coordinate with /cfyrjai^ fiear) m Aris'tides,'.........scheme were

Kivr)<yv$ avvexfc and tcCvrjcris hiaaT^iiaTLicrj. These three cover,
and more than cover, the whole of the Aristoxenean idvrjcm
<f>Q)vf}$ or pitch-variations in general. In Aristides they
form a class, /clvrjais ov% airXrjy which is coordinate to klv7]<ti<$
a7r\f}. The meaning of the latter term is made plain from
the statement at p. 9 M. : iraaa pev ovv airXrj fctvrjcns <ficovrj<s,
rdai9. That is, airXr] /civrjo-u? is simply a musical sound, in
which there is by definition no variation in pitch. The move-
ment then is of another sort, to wit, movement in time,
which is horizontal motion on our charts. In the other class,
tcCvriais j)£y airXYj, two kinds of motionsarg combined to form
"dim compound motion; variation in pitch is added to pro-
gression in time. A comparison between this classification
^	and that of Ptolemy will shpw a certain similarity. In both

it would seem to be a fault that the elements which consti-
^	hJLr

ki,U

Charles W. L. Johnson.

[1899.

4Uifanf\ts

t

td

t*d

kiflj.



.

tute one of the lower classes should also find a pl3.ce in a
higher class.

A further ^tejgioji of the classification of the kinds of
/cCvrjaL? was sometimes made. Gaudentius subdivides Kivgais
BiaorrrjiMiTifcrj into two kinds, ififieXtfs and ix/ieXr^, and makes
1T~correspond in ^Tub d rvii^	into Scaa-T^fiara

ififieXi] and Siao-T^fiaTa, itcfjLeXf}. These terms mean respec-
tively 4usable in music' and 'unusable in music,' and refer,
of course, to the size of the intervals. The same distinction
is made by Bacchius Senior, but the term 7re£o? is used
instead of itc/ieXr}?, and it is musical sounds, not intervals,
which are distinguished. When applied to sounds and not
to intervals all these terms must be understood to involve a
tacit reference to their relationship to other sounds. Intro-
duction p. 16 M. "How* many kinds of musical-sounds
((jyOoyyoc) do we say that there are?" — "Two. One kind
we call ififjieXefe, the other 7re£o£"

" What kind of musical-sounds are e/z/xeXefc ?" — " Those
which people use in singing and in playing instruments. . . ."

" What kind of musical-sounds are 7refot ?" — " Those which
orators use ^nd in which we talk (XaXoOfxev) to one another.
'EfjL/jLeXeis (j)96yyoi have definite (aypia/xeva) intervals, the 7refot
indefinite (aopiara)."

Now a 6007705 is always defined as a sound which has a

r1-- I ' *	.	.........._ I mimm-----ii« minimi iim

steady_pitch (hence 1 translate "flTby 4 musical-sound'), and
the word isJso defined by Gaudentius. For that reason, if
\a\elv means ordinary conversation, the glides_which are
characteristic of conversational speech are ignored. Even
if they are admitted, our author would seem to differ from
Aristoxenus in allowing the voice during ' continuous motion'
to rest at pitches long enough to permit one to speak of intervals. ^

We have seen what is. meant by the term rj rrjs <jxDvr)<;
Kivr}<ji<;. The phenomenon of pitch-variation jin both the
sung and the spoken sentence is a most natural one, and the
"Two styles of variation characterize and distinguish the musi-
cal and non-musical utterance of a modern language, no less,
of course, than that of an ancient language. , Now a treatise
"~on tKe theory of music "lhay very properly begin with a

Vol. xxx.] Motion of the Voice in Ancient Music.

definition of th^fet or element of music, the musical sound.

So jnodern Ireatises usually define the musical.AQund^a^jats^,

tinguished from the .non-musical sound. So also does the	<llfh

Aristoxenean analysis, of the /c(vr)<n<; Trjs <f>covf]<; serve to fulfil
this purpose. But it does much more than this. It^efines, m
not only the^mture of the sounds which constitute music,

and that too much more fully than seems necessary, but also
O the nature of the pitch-element in . the _spoken sentence. ^

h WJty was it that the analysis of /cLvrjais was not inappropriate H tyu&ft'Ai &*■*•*<£■
in a Greek treatise on the theory of music ?	^	jj $ $

To this question one answer suggests itself immediately.

fit The Greek language, as is well known, had a more highly

"developed system of high and low pitches for spoken words ^

than have modern languages. Each word seems to have had /' /

a more or less fixed scheme of intonation. This is~evi3enced ^

by the system of, written jagcents. As a result, in every
Greek sentence there is involved a definite form for the suc-
cessive rises and falls * of pitch, in which it is very likely that
the amount of variation from the mean pitch of the speaker's
voice was by no means definite, but the seque^e j^ acute „ J
,and ffraye was, fixed and not subject to personal caprice. I
This variation of pitch, which took place of course in the j	/

' continuous' style of motion, Aristoxenus .calls	tl	%{

fieXos. Says he (§ 42): "For we often indeed speak of a
certain conversational melody, namely, that which results
from the accents of the words; for it is natural to raise and
lower the pitch in conversation." Familiarity with this kind
of melody would lead to an effort to distinguish it from	f p

melody proper. If, as we suppose, the spoken utterance of	4%^

ancient Greek was of a quasi-musical nature, it wasjaaturaL^ 1 c

-----__.....--- ^ -..........

/ ■

to contrast the melodic feature of the one form of utterance

with that of the otHer.

Another consideration which I would advance by way of
explanation for the use of the kivt)<ti<z in the treatises con-
cerns a characteristic of ancient music about as foreign to (/
modern music as one can well imagine. I refer to the exist- ^ L)
ence of the different genera, to which there is nothing com-^ H&wU
parable in modern music.



52	Charles W. L. Johnson.	[^99.

The nature of the Greek scales must first be briefly indi-
cated. The earliest scale seems to have been thejetrachord.
or system oFfour notes, in which the extremes stood, at,the
consonant distance of a perfect Fourth. Both the number
of notes is small and the compass is narrow. By the time
of Terpander the scale had expanded to seven notes, which
probably formed a double tetrachord, the middle note serving
as upper end of one tetrachord and lower end of the other.
Terpander made some change in this heptachord of which
the nature is not perfectly clear. It would appear, however,
that he increased the compass to the full Octave interval,
without increasing the number of notes. There seem to
have been objections to abandoning the traditional number
seven. Timotheus, the poe^ and musician, met with strong
opposition when he introduced the innovation of using eleven
and twelve strings on his cithara. The octave scale eight
notes comes into uge sqovi after the heptachord. The scale
was formed of two tetrachords plus the interval of a whole
Tone. When the Tone was at the end of a scale, the two
tetrachords were contiguous and were called crvvirjfifjbeva (con-
junct); when the Tone was in the middle and separated the
tetrachords, it was called the Disjunctive Tone, and the tetra-
chords were Sie&vyueva (disjunct).

Spon after the time of Aristoxenus, cir. 330 (who does not
allude to a longer scale than the octachord), and apparently
before Euclid, the mathematician (if the Sectio Canonis is
his), the scale had developed through additions to both ends
until its compass was two octaves and the number of notes
.fifteen. This was the so-called Perfect System. Still further
expansion followed. The notation provides for more than
three octaves of notes.

j Now in all stages of development, it is not_the Octave, but
me Fourth, which is made the basis	A The

tetrachord retains the important place which it had accord-
ing to tradition in primitive music. Every scale was regarded
as consisting of a series of jcqnjunct and disjunct tetrachords.

as the_bounding notes of tetrachords. Given the pitch of

7*Vol. xxx.] Motion of the Voice in Ancient Music.

53

any one of them, that of all the others stood in a fixed relation
to the given pitch — that is to say, the intervals separating
any two of these notes was either a Fourth, a Fifth (that is,

a Fourth and a whole Tone), or the sum of these, an Octave,

or an Octave combined with one of the others. Therefore
the intonation of these notes, depending as it did on con-
sonant intervals, was fixed, relatively one to another, by £ ^
nature, as it were. In ancient theory they were called
* standing notes' (<j>06yyoi ecrr cores).

There remainToFlfonsideration the notes which come ^ r
between the fixed or standing notes. These occurred in
couples and divided the interval of the Fourth into three
^smaller intervals. Now the peculiar feature in Greek music u ft* —
1 referred to is that the into^tTon^or position in pitch of these | ltli^
^^^^^^^n^es was of^ a most jjrkQ&liaiji nature. In one
style of melody these notes would stand at such and such
distances from the fixed boijnds of the tetrachord ; in another
style at quite other distances. The ancient theorists, by r
using the relative lengths of the stjings required for pro- Ja-ifwn-
ducing the various sounds, measured, with quite sufficient
accuracy for the purpose, the width of the intervals which
separated these notes; and so were able to classify the
various kinds of intervallar succession. In this way the
so-called genera came into existence. These were three in
number — the diatonic genus, the chromatic genus (by no
means to be confounded with the chromati^ scale of modern
music), and the enharmonic genus. Roughly speaking, we (k-c(j
•may define the diatonic genus as that in which the succession _
of intervals _was Semitone, Tone,, Tone; _the chromatic as^
Semitone, Semitone, and (a larger interval) Tone-and-a-half;

and the enharmonic as Quarter-tone, (^uarter-JtQ:n^, and Di-
tone (i.e. two whole Tones). But this is by no means the
end of the matter. Speciesjof the genera were recognized. ^ /
These were the chroae or ' colors,' in which the succession of
intervals was slightly different from that of the more normal
varieties. An example will suffice to show their nature.

There were, according to Aristoxenus, Harm. I. § 54,
p. 50 M., three species of the chromatic of the following^

%54

Charles W. L. Johnson.

[1899,



nature: to tovicliov xp&fjia, consisting of two Semitones and
a Trihemitonion; to fjjAtoXiov %pa)fjLa, of two intervals each
three-quarters of a Semitone in size, together with an interval
equal to three and a half Semitones; and, third, to fiaXa/cbv
XP&fjLa, of two intervals each two-thirds of a Semitone in size,

together with an interval equal to three and two-thirds Semi-
tones. For these calculations it is necessary to consider
differences in pitch of only a twelfth of a Semitone in extent.

There is still other evidence in^ abundance that the varie-
|fMtj Jnes of intervallar succession within the conrpass of the tetra-
1 ^ chord, the Fourth, were very numerous, and that too impor-
tant. Other theorists give other intervals for species of the
same names as the Aristoxenean species. In many cases
we may doubtless assume that errors in the measurements
are the cause of the discrepancies. In other cases it is open
for us to suppose that there was a^ difference of usage in
regard to any particular genus from time to time. But in
general it must be true that there were in actual use at any
given period at least as many kinds of tetrachords as we find
recorded in the works of any single trustworthy authority,

like Aristoxenus, for example. , It_must be that the different
'■'Pip'l ^ * ( !j; •*''* genera and chroae really existed. Many students of Greek
^ e| ) music, possibly most of them, find it incredible that the
!5	fT I minute differences between the various kinds of tetrachords

V P*; « C - had any other than a theoretical existence. But is it not
much more incredible that all the ancient theorists either
^ / x imagined differences which did not exist or falsified their ^ -J^f)
report of the state of affairs ? We must not try to make the/ *'u
music of the ancients conform to modern ideas on the sub-*

->

ject ^ Modern music has had a rapid and wonderful develop- "
ment. The most important feature in this development is
the use of the principle of simultaneous harmony. But the
^ ^ ? ^'artistic effects to be gained by sounding two or more notes
f y ^ together were not appreciated by the ancients, except in a
^	rucjim^ntary way. Now in the case of the primary conso-

nances, the Octave, Fifth, and Fourth, it is important for fj
\ obvious reasons that the interval should be accurately
^fh 'linJiJ \as we^ f°r use in melody as in harmony. But there is no^

(X t

ti

Vol. xxx.] Motion of the Voice in Ancient Music.	55

reason in ancient music why the-dissonant intervals should be
50 tuned. Even in modern music in the case of intervals
like the Major and Minor Thirds and Sixths, intervals which
are now regarded as consonant, there may be considerable
inaccuracy in the intonation of the notes without causing the
effect to be disagreeable, not only when they are successive
notes, but also, to a certain extent, when they are simultaneous
notes. Ancient jnusic, unaffected by such considerations of.

harmonyTwas free. And this is the reason that we find jK 3^.,.,
such a surprising variety of intonations for all notes but the
few so-called standing notes. As distinguished from these,

the variable notes we re c ailed _ i n ancient theory 4 moving
jiotgs' (<f>06yyoi KLvovfxevoC).

The state of affairs then in regard to the, pitch of many of
the notes was one of great flexibility. To us_who are habitu- (J
ated to fixitylrT'tHe intonation of the notes, this seems most
unnatural. But the non-harmonic music of many semi-civil- _

ized and barbarous races to-day is proof of . the possibility of
this sort of thing.

So, while fixity is in modern music both a necessity and a
second nature, in ancient music mobility is the rule and th6
distinguish in gjfea ture. Under such circum^tagcjs, it is not
surprising that this side of melody should present* itself to h

I the ancient theorists as a matter of great importance. The
limits within which a given note of the movable kind might
.' move' were caj^fiilly laid down, and the distance between
a note's highest possible pitch and its lowest was called its
space or region (two?). Moving of this sort is not, to be
sure, moving in quite TEe same sense as the moving which
seems to take place in melody, for we are not to understand
that more than one genus was used at once, but we do know
that there were frequent shiftings from genus to genus within
the piece of music, and such changes of pitch cannot fail to
impress one with the idea of motion.

The importance of the /civy-ais in the theory of ancient
music is then due to its connectionfifSt with the accentua-„
tion of the Greek language, and secondly with the general
question of the intonation of the notes jn^ Greek music.

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