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Te Aristoxenian Aristoxenian Teory of Musical Rhythm ‘Keeping time’, along with artistic accentuation and intelligent phrasing, is essential to successul musical perormance. Rhythm alone had rarely been the subject o specialised study until the late nineteenth century, century, when several books on this topic by Rudol Westphal were published in Leipzig. Westphal’s work inspired Charles Francis Williams’s 1911 book which is reissued here. Williams the classicalAbdy and romantic repertoire rom Handel to chaikovsky in the re-examines light o ancient Greek musical theory, ocusing particularly on the earliest writings by Artistoxenus o arentum (ourth century BCE). In Williams’s view, the rhythmic orms used by the Greeks are universally intelligible, and appear in all ages and cultures, unlike melodies or scales, which vary hugely hugely.. He provides insights into the micro-structure o works including Bach’s oratorios, Beethoven’s sonatas and Schubert’s songs, which will continue to intrigue musicians, Classicists and mathematicians today.

 

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Te Aristoxenian Teory o Musical Rhythm C.F.A󰁢󰁤󰁹 W󰁩󰁬󰁬󰁩󰁡󰁭󰁳

 

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSIY PRESS Cambridge New York Melbourne Madrid Cape own Singapore São Paolo Delhi Published in the United States o America by Cambridge University Press, New York  www.cambridge.org Inormation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108004879 © in this compilation Cambridge University Press 2009 Tis edition first published 1911 Tis digitally printed version 2009 ISBN 978-1-108-00487-9 Tis book reproduces the text o the original edition. Te content and language reflect the belies, practices and terminology o their time, and have not been updated.

 

THE ARISTOXENIAN THEORY OF MUSICAL RHYTHM

 

CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY PRESS Hoirtron:  

FE TT ER

LANE,

E.C.

C. F . CLA Y ,   M A N A G E R .

) :   IOO,  PRINCES STREET SBtrlin:  A. ASHER  AND CO. Hjfpjig:  F. A.  BROCKHAUS JJteixi f o r t :  G. P.  PUTNAM'S SONS anB ffialtutts: MACMILLAN  AND CO.,  LTD.

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THE ARISTOXENIAN THEORY OF MUSICAL RHYTHM

by C . F . A B D Y W I L L I A M S , M . A . ,   MDS MDS.. BAC. A u t h o r o f   The R hythm of Modern Music  ;  The Story of Notation,  & c .

Cambridge at the University Press 1911

 

ffiambrilge:

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

 

PREFACE ' I "H E abili ability ty to " keep time  "  must be possessed by every musician •*• if he is to perform intellig intelligently ently , and to take p ar t in conc erted music.. In the early days of music of coun terpoint, ere rhy thm was tho ug ht of, the singers were obliged to  " keep time " in order th at the various parts might fit each other properly. When to "keeping time" is added an artistic accentuation and intelligent phrasing, rhythm results. Musicians give rhythmical life to what they perform, either instinctively, sti nctively, or throu gh th e training recei received ved fr from om those who have the rhythm s a rule, special special study is m ade ofTheorie rhy thm der by itself,   ical and instinct. when I A met with noWestphal's   Allgemeine

musikalischen Rhythmik,   it struck me as revealing the rhythm of modern music through ancient theory in such a new and interesting light, that I have for many years wished that my English fellow musicians could share in the pleasure and profit that it has given me.

Fo r an opp ortunity of bringing this ancient theory bef before ore musicians musicians I here express my gratitude to the Syndics of of the Cambridge University Press. While correcting the proofs my attention was called to M. Louis Lalo y's rem arks on certain certain forms forms which have long puzzl puzzled ed investigators, owing to the difficulty of reducing them to musical rhythm as understood by us. H is views views are novel, and so highly sug gestive, tha t one cannot but think that he has discovered the key to the mystery. I have added an Ap pen dix, giving giving a short outline of these new vie views ws : for the arguments by which they are supported I must refer my readers to M. Laloy's  Aristoxene de Tarente. C. F . A B D Y W I L L I A M S MILFORD-ON-SEA

October, 1911

 

CONTENTS PRE FAC E

p. v

INTRODU CTION

p.

x

CHAPTER   I.

Th e positi position on of rhythm in Greek music— The reconstruction reconstruction of its its theory by modern philologists—Catalogue of the ancient authorities—Richard Wagner on the work of the philologists—A fundamental error, due to the Graeco-Roman gramm arians p. i

CHAP CH APT TER II . Outline of the history of Greek music— The principles of of its scales explained by analogy with the construction of modern scales—The dramatists and their works—Tragedy, Comedy, and Lyric poetry—The instrumental accom paniment to song— The decline decline of Greek Music . . . p. 9 CHAPTER I II . Definiti Definitions ons of rhythm according to to Baccheios Baccheios the the Elder— Aristoxenus

on rhythm, rhythmizomenon, and rhythmopceia—The musical measure or foot —Thesis and arsis—Ancient methods of beating time—Thetic and anacrusic forms—The chronos protos—Quantity and accent—Greek systems of notation —A recently discovered specimen of Greek nota tion . . . . p . 24

CHAPTER  IV .

Errhythm , Arrhythm, and Eu rhythm— Time combinations combinations in the the m easu re or foot— foot— The seven differ differences ences of foot, foot, acc ordin g to Aristo xen us— The three species of foot—Aristoxenus on irrational time—Reintroduction of the principle in modern music—Burney on Greek rhythm—Names of the simple feet— feet — Extension Extension and contraction of syll syllables ables to suit suit the musical rhythm — Gre ek feeling reflected in the ligatures of the plain-song notation—Some Greek rhyth m ical forms illustrated by quo tations from from Sch uber t's songs . p. 34

CHAP CH APT TER V\ Variou s significat significations ions ooff the term "r hy thm "— Th e divisions divisions of rhy thmical phrases into thesis and arsis—Compound feet—Complexity of rhythm in ancient instrumental accompaniments to songs—Necessity for the limitation of the magnitude of phrases—The Aristoxenian theory of the magnitudes that are capa ble of rhyth m ical division division p. 49 CHA CH APTER V I. Th e Aristoxenian Aristoxenian theory of ma gnitudes and the music of W agn er and Bach—The grouping of feet in pairs—Pindar's First Pythian Ode— Epitritic rhythms in Handel's "Judas Maccabaeus," compared to those of Pindar— Logao sdic rhyth m as exemplif exemplified ied in Pind ar, Sophocles, and Bach— Humorous use of logaoedic rhythm by Aristophanes—The employment of quintuple rhythm in ancient comedy and hym nody . . . . p. 70

 

CONTENTS

Vll

CHAPTER  VII .

Quintuple Quintuple rhythm in in Tragedy— The " El ec tra " of Sophocle Sophocless and of Richard Strauss—Glyconic rhythm—Music that is unfettered by rhythmical phrases— Aristides on the etho s of of rhy thm — Th e influenc influencee of the diffe different rent forms of rhythm on mind and body, described by Aristides—Cleonides on the ethos of song— The ethos of Italian Opera. D r Abe rt's  Lehre vom Ethos in der griechischen Musik   p. 89

CHAPTER  VI II .

Th e Period— Eurhythmy, or balance of periods, periods, in Greek music —The crousis in the Greek strophe—Its modern counterpart in the German Chorale, and in examples of the music of Schubert, R. Wagner, and Hubert Parry—The periodology of a Pindaric ode—The periodology of Bach's B minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio, and of Handel's " Messiah   "  . . p . 10 1077

CHAPTER  IX .

Th e colot colotomy omy and periodology periodology of Gluck's Gluck's " Orphe us," H ay dn 's "Creation," Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Requiem, Beethoven's Ninth Sym phony p. 127

CHAPTER   X .

The colot colotomy omy and periodol periodology ogy of Schubert's Schubert's "Erlking"— M endelssohn and Schumann—Richard Wagner's adaptation of Greek rhythmical principles to the music-drama—The colotomy of Brahms' songs—The colotomy of H ug o Wolf— Conclusion Conclusion p. 14 1499

APPENDIX  A.

tex t APPENDIX  B.

Qu otations , from from original sources, of pass age s referred to in the p. 17 1755 Glossary of Tec hnica l Te rm s

p. 178 178

APPENDIX  C.

Dactylo-epitritic, Dactylo-epitritic, Logaoe Logaoedi dic, c, and Dochm iac rhyth m s, and rhythmical mo dulation. M. Laloy's views views p. 18 1844

IN DE X

p.

187

 

MUSICAL ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE

Aris tophane s, „

T he Knights, Pea ce,

Chorus No. 8.

Chorus No . 8.

Rhythm Rhythmical sch schem eme e

Rhythmical Rhythmical schem scheme e

Bach, Wohlt. Kl. Fugue No. i „ »>  

Matthew Pas sion , Chorus No. i >>

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M o t e t ,  " I c h l a s s e d i c h n i c h t " C h o r a l e ,  " D u  F r i e d e f i i r s t "

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  O p . 15, N o . 3 . . . . D e l„p h i c NHoycmt unr nteo,  A p o l l o D ' I n d y , P i a n o f o r t e S o n a t a ,   Op . 63, S e c o n d m o v e m e n t

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MUSICAL ILLUST RAT IONS

IX NO.

PAGE

Franz, " H er bs tso rg e" Gluck, "A lce ste ," Cho rus N o. 5 Grie g, Violin So na ta in F , O p. 8, Fir st m ov em en t . . Ha nde l, "J u d as Mac cabaeus," Chorus, "A nd gran t a lea de r" „ " M e s s i a h , " " B e h o l d t h e L a m b of G o d " . . .

34 52 51 . 43 . 6 2

64 92 92 79 122

„ „ " H e was de sp ise d" „ „ " An d with his str ip es " Mozart, " Do n Giov anni," " La, ci dare m la m an o " „ Req uiem Parry, " D e Profu ndis" Pin dar, Firs t Py thia n Od e

63 64 - 6 5 66 55 39

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„ ,, ., „ „ „ Rh yth m ical sch em e . T e n th t h O llyy m p ia i a n O d e . R h yt y t h m ic i c al a l s cchh em em e E ig ig h t h P y t h i a n „ „ „

i)

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Rheinberger, Organ Sonata, Op. 27 Sch ubert, " De s Miillers Miillers Blumen " „  » ,, „ "M ein " „ " Des Baches W iegen lied" „ "Un geduld" „ Son ata, Op. 42, Scherzo „ "Ta usch ung " „ " Pilgerweise" „ "E rlko nig " ,, ,, Schum ann, Symph ony No. 1, Larg hetto „ „ No . 3, Scherzo „ Nov elletten, N o. 5 Seikilos Seikil os Hy m n Sophocles,, " Antigone," Chorus No . 3 Sophocles „ „ „

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56 46 46 47 47 63 64 67 68 15 0 150 156 58 15 1577 31 66 8 111 89 61 58 66 16 165 10 8 61 171 181

 

INTRODUCTION I T  is often said that the musical art of the present day is so

entirely different from that of the Greeks that, fascinating as the study is to m any minds, the musician musician has n othin g w hatever to learn from from the ancient Hellenic art. Th is is true of the " melos," melos,"  i.e. tha t p art of music which ha s to do with m elody, scales, scales, intervals, orche stration, vocalisation. Greek melos, with its refinements of modes, genera, transpositions, and m odulations, rose, durin g t he classic classical al age, to a very high high degre e of development, and, in a le lesse sserr degree, appealed to the cultured A ttic audience much as the music of a Beethoven or Wagner appeals to an audience of to-day. But no sooner had this rem arkable ma nifestati nifestation on of art arrived a t its zenith, than ther e began a rap id process of decay, in which its most essential features disappeared one by one. M usi usic, c, however, does not consist of melos only. M ore im po rtan t from the Greek point of view was rhythmos, which gave strength and form to the melos: and it is with this side of music alone that we propose to deal, and to see whether ancient rhythm ical theory, li like ke ancient sculpture and architecture, has any message for modern musicians and lovers of music. The gradual rise of Christianity gave the final blow to the already moribund system of music as understood and practised in Hellas. Th e F athers of the Church disdained m usic usic as an art, and only utili uti lised sed it as the the "ha nd m aid of religi religion." on." Th ey fou found nd th at the Psalms and certain other Scriptural writings could be brought home to the congregation more forcibly if they were sung than if they were merely rec ited; hence the words were put to simple melodi melodies, es, not with any idea of aesthetic pleasure, but merely as a vehicle for their better comprehension and remembrance. As for for rhythm , the old A ttic refinements refinements were fforgot orgotten ten at the period of the advent of Christianity, owing to the loss of the feeling for time-measurement in poetry, and the rise of accent or stress in its

 

INTRODUCTION

XI

place. Th e introduction into the Church of rhythm ical hym ns in place. addition to the prose melody of the Psalms was strongly opposed, since the pleasure which the people derived from the musical rhythm did not suit the stern ascetic views of life held by the leaders of the young and still struggling religion, though in the end they were obliged to gi obliged give ve way. Instru m ents wer weree en tir tirely ely banished, si since nce they were associated with rhythm, and its visible representation in the dance. In the Eastern branch of Christianity the old modes continued in use, use, togethe r with the c hrom atic genu s, which is a noticeable feature feat ure in the B yzantine m usi usicc of the present day. It can can be heard in the Liturgy of St Basil at the Russian Church in Moscow Road, Bayswater, Bayswat er, and in the Greek U niat Church in the Via B abuino a t Rom e. Th e present wri writer ter was once pri privil vileged eged to attend a choir choir practice practi ce at the Greek Coll College ege in Ro m e. W hile the language employed was Italian, owing to the singers being of several nationalities,  the m usi usical cal term term s were the sam e as those those fo found und in Boethius and in some of the earlier treatises in Gerbert's   Scriptores.  Thu s, when the choirmaster required to allude to the modes, he did not speak of Dorian, Phrygian, &c, but of Protos, Deuteros, Tetartos, Plagios. These terms were also used in the Latin Church when it was still under the influence of Greek musical teaching, but in course of time they were latinised, and the whole system was modified to suit western weste rn needs. Th e chrom atic genus never entered th e L atin Church; it is possible that western ears were not so sensitive as eastern, and could not easily assimilate a succession of semitones. An easily recognised link between the melos of Greece and that of to-day is to be found in the alphabetical names of our notes. When western musicians began to utilise the Greek scale for teaching purposes, they tried many experiments to find a convenient nomenclature for its different sounds, in place of the Greek terms proslambanomenos, h ypa te, li lichanos, chanos, &c. Th ey finall finallyy agreed to apply the first seven letters of the Latin alphabet to the seven lowest notes of the Greek scale, and to repeat these letters for each successive octave. Th is nomenc lature has ne never ver been al altered, tered, in spite of the differences which came in with the general adoption of the major mode; and hence it comes that the alphabetical names of the keys of our pianoforte do not arise from the major or modern minor scale series, but from the ancient Greek scale. Alongside the practical musical study that was necessary for liturgical purposes, the study of its theory as a branch of mathematics

 

Xll

INTRODUCTION

unde r Pythagorean in infl fluen uence ce ne never ver ceas ceased. ed. Th e Pythagorean and Neo pythagorean doctri doctrines nes of of the myster mysterious ious ma thematical proportions of musical intervals, their imaginary connection with the movements of planets and the harmony of the spheres, formed the subject of many writings which had not the slightest connection with the art of music. It is, indeed, one ooff the m ost rem arkable re sults of of monasticism that for centuries men should be found to spend their lives in contemplating imaginary musical theories which could have no moral or practical result of any sort 1 . Perhaps, however, their work was not entirely in vain if it served to keep al alive ive,, during the general ignorance of the dark ages, so some me interest in Hellenic learning, and thus to prepare the ground for the reception of the Hellenic culture that was destined to arise at the Renaissance. Though many Pythagorean and Neopythagorean authors seem to have been studied in m edi ediaev aeval al mona steries, the chief chief au tho rity for the so-call so-called ed science ooff music music was Boe thius. H e wro te abo ut 500 A.D. (when all practical knowledge of Greek music was entirely lost), and seems to have misunderstood much of what he learned from ancient sources. Ye t his treatise   De musica was looked upon, even down to comparatively recent times, as an authority about which there could be no difference of opinion. The foundation of Universities at Bologna and Paris in the twelfth, and at Oxfor Oxfordd and Cam bridge iinn the thirte enth centuries, m arked the beginning of the revival revival of of learning. These institutions, though not monastic, were under the wing of the Church, and their teaching was much on the li lines nes of tha t which which obtained in the m onasteries. onasteries. Th e study of Boethius was compulsory for all graduates of Oxford and Cambridge until the sixteenth century, and down to as late as sixty or seventy years ago it it was still still dem ande d of can did ates for for musical degrees. Yet Boethius' De m usica usica has no connecti connection on with the art of m usic : of beauty of sound its author could know nothing, for he cannot have heard any of the music about which he wrote. The attenuated remnant of Greek music represented by its diatonic scale had such vitality, that it formed the root from which was desti destined ned to grow in cours coursee of time the ar t of poly pho ny; and out of polyphony was to arise yet another kind of music, capable of still sti ll greater expansion and power power.. T o what heights harm ony, the 1

  The subject has been ably treated by Dr Hermann Abert in  Die Musikanschauung  dcs Mittelalters,   Halle, 1905.

 

INTRODUCTION

XUI

latest p hase of melos, is destined to advance, the present generation can never know. It is qu ite possible tha t if we had retained th e genera, we should not have arri arrived ved at polyp hon y or harm onic effect effects: s: the Byzantine system has not done so, and whe whenn harm ony is is applied applied to it, it is from w ester esternn musicians th at the art has to be acquired. T he limitation of music to one genus of scale seems to have made possible the foundati foundation on of modern art. For, during the ninth and tenth centuries, taught by Greek theory to make practical experiments with the consonances of the fourth, fifth, and octave, musicians sang the d iatonic C antus Gregorianus in these intervals, with the result that the art of   o r g n u m  arose, and out of  o r g n u m  grew counterpoint, which eventually led to the polyphonic school. We have, then, to thank the Church for the process of elimination whichh ma de possibl whic possiblee the building up of the art of polypho ny. Th is art arrived at its culmination in connection with the modes during the sixteenth century; and now music was to enter on its new phase, in which counterpoint and the young art of harmony were to be used with the major scale (derived, like th e ecclesiastical ecclesiastical m ode s, fr from om th e Greek diatonic system), and to be brought under the influence of the rhythm of the dance  ;  while the whole of music was to be permeated with the culture that had been acquired through a study of Greek literature. Greek philosophy had begun to pervade the west, and to become one of the chief chief motive fo forc rces es of our mo dern civi civilisat lisation. ion. M usic shared in in the renaissance of learning. A ncien t musical treatises were sought, a few remnants of Graeco-Roman musical compositions were discovered and translated into European notation; the Attic drama was studied, and the efforts to reproduce some kind of musical art that should be as expressive as the music-drama of Athens was said to have been, resulted, as is known, in the invention of recitative, and the founding of opera and oratorio. But there was not, as yet, sufficient knowledge at hand to enable men to understand the real nature of the rhythm that underlay the aesth aes thet etic ic eff effec ectts ascri ascribed bed by the ancients to their music. music. R hy thm had not been cultivated in ecclesiastical polyphony, and only slightly in the m adrigal. Tim e divisi division on of the individual notes was, indeed, necessary to polyphony, in order that the various voices should keep their proper connection with one ano ther. But th e value of of definit definitee rhythm ical divisions and varied accen tuation, aass a means of ex pression, was scar scarcel celyy thoug ht ooff. T he study of the the metres of the A ttic drama, by which their rhythm might have been elucidated, was still

 

XIV

INTRODUCTION

under the influence of the rules laid down by the Graeco-Roman grammarians, who knew that there was some occult connection between metre and rhythm, but knew nothing of the melodic rhythms to which the verbal metre had formerly been allied; and their metrical rules could not be made to produce any intelligible musical rhy thm . Th e iinventors nventors of recitative recitative thou gh t th at they had discovere discoveredd the ancient Greek idea of dram atic music music,, bu t in this they were mistak en. Recitative is an entirely entirely mo dern art, and seems to have no analogy with anything th at was done iinn the Attic theatre. Its invention is due to a misunderstanding of Greek theory. Yet, however much the ardent students of Greek in the sixteenth century may have misunderstood the technicalities of Greek rhythm, it is to to them that we owe the first first attem pts to make musi musicc expre ss the varying emotions emotions of the drama. Opera and Oratorio, however, however, quickly becam e conventionalis conventionalised ed in the han ds of singers, and it was owing to the stud y of Gree Greekk on th e part of G luck luck th at he attem pted certain reforms. reforms. In the ne xt century there arose yet anothe r refor reformer, mer, Richard W agner, who, mak ing a deeper stud y of the Greek Greek dram a than his predecessors, succeeded in producing the dramatic music that we all know so well. It can scarcely be said then that we modern musicians owe nothing at all to Greek Greek m us ic: on on the co ntrary, to attem pts at its revival revi val we owe our dram atic music, wh ether under th e nam e of O pera, Orato rio, or M usic-dr usic-drama. ama. M usic usicians ians are ap t ttoo fforget orget this when, looking merely to the technical details, they say that Greek music has no bearing on the modern art. During the time that polyphony was developing, there existed alongside it a vast quantity of music, partly sacred, but mostly secular, in which the predominating influence was the rhythm of the danc e. From the earliest ages the Church had utilise utilisedd this elemen t to a certain extent in such parts of its music as were to be sung by th e unlearned , while banishing it fr from the liturgy . Ea sily grasped dance rhy thm was the basis of the li litany, tany, the folksong folksong and th e ballad, and when instruments began to be used apart from voices, they expressed themselves in this kind of of rhythm . Th e earliest earliest composers of instrumental music emphasised the importance of rhythmical structure by dividing their tablatures into bars, some two centuries before the bar became general in vocal notation; and the verse of poetry laid the foundation of what we now know as the   phrase  of in strum ental m usic. T he dance, in fact fact,, had as great an influ inf luenc encee on m odern music in its early stages as it had on th at of

 

INTRODUCTION

XV

Athens, but there is this difference, that in Athens rhythm was made visible by the corporeal motions of the performer, as well as audible by the melody, while in our music it is audible only, not visible. The Church has always looked with disfavour on the actual dance, while whi le of oftten using rhyth m s appro priate to i t; and in banishing th e dance fto romtheritual unconsciously performed perfor se serv rvic icee fr art ofmusic, music.it unconsciousl Fo r by thusy ffor orci cing ng med rh ythye m t toano mther ake its its appeal to the mind through the ear alone, without taking th e eye into partnership, it certainly raised music to a higher possibility of imaginative and mystical signif signific icance ance than than it had had before. before. T he intelligence that can appreciate musical rhythm without the accessories of bodily movements, or the regular pulse of some non-melodic percuss per cussion ion ins trum ent, is of of a higher order th an th at which which requires these aids. It will be seen, then, that the rhythmical side of music has no direct historical connection with that of ancient Greece, while melody has been under Hellenic influence in respect to the Church modes and our minor scale. When rhythm again entered into the more highly cultivated kinds of music, it had to make a fresh start from the same basis as did that of Greek music,  i e from those forms that were found in the dance. W orking up from this basis, musicians grad ually developed, and are still further developing, the rhythmical side of music, on lines similar to those of the ancients. T he comb inati ination on of bars into into short phrases , of phrases into periods, the use of certain rhythmical figures to express gaiety, solemnity, and other feelings, all have their counterparts in the dactyls aand nd ttrochees rochees and other fe et of the Greek Greek theorists, who entered into th e signifi significat cation ion of these details with an understanding and minuteness such as no writer of modern times has shown. The melodic side of music varies according to race, temperament, epoch. epoc h. T he melos of of to -day in in western Eur op e is founded founded on scales that differ from those, for example, of modern Byzantine music, those of China, or Japan, or India, and are less highly developed than the chromatic chromat ic and enharmonic genera of the ancients. Even am ongst ourselves there are differences of scale, and hence of melodic means of expression; for the old Scotch pentatonic scale, still to be heard in certain folksongs, differs from the heptatonic scales of musicians, and the bagpipe scale, scale, though heptatonic, is not tuned like like th at of the pianoforte. W ith rhythm the case is dif diffe fere rent nt.. All the simple fo forms rms th at we

 

XVI

INTRODUCTION

use were used by the Greeks, and are intelligible to other races and oth er stages of civili civilisat sation ion than ours. T he iiambuses ambuses and trochees, trochees, th e anapaests and dactyls of the Greeks reappear in the Hymns of St Ambrose, in the ancient folksongs of Europe, in the litanies of the Roman Church, in the sonatas of Beethoven, in the songs of Schubert, in the modern music-hall ballad, in the music of the South Sea Islande rs. W hile man kind divides its music musical al scal scalee in ways th at are incomprehensible to those who are unfamiliar with them, it divides the time occupied by melody in ways that are comprehensible to all, however they may differ in culture and in race. The fundamental principles that underlie the art of rhythm, both in the simple for orms ms th at appeal to all, and in the more com plicated designs that appeal to those of cultivated taste, were investigated by Aristoxenus with a remarkable degree of insight and keenness of perception. Greek musici musicians ans de develope velopedd rhythm in certain directions further than we have done as yet: but there are signs that certain features of their music, such as quintuple measure, the more frequent use of phrases of other than four bars in length, the perception of a thesis and arsis in larger portions of a phrase than the single bar, may, in the future, again take something of the same place as they did in Hellenic music. The plan of this book is to explain the principles of the Aristoxenian theory, using both ancient and modern examples in illustration of the points to be elucidated, and to apply the theoretical principles thus explained, and the ideas suggested by them, to some of the masterpieces of modern art.

 

CHAPTER I The position of rhythm in Greek music—The reconstruction of its theory by modern philologists—Catalogue of the ancient authorities—Richard Wagner on the work of the philologists—A fundamental error, due to the GraecoRoman grammarians.

To the Greek musician the laws of rhythm were as important as those of harm ony and counterpoi counterpoint nt are to the modern student. Indee d the Greeks went further than we do, for they considered that the various forms of rhythm had certain definite emotional effects on the mind, and rules were formulated as to what particular kind of rhythm was suitable to express this or tha t emotion. An appeal was always to be made to the "Aisthesis," that part of our nature which we vaguely refe referr to a s th e " fee feeli ling, ng,"" in G erman   "  das Gefiihl," the faculty of mental perception, as opposed to bodily sensation. Modern musicians sometimes attribute a certain tinge of melancholy to the minor mode, but further than this they do not go: no one has yet laid down rules that any particular form of harmony or species spec ies of counterp oint is suitable to this or tha t em otion. I t is inconceivable that a modern composer should submit to rules in the m atter of expre ssion. Y et the Greek com posers of of the classical period peri od not to onlyrule usedin certain s," bu t m ouldedthat their gr eato t works according definite" mode rhythmical forms, seem have been understood at the time as expressing the particular appeal to the "A ist he sis " tha t was required. required. The se fo forms rms can can be appreciated by us as rhythm ical structures, but apa rt fr from the words the y do not necessarily connect themselves in our mind with definite emotional effe effect cts. s. T he y a re not the simple for forms ms of the d ance, the folksong, the hymn tune, or the ballad   :  they have a highly artistic construction, complicated in appearance, yet, according to one of the first requirements of Aristoxe nus, they must be easy to understand. In other words wor ds,, howev however er complex were the rhythm ical m eans ooff expression, the form must be one that could make an immediate appeal to cultivated human feeling. w.

i

 

2

REC ENT RESEARCH

The theory of Greek rhythm has reached us in a sadly mutilated state . A fragment of a book book here, a piece of information the re, a quotation somewhere somewhere el else, se, have been been piece piecedd together an d m ade into a practicable whole, with a patience that amounts to genius, by a devoted devot ed band of German philol philologist ogists. s. Th e subj subject ect began to att ra ct attention early in in the nineteenth century. It had always been noticed noticed that Greek writers laid great stress on the importance of rhythm, and yet the rigid rule of the Graeco-Roman metricists, who made a long syllable always equal to two short ones, produced a chaotic arrangement of Greek and Latin verse that was utterly without meaning to musicians.. Burney had a lready com m ented on this, and in his first musicians volume he gives examples to prove that the Greeks, with all their theories, could have known nothing whatever about rhythm, unless their ears were entirely different from ours. But since the discovery of Aristoxenian fragments in St Mark's Libra ry at Venice about a century and a qua rter ago, this has gradually been changed, and we now know that the Greeks had rhythmical forms that were, in some respects, more highly developed than ours ; and at the same time so orderly and natural are they, that when we fully appreciate the sense of the words to which they are allied they can appeal to our "Aisthesis" in very much the same way as do the rhythms of our own classical composers. Amongst the principal investigators were Boeckh, who gave his attention to the metres and rhythms of Pindar's   Odes,  and Hermann, who continued the work begun by Boeckh. T o He rm ann we owe the useful technical terms,   "  A nac rusis" and " Cyclic Cyclical al dactyl." dactyl." The n came Friedrich Bellermann, who published a Greek manuscript of the second c entu ry A. A.D D., in which which the a ncien t signs for time-v alue and rests are sshown. hown. After hi him m cam e Dr J. H . H. Schm idt, who, applying the newly-discovered theory to the extant plays of the Greek dramatists, was able to reconstruct their musical rhythm through the metre of the words; for with the Greeks, whose music consisted of unison or octave singing, musical rhythm adhered to the m etre of the words as closely closely as in a fol folksong. ksong. Th is has a lway s been known theoretically, and is confirmed in a remarkable manner by the recent discoveries at Delphi. Rudolph Westphal (1826-1892), a professor of Greek, and an amateur musician of considerable attainments, now began to publish a series of works through which it became evident that there was much in the ancient theory that might be of value to modern musicians. Amongst the most important of his books, from a musical point of

 

ANC IENT SOURCES SOURCES

3

view, are   M etrik der griechischen Dram atiker und Lyriker  (with Ro ssbac h), 3 vols. 1854-1865, remo delled, and republished as Theorie der mu sischen Kiinste der Hellenen   (with Rossbach and Gleditsch, 1885-1889):   Die Fragm ente und Leh rsatze der griechischen Rhythmiker,  1861 :  Geschichte der alien und mitteldltlichen Musik, 1864:  Plutarch  iiber die Musik,  1865 :  System der antiken Rhythm ik, 1865:   Serif tores metrici graeci, metrici graeci,  1866:  Theorie der  neuhochdeutschen Metrik,   2nd Ed. 1877:  Die Elemente des musikalischen  Rhythmus, mit Riicksicht auf unsere O pernm usik,  1872:  A llgemeine  Theorie der musikalischen Rhythm ik seit J. S. Bach,   1880:  Die Musik des griechischen Alterthumes,   1883:  Aristoxenus von Tarent,  2 vols. 1883-1893:  D e r griechische  Hexameter in der deutschen  Nachdichlung (posthumous). The ancient theory, as reconstructed by the above-mentioned Germans, was condensed into a whole by the late F. A. Gevaert, Director of the Brussels Conservatoire, a musician of great eminence, in the second volume of his monumental work   La Musique de rAntiquity   published at Ghent in 1881. The ancient writers on rhythm, in order of date, are: 1. Aristoxe nus of of Ta ren tum . Suidas tells tells us tha t he was the son of Mnesios, also called Spintharus, a musician, of Tarentum in Italy. H e wa wass educated as a phil philosopher, osopher, but turned hi hiss attention to music, in which subject he became a pupil, first of his father, then of Lampros, then of Xenophilus a Pythagorean, and finally of Aristotle. Aristoxenus, after completing his education at Athens, lived at Alex andria. H e composed composed works oonn ever everyy branch of knowledge, knowledge, to the num ber of 453. H e see seems ms to have w rit ritten ten his theory of rhythm from rom abou ab ou t 33 3355 to 322 B.C. Of his liter ary ou tpu t on ly a few fragments have come down to us. us. His three books on " Ha rmo nics," 1 i.e.  scales, were published by Meibomius in 1652 . The Harmonics of Aristoxenus were published with an English translation translati on by M acran, at the Clarendon Clarendon Press, 190 1902. 2. These books, however, howeve r, do not concern us here. T he fragm ents of his rhyth m ical teaching have been collected and published by Rudolph Westphal in 1

  Meibom ius published at Am sterdam in 1652 1652  Antiquae Musicae Auctores Septem. This collection, together with the   Claudii Ptolemaei Harmonicorum Libri ires,  published by Wallis at Oxford in 1682, formed the chief source of research into Greek music up to the time of Ha wk ins and Burney, and even later. Both wo rks give the full full Greek text, with a Latin translation alongside, and copious notes in La tin. Wh en we refer refer to Meibo mius, the above   Septem Auctores  must be understood. understood. Since the days of Haw kins and Burney other Greek fragments have been published, having a more direct bearing on rhythm than those published by Meibomius and Wallis. Th ey will be alluded to in due course. I— 2

 

4

ANC IENT SOURCES SOURCES

Die Fragtnente und die Lehrsdtze der griechi griechischen schen Rhythmiker, Leipsic,   1861,  and there is a translation into German, with a running commentary, in Westphal's   Aristoxenus, Melik und Rhythmik des classischen   Hellenthums,  Leips classischen Leipsic, ic, 1883 1883.. Th e rhythm ical teaching of of Aristoxenus influenced musicians for several centuries after his death,

and much of it is only to be g athered from qu otations by later writers. writers. 2.   M. Te ren tius V arro , a L atin writer, born in B. B.C. 116, died B.C. 28, was called by his contemporaries   The most learned of the Rom ans. Like Aristox enus , a pro proli lifi ficc writ writer, er, of his his 600 books only a few fragments fragments are ex tan t. Th ey give give us us technical term s that are not found elsewhere. 3.   Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a celebrat celebrated ed G reek rhetorist, came to Rome about B.C. 29, and remained there till his death in A.D.  7. His treatise  D e compositi compositione one verbor verborum um ( O n the pu tting together of words ) is of importance to our subject, as it describes the cyclical da cty l (s (see ee page 40), 40), and contains contains tthe he most ancient analysis of simple measures. H is ref refere erences nces to rhythm are quoted in Westphal's   Fragments allius Theod orus, a rhetorist under Au gustu s and Tiberius, 4 .  M allius the latter of whom attended his lectures at Rhodes in B.C. 6—A.D. 2. His works are not important. 5.   Caesius Bassus, a Rom an lyric poet, lost lost his his lif lifee at Pom peii when that town was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79. He dedicated a work on metre, which is lost, to the Emperor Nero; it served as a source from which many later writers drew their information. 6. Fabius Quintilianus, a L atin author ooff the end of th e firs firstt ce ntu ry A.D. A.D.,, qu otes ote s fro from m Cae Caesius sius Bassu s. 7. Aristides Quintilianus lived during the first and second centuries after after Christ. His three Greek treatises Co ncerning M usic are publis published hed by Meibomius, Meibomius, and th e rhythm ical allusions allusions therein, chiefly quotations from Aristoxenus, are collected by Westphal in his  Fragmente. 8. Th e treati treatise se already alluded to by an anonym ous G reek writer of the first or second century of our era, which gives the musicall ti musica time-signs me-signs and rests. rests. Th is im im portan t little work was first first published by F. Bellermann in 1841 with Latin notes, and again in 1847 by A. J. H. Vincent, with a French translation, in   Notices et Extraits des M anuscrits de la Bibliotheque du R ot, publics par Vlnstitut Vlnsti tut Royal de France.  It is is usually referre referredd to as Bellermann's   Anonymus.

 

ANCIENT ANCI ENT SOURCES SOURCES

5

9. Hephaestion   was a  Greek grammarian  of  about  A.D. .D. 150. H is   Manual  on Metres  is  said  by  Gevaert  to be the  best work  in the whole range  of  metrical literature1 . 10.   Philoxenus,  an  Alexandrian grammarian,  who  taught  at Rome, probably about   the  same time  as  Hephaestion.  He  makes scanty references   to  rhythm. 11 .  Heliodorus  was also probably contem porary with He phae stion. Extensive fragments   of his  teaching remain,  and  contain portions   of the  rhythmical teaching  of  Aristoxenus2 . 12 12..  Lon ginus, who flouris flourished hed about A.D. 260, was a  commentator of Hephaestion. 13.   Te ren tius M arius, abo ut A A..D. 290,  an and d 14.   Atilius Fo rtun atia nu s, abou t A. A.D D.  300 are  said  by  Gevaert to   be  interesting writers. 15. 15 .  Plotius Sacerdos,  a  Latin grammarian,  who  probably lived towards   the en end d of the third century, under Diocletian, Diocletian, wrote  a  book on metres. 16.   Baccheios  the  Elder appears  to  have taught music during the reign   of  Constantine,  A.D.  306-337.  The  Introduction  to the A r t   of  Music  attributed  to him is th the e  work  of two  writers, of the 3 opposing schools   of  Pythagoras  an and d  Aristoxenus .   It  treats  of rhythm   on  Aristoxenian lines,  but only  in a  cursory manner.  It is published   by  Meibomius  an and d  Jan, and  quoted from  by  Westphal  in th e   Fragmente. 17 17..  M arius arius Victorinus,  a  teacher  of  rhetoric  at  Rome about A.D.  350, enjoyed  so large  a  reputation that  on his  death  a statue was erected   in his  memory in the  Forum  of  Trajan. Many of his works are extant,   and the fe few w  notices  of  rhythm contained  in  them  are quoted   by W est estphal phal in the Fragmente.4  He is not original  but draws upon Varro, Caesius Bassus,  an  and others . 18 18..  St  Augustine composed  a treatise  on  rhy thm abou t A.D. A.D.  375 of no great value. 19.   A  short passage from Servius,  a  Latin grammarian  of the fourth century,   is  quoted  by  Westphal  in the  Fragmente, p. 42. 20. 20 .   Diomedes,  a  Latin grammarian, probably  of the  fourth  or fifth cen tury, wrote  a treatise on oratory and metre, of which a passage is quoted   by  Westphal in the Fragmente,  p.  4 3 . 21 .  Charisius,  a  L atin gram m arian, li lived ved abou t A.D.  400 400.. He wrote  a treatise on grammar,  in  which  he  quotes from earlier writers.   de PAnt.  Vol. II. p. 8 6 .  Gevaert,  La Mus. de   Jan Muski Scriptores Graeci. 

1 

11..   Westphal,  Fragmente,  p.  11 Gevaert La Mus. defAnt.   defAnt.  Vol. II. p. 86. 86.

2

 

6

ANC IENT SOURCES SOURCES

22 22..  Priscianus, a R om an, lived in in the fifth fifth century , and tau gh t gram m ar at Constantinople. Constantinople. M any of his works remain, and have formed the basis of our present knowledge of Latin grammar. Amongst them is one on accents. 23 23..   M artianus artianus M ine ineus us Felix Capell Capellaa was a native native of C artha ge,

who flouris flourished hed towards the end of the fifth fifth century. H is allegory, entitled the   Nu ptials of Philology and M ercury, consists chiefl chieflyy of a Latin translation of portions of the work of Aristides Quintilianus on music. It is publis published hed by Meibomius in in his his   Septem Auctores,  a n d Westphal, in the   Fragmente, prints tthe he original original G reek and the La tin translation on the same pages, for comparison. 24. 24 .   M ichael Psellus, a Greek writer, li lived ved at C ons tantino ple in the middle of the elevent eleventhh c entury. H e is is an imp ortant contributor to our ou r subject for for the following following rea son. In A.D. A.D. 1785, M orelli, orelli, th e librarian of St Mark's at Venice, published a little work by him called   Intro Introductory ductory Rem arks on ttlte lte Rhythmical Science,  and in the same volume he included fragments of the rhythmical elements of Aristoxen us. Th e wor workk of Psellus Psellus contains contains much of the original elements of Aristoxenus, which had been either too fragmentary or considered of too little importance for Meibomius to include in his colle col lecti ction. on. Morelli Morelli added notes to the Aristoxenian tex t, an d q uoted the parallel places in Psellus: and this is practically all that survives of the original teaching of Aristoxenus 1 . Th e publi publicati cation on came under the notice of Westphal, who was struck with the interest that the theory here expounded might have for modern musicians; and this was the ori origin gin of of his his investigations. In his  Fragmente  Westphal quotes those parts of Psellus that are derived from Aristoxenus. Of Byzantine m etri etricists cists,, the brothers Tzetze s iinn the twelft twelfthh century 2

have preserved to us some fragments of the ancient teaching . Rhythm is slightly referred to by the author of the Nineteenth Problem formerly attributed to Aristotle, but now believed to have been of Alexandrian origin 3 . These, then, then, are the ori original ginal sources sources from which the ancient theory of musical rhythm has been reconstructed. W ith the excepti exception on of Bellermann's   Anonymus  (No. 8), the writers give no musical examples, and rhythm is generally referred to in a manner that presupposes a familiarity with it on the part of the reader, and, in some cases, the later authors quote from the earlier without always understanding them. 1

  Westphal,  Aristoxenus, Melik und Rhythmik,  pp . xii, xiv. 2   Gevaert,  La Mus. deVAnt.  Vol. II. p. 86. 3   Compare C. Jan,  Musici Scriptores Graeci,  Leipsic, 1895.

 

RICHARD WAGNER AND GREEK METRE

7

T he work of of reconstructi reconstruction on has entail entailed ed imm ense labour. labour. Richard Wagner, who was so deeply impressed with the Greek drama as to lay the foundations of of his Music of the fut future ure   upon Greek ideals, knew that the technicalities of Greek rhythm were being explored, but when he wrote his   per   und Drama  it was too early for him to be aware of the significance of the investigations that were being carried on. Lik e mo st of those m usicians who learn Greek at school, school, he had been struck with the impossibility of obtaining a recognisable rhythm from Greek poetry on the scholastic assumption that a long syllable was equal in time-value to two short syllables. Sp eak ing of the Greek manner of intoning speech, in which certain syllables were really pronounced relatively longer than others, not merely accented, 1 as in the modern European languages, he says :   Nevertheless there is something at the root of this tendency towards an extension in pronunciation, where it is not merely a dialectic custom, but an involuntary result of increase of agitation, which our prosodists and metricists will have to observe carefully, if they wish wish to to explain G reek reek m etr etres. es. Th ey had only our rapid speechaccent in their ear, when they invent invented ed the measure by which which two shorts invariabl invariablyy equal one long. long. Th e explan ation of Greek m etres would easily have occurred to them if they had had in their ear for the so-called long the sustained notes of musical measure, by which the length of words can be varied in melody. Wagner is mistaken when he attributes the invention of the rule of two shorts equal one lo ng to   our prosodists and metricists. It goes back for nearly eighteen centuries, having been invented by Latin grammarians of early imperial times, who knew little of, and cared less less for, or, musical rhy thm . It has been persistently tau gh t in in the schools schools from the renaissance of Gree Greekk literature to the presen t day. But through the publi publicati cation on of Bellermann's  Anonymus we have learned that syllables, when sung, were extended or shortened by the ancients to suit a musical rhythm, just as they are by present-day com posers, the only di diff ffer erenc encee being one of deg ree. Fo r the ancients did not, as far as we are aware, extend a syllable so as to embrace a whole musical phrase, but only as far as was necessary to make the time-divisions recognisable.   per   und Drama  was w ritten iinn 185 1, before  und before th thee fu fulll signif significance icance of Bellermann's   Anonymus  could have been recognised  :  for it would take more than ten years to uproot a tradition of so many centuries standing. Eigh teen years after after  Oper und Drama  there appeared 1

  Oper und Drama,  Gesam melte Schriften, 2nd Ed . Vol. IV. p. 124.

 

8

J. H. H. SCHM IDT

the second volume of J. H. H. Schmidt's   Antike  Compositionslehre, in which the lyrical portions of many Greek dramas were set out in recognisable recogni sable musical musical rhyth m s, based upon a better und erstan ding of the subject subject than was possess possessed ed by the Latin gram m arians. T o this followed the remarkable series of works by R. Westphal. Not a note of the melody of the Greek theatre remains, but its rhythm, being based on the metre of the words, can be reconstructed through the theory theory ooff Aristoxenus with reas reasonable onable certa inty ; and when thus reconstructed, and set out in musical notation, it shows several features that may be at least interesting, and perhaps suggestive, suggest ive, to modern musicians. musicians. In any ccase ase we can gain valuable hints from the theory alone, even without the verbal examples. But before discussing the theory we propose to give our readers a slight sketch of the rise of the art of m usi usicc in Greece, with special reference to the notices about the gradual introduction of new rhythmical forms, as mentioned by Plutarch.

 

CHAPTER II Outline of the history of Greek music—The principles of its scales explained by analogy with the construction of modern scales—The dramatists and their works—T ragedy, Comedy, and Lyric Lyric poetry— poetry— The instrumental instrumental accompaniment to song—The decline of Greek music. A N C I E N T 

Greek music was a branch of the system in vogue throug hout the Babylonian and Eg yptia n civili civilisati sations. ons. Th is system system still exists in a modified form under the name of Byzantine music, and can be heard, not only in in many of the oriental Christi Christian an churches, but in the folksongs of Greece, and, strange to say, Brittany 1 . Both in melody and rhyth m , Greek m usic usic became m ore hi highly ghly developed in certa in directions than m odern western music, while in others it remained behind, notably in that it never arrived at anything analogous to what we kno know w as harm ony and counterpoint. W here we use harm ony as a means of expressi expression, on, the ancients m ade us usee of subtle divisions of the octave, foreign to our ear, and melodic intervals forbi for bidden dden by our theorists. In rhythm the y llargely argely employed the quin tuple species, which as y et is scarcely scarcely known to us, and subtle comb inations inations of ttime-values, ime-values, dem andin g a highly trained rhythm ical sense for their due appreciation. undoubtedly aact mysterious power over the and to this Music m ust be attributed has the ffac t tha t the ancients credited credit ed mind, its supposed founder foun derss with m ira iraculous culous gif gifts ts.. T o the my thical Thrac ian Orpheus, called cal led b y Pinda r the " Fa the r of Son g," Apollo presented a lyre, lyre, by whose sounds not only men and wild beasts, but even trees and rocks were so fasci fascinated nated th at the y fol followed the player, and the powers of of Hades were moved by it to restore to Orpheus his dead wife Euridice 2 . Historically the first systematic cultivation of the art of music took place at Sp arta. A ristoxenu s divides divides its early history into into a 1

  Bourgault-Ducoudray, " T re n te melodies populaires de Basse Basse Bretagne."   But the Greeks were not the only only people that attributed m iraculous iraculous power to  music. T h e   legend of the "Pied Piper of Hamelin" is a case in point, and others might be cited. 2

 

IO

TH E SPARTAN SPARTAN MUSICAL MUSICAL

INS TIT UTI ONS

first and second archaic period.   The chi chief ef m usicians  of the first were Olympos, who used   the  diatonic tetrachord, and had not learned  to divide   the  semitone into  the qu artert artertones ones  of the  enharmonic genus, and Terpander, who established certain alterations   in the  tuning  of the tetracho rd. Glaucus, Glaucus, one of the speakers  in  Plutarch's Dialogue the tw two o  archaic periods  as, respectively,  the  first on music,  refers  to a n d   the  second musica musicall institution  at  Sparta. Here,  as in the other Gree Greekk states, a  art rt and religion, a  and nd the public games   in  which they were exercised, were regulated  by t he government.   The  periodi periodical cal Sp artan festi festival val  in  honour  of  Apollo, called the K arne arneia, ia,  was  largely connected with  the development  of  music, especially with kitharody,   or vocal music accompanied by the kithara. He who sang   the best kitharode  in praise of Apollo won  the prize. Terpander came   to  Sparta  as a  stranger.  He so  enchanted  the Spartans that   not ordained tha t no t only  did  they give  him t he prize, but ordained his system should   be  adopted  as the state music. Th e compositions compositions of both Olympos   and  Terpander were still known  in the  time  of Aristoxenus, under   the  name  of  kitharodic  nomoi.  Th ey wer weree considered   to  have  a  noble simplicity  of  character which could  not be imitated   in a  aft fter er ages, and they were handed down by verba verball tradition, not by writing. writing. The ir rhythm was usually usually that   of the  the epic epic hex am eter. Terpander would  set a melody  to some portion  of the Homeric epos, and perform   it in the  public games, with  a  prelude  of his own composition,  and the  prelude  now became  an  important part  of the structure1 . Besides hexameters,   he  would sometimes  use the  orthios  and 2 trochaios semantos .  The  word nomos  was  equivalent  to our word " form"   in  music,  as we  should  say,  sonata-form, fugue-form,  &c.

The Terpandrian nomos   was an ode, in a  certain definite form, addressed   to a  god.  I t had  seven distinct sections, or, as w we e should say, movements,  all of  which, like  our  early suite movements, were in   the  same key, and in the  same mode, while  the rhythm   was for the most part   in  hexam eters. W estphal gathers from Plutarch tha t the instrumental accompaniment   of the  Terpandrian nomoi, and in other early compositions, was   not  always  in  unison with  the melody, but that   it  sometimes played intervals  of a second, a fourth,  a fifth or a sixth with   it; and  from Aristotle we learn that such intervals were 1

2

  Pindar speaks  of Dance-leading preludes." arsis thesis   Orthios  g

p .  42.

(^

g^. 

Trochaios semantos  g

thesis e?

arsis c?

£? •

For  details  see

 

THE SPART SPARTAN AN MUSI MUSICAL CAL INSTITUT IONS

II

played above   and not below below the melody. Th is  is apparently  a  very elementary kind   of  harmony, but too little information  is at hand for us  t  to o g e t  an  idea of its effect. Terpander used   two principal scales,  an  octachord (represented by the white notes   of  th e pianoforte piano forte fr from om  E to E), i.e.  i.e. t  the he Dorian mode   or  Dorian octave species, and a  heptachord (represented  by E, F, G, A,   B fl  flat, at, C, D) . Westphal considers that Olympos was   a  semimythical person who gave his name   to a school  of  aulos playing that came from Asia into Greece about this time 1 . " Au los,"  a kind  of oboe, is often often trans lated as "flute." The school   of  Olym pos introduced two new modes, the Lyd ian, practically our   C major, major, and the Phryg ian, our  D to D without black notes.   A nomos  t o Pyth o the dragon,  in  the Lydian mode, and on one e to Athena   in the Phry gian, are ascribed ascribed  to  Olympos. Th e two new new modes, call called ed   by Plato barbaric, owing owing  to  their external origin, were welll recei wel received ved by the pub lic, and quickly incorporated into th e Sp arta n system. Plutarch tells   us  that  the  seco second nd musical institution  of  Sparta was brought about by Thaletas, Xenodamos, Xenocritus, Polymnastos, and Sacadas,  all o off  whom were foreigners.  T he first three composed pagans, the name given   to  choral songs  of thanksgiving  to  Artemis, or Apollo,   fo forr  deliverance from evil.  T he p sa n was als alsoo  a  song o  off victory after battle,   or  any solemn chant was thus named;  the song with which soldiers advanced   to ba ttle was also also called called  a  p « a n .  T he word must   not be  confounded with  pceon,  a  rhythmical form,  to be described later. Polymnastos composed aulodic nomoi, songs   in  certain forms accompanied   by the aulos.  H e and his  successors w ere com posers also of orthioi, compositions   in sl slow, ow, solemn, triple m easure. Sa cad as and an d   his  pupils wrote elegies, accompanied  by the  aulos.  A t  that time   an  elegy  was a  poem,  on any  subject,  in  hexameters  an and d pentameters. Later   on the  word  was  applied particular ly  to lamentations  in  verse. Sacadas was   an  excellent composer  of  auletic nomoi (pieces for the aulos), and was victor   in three Pythic contests. H e also invented invented a new form   of  song  in  three strophes, the first being  in the  Dorian mode, the second   in  the Phrygian, the third  in  the Lydian. T o this form of composition was given the name of  trimeres. the Italians  at the present day speak   of  what we know as the Polyphonic school as "Palestrina-music." 1   Analogously

 

12

SECOND SPARTAN MUSICAL MUSICAL INS TIT UT ION

Xenodamos composed hyporchemata, choral hymns to Apollo of a liv livel elyy character, and in in quintuple rhythm . Th aletas is said to have introduced, as new rhythms, the paeon epibatos (slow quintuple measure), and the cretic (a form of quick quintuple measure) 1 . The second Spartan institution differed from the first in that it introduced choral music, in addition to solo singing, and a special form form of dance suitable to the paea paeann and hyporc hem a. A new festival festival was established called gymnopaidasa, in honour of those who fell in the ba ttle ooff Th yre a. In this festi festival val the chie chieff feature feature was, as the name implie implies, s, the dancing of naked boys, and the choral songs and dances of the gymnopaidaea soon spread throughout the other Greek states 2 . These compositions, then, together with the paeans and hyporchemata, were looked upon as the product of the second Spartan musical institution. T he words  orchesis dancing,  orchestikos suitable for dancing,   orchestes a dancer,   orchestra a place for dancing, now came into general use, together with   choros Latin   chorus the band of dancers. It wi willl be se seen en ho how w large a p lace dancing took in in the state 3 music . The choral music was rendered, according to Aristotle, either in unison, or, when men a nd bo ys sang toge ther, in octaves. Solo music, however, also took a large place in the second Spartan institution in the nomoi orthioi of Polymnastos, in the aulos odes, and aulos playing of Sacadas. To this this period period als alsoo belong three imp ortant inn ov ation s: the introduction of quartertones into the scale, the construction of an instrumental notation, and an increase of available compass in the scales. Later on, we know not when, the chromatic tetrachord came into use.   It had had several for forms, ms, the on ly one of which tha t is possible possible to our ear being that which proceeds upwards by semitone, semitone, minor third;   e.g.   E, F, F sh arp, A. M usi usicia cians ns such as Archy tas, 1

  For further details see Westphal,  Die Musik   es griec  grieckischen kischen Alterthumes p. 144, &c.   The dancing of naked boys as a religious thanksgiving after victory was not uncommon in antiq uity. Sophocles, at the age of sixteen, was chosen, on account of his beauty and musical powers, to lead the gymnop aidic chorus aafte fterr the victory of Salam is. Outside Greec e, even men danced for for the same object: it will will be remembered that Dav id, when K ing of Israel, "danced before the Lord with all his might" on bringing the Ark in triumph back to Jerusalem, and that Michal taunted him with with having danced "un cov ere d." I I Sam . vi. 14 and 20. 3   Religious dancing survives in the west at one place only, in Seville Cathedral, where splendidly dressed choir-boys dance before the high altar on certain festivals, and sing at the same time , being accompanied by an orchestra. Th us, strange to say, is preserved in in one corner of Christian Europe the old Greek ideal of religious music, a combination of choral song, dance, and instruments. 2

 

MU SICAL SCALES

13

Eratosthenes, Didymus, and others, modified the two lower intervals by tuning them in thirds of tones, three-eighths of tones, and in other minute intervals that have now a mathematical interest only. These intervals seem to have represented various attempts at obtaining new sources of expression in music that was entirely melodic. melodi c. Th e ttunin unin g of of our modern intervals is rregulated egulated by the the necessities of harmony, and harmony will tolerate nothing smaller than the semitone. From earliest iinfa nfancy ncy we are accustomed accustomed so to associate melody with harmony that it is impossible for us to imagine the eff effec ectt of any music w ithout it. But the intervals of m elody will will admit of many modifications that can gratify the ear of those to whom harmony is an entirely unknown feature, and, as a matter of fa fact ct,, we ourselves, ourselves, when we sing without instrume ntal accom paniment, or play a string quartet, do not employ the artificially tempered intervals that the use of harmony renders necessary for the pianoforte and organ. We do not propose to follow in detail the gradual development of the complete system of keys and modes out of the few we have alluded to in our accou nt of the two Spa rtan institution s. Suf Suffi fice ce it to say that, at its zenith, Greek music made use of seven octave species (which afterwards becam e the seven seven " modes   of the Roman Church, with certain modifications and complete alteration of nom enclature) and of two " Perfect Perfect Sy stems." Th e " Greater Perfect Perfect System" consisted of two octaves of notes corresponding to our descending melodic melodic minor sca le; the " Lesser Perfect Perfect Sy ste m " consisted of the lower octave of the Greater System, with the addition above it it of of the notes B fl flat, at, C, D. Th e Greater System gave us the nomenclature of our notation, the founders of which placed A, the first letter of the alphabet, on the lowest note of the two Greek systems, and t he Lesser Perfe Perfect ct System gave us our B flat, which which allowed of modulation, and from which began the application of flats and, afterwards, of sharps to each note of the scale. Th e two Greek systems, like our scales, scales, could could be   transposed," that is to say, they might start from A, or B flat, or B natural, or C, and so on through the complete semitonic scale, as far as the voices and instrume nts extende d. Th e octave species species consi consist sted ed of certain certain arrangements of the tones and semitones within the compass of an octa ve: the m aterial aterialss b eing selecte selectedd from one of th e " Perfect Perfect System s." A nd since the system s ccould ould be transp osed , it fol follows tha t the octave speci species es could be transpo sed also. Ea ch o ctave speci species es contained two tetrachords, either "conjunct," as we shall show in our

 

14

MUSICAL SCALES

minor scale,  o  two tetrachords of our major scale.  orr "disjunct,"  as the two For practical purposes   the l  lower ower tetrachord  of an  octave might differ from   the upper  in form,  and could  be  modified and since each tetr ach ord could by more than   one  diatonic,  at  least four chromatic,  and one enharmonic tuning,   it  will  be  seen that  the  possibility  of  variety in  in the scales   was  practical practically ly inexhau stible. For those   to  whom   the subject  is  new, perhaps  we can  make  it clearer  if we explain  our own system  on  similar lines:  and it will not b e   out o off  place  to do  so, since  our  musical scale  is a  direct lineal descendant  of that  of  ancient Greece. Modern music makes   use of  four octave species (instead  of seven), each  o familiar ar  off which ca  can n star t from any semitone  of, say, the famili pianoforte;  t£ it can be  transposed "  to any pitch required, and its transposition during   the course o  off a  given composition  by the device known   as modulation, is is,, i  in n itself, a  a means o  off aest  aesthetic hetic effect  But as we use  no  interval smaller than  a  semitone, we have not the wea lt lthh of melodic material implied   by the  enharmonic  and and  chromatic  and diatonic genera   in  their various forms. Our first octave species   is  called  the  major scale:  it  consists  of two similar tetrachords,  not joined,  and and  therefore,  in  Greek parlance, " disjunct." tetrachord

tetrachord

C   D E F, G A B C. Our second octave species   is the ascending ascending melodic melodic m inor scale ; it consists of two dissimilar tetrachords, the upper of which corresponds t o  the major tetrachord.  A B  C D, E F  sharp  G sharp  A. It would be called   a  "mixed" octave species  by the Greeks, for its two te trachords   are not alike. Our third octave species   is the  descending form   of the  minor scale.   It is  particularly interesting  in  this connection, fo  forr iitt is th the e fundamental octave species  of the two Greek systems. Th ey looked looked upon   it as  containing containing two " conju nct" tetrachords, with with  an  added   note below,  to complete  the oct  octave, ave, thu s, tetrachord

A,TC

Added note

tetrachord

the two tetrachords forming   a junction at the note E  E.. Our fourth octave species  is the  harmonic minor scale, which like n o .  2 is of the  mixed " variety,  the  upper tetracho rd containing  an

 

ORIGINS OF TH E DRAMA DRAMA

15

augmented second, and being in this respect analogous to the Greek chromatic genus. What we have lost in variety of scale we have more than made up for by the use of harmony and counterpoint. The ancient scales and modes and genera, the greater and lesser systems formed the melodic material to which the Greeks applied their rhythm ical laws. laws. Th ey lo looked oked upon melody without rhythm as raw m aterial, withou t form orm   ;  the application of rhythm to this material produced a satisfactory work of art. In the early days of Greece it had been the custom to celebrate the gath ering of the vintage by danc ing a nd singing choral lyrical lyrical compositions round the altar of Dionysus, or Bacchus, the god of wine. Between the songs the leader ooff the chorus recited the story of the sufferings that the god and his adherents underwent before his wo rship was accep ted in Greece. T he choral songs were called called dithyrambs, and they first began to take artistic shape at the hands of Alcm an of S pa rta (B.C B.C. 660) and Stesichorus of H im era (B. B.C. C. 620). A bo ut B.C B.C. 600 Arion of Lesbos stil stilll furt further her improved their form, form, which was now that of the strophe and antistrophe, though sometimes the antistrophe, so essential a part of the later drama, was omitted. The members of the dithyrambic chorus were dressed as satyrs, half goat, half man, and their song was the "goat-song,"   tragcedia our traged y. Th e conten ts of of the dithy ram b were of a jo joyfu yfull and elevate ele vatedd character. Th e poem was set to music in the Phrygian mode, and was accompanied by auloi. Contemporary with the dithyramb was another form of the cult of Bacchus, conne cted with th e earlier phallic worship. Its ritua l consisted of the chorus running through the roads, dancing and singing, with th eir faces faces smeared with wine lees. Th is was th e song of the revel,  comcedia our comedy. In order to give a rest to the chorus during the celebrations around the altar of Bacchus, Thespis, who flourished about B.C. 536, introduced an ac tor to c arry on on a dialogue with th e coryphaeus, coryphaeus, the leader lead er of the chorus. Th is broug ht in a certain certain am ount of d ram atic element,, and Thesp is was cal element called led by some, the " Fa ther of Greek T ra ge dy "; but of the details of his scheme scheme n othing is known, known, and the ancients themselves were divided as to whether he was the actual inventor of tragedy, or an improver on ancient tradition. Und er the Peisistratides, Peisistratides, about B.C. 560-510, Athe ns becam e the chief chi ef seat ooff art and literatur e. T he Dion ysiac festi festival val now no longer

 

 6

AESCHYLUS A N D

SOP SOPHOC HOCLES LES

confined confin ed it itsel selff to the story of of Bacchus, bu t broug ht in othe r sub jects, while retaining the form of a series of songs and dances round an altar which stood in the centre of the orchestra; but the dances were now interspersed interspersed with dial dialogues. ogues. Th us C hoerilus hoerilus,, an Athe nian, is is said to have gained a dr am atic victory in B. B.C. 523 with a dr am a on a m aiden ca call lled ed Alope. O ther co composers mposers of tragedies were Pr atin as, abou t B. B.C C. 497, and Phrynicus, who attained immense pop ularity abo ut B.C. 476. The next improvement was brought about by the famous Ae schy lus ((B. B.C. C. 525-456). H e introdu introdu ced a second actor, m ade t he dialogue of more importance than the chorus, used scenery, imitated the elaborate vestments of the Eleusinian mysteries; and under his auspices the drama became a splendid spectacle, while still retaining its religious character 1 . Aeschylus wrote 70 tragedies, the subjects of which were the ancient legends of gods and heroes; he invented the trilogy, or series of three plays dealing with some one legend, to be performed on three days, and, in one case at least, he added a satyric drama to the trilogy, tri logy, thus making a tetralogy. Like all G reek dram atists, he was not only the writer of the words, but the composer of the music. Musicians will recall that in these respects he is imitated by Richard W agne r, who, writing his own words, took the old No rse legend s of the Nibelungen-Ring as his subject, made a trilogy   thereof,  and, by adding a   preludial drama," converted it into a tetralogy. Sophocles (B.C. 495-406), when he was 27 years old, brought forward for ward a play to com pete with with A eschylus. Political feel feeling ing was running high, and those to whom fell the duty of appointing the judges had not ventured to do so, when Cimon, the su succe ccess ssfu full adm iral and general, entered the theatre w it ithh hi hiss nine colleagues. colleagues. Th ey were at once led to the altar, and, the proper oath h aving been adm inistered, inistered, 1

  Th e tendency to m ake religious ceremonies ever m ore aest aesthet hetic ic is innate in hum an natu re. Th e early Christian Chu rch, which began in Asia Minor, developed an elaborate ritual, ritual, imitating in this respect the rituals of the Jews, of Isis, and others of the pagan cults which it eventually supp lanted. Th e Rom an Church followed followed suit in this this respect, but it has never attained to the magnificence magnificence of vestment and ceremon y used in the eastern Ch urche s. T he Roman ritual of to-day falls far below that of the present-day Armenians, for example, and the Russo-G reek Church. Oth er instances migh t be cited in the magnificence magnificence of So lom on's Temple, and, in our own days, in the constant craving for more elaborate "vestments" and ceremony, in in the the Church of of England. A young Siamese Siamese prince prince once once said said to the writer, " I f ever I thought of becoming a Christian, I should pref prefer er to join the Church of Rom e, because its elaborate c eremonies rem ind m e more of my own B uddh ist wo rship than your Church d oes." Th e innate love of splendid ceremonial, ceremonial, that led led to the elaboration elaboration of Christian ritual, led Aeschylus to elabora te the aestheti aestheticc si signif gnifica icance nce of the th eat re,   i.e.  of the worship of Dionysus.

 

EURIPIDES  

17

they acted as judges, and gave the first prize to Sophocles, the second only to Aeschylus, who thereupon left Athens in disgust. Soph ocles, thou gh occasional occasionally ly defeated by othe rs, had the field practicallyy to himself practicall himself for many years. H e introduced various various developm ents. Ea rly in his car career eer he brought in a third actor, and afterwards increased the num ber of actors. H e rais afterwards raised ed the tragic chorus from from twelve to fifteen performers, the new mem bers being respectively a coryphaeus, or leader of the whole, and leaders of the two halves into which, for antiphonal purposes, the chorus was divided. He reduced the importance of the chorus, which now took no part in the dramatic action, but merely commented on the events and sentimen ts of which which the act actors ors were the expone nts. In his his choice choice of material, and in its working out, Sophocles is more human than Aeschylus. In place of the iinexorable nexorable destiny to which which man and gods have to submit, Sophocles makes the faults of human beings recoil on themselves, and at the same time he teaches the wisdom of tha t mod eration in all things which which forme formedd so large a par t of Greek philosophy. H e wrote 13 1300 plays, of which which sseve evenn are extant. H e won about 20 first and several second prizes. Eu ripides was born on the day of th e ba ttle of Salam is, 480 B.C. He was on intimate terms with Sophocles and Socrates, the latter of whom would never enter the theatre except when a play of Eu ripides was performed. H is innovation on Sopho cles consists of representing representi ng hum an nature, not as it ought to be, but as it is ; and under the names of ancient heroes are exhibited the characters of his ownn time. Aristo tle calls ow calls him him the most tragic of poets. Com paring hi him m with Ae schylus, it has been said, " Ae schylus has an elem ent of H ebrew gran deu r; Euripides has a strong element element of modern pathos and romance." He made constant use of the   deus ex machina and other mechanical devices, devices, by which god s appeare d to descend and ascend befo be fore re the audience. His characters speak in in th e langu age of conventional every day lilife fe,, bu t indu lge in philosophical discussions, discussions, while the subject-matter of the chorus is often detached from that of tthe he play. Of his more than 70 tragedies, 18 18 are ex tan t. His " Alcestis," one of th e best known, was originally the last play of a ttetralo etralo gy . Of his ffinal inal work, " Ore stes," a m inute fragment of the musical notation was discovered recently, and is published in the Mittheilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer Vol. v. Part 3, August 1892. w.

2

 

18

ARISTOPHANES

Contemporaneously with   the development  of tragedy, and equally supported   by the  State, there grew   up  Comedy, o  off  which  the  chief representative   fo B.C.)). Com edy forr us is Aristophane s (about 44 4-380 B.C. was submitted   to  contests like tragedy, and the  performance  of the latter was frequently preceded   by a  comic drama. Into   the  history  of  comedy  it is  unnecessary  for us to go, the works   of  Aristophanes being  the  only ones  of  interest  to us  here. Attic comedy was  a satire  or  burlesque on the p olitical olitical  an and d religious movements   of the hour, o  on n innovations  in  music  and the other a rts, on topics   of the day, and  personal matters.  But th the e aim of Aristophanes  was was not  merely  to  amus e;  he  pointed  ou outt  defects  in the administration   of  affairs, and the evils  of the  ti times. mes. Thu s, the Peloponnesian War, which   he attributed  to the  influence  of  Pericles, is satirised   in his Peace."   In  other places  he  points  out the wickedness  of the  lawyers,  who  encouraged litigation.  He  also satirises   the education  of his  day, which, in  view  of the  intellectual development  of the th e age,  aimed  at  substituting free-thought  and and forr the old  religious belief  in  gods. philosophy   fo Besides being   a  humourist,  he wa was s a  poet  and and  musician  of the highest order.   Of his 54 plays  we  possess 11  11.. In form, comedy was  the same as tra ge dy ; actors carried carried  out the drama,   and a chorus, fifty i  in n  number, commented  on it. But in some 1 of Aristophanes' later works there was  no chorus . The drama, whether Tragedy   or  Comedy,  wa was s set to  music through out. Th e chorus choruses es took   the form   of a series  of  strophes an and d antistrophes, and   the dialogue was carried  on in melody, accompanied b y   the  instruments.  Fo Forr  very intense effects  the  actor spoke  his words, while   the  instruments continued  to  accompany,  as in the " melodrama   of  German opera.  A  modern analogy may be found in the part  o  the he Finale o second ac t o  off Samiel in t  off the second  off "De r Freischutz": but there   is  this difference, that  the  Greek actor always maintained   the  musica musicall rhythm while while speaking, whereas Samiel speaks " rhythmically "   in one  place only. The whole   of the  drama,  in  fact, whether spoken  or  sung, w  wa as uttered   in  rhythmical measure: there was nothing equivalent  to our recitative, with   it its s  freedom from formal construction.  The  Greek play was absolutely   a " music drama," that is is,, a  real drama, enhanced b y  the m agic influence influence  of  music;  and in  this respect  it  differed from Italian opera,   in  which dramatic requirements were subordinated  to 1

  W a g n e r ' s " T r i s t a n u n d I s o l d e " has  no regular regular ch orus.

 

LYRIC LYRI C POETRY

I9

the demands of musical form, to the display of vocal dexterity, or the possible jealousy of rival singers. Besides the drama, lyric poetry,   i e poetry intended to be sung to the accom panim ent of the lyre, was equall equallyy cultivated. cultivated. Its chie chieff ex po ne nt was Pind ar, wh whoo li lived ved fr from a bou t 522 522 to 400 B.C. H e was a member of one of the noblest families of Thebes, where his father carried on the pr profes ofessi sion on of an aul aulos os player. Pin dar studied at Athens under Lasos of Hermione, the founder of the Athenian sc schoo hooll of dithyram bic poetry. Re turnin g to Thebes at the age of twenty, he won prizes in the musical contests, and, becoming rapidly known as a poet of the first rank, was employed all over the Hellenic world to compose choral songs in praise of the winners in the public gam es. Th is was his chi chief ef li lifefe-work, work, and in retu rn for for it he received received both money payment, and the highest honours that could be bestowed on him. Of his innum erable poems only fo four ur books of his Epinicia, songs of victory composed for winners in the Olympian, Pythian, Nem ean and Isthm ian Games, have reache reachedd us. A victory gained in any one of these contests conferred honour on the winner, his family, famil y, and his city. It was celebrated with religious religious ceremon ies and choral music. A few few bars ooff music, which bear stron g evidence of of dating from Pindar's time, will be discussed in a later chapter. A no the r p oet and musici musician, an, a rival rival ooff, and contem porary with, Pinda r, was Sim onides of Ceos (556-4 67 B. B.C. C.)). Ed uc ate d at A the ns, he per perfect fected ed the form orm of the Elegy, and E pigram (a short poem on some one thought, or a sepulchral inscription in verse), besides composing composi ng dithyram bs and epinician epinician odes. H e conquered Aeschylus in 489 B. B.C., C., in a con test for th e prize of offe fere redd fo forr an elegy on those th ose who fell at Marathon; and in his eightieth year he gained a victory at Athens with his dithyrambic chorus, this being his 56th prize. His powers of expression and poetic conceptions made him the most popular poet of his time, but he was inferior to Pindar in originality and fervour. We learn from Plutarch that in the classical epoch of Greek music, the instrumental accompaniment was treated with considerable variety, though he does not enter into details, merely saying that Pindar and his contemporaries excelled in their treatment of the instruments. inst ruments. W estphal suggests that the "instrum ental convers conversati ation," on," as it is cal called led by A ristox enu s in Plutarc h (We stph al's Ed . p. 16, 16, li line ne 1), whi which ch was "m ore com plex " with with the "anc ients," i e the classical musicians, was some kind of polyphonic accompaniment of a   fugato nature. In the X lX th Problem, all allusi usion on is m ade to the playing  

 

2O

DECL INE OF GREEK MUSIC MUSIC

together of two instrumental parts, the lower of which sustained the melody, the upper the accompaniment, but it does not appear whether the two parts were played on one instrume nt or on two. two. A m ong st the Pom peian fres frescoe coess there is a picture of two m en, crowne d with bay le leaves aves,, appa rently playing a duet on two kitharas. Pe rhap s th e com plexity consiste consisted, d, as in in our m usic, usic, of the accom paniment enhan cing the effect of the melody by the addition of more elaborate rhythmical figures. But until, if ever, ever, we recover some fragm ents of th e actu al instrumental notation, all suggestions as to its characteristics must be mere speculati speculation. on. W ith the melody and instrum ental music of the time of Pindar and Sophocles we have, at present at all events, no practical acquaintance: with the greater part of the rhythmical developments and theory, we can become well acquainted. As in our own time, so with the Greeks, there were not wanting writerss on theory as well writer well as composers and exe cutan ts. Lasos of He rm ione, as head of one of the music school schoolss of A then s, wro te a book on Melos, to which Aristoxenus alludes, and Suidas tells us that he was the first of a succession of musical authors 1 . With the epoch of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) classical Greek art began its decline, and what we know of its theory is chiefly due to Aristoxenus and his successors. " Krexos, Timotheus, Philoxenus, and their companions," he says, " strove in an unworthy manner after novelty, giving themselves over to a style which pleased pleased the g reat public, and is now now called th e ' Contest-pri Contest-prize ze style.' Th e resul resultt iiss tha t limitation limitation of com pass, 2 simplicity and dignity, are confined to the older period ." " W e do the same same as the dwellers dwellers iinn Pae stum on the T uscan Sea : once G reeks, they are now now sunk in barbarism, and becom e Tu scans or Romans, and have given up their old Hellenic speech and culture. Only one of the Hellenic festivals do they still celebrate: at this the old national names and customs come back to them, and they 1

  The series of authors who wrote on music in the Greek language was a long one. Beginning with Lasos in in the latter half of the sixth century B.C., B.C., it extende d to a t least the fourth century of the C hristian era, to which period period Alypius is is assigned. By this time political power was getting more and more into the hands of the rival Churches of the east and west, which gradually separated on lines of their own. Henc eforward we are only concerned with the writings of the western branch of civilisation, which are all in Latin. Boethius (about 475-524   A.D.)  wrote his book on Greek music in Latin, and thus began the long series series of Latin treatises on mu sic. But Greek music was by that time a lost art in the west, and all succeeding theorists confine their attention to the music of the Latin Church, which, in the liturgical form known as Gregorian, is an attenuated offspring of the music of ancient Greece. 2   Aristoxenus, in Plutarch, p. 10 (German translation on p. 42), Westphal's Edition.

 

DECLINE OF GREEK MUSIC MUSIC

separate in sorrow sorrow and tears. Even so wil willl we, now that is sunk in barbarism, and the music of the great vulgar come to so low an ebb, here in our small circle, think of 1 music as it once was ." " What shall I get if I put aside the new and pleasing

21

the theatre public has the ancient music, and

cultivate the cultivate the ol old dilige ntly ?" "Y ou wil willl si sing ng less less in the thea tre, for art cannot be at the same time both pleasing to the multitude and in the old style 3 ." A curious instance of an attempt on the part of a musician to chan ge his st style yle ffrrom the old to the new iiss related in Plutarc h, p. 23. " Amongst his (Aristoxenus') contemporaries was Telesias of Thebes, who, in his you th, had been tau gh t the noblest music, and was familiar with the works of the most celebrated masters, especially those of Pindar, Dionysius of Thebes, Lampros, Pratinas, and the other lyric poets. H e was a splendid splendid aulos player, and w ell ell versed versed in other branc hes of his art. Now this m an was, in his riper years, so enchanted with the variegated music of the stage, that he despised the excellent masters on whose works he had been brou ght up, and dedicated himself to the style of Philoxenus and Timotheus, and to the most sensationa l novelti novelties. es. But when he set to work to compose in the two manners, that of Philoxenus and that of Pindar, he found that he could produce nothing in the style of Philoxenus, so strongly did the good education of his youth influence him 3." Further quotations showing the decline of music will be found in the occasional remarks of Aristoxenus collected by Westphal at the end of his   Aristoxenos.   T ha t Aristoxe nus' views views were not merely merely laudator  teniporis  acti  is proved by the fact those of a   laudator teniporis fact tha t no Greek work of art of the post-classical period, having any connection with music, as had the D ram as and Pindaric odes, was found found of suffi suffici cient ently ly lasting interest to cause copyists to preserve it for the benefit of posterity. Greece beca becam m e a R om an province in 14 1477 B. B.C. C.,, and thenceforward thenceforw ard her musicians, who were still th e foremost foremost in the world, were carried to Rome, generally as slaves, to adorn the festivals of the wealthy. A terrible catas troph e for for a conquered na tio n Th e profe professi ssion on of music, which had in its palmy day s been confin confined ed to the m em bers of aristocratic families, and was employed in carrying out the highest idealss of art and m orals, was now turn ed to serv itude in the h ouses ideal and festivals of an ostentatious plutocracy. 1

  Aristoxenus, Aristoxenus, in in Athenaeus, 14, p. 623- Quoted in We stphal's  Aristoxenos p. 473.   Themistius,  Orationes 33. Quoted in We stphal's   Aristoxenos.   p. 473. 3   Westphal,  Aristoxenos p. 474.

2

 

22

SOPHISTS SOPHISTS AND EPICUREA NS

The Romans being unable to appreciate the fine distinctions of the genera, musicians gradually eliminated all except the one kind of diatonic genus which still subsists in the music of the Latin Church, though the chrom atic genus was ne never ver lost in in the east. A s to rhythm, both the Greek and Roman languages, during the early centuries of our era, gradually lost their quantity, and poetry became marked by accent, as with  us. us .  Music Music then had to adop t its its own rhyth m independently of the words; an accented syllable being, however, generallyy sung to a long note, an unaccented to a sshort. generall hort. In ad dition to this, Latin prose translations of the Bible were set to music, in which whi ch musical musical rhythm was of cour course se non-ex istent. W here the Church used rhythm at all was only in the simple trochees and iambuses of the early hymns, suitable for a musically uncultured society: and since the feeling for measure in the words had by now practically given place to accent, the instinctive feeling of the singers gave a time-value to the melody which was not given by the words, as in more ancient times. times. Com plexit plexityy ooff rhythmical structure, so dear to the classical classical Greeks, disappeared , to rea ppe ar in some of its old manifestations in the classical music of modern Europe, though without any historical or theoretical connection between the two arts. From what has been said it would seem that, during the time of H ellenic grea tness, the whole of Greece looked upon music a s a noble and elevating art, capable of practical use for religion and the inculcation of of virtue. Bu t, as with us, so with the G reeks, the re w ere always found men who could not appreciate the emotional effects of music, or, if they could, resisted them and were indifferent, or actively antagonistic to the art. It has long been known that Philodemus of Gadara, in Syria, whose book on music was found amongst the Herculanean papyri, was one of these; but so much have we been accustomed to look upon the who whole le ooff the Greek nation as " musica musical, l,"" th at Philodem us' work has generally been alluded to as   a musical treatise of no great importance." Attention has, however, recently been given to this writing, and the results are discussed at considerable length by Dr Hermann Ab ert in his " D ie L ehre vvom om Etho s in der griechisch griechischen en M usik 1 ." It would appear that the Sophists and the Epicureans, to the latter of which sects Philodemus belonged, endeavoured to show that music had not the ethical significance that was claimed for it by great writers such as Plato and Aristotle; that it merely consisted of a sensuous 1

  Leipzig, 1899, p. 27, &c.

 

SOPHISTS SOPHI STS AND EPICUREANS

23

combination of sounds and rhythms, to which the illusions of the ancients gave a meaning tha t it did not actually actually possess possess.. Th at which really moved the audience was the significance of the words, while the music to which they are allied has just as little effect on the soul as,,  for instance, the art of cooking. Philodem us endeavo urs to as support these views by examples from experience, from the difference of taste in music from time to time, and the different effects that the same m elody may have on di diff ffer erent ent persons. H e argues argues that the public are moved by music merely through the ideas that have been put into their heads in the course of time. And in religious songs, music has very little significance compared with the wor words. ds. T he general idea tha t musi musicc has any connection connection with piety is entirely er erroneous. roneous. Music is is me rely an article of of luxu ry, having no useful object, and serving only for pleasure, like the enjoyment of meat and drink, though he allows that labour can be lightened by it. The account given by Abert of Philodemus' arguments is very interesting reading, since it shows that even in artistic Greece there were opponents of the art of music, just as there were in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. centuries. But no am ount of of logica logicall arguments by learned men will stem the tide of human nature, and the general public and the musicians, of Athens in the fifth century B. B.C C., and of L ondon ond on in th e eig hte hteen enth th centu ce ntu ry A.D. A.D.,, went we nt the ir own way, cultivating their music music w it ithout hout troubling them sel selves ves ab out the opinions opini ons of of a small small body of oppone nts. It is only with the exp onen ts of m usi usicc th at we h ave to do here, wit withh those w ho, by means of its mysterious influence, have contributed to the elevation and joy of mankind.

 

CHAPTER

III

Definitions of rhythm according to Baccheios the Elder—Aristoxenus on rhythm, rhythmizomenon, and rhythmopoeia—The musical measure or foot—Thesis and arsis—Ancient methods of beating time—Thetic and anacrusic forms— The chronos protos—Quantity and accent—Greek systems of notation—A recently discovered specimen of Greek notation.

"   W H A T  is rhythm ?" asks Baccheios the Elder, in his catechism (Ap pen dix A, i), and answers answers the questi question on thus. " A m easuring of time by means of ssome ome ki kind nd of movement. Acco rding to Pha edrus, rhythm is some measured thesis of syllables, placed together in certain ways. According to Aristoxe nus, it is time, divided certain divided b y any of those things that are capable of being rhythm ed. Ac cording to Nicom achus, it is a well-marked mo vem ent of ' times.' Ac cording to Leo phan tus, it is a puttin g togethe r of of ' tim es ' in due proportion, considered consi dered with regard to sym me try am ongst them . Ac cording to Didym us, it is a schematic schematic arrang em ent of sounds. Sound, schema tised in some way, produces rhythm, and rhythm arises in speech, or melody, or movements of the body." Movem ent is essential essential to rhythm . Th e a ncients, who liked liked to systematise everything, divided the arts into two triads, of which the first consists of those which depend on repose and space, that is to say, Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture, while the second triad contains those which employ movement, namely, Music, Poetry, and the Da nce. In the first triad the element of for orm m produces sym m etry, in the second, rhythm 1 . " W e delight in rhythm ," says the au thor of the XlXth Problem,   "  because it has a recog nisable and regulated number, and moves us regul regularly. arly. Th e regular movement is more easy to us than the unregulated, since it is more in accordance with nature." The idea of rhythm being number and regulated movement is frequent freq uently ly al alluded luded to by the Gre Greek ek theorists theorists.. Th e num ber and movement do not necessarily refer to the body, or to any object, but to words words or syllables syllables or music musical al notes. Rh ythm is som ething th at 1

  Westphal, Allgemeine Theorie der musikalischen musikalischen Rhythmik,  1880, p .  xlviii.  See also Gevaert,  La M us. de PAnt.  Bk . I. Ch. 11 11..

 

RHYTHM AND METRE

25

occupies time, a  and nd can can only  be exhibited  by some  some kind  of movem ent, ent, a n d   the  movement itself  is regulated  by numbers, in the way that w  we e teach children   to  " count count their their tim e"  in  playing  on an  instrument. The idea   of  music being motion must have suggested itself to our forefathers, when they gave to the various divisions  of the  sonata  the names   first movement," " slow movement,"  and so on. According   to  Phaedrus, rhythm   has to do  with  the  "thesis1 "  of syllables placed together   in  certain ways.  In  every word  of two or more syllables, one syllable   is  made more prominent than  the rest b  by y means   of  stress, or, as we we generally  say, accent. Ac cent  has not to do with time-value, though   in  music  the thesis  is  m ore often often placed on   a  long than  a  short note.  In  prose  the  accented syllables, the theses, occur   at no  regular intervals, while  in  poetry their occurrence   is regulated  so as to produce  a  satisfactory sense  of order: and when this order   is  furt further her regulated  by  definite time-values, rhythm arises.  T he  difference between rhythm   and m etre etre  is  tersely described   by  Servius. " T he rh ythm icists subj subject ect syllables  to  time m easurements, tthe he metricists metricists subj subject ect time  to the syllables syllables " (Appendix A ,   2).  Poetry must  not be  read  as it  would  be  s u n g ;  the theses nott certainly recur   at  regular intervals, but they  are syll syllabic abic intervals,  no time intervals. intervals. W hen they   are  subjected  to  time, rhythm arises, whether   the  poetry  is  read  or  sung. With   the  Greeks, t  the he  rhythmical figures  of a  vocal melody arose o u t   of the  long  and short syllables  to which  it  was set. Poe try w  was as the predom inant partner. partner. W it ithh   us the oppo site site  is the  case; music itself gives   the  rhythmical scheme,  to  which  the  syllables must conform,   and thus we ar differe erent nt rhythm ical  are e able  to set half  a dozen diff schemes  t o  one poet poetic ic text. Extension  and contraction  of  syllables forr  purely rhythmical purposes, but  long melodic passages were used   fo on   a  single syllable, a  ass in in our  Italian opera, would have  no  meaning to   a  Greek audience.  The  first consideration was that  the words  and rhythm should   be easily understood  and a ppreciat ppreciated ed  by t he audience. This does   not  mean that  the  bars were  to be all  alike,  or  that there w as  to be  rustic simplicity about  the rhythm.  On the contrary, the forms were   in  some respects respects more com plicated plicated than any thing tha t our composers use, and  yet the cultivated cultivated A thenian audience delighted delighted in understanding   and  appreciating their their intri intricacies cacies.. Th ere  was, of course,  no  polyphony,  no  orchestration  and no  harmony  (in the modern sense);   all being  in unison, more special atten tion was given to rhythmical expression than  is the case with us. 1

  Aristoxenus calls  the thesis  Basis.

 

26

RHYTHM IZOMENON AND RHYTHMOPCEIA RHYTHMOPCEIA

The definitions of Nicomachus, Leophantus, and Didymus, are practically the same as that attributed to Aristoxenus, but in his own writings Aristoxenus distinguishes between rhythm, rhythmizomenon, and rhythmopceia. "W e m ust imagin imagine," e," he says, "t w o di diff ffer erent ent nature s, tha t of rhythm and that of the rhythmizomenon, having the same relations to one another as a plan has to the object that is planned " (Appendix A, 3). T he rhythmizom enon is the raw material, which is subjected to rhythm; and there are three kinds of rhythmizomenon, namely, music, poetry, and dan cing. M elody alone consists ooff a success succession ion of intervals, interval s, without meaning. Only when it it is subjected subjected to rhythm does it tak e shape and form. form. O rdin ary speec speechh consists of a successio successionn of accented and unaccented syllables, in no definite order; when, however, these are subjected to rhythm, the speech becomes poetry. The steps of a person walking or running are continuous, but if they become ordered in some recognisable arrangement by rhythm, the dance arises. arises. Intervals, speech, and st steps eps are the three   rhyihmizomena, rhyihmizomena, the respective materials to which rhythm is applied. This is the Aristox enian theory. Th e material   itself,  whether melody, speech, or bodily movement, is not rhythm, but when subject subj ected ed to rhythm , it becomes the " rhythmizom enon," the " thing rhythmed." And rhythm arises through the division of the time occupied by the thing rhythmed (App. A, 4). Rhythmopceia is the art of applying rhythm to the rhythmizomenon. This art was car caref eful ully ly studied, and more attention w as given to itit in theory than is the case with us. It has to do, no t only with the construction of the phrases, but of the measures themselves. Thus, the four measures of Ex. 1 all differ from one another in their

=*• •  

IJT2\JTJ\J  

J1J. I

rhythmopceia, whereas in Ex. 2, while the rhythmopceia of the EX.  

2.  ta )  0 m  

accent

I T I 

m

n - j  I

accent

 JT2 T21  J T 3   J T 2   i w 8 JTD  J

measures  is the same throughout, that of the whole phrase   (a )  differs from that of the phrase   { b )  by th e position position of th e chief acce nt.

Aristoxenus calls the rhythmopceia of the complete phrase, as opposed to that of the single measures,  " continuous rhythmopceia "

 

ARSIS AND THESIS  

2^

Like the modes of melody, each rhythmical form was supposed to induce some particular emotional eff effect ect oonn the mind. For exam ple, the spondee   I  I J) was suitable for solemn hymns to the gods; the anapaestt ( ^ ^ I), used specially anapaes specially for for marche s, induced ene rgy and vigour. H enc e th e construction of of the individual individual m easures was of importance. T he measure it itself self was call called ed the foo t (pous),  and it w il illl b e convenient to apply this term to it, since modern bars are sometimes called call ed m easures. T he fo foot ot perfor performed med the same functi function on in some respects as our simple bar, but while our bar must always begin with an accented note, the Greek foot might begin with either its accented or unaccented p ortion. T he accent accented ed portion was called called tthesis, hesis, meaning a downward movement of the foot, or of the hand of the conductor, and the unaccented portion, called arsis, represented the raising raisi ng of the ffoo oott or hand . Th e Latin equivalents are   positio,  an d of the foo foott are levatio,   or elatio.  In m odern G erma n the two portions of called, respectively,   Hebung an  a n d  Senkung.  Since there is no Eng lish equivalent for these terms (down-beat and up-beat do not express them closely enough), we shall adopt the Greek terms Thesis and thesiss or arsis arsis may occupy occupy a Arsis.   Un der certain circumstances a thesi Arsis. whole foot, as we shall see in due course. Q. W ha t do we call call arsis ? asks Baccheios. (A pp . A, 5. 5.)) A .  W h en the ffoo oott is raised raised from the ground as if if we intend to step.   Q .  A nd wh at is thesis ?  A .  W hen it is put down. step. Tim e was, was, as a rule, rule, audibly beaten. In the X lX th Problem reference refe rence is made in Sections   2 1 , 22 to the diff diffiicult culty that th e Hege mo n, or leader, leader, had in keepi keeping ng hi hiss singers singers together in the rhythm . H e seems to have marked theses snapping fingeraccording and thumb, but sometimes the foo footthe t was put bydo down wn w ith his noise, to M ari arius us V ictorinu s; or the hands were clapped together. In fflute lute playing the performer sat, and marked the theses with a piece of wood fastened fastened to his foot foot.. T he beat ooff th e ba r thu s a udibly expressed by the conductor or performer was called semeion, or sign. Ar istides (Meibom . p. 31) describes thesis and arsis as   -\jr6tpov noisee and still stillness. ness. In modern musi musicc the drum has K a l  fpe/Aiav, nois taken the place of the noisy noisy movem ents of ha nds and feet feet. In I taly many years ago we noticed in the opera at Bologna, and also in one of the churches in Rome, that the conductor had a sonorous piece of metal fastened to his desk, on which he tapped the rhythm when the orchestra or singers wavered: a curious instance of the reintroduction of a very ancient custom.

 

28

CHRONOS PROTOS

The feet and phrases which commence with the thesis have been conveniently convenient ly termed by Herm ann T he tic feet feet or phrases, and those which whi ch comm ence with the arsis arsis are cal calle ledd by him An acrusic. T he anacrusic form (Ex.   2  a , page 26) wa wass of m ore importance than the thetic (Ex.   2 b ); it is practically the only form recognised for modern music by nearly Dr Hugo Riemann,   Agogik und Dynamik.   Greek theorists always allude intohisthe arsis before the thesis, the implication being that the anacrusic was of more importance than the thetic form. The whole of the Aristoxenian theory of rhythmopceia is founded on the various uses of the   chronos  chronos  protos,  a term which can convenientlyy be translated as primary time. Th e prim ary time is venientl theoretically indivisible; it is described as the smallest time-division tha t is perceptible perceptible to the sens senses. es. Aristides Quintilianus calls calls it th e Unit   of Tim e. It is the smallest tim e th at is used used in a given given composition, and therefore that is perceptible in that composition (Ap p. A, 6). It is the short syl syllabl lablee in po etr y: a long syllable syllable occupies occupi es two two or more prim ary times. It is the time of of a single single short note in ancient melody, since the length of the notes depen ded on th at of of the syll syllables ables ttoo which which they were allied. allied. T he primary time practically corresponded to the single beat in a modern bar of moderate   tempo.  In very rapid music the conductor will embrace several primary times in a beat, and in very slow movements he will sometimes give more than one beat to a single primary time. In applying the theory of the primary time, as we shall have to do, to modern music, it will be found that our primary value may be the quaver, the crotchet, crotchet, or the mini minim, m, according to the particular particular scheme of notation employed by the composer; there is no rule about it. In this as work shall time follow continental precedent, usingfrom the quaver the we primary ti me in the all exam ples that are not by drawn actual compositions. Modern languages make no distinction between long and short syllables. Our poe try is founde foundedd on th e distribution of accen ts, whereas Greek poetry was bas based ed on time, or qu an tity, as it is generally calle calledd by th e gram m arians. T ha t is, is, the lon g syllable syllable occupied, as a rule, twice the time of the short syllable, not only in poetry, but appa rently also also to some ex ten t in ordina ry speech. Th e rules for distinguishing between the long and short syllables of Greek verse are well known 1 . Th us, the opening words of Pind ar's 1 

Th e dif differ ference ence between th e Latin teac hing and the the Aristoxenian theor y as to length of syllable is simply this ; the Latin grammarians knew, and modern schoolmasters know from

 

CHRONOS PROTOS PROTOS

29

third Olympian Ode would be sung, and perhaps said, as follows:

j J\N ^ N   J  J

T v v S a - pl-Sais   r e  (f>i-\o-£fi-vois 

N   J j rjrj  J V J

a - S e iv

KaXXi-; KaXXi-;rX rXoo-KdKd-/* /*o> o>

0 EX eV a.

T he prim prim ary time or sh or t syllabl syllablee has the value of a quaver, the lo n g that of a crotchet. crotchet. According to the gramm arians, there must be no exception to the rule of on e long equals two shorts, shorts, and the li line ne is rhythm ically ically impossi impossible. ble. By the Aristoxenian teaching one syllable in the above example is given the value of a dotted crotchet, that is, three shorts, and by the alterati alteration on of this single note from   two tim e to three ti time me   value the whole line obtains a satisfactory musical rhythm. Theoretically the primary time, as we have said, is indivisible: yet it will be found that this rule is occasionally broken, as in the Choreicc dac tyl / | H \ Chorei Proba bly it was gi given ven to beginners merely to explain tthe he matter. W e aall ll know that m usical usical studen ts are forbidden under any circumstances to write consecutive fifths: the rule is strict, yet every competent composer knows how and when to dispense with it. M ay it not have be been en the sam e with with the rule about dividing the primary time  ? The Aristoxenian teaching with regard to the   chronos  chronos  protos appears to have lasted almost into the age of mensural music, for Hieronymus de Moravia, writing about   A.D. 1250, says,  Instans   is the smallest and indivisible portion of time in which sound can be heard clearly and distinctly, and this is what the ancients called   tempus. Having explained the theory of the primary time, the Greek writers generally proceed to show how it is combined in various ways to build up, first simple feet, equivalent to our bar, then compound fee feet, t, equivalent our p hrases. expdefinitely lained tha fixed, t the acbut tualvaries tim e occupied by theto short syllable It is isnot according to wh ether th e mo vemen t is is sl slow ow or fast. fast. Th is is is easy enough to understand; it merely means that a melody may be sung adagio  o r  allegro,  as with us, in which case the primary time, like all other values, will be longer or shorter respectively. To indicate musical intervals in writing, the Greeks made use of two systems of alphabetical letters, one nominally for instruments, and the other for voices1 , though both seem to have been employed indiffer indi fferentl entlyy for either vocal or instrum enta l m usic. usic. T he letters , them,  which  syllables are long and which sh ort, while the Aristoxenian theory shows  h ow long and   ho w  short they should be in relation to one another. 1

  It will be remem bered th at dow n to about A.D. 1600 1600 our musicians used the sta staff ff notation for voices and the tablatures for instruments.

 

30

RHYTHMICAL NOTATION

placed upside down or obliquely, mutilated and altered in various ways, were called called   semeia,  or si signs. gns. For ti time-values me-values other signs wer weree added above them, as was the case in the tablatures, and in the m odern tonic sol sol-fa -fa system. T he melodic signs are given in in their entirety by Alypius, a writer of unknown date, whose book is printed by Meibomius and by Jan in the   Scriptores.  There is no necessity here to go into their details, which are somewhat complicated. M ore imp ortan t for for us are the si signs gns which were occasionally, not always, added to indicat indicatee values. Th ey are gi given ven by Bellerma nn's Anonymus,   and have been of great assistance in the elucidation of rhythm ical doc trine. W e learn from   Anonymus  that a primary time was indicated by a note with no time-sign over it, and other values were shown as follows: A   two-time long, i.e.  a note of the value of two primary times, was indicated indicated by — equivalent to I a three-time long 1   by I „ „ I. a four four-t -time ime long by a fi five-t ve-time ime lo long ng by

1 I I LJ

„ „

„  \ „ J~ h

Further than tthis his he does does not g o ; b ut he sh shows ows that em pty times   existed, that is, times devoid of sound, equivalent to our rests. They were indicated thus : A n em pty primary time » I. two-time   „ „ three-ti three-tim me „

„

four-time four-time

A -% -  | |

equivalent to „ „ „ „

I

„

„ 

I LJ

„

„

*| |* r 1 -

 

„

„

five-tim e

----- *i

 

According to A risti ristides des (Meibom. (Meibom. p. 40), An em pty time time is tha t which ex ists witho ut sound, for the com pletion of of a rhythm . It is one of the m ost o rdinary features features in m odern song, but t he   empty tim e of the voic voicee is usual usually ly fil filled led in by the the accom panime nt. W e shall have to refer later on to an unfortunate filling in by Mozart of an   empty time   in Ha nde l's Messiah. These signs were usually omitted from vocal notation, since the values of th e notes were understood from the syllables, and rests occurred only at the ends of verses. To indicate accent a dot, called   stigma,  or in Latin  ictus,  w as placedd above or alongsi place alongside de a note. It seems not onl onlyy ttoo have 1

  The vertical portion of the sign for the three-time long is on the left of the horizontal portion in   Anonymus.  In the Seikilos hym n quoted below it is on the right.

 

A GREEK HYMN

performed the sam e functi performed function on as our bar-line, bu t also to hav e been used for syncopation, or any artificial displacement of accent, though we are not yet in possession of a sufficient number of examples to be sure on this point. Th e   ictus  was not so nece ssary in vocal as instrumen tal music. Th e early musicians of our own system system als alsoo found this to be the case, for they did not introduce bars into vocal notation til tilll abou t the year 1 600, 600, while aall ll the instru m ental tab latu res were carefully barred from the first. Of the few fragments of original Greek music that have come down to us, one vocal composition shows not only the time-signs, but th e   ictus.  It iiss a hym n, composed by one Seikilos, and engraved on a m arble pillar pillar.. It was disc discovered overed by Professor Professor Ra m say in in 1883, bu t not till 1891 were the letters between the lines of the hymn discovered to be musical characters. We quote this short piece, and give its translation into modern notation. Th e iinverted nverted gam m a on the last syll syllable, able, representing the

C _Z 

li  

K I Z JJI

K

I

Zl K

fir)8cv

oXcos

Z

  Ocrov £ rjs, (f)ai - - vov,

C irpbs

KZ

O

Xvirov'

I

Ski - yov  

O

CO 4 >

C

K

I

TO 

T4 -  Xos o

Kl K

C

eVri 

TO

Z

xpoi>or xpoi>or

O -   (TOV  £rjs,

fir)  - 8ev fir) 

K 

C 

C

a -  irai - ret.

(pal -

-

vov,

8-\a>s  o~v  Xv -

7rpor oXi - •yox   to- - T\  TO 

TO   riXos

CXI

6 xpovos anai

nov'

£rjv,

- re - 1.

 

32

A GREEK HYMN

no te E, diff note differ erss fr from om th thee usually usua lly acce accepted pted version s. It was kindly kindly-supplied suppl ied to the author by the late Mr D . B. M onro, after after a squ eez e had been taken from the stone. Dr Wessely of Vienna was the first to point out that the letters were musical notes, and he published the result of his investigation, with M . Ru elle, iinn the   Revue  Revue des des E  E tudes grecques,  V. 1892, 1892, pp. 2 65-2 80. Dr Otto Crusius discusses the rhythm in the   Philologus,  Vol. LII. p p .  1 60-200. Although the translations translations into modern notation agree with one another, the versions of the Greek notation published by Jan in the   Scriptores,  and M onro in  The Modes of Ancient Greek Music,  di diff ffer er in an impo rtant particular w it ithh regard to the  ictus.  I n the Monro version there is no duplication of the   ictus  on two success succ essive ive notes. From wh at we have read of the A ristox enia n theory, we think that the Jan version is more likely to be the correct one with with regard to the   ictus.  Spitta suggests that where the dot occurs on two adjacent notes, syncopation is implied, or that the passage is similar to those mixtures of 3/2 and 3/4 that our early musicians frequently used, and that Brahms has revived in the form of 2/4, 3/4, 6/8. Syn cop ation consists of the anticipation of an ac ce nt : its use is common in in all nations. Th at it is a spontaneous and natural means of expression is proved by the frequency with which an illiterate singer will introduce it where it does not occur in the written version of what he sings 1 . The Greeks, with their sensitive ear and their keen appreciation of rhythm ical subtleties, would ce rtainly n otice the telling effe effect ct of syncopation, with its displacement of accent, and as they did not divide their music into definite time portions by any equivalent to our bar, it was natural that they should place an   ictus  on the note 2

that was to have an unexpected accent . 1

  An untaught singer would, for example, be very likely to sing as follows, in Braham's   D ea th of Nelso n although the notes under the asteri asterisks sks are crotchets. crotchets.

Ex. 3.

We

s c o r n e d t h e f o r e ig ig n

yo ke ;

Fo r our ships were British

2

  All musicians are aware of the diff differe erent nt effe effect ctss tha t would be produ ced bbyy the above passages on the violin in two different ways, thus:  

Ex. 4.

K

Z

K

Oa k b o w in g

 

A GREEK HYMN

33

It will be observed that one of the notes near the end of the Seikilos Seikil os me lody has a do t by iits ts side instead of above it it.. Th is was given giv en me by M r M onro. If it is not a defect defect in the stone, it ma y perhaps be a lesser  ictus. This,   then, is the only vocal example that contains the  ictus This, definitel defini telyy m arked . In some of the later hym ns the class class of rhy thm is indicated by words, such as iam bic, or dac tylic. In some of the instrumental exercises given by Bellermann's   Anonymus  t h e ictus   is ma rked, bu t the m anuscripts are so variable variable in this m atter that it is difficult to make out any precise arrangement of the accents.

w

 

CHAPTER IV Errhythm, Arrhythm, and Eurhythm—Time combinations in the measure or foot— T he seven differe differences nces of foot foot,, acc ordin g to Aristoxe nus— The th ree species of foot—Aristoxenus on irrational time—Reintroduction of the principle in modern music—Burney on Greek rhythm—Names of the simple feet—Extension and contraction of syllables to suit the musical rhythm—Greek feeling reflected in the ligatures of the plain-song notation—Some Greek rhythmical forms illustrated by quotations from Schubert's songs.

ARISTOXENUS says that not every possible division of a rhythmizomenonn is rhythm ical. Only when ttim zomeno im es are arrang ed in due proportion proporti on with oone ne another is this the case. Certain com binations are condem ned by our aest aestheti heticc feeling. feeling. Th ere are fewe fewerr m ethod s of grouping tones in melodious than in unmelodious succession, and this is is also the case with with regard to time-divisions. time-divisions. H en ce a rhythmizomenon can be arranged rhythmically or unrhythmically, " errhythmically  "  or " arrhythmically." An d not only in these two  forr the rrhythmizom hythmizom enon may be "eurhythm ical," i.e. "beautifully   "beautifully ways: fo ways: 1 rhythmical ." A phrase is errhythmical when its times are arranged in due proportion proporti on to one another, so tha t its its rhyth m becomes clear and convincing convi ncing.. Err hy thm may, however, however, be inspiri inspiring ng or the rev erse ; it may express something, or nothing particular particular.. A performance in which all the rhythmical details are brought out clearly and intelligently is errhythmical, but so also is the monotony of the mechanical perfection induced by a too frequent use of the metronome. Similarly, any phrase that is correctly written as to its barring and accents, however monotonous it may be in effect, is errhythmical; but so also are the inspired phrases of a Mozart or a Beethoven. Arrhythm arises if a phrase is barred or a composition phrased in such a way as to offend the aisthesis, or to be incomprehensible. Under modern conditions arrhythm does not often arise, for our stereotyped phrase, the conventional four-bar rhythm, is so easily 1

  Paraphrase from Aristox.  Rhyth. Elements,  in Westphal's  Fragmente,  pp . 2299 and 30.

 

SIMPLE AND COMPOUND TIMES

35

constructed, and so familiar, that every beginner can soon master it sufficiently to write it errhythmically, however wanting it may be in expression. But arrh yth m very ofte oftenn tak es place in the performances of incompetent executants   :  bars are d eprived of their ful ulll value, notes are unduly shortened or lengthened, accents are misplaced, phrasing is ignored. Eurhythm is exemplified in the works of the great masters, and can be heard whenever these are are adequa tely performed. performed. M oreover, a composition which is merely errhythmical to the eye in print may sometimes become eurhythmical in the hands of a skilful perfor per former. mer. Everyon e knows how how a common-place ssong ong may be transformed by a well trained singer in such a manner as to "hit the popular tas te ": in this transformation transformation the be auty of of voi voice ce is undoubtedly the principal element, but the management of rhythm has something to do with the popularity of the kind we contemplate, for with mere uninspiring, cold, and correct errhythm such a song would scarcely be able to take a hold on the popular imagination, however fine the voice might be. By vari various ous combinations of of prima ry ttimes imes the ancients ancients constructed constructed a limited number of measure-forms, or feet, called most of them by special names, and attributed to them certain   "  characters" (ethos). The single primary time is called a   " simple " time, or " simple " note. Any note longer than the primary time is   " compound." Thu s h is a simple time, represented by a short syllable, I is a compound compound ti time, me, cal calle ledd a "two-time," or "tw o-n ote" (dichronos, disemos). | is a compound time,   i.e.  a "three-tim e no te " (trichronos, (trichronos, 1

trisemos ). "That by which we mark the rhythm, and make it perceptible to the sense, is the foot 2   or more tha n one fo foot ot.. Of the feet, feet, some are made up of two times, an up and a down, 1

  T he Germ ans and Am ericans describe notes by their relative arithm etical values, but instead of starting from the smallest, like the Greeks, they commence with the semibreve, which is called a who le n ote, while a minim , crotchet, &c. are respectively the half-note, quarter-note, and so on. 2   The techni technical cal ter terms ms "foo t" and "m ea su re" mean the same thing. The " fo ot " of of poetryy is poetr is the counterpart of the "m e as u re " (not necessari necessarily ly tthe he " b a r" ) of music. Aristoxenus has only one term fo forr this rhythm ical section in all three of his rhythmizo men a, music, poetry, and the dance. In America the musical bar is is called called a mea sure. Musicians have been accustome d, from from the time of the introduction of bars into vocal music, to consider the bar as a rhythmical unit. But a bar may contain a value equivalent to two or more poetic feet, and unless we adopt

3— 2

 

THE FOOT (The Greek  measure   or foo foott

E x . 5.

a r 

th

ar

is indicated by the inverte inverted d brack brackets?) ets?) th

ar

th

some   of three, in which there  are tw  twoo  up and one dow n,  

th

r

th

r

th

r

r

th

th

ar

th

ar

r

th

r»

to  

or one   up and a nd tw two o  down,

ar  

th

th

and some  of  four times, of which two  are up and tw two o  down, a r 

th

ar

th

ar

th

j \nn\ \nn\ i

ar

th

.J

I t   is evident th at  a  foot cannot consist  of one time alone, for one note cannot make   a division  of time;  and without  a division of ti  tim m e  a  foot cannot exist. exist."" (A pp.  A, 7.) Modern musicians hold that rhythm   is not  perceptible unless  at least  tw two o accents  are  heard,  and  this implies  a  minimum   of  three notes,  for to  produce accent there must  be  non-accent  as a  contrast. Our readers will probably   be  able  to  recall instances  in  which  a composer   has  purposely puzzled  his  audience  at the  outset  of a movement,   by an  indefinite rhythmical construction  of the  first motive. If   a  two-time arsis  in a  triple foot consists  of a  single compound time,   it is  evident that syncopation will arise,  as in Ex. 5  c .  T h a t rhythmical measure cannot   be produced  by one note alone, however   is  plain enough.  For Fo r  the  t he  note held  by the oboe  for long,orchestra the   to  tune,  may example, be of the  most beautiful quality,  but it makes   no  measurement  of  time,  and is, therefore,   therefore,  not  rhythmical. 1 There   are seven differences  of  foot : 1. Difference   of value,  for for example, E x .  6  6.. 2.

3

p-r-i   a _.. n Jd  6

J D

Difference   of  species, a  ass

  S  J 7

SJ

(*)   os mJ m T  t> 1  and  to  • f "i""i  1 • • • the Greek term   foot" as  a musi  musical cal technical w ord, we must,  in a scientific scientific in vestig ation  of t h e Butt nature   of a  rhythmical phrase,  use " m e a s u r e "  in a  sense differing differing from from th at  of  " b a r . "  Bu a satisfactory technical terminology   for  rhythm  in the  English language  has y yet et to be invented. 1   Westphal,  Fragmente,  p. 35.

 

THE FOOT OOT

37

3.   Diffe Differe rence nce of prop ortion and unp ropo rtion.

See page 39.

4 .   Feet may be simple simple or compound, li like ke ou ourr ba rs ; but Aristoxenus calls a whole rhythmical section a compound foot containing a number of simple feet. 5.   Differenc Differencee of diaeresi diaeresis, s, or distrib utio utionn of of a cc en t: as

6.

Diff Differen erence ce of of schem e, as

  d ) e m   i 

m

7. Diff Differe erence nce in the order of parts , wh ether the foot foot begins begin s with the arsis or thesis, as ar

th

w   B J N J 

th

NJ.

U

ar

JNJ

N

Th ree species of ps foot can beheused in rhythm opceia, the iam bic, th e "dactylic, and theof pseoni eonic. c. T iambic is is in uneven propo rtion, the dactylic in even, and the pseonic in the ratio of three to two. The smallest of the feet contains the value of three times, for a 1 two-time foot would have its notes packed too closely together ." In two-time rhythm the syllables following one another rapidly without variety might, according to Greek ideas, easily become in inef effe fect ctiv ivee or mono tonous. Ins trum en ts m ust, however, however, have been capable anciently, as with us, of rapid passages of equal notes, but vocal music reigned supreme, and the laws of rhythm, at any rate the elementary laws (and Aristoxenus only treats of the elements), were formulated for it alone. W e find a certain ana logy to this in the present day, if we consider that the modern teacher of elementary harmony confines his attention to rules that are more suitable for voices than instruments. The two-time foot was, however, used in practice, for Aristides Quintilianus ( A pp . A, 8) tell tellss us tha t it was called called the pyrrhichius pyrrhichius because it was employed in the war-song known as the  pyrrhiche   a nd in the contests connecte connectedd therewith. M artianus Capella says tha t it also occurred occurred " in a certain boyish gam e 2 ." The first recognised species of rhythm, then, is iambic, or triple rhyth m , so call called ed from the three-tim e poetic fo foot ot known as th e 1

  Westphal,  Fragmente,  p. 36, line 9. The song and contest are said to have been invented by one Pyrrhichos, but other derivations of the word are given. Lidde ll and Scott's   Lexicon. 2 

 

38 

THE  FOOT

iambus. The iambus consist consistss of a one-time arsis and a ttwo-time wo-time thesis, 1

the arsis coming first . ar   th th

E x . ; . 

ar th

(«)

According to Aristides, the word iambus comes from   iambizein, to lampoon, to threaten, to abuse, because satiric verses were in iambic metre. It will will be noticed that th at the iambus is an anacrusic form:: but the iiambic form ambic speci species es embraces every kind of ffoo oott that th at contains the value of not more or lless ess tha than n three primary times. It is the generic term for what we call triple measure. Th e second or even species is called d dactyli actylic, c, from from the dac dactyl, tyl, a poetic or musical foot consisting of a compound two-time thesis followed foll owed by a dissolved   "  arsis, of equal value to the th e thesis. Th This is seems see ms perhaps a somewhat roundabout description of the rhy rhythmic thmical al figure which musicians will recognise as forming the basis of the slow movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, and of many other classical movements; but it is advisable to accustom our readers to these descriptions, descrip tions, as the they y wil willl be necessary late laterr on for for more complicated for forms. ms. Th e dact dactyl yl derives its nam name e from from  dactylus, t  the he th  

ar

th

ar

*) | J

Ex

finger, whic which h has one long joint and two short on es : hence schoolboys know know the dactyl as a long and two shorts. It iiss a the thetic tic form, but all feet containing four primary times are classed as dactylic. The third species has five primary times in its foot, divided into a three -time three-tim e thesis, foll followe owed d b by y a two-tim two-time e arsis, or  vice versa.  Hence it is said to be in the rati ratio o of thre three e to two. It is called tthe he pa paeo eoni nic c species from from the th e poetic fo foot ot pae paeon, on, the th e simp simplest lest form of which is shown in Ex. 7 c. th   ar th ar

77 j 1J7

EX.7.

I t   wa s  c a l l e d " t w o - l i m b e d , " o w i n g  to its  triple-duple for form. m.  In the paeonic genus there   are two  simple feet,  t h e  pceon diaguios, consisting   of a  long thesis  and a  short, and a  long arsis (as in Ex. 7 c ,  epibatos, of a  long thesis  an d  long arsis,  and of  t w o l o n g  epibatos, a n d t h e  pceon theses   and a  long arsis (from what follows  we  k n o w  the ' t w o l o n g 1

  Aristides Quint.,  in W e s t p h a l ,  Fragmente,  p. 56.

 

T H E F OO OO T

39 th

these s' should should be 'a twofol wofoldd long thesis' 5 I

ar

th

I J

ar

I). Th e  diaguios

has been so called because it is, as it were,   diguios,  jointed, twolimbed   ;  it is used with two  semeia  (do (down wn beats by the conductor). T h e  epibatos   is so called because it consists of four notes, namely two 1

arses and two theses differing in value ." Quintuple time was far more commonly used by the Greeks than by us, thou gh the re are evidences tha t tthis his beaut beautiful iful form form of rh ythm is again coming into vogue. Prob ably the chief dif diffi ficul culty ty in dealing with it is the idea that it is a single measure, in which there is to be no secondary accent: whereas if we look upon it as   " tw o-limb o-limb ed," and give each limb its thesis and arsis, most of the difficulty will disappea r. T he condu ctor wil willl then, of cour course, se, give two down bea ts in each bar. The pseonic species was used for solemn hymns and invocations to the g o d s: a H ym n to Apollo, found ound at Delphi in 1893, 1893, is in in tthis his species of rhythm. It must not be imagined that any iambic or dactylic or paeonic com position position contained respecti respectively vely an iam bus, a dacty l, or a pae paeon on in each bar. T he m onotony of this would have been more felt felt by the Greeks than by us, for we have the resources of harmony to help us, which they had not. Th us, the  allegretto   of the " M oonlight" sonata sonata is in pure iambuses throughout, but by means of chord-suspensions all m onoton y is avoided. Th e fifth song of Beethoven 's Liederk reis " An die feme Geliebte  "  (Es kehret der Maien) is almost entirely in pure anapaests (inverted dactyls), but as the harmony changes in the middle of each foot the lively anapaestic rhythm has its full force without any monotony. T he Greeks were compelle compelledd to vary their rhythm more than this, as they were more dependent on its effect than we are. To ob tain variet varietyy by m eans of rhythm alone dem anded considerabl considerablee skill. T he third differe difference nce alluded to on pa ge 37 37 has to do with proportion and unproportion, called rationality and irrationality. Th ere is, is, in Greek theory, a time-value call called ed irrational, nam ely, in the w ords of Baccheios, " tha t which iiss longer th an the short, and shorter than the long long." ." It is is represented in our exam ples by by the 2 dotted quaver. Aristoxen us explains the m atter thus , " Ev ery fo foot ot is denned by some ratio, or by an irrationality which has a middle Aristides Quint., in Westphal,  Fragmente,  p. 58, Meib. p. 58.   See App. A, 9.

1 

2

 

40

IRRATIONAL TIME

value between between two values tha t are perceptible to the aist aisthesis. hesis. W e can make this clear by taking two feet, one of which consists of a ar th

two-time arsis and a two-time thesis,   I I  I, and the other of a two-time th ar

thesis and a one-time arsis,   I  i ft . Th en let us add a fo foot ot hav ing a two-time thesi thesis, s, and an arsis arsis with a value tha t comes midway between th ar

the valu values es ooff the above-mentioned above-mentioned arses, arses, I

^ (the dotted quaver is

midway bet between ween the crot crotchet chet and quaver). Th is foo foott will will have the up beat   irrational  to the down. T he irrational wil will be midway iinn value between two ratios that are perceptible to the senses, namely, between the equal an d the two-to-one ratios. A nd this foo foott is is called the irrational choree." Irrational time on an arsis seems to have been a slight pause, long enough to be noticeable, but not to break the rhythmical flow. It was eviden tly much used as an elem ent of expression. It is coming withBrah ourmown and isthe variously cated in into the favour notation. s, forcomposers, exa m ple, places sign sign ^ indiover a bar-l bar-line ine,, Strauss the si sign gn ' , and Vincent D'In dy P I . Th e last nam ed composer, in his sonata op. 63, explains the use of the sign in much the same tterm erm s as w wee explain the Aristox enian unproportional time, viz. viz. as " a slight slight paus pause, e, not so so im porta nt as ^ . " It can be used w it ithh good ef efffec ectt in certain church hym ns, where it enables the congregation to take breath, and so gives additional vigour to to the rhythm , whos whosee flow it do does es not break. In ballad singing it has always been used, though never written. But the Gre Greeks eks used used it more fre reel elyy than we do. Its em ploym ent in the thesis of a triple foot gives rise to the cyclical or three-time  -I  j . Befor dactyl,   I. -I Beforee the teaching of of Aristoxenus was known, a dactyl occurring in the midst of three-time rhythm would be expressed in notation by a change of time-signature, thus : dactyl

Burney, in the chapter on ancient rhythm in Vol. I. of his " History ," aft after er giving giving exam ples, says (p. 84), " Th e most striking circumstances in all these examples is the perpetual change of time, occasione occas ionedd by the m ixtu re of unequ al fe feet et I believe believe the bes t modern would find it of difficult, if not impossible, keep togethe r band iinn the ex ecution a Greek c horus, thoug h to assisted assist ed exactly by all

 

TH E IAMBIC IAMBIC SPECIES

41

the c latter of an ancient coryphaeus." coryphaeus." Th is was written unde r the old impression that a long syllable was invariably equal to two shorts. But wit withh an unde rstanding of the unproportional or irrati irrational onal measure, Ex.   7 d  would now be written as Ex.  7 e.  Th e sec second ond cycl.dact.

E X .7.  

* j 

M

m easure, havin g an irrationa l thesis, is the " cy clic al" ffor orm m described described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the text of whose description is quoted in App. A, 10. Aristides (Westphal,   Frag.  p. 59) alludes to irrational chorees, consisting consist ing of a long arsi arsiss and two theses. (H e m eans a long thesis thesis and two arses.) H e calls them " li like ke the iamb us,"   "  but the division of the words is dactylic. dactylic."" This woul wouldd produce E x. 7 /, in which which a  x

/ ) I I J J 3 I

 7

long thesis is followed by an arsis of two shorts, as in the dactyl, but the foot is triple,  i.e.  iambic, as to its species. The simple feet were, 1. Th e pyrrhichius, cal called led by Bacchei Baccheios os the hegemon, not admitted by Aristoxenus, and described, under the name of th ar

ar

th

proceleusmaticus, as mean and vulgar, by Aristides,   g  J ~ j  or  J*  | J * In the Iambic or Triple species. ar

2.   Th e iambus, g  J

th

J

1

ar

3.   T he iam bus with dissolve dissolvedd thesis ,   g  ^ | 2

th

reversed ed iambus ,  8   J * 4 .   Th e revers

th

J"j

ar

J ar

th

5.   T he three-tim e foo oott with a two-tim e arsis, g   J

6 .   Th e sam e dissol dissolved ved3,   g 1

  Kal dnr\rj  /3d  whereas we now know that the Greek rhythmicists rejected the seven-time measure as being incapab le of rhythm ical divisi division. on. Rh ythm s containing this comcombination are called by the grammarians epitritic; and when dactyls occur, as here, the poem is called dactylo-epitritic 2 . The only bars on which some doubt might be raised are in the second and third verses, where the no tes lengthened by   TOVT)  to the minim value value se seem em to drag. Th ey m ight be crotchets, but the rhythm would, perha ps, slightly lose lose in dign ity in in this case. case. T he version version we give is accepted by Gevaert as being probably the nearest to the true interpretation. The first verse consists of a period of seven feet, divided by the comma after   (fropfuyi;,  as well as by the shape of the melody, into two phrases, technically called cola,  i.e.   members, of respectively three and 1

  See p. 44 .   T h e  epritritos is used with great eff effect ect in Pin dar's Th ird Olym pian O de, whe re it occurs singly  in the first three verses, an d end s by dom inating the last two entirely. entirely. 2

 

76 

PINDAR'S RHYTHM

four feet1. Th e adm iration iration the Greeks had for their their national instrume nt is expressed by addressing it in the two words " Golden L yr e " set to a simple rhythmical phrase. V erse 2, according to the arra nge m ent shown, consists consists of a period of three mem bers, containing respect respectivel ivelyy 4 + 5 +  2 feet. feet. T he m etrical arrangement of this verse given by Gildersleeve corresponds with the musical barring in Gevaert. 01   6 t Between verses 2 and 3 there stand the words   x°P * ?   ictOdpav,   Dance with the Lyre," and the notation changes from vocal to instrumen tal. It is is evident that th e first first two verse versess were sung without acti action, on, and tha t the dance commenced w it ithh verse 3. Th is verse is in two members of, respectively, four and two feet. In verse 4 there is   metdbolP of ethos. Instead of pure dac tyls and spondees the verse commences with an anapaestic spondee, and goes on with pure anapaests; the transitory use of anapaestic rhythm would perhaps have a reference to the dance just commencing, but the rhythm quickly returns to the more solemn thetic form, in which it remains to the end of the fragment. The Odes of Pindar, like the Choruses of Greek Plays, consist of a series of triads, each triad being formed of a strophe, antistrophe and epode. Th e antistrophe iiss rhythm ically, ically, and was melodicall melodicallyy also,  the exact counterpart of the strophe, while the epode takes a new new ffor orm. m. A poem m ay have one suc suchh triad or sever al; if there are more than one, the rhythmical scheme of every succeeding triad is almost note for note the same as that of the first. The First Pythian Ode contains five triads, whose rhythmical scheme is as follows : E x.   42 a . The Rhythmical Rhythmical ssche cheme me of of Pindar's First Pythian Pythian   Ode, expressed Ode, expressed in notati notation. on. Strophe  and Antistrophe.

«.i. c j . / J Jl J . ^ J Jl J

2

4 •

c  J. J J Jl J JVJIJ. A  Jl J A N  v.3. 1

r » j 

j 

1

r* 1  

p

r

T IJ

J

i

  A " period " contains one, two two , three,  or more " cola ."

2 

—1

It will be discus discussed sed later on.

Metabole means change. The re could could be metabole of rhythm , of ethos,  of rhythmical scheme,   of mode,  of key, the last last being being equivalent equivalent to to our "m od ula tion ."

 

77

PINDARS RHYTHM

jvju-Jiiju u J V J  j JITJ  jiri;j.>ic J . jvju-Jiij - s .  C j . J \J J | J . / J  

JIJ./J

J

6. J

Epode.

i

f*  M

i.   C

M l

I

M

4  •

I

I

M l

I

  I 4J r

C i 

^ i

I

2

MI

4-

I* J I h M

f*

h I

J J 4 M

I I

M

M I M

I

I   P »M

h  ? I

c J J u A N *v * v i U IO J IT 3 J J I J.^T We have written out this example in Common time,  i.e.   with two measures in the bar, in order to show clearly the grouping of the feet by pairs, p airs, one of which is an arsis-f arsis-foot, oot, the other a thesis-f thesis-foot. oot. By this means the principal ictus-syllable of a pair of measures falls on

 

78

P I N D A R 'S 'S R H Y T H M

the first note of a bar. Th is is is a common practice with modern composers, though probably not one in a hundred knows why instinct leads him to use C rather than 2/4 in certain movements, and 2/4 rather than C in others 1 . The frequency of the intermediate 2/4 bars will strike the musician. musici an. This apparen t irregularit irregularityy does not appear when the whole is is written in 2/4 time time to give a bar to each foo foott or m easure, as is generally done in translating Greek metre into musical notation. The ear perceives nothing unusual when the melody is sung in a dignified   tempo,  neither too fast fast nor too slo slow, w, as required by Aristides 2 . Th ere are several instances of irrationa lity. If it were n ot for the very careful explanation of irrational time given by Aristoxenus, we should be disposed to take no notice of the slight pauses indicated in the notation, and to consider that the occurrence of a long syllable where there should be a short, or   vice versa, was a li licence, cence, enab ling the poet to use a more expressive word than he otherwise could. But as Aristoxenus is so very explicit in stating that such syllables are to be giv given en a value value longer than the short, and shorter than the long, we must abide by his rule, and look upon the bars in which it occurs as being sung in a sort of   tempo rubato.  Bu t we confess confess to having a sort of half belief that occasionally, at any rate, the so-called irrational syllables were poetic licences, in spite of our faith in Aristoxenus. The phrasing, or "colotomy," as indicated by the slurs is that given by Gildersleeve, Gildersleeve, who fol follows J. H. H . Sch m idt. T he actu al colotomy practically used by the ancients is a debateable point, which cannot be settled definitely until, if ever, we recover considerable portions of the m elodies. elodies. In this case the m elodic construc tion would be a great help towards a more precise knowledge of the colotomy. The prevailing rhythmical form is the   epitritos  of the first two bars.   Ve rse 5 of the strophe is wholl whollyy m ade up of of it it,, and no verse verse is is witho ut one or mo re exam ples. An ef effe fect ctiv ivee mo dern use of the form form is found found in the chorus " A nd gr an t a leader bold and brave  " in Handel's "Judas Maccabaeus." 1

  Th at is, assuming assuming that th e primary time is the quaver in each case.   " R h y t h m i c a l  agoge  is quickness or slowness of times, since, while preserving the ratios of theses and arses, we can m ake dif differ ferences ences of ma gnitud e in each . But th e best   agoge for  fo r rhythm ical expression expression is when theses and arses occupy a medium space of time time " (M eibom . p .  42).  Agoge  is therefore exactly equivalent to our  tempo, and A ristides ristides rec recomm omm ends a tempo moderate  as best suited to rhythm ical expression. 2

 

EPITRITIC RH RHYTH YTHM M

79

Ex . 43. Hand el, "Ju da s Macc Maccabae abaeus. us.""

anac.

And grant a lea leader der bol boldd

And grant a leader bol boldd

and

brave, If not to con - quer quer,,

-— &c.

bom

to sa save ve

Here the epitritic character   \S m  J"3) °f  t^ xe   rhythm is even more in evidence than in the Pindar Ode, but in order that frequency of use may not entail revulsion of feeling, Handel produces a contrast by eliminating the ^m'-trochees towards the end of the chorus, and using only even notes. A lesser com poser would pro bab ly have retained retai ned the dotted notes to the end. Both Pindar and H andel knew how to give the epitritic character to their respective compositions without wearying their audiences by overdoing it 1 . Gildersleeve's remarks on the style of Pindar's rhythms are so clearr and conc clea concis isee tha t we ventu re to quo te them at some length. H e says,  on page lxxiii. of the Introduction, " About half the extant odes of Pindar are composed in these (epitritic-dactylic) rhythms, which are also called called Dorian. Th ey are elevated, well-balanced, well-balanced, equab le, 1

  I n rhythmical m atters, as in most manifestations manifestations of art, genius may be as much in evidence through restraint as through effo effort rt.. Any ordinary healthy musician musician can, if if he wishes, express himself in tolerably vigorous rhythms; the difference between the great and the mediocre is that the one, by carefully considered restraint, appeals to the imagination, while the other, by overloading, or overdoing his rhythm s, in order to impress them, m ay mak e an imm ediate appe al to a public that does not want to think , but his work is unlikely to have an enduring value. Musical achievem ent that will appeal to generations to come is is the product of an instinct so profound, a p ow er of co ncentration so gre at, as to be inconceivable to th e ordinary mind.

 

80

LOGAC LOGACED EDIIC RH YT HM

and present a marked contrast to the lively, lilting, excited logaoedic measures, and the still more stirring cretic....The logacedic rhythm is a 3/8 rhythm, the basis of which is the trochee, but not the trochee with the ordinary ictus ictus.. This trochee trochee has a stronger secondary ictus ictus on the short (note), admits irrationality M   ^*j,  and takes as a sub stitute the so-called so-called cyclical cyclical dac tyl   fj fj..  J j Y

The apparent jumble

of dactyls and trochees, as in prose, gave rise to the name logacedic 1 .... The logacedics are much used in the lyric portions of the drama, and are fa famil milia iarr in the Odes of H orace Th e lo logac gacedi edicc rhy thm s are lighter, more ai airy, ry, than the epitritic. epitritic. Th ey have a fes festal tal glitter rather than a steady light, a rapid flitting rather than a compassed march." The following is an example of logacedic rhythm: E x . 44. Pindar, Olympian Ode, No . 10 10.. W ritten for Agesidam os, winner of th e B oys' Boxing M atch in B. B.C. 484.

J»/J. IJ -N. IJ «N

S^ IJ1 

Toi> *O - Xuy Xuyxx - TT TTtt - o -   vi 

'Ap -  xe v.

Of cheese and e'en onions

    J   f  J ov   y a p  (f)t  (f)t  - A77 - §a> §a>   Of

rid,

fid -

ba t - ties no fri friend end am

too.

ats

X i

I,

J   -T J  IJ . N I J . N I J 

aX -   a   irpbs irvp Si - e -   K< D V  /ifr

But

X

dv - bpaiv i - rai

I J   X  J I J . N l

- pav

(pikcov  

«  -  K£  - a s

I love love quaf quaffi fing ng wine by the fire with my friends, com rade s dea r, and the flame

j / j  j y

TU>V   £v - \cov

arr'

av

y

j

crackles thro ugh dri - est w ood

J   J* X f \  J . M l J J* J I J -T J I

8a -   vo -  r a - r a

ro ii)) 

8i - povs  

«K -  ire-irpcp,-  ire-irpcp,-  vi r  • fie - va,

which in summ er has been sawn, which has been seasoned we ll:

 

RHY THM OF COME COMEDY DY

s j 

J

j 

h  J 

(cav - #pa -   KI  - f i  J  

TOV  - pe - $Lv - 6ov,

Roa sting there some chick seed rare, and

rfjv

J re 

87

j 

prj  - ybv

toasting well well the

J J1J J1 J -HJ -HJ -TI -TIJ. J. IJ J1J > IJ

^ a -   pa

rrjv Opar-rav

KV • va>v,

kissing

my sweet Th rac ian

girl,

rrjs

  / u 

T \J

JN

c/x  -  irv- pev  -  av ,

a - corn fair fair,, and

/U

yv - vm •  KOS  XOU  -  p . - vrjs.

while my

wif wife

is

not

at

ha nd .

was associated with religious rites, could also be used with humorous ef efffec ectt in com edy. T he pa ssage is from A ristop han es' " Pea ce." Trygaeus, weary of the Peloponnesian War, ascends to heaven on the back of a huge beetle, to remonstrate with Jupiter on the mischief he is all allowing owing to take p lace. But Jup iter is away from hom e, and the demon of war occupies his seat, while the goddess Peace is shut up in prison. Tryg aeus ma nages to liberate her and rest restore ore her to her ancien t hono urs. T he chorus here quoted from from gives expression to the satisfaction felt by the soldiers at this  denouement. The first four verses consist of dipodies, short exclamations, expressive of rustic pleasure. T he favouri favourite te irrational time occurs on each anacrusis. Th en the re fo folllow some of of the long periods of absolutely similar bars which evidently had , for the A the nia n audience, audienc e, a comic comic character. Th e strophe e nds with a long passage of trochees, rel relieved ieved only by an occasional irratio nality. T he pace wouldd natura lly be fas t: a sl woul slow ow   tempo  would kill th e effect effect.. Of the humour of the rhythm there can be little doubt, and if one can for the moment imagine oneself in an Athenian theatre, with all the political excitement of the day in the air, one can almost feel this humour, especial especially ly wher wheree the triple m easure enters. Th e English words, ada pted from from Mr H ickie's prose tran slation are, of course qu ite inadequ ate to do more than show what the chorus is ab ou t: moreover their sense has little interest to an English reader, especially when taken apart from the context. In modern music quintuple rhythm has only hitherto been employed for emotional effects, and, with few exceptions, our composers have confin confined ed it to instru m enta l m usic. It has certainly not yet become sufficiently familiar to allow of its use in comic opera. Perhaps, who knows  ?  in course of time this resource may be again added to the ordinary materials available to composers. Let us now examine some ancient music in which quintuple m easure is em ployed for for reli religious gious purpose s. W e have, in discussing the foo foott, al alluded luded to oone ne ooff the two two D elphic elphic H ym ns to Apollo. Both are published by M. Theodore Reinach in the   Bulletin de  Correspondance

 

88

RHYTH RHYTHM M OF THE TH E DELPHIC DELPH IC

HYMNS HYMNS

Heltinique,  1893,  P a r t  H>  an c*   are  therefore easy  to   compare.  It is not necessary   to   quote more than  we   have already done  in Ex Ex.. 13 13,, page   47 47.. It   will  be  noticed that  in   those five bars  no   less than three different forms   of the th e   paeon  are   used, viz.  a P"   b)   m i  c)  m  I Another form,  (  (rrf) J J J   J J 1   frequently occurs in both hymns, and the four forms   are intermingled  in  such  a   way that there  is no  feeling of monotony, no  comm onpla onplace ce repetition. repetition. I n   Ex.  13 form   (a ) occurs in   two successiv successivee bars. Th is frequently happ ens al also so with with   (b ) and and  (c), never with  (d), for  there was  a   prejudice against successions  o  off  primary times. V ery rarely a  single fo form rm occurs in more than   two two   bars following one another.  In  one place, however, form   (b)  occurs  in no   less than five bars running.  But in th the e   first three   of   these five bars,  the   first  two two  notes  are   slurred  on a   single syllable, producing   the   accentual effect  of  (a). It will  be   seen then that  the th e us use e of   quintuple measure  in   comedy one e  case  a   certain gaiety and religion was entirely different.   In the on and vulgarity   is  obtained  by  constant repetition  of a   single form, and and the application   of   irrationality:  in the  other  a  gravity  and and  solemnity, b y   an   equally constant interchange  of  various forms o  off  diaeresis in the successive feet.   The  tempo in the would un doub tedly be t he  latter case would grave, but the  interchange  of   form  in the   feet would have  at  least as much  to do   with  the   difference  of   ethos  as the   tempo.  Irrationality does   no perhaps, lik likee  the   modern nott   occur  in   either  of the   hy m ns : perhaps, pause,   it was too   dramatic  or   emotional  to be   much used  in a canticle composed   for for the th e   temple  of a god. In   the  first hymn  the  rhythm  is  pse  pseon oniic thro ug ho ut;  in  the second   is a  coda   of   which there  glyconics, we shall speak later.   ?  From How were   in these hymns a  form performed internal evidence, and from   a   notice  by  Lucian,  M.   Reinach concludes concludes th at they were executed   by a   chorus  of   Dionysiac artists from Athens, on  one e part   of   which sang the   melody, while  the   other performed  the  dance which   was always associated associated w it ithh choral music. Th ere  was  also an accompaniment   of  flute and and  cithara. Gevaert thinks that  the  melody may have been sung   by a   solo voice, while  the   chorus danced.  In either case   the   performance would  be one   that required special special rehearsal beforehand,   and one one may   perhaps find a   modern analogy in  in a festival performance   of  on  onee o  off  the great hym ns  of   the Latin Church, such  as the  " Te Deum," or   " Stab at M ater," ater," in   which chorus, soloists

and orchestra take part, while  the   congregation listens. 1

  See p . 44, fo foii   Aristoxenus' remarks  on this form.

 

CHAPTER VII Quintuple rhythm rhy thm in Tragedy—The Tragedy —The " Electr Ele ctraa " of Sophocles and of Strauss—GlyStrauss —Glyconic rhythm—Music that is unfettered by rhythmical phrases—Aristides on the ethos of rhythm—The influence of the different forms of rhythm on mind and body, described by Aristides—Cleonides on the ethos of song—The ethos of Italian Opera—Dr Abert's  Lehre vom Ethos in dergriechischen  Musik. Q U I N T U P L E 

measure is is used in in tragedy trage dy as a means of express ex pressing ing inte nsity intensit y of emotio emotion. n. Ajax in his madness, Oedipus the King, in his mental agony, Creon, at the sight of his son's dead body, express themselves in pseo pseons. ns. But th thee method of emplo employment yment diff differ erss fr from om those we described in the last chapter, for the tumult of feeling is represented by a mixture of quintuple with triple rhythm, in the manner of the dochmiac, described on page 51. And, since the Greeks were moderate in all things, the tumultuous dochmiacs,   of Sophocles, at least, d do o not last long, but are invariably followed or intermingled with triple rhythm. We quote, as an example of the tragic use of quintuple rhythm, a few words fro rom m Sophoc Sop hocle les' s'"" Electra." Elect ra." The Th e passage is th that at in whic which h Electra recognises her brother Orestes, whom she believes to have been murdered. Ex.. 49.  Sophocles, "Electra," Ex  "Electra," Duet  Duet between Electra and Orestes, w.  1232 &c. 'l   -  a>  yo

- val,

5

3 J  I  J • J  I  8 J J  I  3 J J J 8 J yo

- val

- fid 

dp

- 

Tl

T Q > V 

i

-

fiol

v

G£

J J1 J1J J

N 

H  J

 

90

Or

ANC IENT AND MODERN MODERN METHODS

I J\ J \  J / J Ji J / J   J1 J   J*  J

7rd -  pecrfiev •  d\ -\a

 

I   J 1   J .  rt

ariy'

e -  %ov  - aa  npocr  -fie- ve.

I   J  I I   fa .

8 ' e

x.

0.

nou - vel - les

s

0.

Sotto voce. 2nd glyconic

tendres a - ma nts, heu - reux  

6 -  poux.

Bellermann's Anonym us,  page 93 ,says," Flowing songs and melodies melodies are those which are symmetrical in time, and yet unfettered by it. The time of the whole cannot be measured, but the component parts are measured." measured." On page 22 he indicates indicates that tthe he expressi expression on  Kexvfieva  rh flowing applied to , anwhen odn e its which whinotes ch hasaremelod y, alone, y th m : "inis other words, words whe equal equal, and and it withou is is nott

 

ETHOS

93

divided into rhythmical phrases or recognisable rhythmical figures. Aristides says on this p oint (Meibo m. p. 32 32), ), " Melos m ust be considered as to whether it has formal construction or is in unbarred melodies   (ardicTais fieXw&iais)  called ' flowing songs' No description of such songs is vouchsafed to us by either author; each refers to them as if the matter were familiar to his readers, and then passes on to discuss the elem ents of rhy thm . Vin cent , in his Notices des Manuscripts,   p. 50  note,  suggests that t hey were wer e som ething equ ivalen t to plain song , an d in this he iiss fol followed lowed by Ge vaert. Can it be that for special purposes the Greeks after all made use of something analogous to our r ecitative, ecitative, and tha t the symm etr ical written notes were allowed to be freely interpreted by the performer  ? A n i m po rta nt section in Ar istide s' treat ise re refer ferss to the dif differ ferent ent effects on the mind that differences of rhythmical structure may produce. Li ke m ost ooff the mo re im po rtan t pa rts of the theory, " e th o s" or " ch ara cte r" of th e diff differ erent ent rhy thm s is very slightly allud ed t o, and m ak es us keenly feel feel th e loss of further inform ation. No doubt it was more fully discussed in works which are lost. W e qu ote th e begin ning ooff the p assage iinn A pp . A, 13 : the t ransl ation is as follows: "Of r hythms, the mor e gentle (hesychastic), star ting f r om the theses, are soo thing to the mind. Bu t those which bring th e entra nce of the voice from arses are agitated." T he ex act sense of the latter sentence is som ewh at doubtful. It m ay be read, " those w hich, start ing fr from om arses arses,, brin g an instru m enta l accom panim ent to the voi voice, ce, ar e agitated." But the gener al meanin g is clear, namely, that the rhythm which commences with arsis has the op pos ite ef effe fect ct to th at which com m ence s with thesis, an d th is is suffici suffi cient ent for our purp ose . By pu tti ng the m at te r to a pract ical test, it will be found that we shall generally make a more vigorous or a more tranquil effect, according to whether we treat the first foot, or first portion of a phrase as a thesis or an arsis. T h e dif differ ference ence of effe effect ct iiss notic eable here. Bu t we m ust g ua rd against applying the rule too rigidly, for modern resources are beyond anything conceivable to the ancients, and the effect of rising or falling accentu ation, as exp laine d by me ans of E x . 53, m ay ooft ften en b e rend ered nugator y by some par tticular icular appli application cation of har m ony. T h e theor y is given us, and it is open to musicians to apply it or not, as each thinks best. It un dou bte dly ex hibi ts m any passages of clas classica sicall music in a new and interesting light, if applied to them.

 

ETHOS

94 E x . 53. 53.

Beethoven, Sona ta, op. 28.

Scherzo.

Allegro

vivace. 2nd rhythm

1st rhythm Tranquillity

th

ar

th

ar

th

Vigour

" And those (rhythm s) whic whichh have al alll the feet feet in the periods com plete are the more grace ful."...Tha t is is,, where the phrases are not curtailed by cutting off the final foot or part  thereof through catalexis. T he manuscript is mu tila tilated ted here. Meibomius Meibomius suggests suggests tha t th e sentence probably concluded concluded with "a nd those tha t are incomplete are the opposite." We moderns do not observe this distinction further than to say that a poetic line is either catalectic (curtailed), or acatalectic (uncurtailed, com plete). W e attach no special special si signif gnific icance ance to the graceful graceful or otherwise ef efffec ectt between the two two forms forms.. W ith m usical usical phrases our teachers are apt to consider any three-bar phrase as catalectic, and it often often is, when iitt occurs in the midst of four-bar rh rhyth yth m s. Bu t it is not catalectic when it forms the fundamental length of phrase in a period. " And short (rhythms) that have rests are more simple simple and p et ty ; long ones are more m agnifice agnificent. nt."" Re sts do not app ear to have been allo al lowed wed within within a rh yth m ; they could could only occur occur at the end. Th ey could divide rhy thm s fro rom m one another. It is evident tha t Aristides and his contemporaries would not have approved theoretically of the short phrases divided by rests that are so frequently met with in modern music,  e.g. man y parts of the music of  Parsifal.  Y et fr from om Ex. 49 it would appear that short broken phrases which the theorists would have considered petty, were used for strong dramatic expression, as they are with us. " An d those (rhythm s) which which are ar arranged ranged in equal proportion proportion are the more beautiful through their evenness: but those in uneven relation are the opposite."

 

ETHOS

95

T h at is, phra ses divided into tw o equal porti ons were considered by the Ar isto xen ian school to be m ore beaut beautiful iful tha n the other species, speci es, in which the phrase was divided unequa lly. Th is vi view ew was held even bef before ore th e tim e of A risto xen us, for Aristo tle, in his eigh th pr oblem, says " tha t duple r hyth m s have a mor e tr anqu il char acter , uneven a mor e em otio nal : and am ong st the latter , some pr o duce mor e vulgar movements, other s mor e noble 1 . " Ar istides con tinu es: " I n the midst ar e those which have the relation 2   : 1 that is, uneven as to the feet, but even as to the phrase." That is to say, a triple-time phrase, divided into two equal portion s, as Ex . 25, p. 59. T h e rhy thm here partake s, accord ing to our author, of both even and uneven proportion: even, as to the com plete rhy thm , and uneven, as to the indiv idual feet feet.. W he the r he considers the arrangement satisfactory or the reverse he does not say, but it must have been as common and as necessary in ancient music as in moder n. " Of (rhy thm s) in even proportion, those w hich consi consist st of sho rt notes alone ar e ver y r apid, hasty, and sm oo th ; but a mix tur e (of long and short notes) is usual." This is easily understood; a continuous flow of short even notes in even tim e, such as the Pre lud e in D m ajor ooff th e firs firstt boo k of th e Wohltemperirtes Klavier, gives the impression of rapidity, of heat (energy) and a smooth steady flow; but rhythms are more usually composed of short and long notes intermingled. " A nd if the feet feet consist of a com bination of the longest times, the m ore wil willl a calm ing of the m ind be manifested. H enc e we hea r th e short n otes em ploy ed in the Pyrrh ic Gam es, the m ixed notes iinn ordin ary dance s, and the very long notes in the divine hy m ns   (lepol.  J*JIJ 3

4

J

I

2

J1J J1J-.  J* Jt J- IJ  X \ \ J J* > J JlJ . TJ .HJ J i i w.

il

 

EIGHTH PYTHIAN  ODE

the e first period there  is balance, in  that  the two rhythms ar are e I n   th of four feet each, while contrast arises from the variation   in  position of   the th e  tribra ch (three -note foot), foot),  th e  cycl cyclica icall dactyl (dotted note  the e trochee (long-short foot)   and th (long-short). ).  and d thir In the second period, the first  an thirdd rhythm s are  of  three feet  f irst   an d and each, and between them   is a twotwo-fe feet et rhyth m . Between thefirst third rhythms there   is a contrast  of  the same kind as in period  I. The third period contains   two pairs  of rhythms  of  respectively four   and  three feet, with  a  concluding rhythm  of  five feet.  T h e tetrapodies appear   to end with  a  feminine close, but this is not really the e  fourt the case, since   in the majority  of verses  th fourthh fo foot ot con tains t h e   end of  one word  and the beginning  of  ano ther: hence hence  th e true phrasing would   be indicated  by the com ma whi which ch we have placed in each fourth fourth ffoot oot.. Con sequently   th e  tripodic tripodic rhythms comm ence the e up-beat, and their preceding rhy thm s  end with  a  long note, with   th a feature we have referred   to on page  103. In the final rhythm,  o  off five fe feet et,, neither the cyclical cyclical d acty l nor the forr  this rhythm tribrach appear.   L et  the reader imagine  to himself  fo a melody   in the  major mode, sung  at a  rapid pace, and  he will  see the e phrase might  be  made very trivial:  bu butt if he  thinks  of a that   th melody   at a  slow pace in the Aeolian mode (our (our descending minor the e tonic  to the dom inant, which scale), ending with   a  drop from  th which the e  orth od ox form seems   to have been  th orm  of  final cadence,  he wil  willl fin d that the effect may   be very dignified. dignified. The epode   is analysed  in Ex. 58.

Ex.. 58. Ex 58. Pindar,

Pythia, No.   8.

Epode.

SJ1J / I / - * / i J /1J1J- 11J / 0 JIJ  /

/

i /  .*/IJ-   IJ  / n /   .*/IJ.

J  / / •  .*/I .*/IJ /IJ /IJ. IIJ / I/ / / IJ. IJ . U M I

/ /   JJ JJU U 1 / .*/|J /|J /IJ /IJ TN /IJ.   / J*/I */IJ /IJ /IJ-II -IIJ / l / . ^ / I J  /IJ /I J /IJ /IJ / / / / I J /|J /IJ /IJ /II /II

/IJTII

 

MODERN MODE RN EURHYTHMY

II S

Here the fi first peri period od consi consist stss of a group ooff 4 + 3 + 4 + 3 rhythms, similar to that of the third period in the strophe, but without the concluding pentapodic phrase. But tthough hough simil similar ar in in compass, there is a great difference in internal construction, as the reader will see. The second period contains no less than six rhythms, in the order  6,,  + 4 + 4 + 6, of which 4 + 4 +  6 which no two are alike alike in any thing excep t m agnitude. So tha t here, here, as elsewhere, elsewhere, we get sym m etry of outward form, combined with variety of detail. W e have pro bably by this time e xhib ited a suffi suffici cien entt num ber of dry skeletons to show show the reader some, at least, of th e principles of Greek periodology: it now remains to examine whether in the living art of to-day any similar principles are to be found, bearing in mind that form is not to be looked upon as an end in   itself,  but rather as serving servi ng some sesthe sestheti ticc purpose. T ha t we shall find any mo dern composition exactly parallel in detail to any ancient Greek chorus is not to be expected ; nor is it probable that any two Greek choruses are alike, in spite of the ancient ideas of balance and symmetry. Adopting the simpler and more evident forms of dance music, modern Europe has agreed to accept the tetrapody as its normal rhythm for instrumental as well as vocal music, and hence its periods are for the most part formed by a combination of tetrapodies rather than of other ma gnitudes. W e cannot ther therefor eforee expect to find in it an extended use of eurhythmy in the sense of a well balanced arrangement of various magnitudes: eurhythmy there certainly is, but in the sense of beautiful and striking foot-schemes rather than period-schem es. T ha t a certain feeling feeling for eurhy thm y of period influenced Mozart and Haydn is evident from some of their quartets, but it did not take so large a place with them as with Pindar and

Simonides. As a rule rule they adhere to tetrapodic forms, forms, varied varied by occasional dipodies and hexapodies. At the same time, however, we shall find considerably more variety of magnitude in the rhythms in great choral works than in instrumental music: and in this matter our musicians approach Greek ideals, though without the exactitude of balance of the latter. With our classical song-writers identity of magnitude in the rhythms is often avoided: sometimes they make their musical magnitudes depend entirely on the construction of the poetry, sometimes they give an added charm to the words by a delicate and suggesti sugges tive ve change from the expected m usi usical cal rhythm . In this this m atter their high sense of art causes them unconsciously to approach to something like Greek ideals. 8—2

 

u6

BACH'S B MINOR MASS

To quote at any length from the enormous mass of modern music would be impossible, and we must content our readers as best we can with skeleton analyses, from well known or easily accessible compositions, siti ons, leaving leaving the reader, if he w ishes, to m ake furt further her investigations for   himself. In most choral music the phrasing is dependent on the musical ma terial, terial, rather than on the words words,, whic whichh are of secondary impo rtance as far as the rhythm is is cconcern oncerned. ed. Th e m usic usic expresses their ideas rather than their externa l form. form. Syllables are exte nde d to a degree unknown to the ancients, and words are repeated, a device rarely employed by them them . Th e words also also occas occasional ionally ly overlap m usical usical phrases, a feature which we seem to have in common with the ancients. E x . 59 59..

Bach, B Minor M ass, Kyrie. Adagio.

(Fugue.)

Overlap 1

*

1

3

6

4

Alto

Tenor -

i - -son , K y - n - e 6 

i - son. Ky  - n - e

-

-   i - son,

e - le 1

m son,

7

e - le

i - son, e - le Overlap

9

e - le

10

Sop. I. Ky - ri - e

e - le

so n

e - -

 

11 7

BACH S   B  MINOR MASS

Bach, B minor Mass.

Fir First st Kyrie.

The signature s ignature is C C,, ther there e are two fee feett in a bar, and the th e  tempo is adagio. ee

The Th e movement opens with an introd introductory uctory period 2 + 2 + 4  f

-

This is followed by a long ritornel, leading to the Fugue. The final thesis of a rhythm frequently coincides with the first thesis of its suc success cessor, or, causing an overlap, as sh show own n in Ex Ex.. 59 59.. In working out the th e colotomy w which hich considered conside red

underlies this fugu fugue, e, we have

tha thatt fu full ll cl close oses s iin n th the e tonic or n nearly early related

keys

constitute the ends of periods, and other kinds of cadence the ends of rhythmical rhythmic al members.

As a rule cadences are more or less con concea cealed led

by suspension suspensions s or other d devic evices. es. Period iod I.

(See page 70.)

6 +1 0 + 6 + 8 + 5 + 2 ( 3 7 feet).

This period ends with a full close in the relative major, coinciding with the ending of the word  eleison in all the par parts, ts, but conce concealed aled in order that there shall be no break of continuity, by the following exquisite orchestral device. Ex. 60. Ba Bach, ch, B m mino inorr Ma Mass, ss, Kyri Kyrie, e, Bars 43, 44 44.. Period   I  e   - le - - - i - son son

Period  II

Orchestra tra

Period II . It

8 + 5 +  10 + 4 (27 feet).

ends at bar 58 with a fu fulll close iin n the supertonic, again

coinciding with the end of  eleison  in all the par parts. ts. Period I I I .

2 + 7 + 6 + 6 + 4 + 5 (30 fee feet). t).

This ends with a full close in the dominant minor, and is succeeded by another lengthy ritornel.

We may b be e permitted, perhaps, to loo look k

 

Il8

BACH'S BACH'S B MINOR MASS MASS

upon these three periods as being somewhat analogous to the strophe of the Greek chorus  ;  but it will be observed that there is nothing of the balance of rhythms that corresponds to the so-called eurhythmy of the Greeks. On the other hand, our composer depar ts very ffar ar from the conventional   four-bar   phrasing of ordinary m usic, usic, and in this respect he has the same feeling for variety of phrase-magnitude as had the Greeks. After the ritornel the fu fugue gue recom men ces, and forms forms what we m ay look look upon as the antistro phe . Like the stro ph e, this portion contains three periods, but its colotomy differs from that of its predecessor. Period I. 6 + io +  6 + 6 + 4 (32 feet feet). ). Th is period comes to an end at ba r 93, with a ful full close on th e last syllable of   eleison,  in the tonic. Period Peri od II . 4 +  7 + 2  + 6 + 2 + 6 + 4 + 3 (34 feet). Ending with a full close in the dominant minor at bar 110. Period III.   2  + 2  + 3 + 6 +  5  +  5  +  5  (28 feet). H ere the first movem ent of the Mass ends. Ar tistic sym m etry of design is imparted by the general, not mathematically precise, balan ce of of the periods. An o rdina ry period m ay have 8, 12 12,, or 16 feet: the periods here are of trem endou s proportions, befitti befitting ng a gigantic work ooff art. Th e first first peri period od of the strophe contains no less than 37 feet, and the other two 27 and 30 respectively: and the periods of the   antistrophe  have much the same proportions. proportions. Can the human ear grasp such large dimensions of time  ?  No, it certainly cannot, but the composer knew when to relieve the strain by coming to an end of his period period and starting a fresh: and he sees th at the strain is about equally distributed throughout the two portions of the fugu fugue. e. W e are iinn the position of a near behold er of of a gre at cathedral; he sees the details, but cannot take in the whole at once. If he goes to a distance he can see the symmetry of form that underlies the whole: and when the listener, by frequent hearing, has become familiar with this fugue, its grand proportions will make themselves felt in the satisfaction, the evergrowing interest, that increasing familiarity brings. By these proportions, by the concealment of the phrases, by the imaginative orchestral work, the composer produces a sense of inconceivable grandeur, of continuity, of mystery, rising to the greatest heights of of which which musi musicc iiss capable. T ha t this man, li living ving an obscure life in a small German town, unconsciously made use of some of the rhythmical principles employed by the most artistic people the

 

BACH 'S B MIN OR MASS

119

world has known, is a remarkable evidence of his profound knowledge of the deeper recesses of human nature. In contrast to the contemplative character of the first   Kyrie,  th e Gloria in excelsis   has no concealment of its its rh ythm s, which which are brought out as clearly as possible; for here the ethos is that of praise, not my stery. After After an open ing ri ritornel, tornel, the chorus enters in in a joyf joyful ul trumpet-like motive, and carries out an introductory period of two pentapodies, which, by an overlap, make up nine bars, since each bar contains one foot foot.. The n comes a rit ritornel, ornel, and the strophe begins. It is for the most part in overlapping five-feet rhythms (pentapodies), with occasional rhythms of four or seven feet (tetrapodies, or heptapodies). The first period is divided from the second by a pentapodic ritornel, which overlaps the entrance of the voices for the second period. peri od. Th e latter is of two mem bers only, only, a pentap ody , and heptap ody, the first first overlapping overlapping the second second.. Th is period ends with a full close in the tonic at bar 78. The third period is divided from the second by a crousis, and its first rhy thm , a tripody , is also fol follo lowed wed by a crousis. T he period ends, at bar   100, with a change of time-signature (i (inn Greek, m etab ole of rhythm   )  to C, with two feet in the bar. The diastaltic, trumpet-like material now gives way to one of those serenely flowing and exquisite movements with which Bach-lovers are familiar when tranquillity of mind has to be expressed in the music. T he words at which which the me tabole   takes place are et in terra pax.   H ere there is no my stery to be expressed, as iinn th e Kyrie,   no joyful exhilaration, as in the  Gloria,  but the repose and m ental ssati atisfact sfaction ion of peace. A nd how does our composer treat it rhythm ically? Firs t there is is a period period of a single single tripody, ending withh a ful wit ulll close close in the subdom inant. Th e tri tripod pod y announces th e entrance of a new idea, and the accompaniment melts into a short crousis to give the audience time to assimilate it. Th ere fol follows a short stroph e   of one period only, containing tetrapod ies and hexa podies. Ne ither the intermingling of rhythm s of differ different ent m agn itudes, the ir m ysterious conce alme nt, nor the enthusiasm of the five-measure rhythms are suitable to the ethos implied by the words   pax hominibus.  Following the  strophe   is a ritornel, and, quite unexpectedly, the motive of   et in terra pax enters as a sedate fugue subject, whose counter-subject is ornamented with some what conven tional divis divisions. ions. T he com plete fu fugue gue contains three periods, as in that of the first   Kyrie,  but there is no

 

BACH'S RHYTHMICAL DEVICES

I2O

  antistrophe, and there are other noticeable di diff ffer erenc ences es of treatm ent. The rhythms, instead of being concealed, are, for the most part, strongly punctuated by defi definit nitee closes closes.. Tow ards the eend nd of of the firs firstt period (the tonic full close in bar   145),  the original tripody of bar 100 occurs three times over, isolated from its companion rhythms by the interven tion of the crousis. T he tthird hird period iiss divided ffrrom th e second by a crousi crousis, s, and thus the ethical tre atm en t ooff the whole fu fugue gue differs entirely from that of the   Kyrie,  except in having three   periods, the for form in which Bach usually construc ts his fugues fugues.. Bach was as fully master of the subtleties of rhythm as of all other techn techn icaliti icalities es of his art. If we open open an y volum e of his works at haphaza rd we are p retty sure, bef befor oree we have read m any bars, to come upon some striking rhythmical device, some delicate   nuance. Le t us imagine th at quite by chance we have opened the Ch ristmas Oratorio, Pa rt I, at the Aria, No. 4. Th e w ords Bereite  dich, Zion, tnit zdrtli zdrtlichen chen Trieben, Den Schonsten, den Liebsten, bald bei dir zu seh'n are set to a conventional two-membered period, in ordinary well-de well -defi fined ned tetrapo dies. But in in the second period our atte ntio n is is at once arrested by a beauti beautiful ful device. T he sa lient words of of the poetic text are brought into prominence by the alternation of voice and instrument in single feet, while the tetrapodic construction is strictly adhered to, and made very evident by the harmony, thus: E x. 61. Bach Bach,, Chri Christ stmas mas O Orat ratori orio, o, Part I, No. 4. Alto Solo.  

1st 1st mem ber

2nd member 3 crousis

rei - te dich,

Zi - on

 

HANDEL AND BACH BACH

121

But this is not the only interesting feature feature of the aria. T he movement is in the   D a  capo form, and the well-defined tetrapodic rhythms persist down to the word Fine while the contrasting section has the following colotomy: Period I. 6 +  3  + 5. Peri od II. Per 4+7. Ritornel. Period III.   2  + 4 + 5 + 4 . in whi which ch the contrast produced produced by varie variety-of ty-of m ag ni tu d es is very Hellenic. To enter fully into the inexhaustible rhythmical resources of this composer would require a volume to   itself.  W e nnow ow pass on to the works of his great contemporary. Handel approached his art from a different standpoint from that of Bach. H e was in no sense a recluse recluse working out hi hiss oown wn high ideals with little reference to popularity, but a man of the world, anxious to appeal through his genius to the largest possible circles. His audiences, energetic in action, strong in political and personal character, were frivolous and contemptuous in their attitude towards music and musici musicians. ans. H and el had theref therefore ore to frame frame his music in such a manner that it should force itself on the attention, that it should command respect by its sincerity, and hence there must be no m isunderstanding about his rhythm s and harmon harmon ies. His sturdy and practical practi cal character was em inently fit fitted ted for the task. Th e su btlety and mystery so often expressed by Bach could have little or no meaning to the British public of that day: and the predominance of the   pritna donna,  th e  prinio tiomo,  who, wit withh their audiences, considered that vocal display was the chief end of music, made such an exalted ethos as that of Bach an impossibility in the country which Han del adop ted as his own. T o produce music as an effe effect ctiv ivee vehicle for the display of vocal tone in the solo or in the choral body was absolutely essential.   Messiah. Messiah. Chorus, Behold Behold the La m b of God tha t take th away the sins of the world. Th e ssignature ignature is is C, and there are two fee feett in the bar. Th e   tempo is  largo, the key G mino minor. r. Th e first peri period od en ds at ba r 15, with a ful fulll close in th e key of of F . Th e second second cconclud oncludes es the chor chorus. us. Th e ccolot olotomy omy is as follows: follows: Ritornel.  2  2 P erriioodd II. er I. I. + 45 ++ 45 + + 4 .  +  + 2. Per Pe 44 ++ 44 ++ 44 ++ 42 +

 

HANDEL'S MESSIAH

122

There is no overlapping of rhythms, but the verbal text is more or le less ss independen t ooff them them . Perhap s the the musi musical cal rhythm s would would be more plain if we read them through without reference to the words, as if the composition were for instruments alone. E x. 62 62.. Handel, Handel, M essiah. essiah. 1st rhythm 3

Be - holdtheLambofGod

4-

Z=£± = =3

1

 9

Behold the Lam b of

 v B e-

God,

Tenor Bass  

V

Behold the Lamb 3rd rhythm

rhythm 3

4

Th at taketh a-way, taketh away

Be - hold

This example shows the first two rhythms, and all the others proceed on similar lines. Th ere can can be no m istake abou t the tetrapodic construction, and nothing is left to the imagination. The individual accent of the feet is as strongly marked by the dotted notes as in a march or   maestoso  movement, while the chords consist, for the m ost pa rt, of an altern ation of tonic and do m inan t harm onies, generally in their their fundam ental position. position. It will will be noticed noticed that the rhythms commence with the second half of the bar and end with with the ffirst irst beat. Th e pentap ody of bars 10-12 serv serves es to reverse this order, and make the rhythms end on the third beat. Period II therefore commences with the first half of the bar, and its rhythms end on the second half until near the end, when another pentapo occ in order to b ring the final cl close ose on on the firs firstt b eat of a bar,dyin occurs, theurs, orthodox manner.

 

HANDEL 'S MES MESSIAH SIAH

1 23

Aria, H e was despised despised   and rejected. The composition   of  this number  is  said  to  have moved Handel very deeply,  and we may  ther therefor eforee expe ct  to  find some expression of   his  emotion  in its  rhythmical structure.  In  this  we are not disappointed,   and one is  forced  to  admire  the  genius which knew exactly how  far it  might venture in an  imaginative direction, without going too much above   the heads  of its audience. The movement  is in the Da capo  form, the key being  E flat, with the contrasting section   in C minor.  The Th e tempo  is largo,  the signature C,  and  there  are  four feet  in the bar.  There  is  only one departure 1 from   the  conventional conventional tetrapod ic structure , where   the  intensity  of emotion overflows   in a  single phrase  of ten  feet.  The  majority  of rhythms, including   the last m entioned,  are  catalectic, i.e.  their last thesis   is  expressed  by a  silence, which  is  here used with peculiar fitness. There   is a  Greek-like treatment  in the  employment  of the crousis,  not  only  to  give opportunity  for  contemplation,  but  also  to enable   the composer  to change  the position  of the principal accent i  in n the phrase. The colotomy  is as follows, th  the e  primary time being  the quaver: Aria. Period   I (preceded  by ritornel).  4 (crousis) + 4 (crousis). Period   II. 4  (crous is )+4 (crous is )+4 + 4 + 4 + 8 , endi en ding ng  at bar 21. Period   III. 4 (crousis)  + 4 (crousis) (crousis)  + 8 + 1 0  +  8. Period   IV. 4 (crousis) + 4 (crousis)  + 4 + 4 + 4.  4 . C minor section. The single period consists   of  tetrapodies, broken  by  rests  and separated   by the  crousis. Ex. Ex Handel Handel, , M essi essiah. ah. (a ).  63. Catalectic 4-measure rhythm

Catalectic 4-measure rhythm

S E ^ S S S ^   ^ E ^ H S ^ He was

despis despised ed

de - spis  - ed and rejecte rejected d

  b)  Bar 14.

A man of 1

sor

-

  Under tetrapodic  we  include eight-feet  and two-feet two-feet rhyth ms , these being merely par ts or multiples   of four.

 

HANDEL'S MESSIAH

124

to

p  I

B ar 24. 1

 

(J )

2 

H e was Ba r 29. Bar 29 . I 

3

l 

4

2

re-ject-ed

de-spis-ed, 4 

3

2

4

3

5

8 

7

6

 

A   man

of

sorrows,  and  a nd  ac - quaint-ed with grief

9 ft^

10

J

A c  -

Silent measures En Endd  of  of Period I [ I ,   c ,  Period IV ommences

'  5 

6

78

1

2

3

4

•

J

quainted with  grief. (Full close) (Full  close)

^  ~

 —

• J He was de-spis-ed (Unaccompanied)

Ex. 63  (a two o  rhythms, with their intervening  (a))  shows  the  first  tw crousis.   The  chief accent  in  each case is on the  first thesis, and the reader should notice   the  effect  of the  momentary silence  in the   catalexis, or  cutting  off of the  final thesis. In   {b) the  order  of  accentuation  is changed,  the  strongest accent falling   on the  principal word, sorr sorrows. ows. H an de l could could have m aintained   the  previous order  if he had  wished,  by  placing  the  bar-line between  the F and B flat:  but the change  of  order has an  important aesthetic signification. In   c) the  second phrase  is  curtailed, both  at the  beginning  and end en d   ; the  device  of  thus bringing  a  single word into prominence  is he  aesthetic result similar  to that of B ach, described  on  page 120, and tthe is   the same. In   d)  we  have  the  phrase  of ten  feet already referred  to.  Like the others,  it is catalectic,  and it is  combined with  a  harmonic effect of peculiar pathos. In   e)  a new  period begins with  a  silent thesis,  and the  voice enters entirely alone;   the  contemplation  of the  idea in the  text  has become   too  tense  for  instrumen ts. This,  at  least,  is how  Handel wrote   it, and  seems  to be how he  felt  it. In an  edition  we  have us , purporting  to  embody Mozart's before   us, Mozart's addit additional ional accompanim ents, there   is an  unfortunate filling  up of  what  we  call  the  silent

 

HANDEL'S MESSIAH

125

measures   by a somewhat commonplace repetition of the tonic triad, which quite destroys the imaginative effect of the rests. One wo worrd mor more. e. The 8 + 1 0 + 8 rhythms of perio periodd III are, are, unlik unlikee the other rhythm s, accompanied by sust sustained ained chords. H and el well well knew kne w what he was doing when he alter altered ed b oth the m agnitude s   a n d the style of accom panime nt at the same time. This treatm en t ca causes uses an increas increasee of sol solemnity, emnity, and a t the sam sam e time time prevents any mono tony tha t m ight, perhaps, arise arise fr from the too fr frequent equent repetition of tetrapo dic rhythms with the accompaniment moving always in quavers. This great aria shows how imaginative a rhythm can be evolved by a highl highlyy gift gifted ed composer while while adh ering to the orth odox phra se of four feet with conventional harmonies.   And with his stripes we are healed. If we take the music of this fugue apart from the words, we shall find that it has more or less the feeling of being in tetrapodic rhythm, thou gh th is is is not very clearly defi defined. ned. Th e entries of the subject almost invariably occur where we should expect   a ne new w rhythm to comm ence. See E x. 64. Ex, 64. Handel Handel,, M essiah.

A nd   with his

stripes we  a r eheal   - - ed ed , And with his

^iiil^iiigi

Alto

Andwithhisstripesweareheal   stripes  

w e a reheal  

ed ,

we

a re

ed ,

Tenor And w it ithh

Handel originally wrote this chorus with eight minims in   a bar, which may perhaps imply that he felt the phrases as falling into eight-minim lengths, the minim being the primary time; giving  a single bar to each rhythm would have the effect of placing a chief

 

126

HANDEL'S MESSIAH MESSIAH

accent on one of the feet in the phrase, as we have seen in the aria,   H e was despised despised1 . Th ere is no divi division sion into periods. The movement is continuous throughout, and in this respect, as welll as in th e indefiniteness wel indefiniteness of its its rhy thm ical divisi divisions, ons, it is some wha t akin to the polyphonic style, style, exam ples of whi which ch Ha nde l's public public woul would occasionally hear sung in the cathedrals. 1

  Or it may have been m erely that the subject subject of the fugue fugue was comm on p roperty in ecclesiastical ecclesiast ical circles, and that church m usicians usually usually mad e th e m inim (as they do now) their primary time, instead instead of of the crotchet or quaver. In Bach's Fo rty -ei gh t the ssame ame subject, not in tended fo forr ecclesiasti ecclesiastical cal purposes, is written w ith the crotchet as the prim ary time.

 

CHAPTER IX Th e coloto colotomy my and periodology periodology of Gluck's Gluck's " Orphe us," Ha ydn 's " Creation,' Creation,'1 Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Requiem, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Gluck, " Orp heus." The first chorus consists of four periods, whose rhythms are fundam entally tetrapo dic. Th e occasional entra nce of the solo solo voice voice (Orpheus) in the single single wo word rd " E ur yd ice " as an anacrusis anacrusis has a beautiful effect, the choral rhythms being, with one unimportant exception, thetic, since they commence with the first beat of the bar. The bar is here equivalent to the foot. Th e Aria, N o. 7, " Cerco il mio ben cosl, cosl,"" has the fol followi lowing ng interesting construction: Ritornel, or crousis, of one bar. Period I.   3  + 3  + 3 +  4, ithh a ful fulll close in in the dom inan t.  4 , end ing w it Crousis of two bars. Period II.   3  + 3  + 3 +   2 +   3,  ending in the tonic. Crousis of one bar. Period III. Repetition of the final phrase of period II, extended to four measures, and furthe furtherr lengthened by a pause on on the pen ultim ate thesis. The movement is fundamentally tripodic, with occasional variations for the sake of con trast. Th ere is no special dra m atic si signif gnificat ication ion in the form form here, the aesthetic aesthetic ef effe fect ct being due d ue to the charm cha rm of comparative rarity. Th e first sect section ion of Eurydice's Aria, "C he il fi fiero ero mom ento," is is also tripodic   :  but its periods conclude with a pentapodic rhythm, by which the interest is enhanced. Th e be st known number of this opera, " Che faro faro senza Eurydice ," is for the most part in conventional form as to its rhythms and periods, but the second period (in G major), in which Orpheus calls to Eurydice, dipodies, in which silent second thesis seems to imply that thehas caller is listening for atheresponse.

 

12 8

HAYDN'S CREATION

An example of absolutely simple tetrapodic form, as innocent of al alll   nuance  or device of any kind as an ordinary hymn tune, is found in the Finale, where Orpheus, E urydice , Am or and the chorus, sing a whol wholee movem ent in two-m ember periods. Th e sc scheme heme iiss as follows : Period I. 4 +  4  Full close, Periodd II. Perio 4 + 4 Half cl close, ose, Period Peri od I I I. 4 + 4 Full cl close ose,, Period Peri od IV . (2 +  2 = 4) + 4 Fu ll close, close, and so so on to the end. Such si simp mp licit licityy is is delightful delightful in the eigh teenth century atmosp here of the whol wholee work. W hen it occurs, occurs, as it it very frequentlyy does in p resen t-day m usic, in connection w ith com m onplac e frequentl melody, and ideas intended only to catch the ear of the vulgar, it is intolerable to the cultivated cultivated musician. Com positions positions founded founded on this scheme sooner or later become wearisome even to those for whom they are intended, and then they disappear, or "go out of fashion 1 ." Haydn, " Creation." Th e o pening w ords ooff th e chorus, " And the Sp irit of God," allotted to a single period, move in slow, long-drawn pentapodies, the crotchet being the primary time 2 . Th e firs firstt rhythm is anacrusic and catalectic, catalect ic, thus , anacrusis 

1

2

3

4

And the | Spirit of | God moved up- | on the face of the | waters; 5

catalexis, catalexi s, the rhyt rhythm hm being completed by a  chord. 1

 is the   A class of pop ular music that endure s ffro rom m generation to generation generation is  the national anthe m. The patriotic words of such a composition give it an important element of permanence: but the tune must also have some special rhythm ical elemen t, or we should find find complaints th at such and such a nation nati on has not construction a satisfact satisfactory oryasnation al anthem . W venture to to suggest sugges no tune as simple in rhythmical the above Chorus of eGluck would have ta that chance of permanently engaging the affections of a people to the extent that would raise it to the dignity of a nationa l anthe m. Rh ythm ical device of some kind must be present. In " God save the the K ing ," there are two unequal periods, periods, whose rhythms are all dipodies, not tetrapod ies. Th e first first period has three me mbe rs, the second four. four. Th e unusual form form has been a subject of discussion, but we believe that it is just this "irregularity" that causes the tune to retain its perennial popularity, while fault is often found with the words. In " L a M arseillais e" the anacrusis, catalexis, and anticipation of the close close of a ph rase help to raise the tune tune above the comm onplace. It was composed by an enthusiastic ama teur, and its rhythmical devices are an unconscious expression of his feeling. In "Die Wacht am Rhein," which is entirely tetrapodic, there is plenty of variety within the feet: change of "s ch em e" in the Aristoxenian sens sense. e. The Austrian National Hymn has no exceptional construction, and is probably almost the only instance in which a simple melody alone has been able to conquer the permanent affections of the populace without the aid of special rhythmical devices. 2   It will be remembered that dactylic pentapodies were associated in the Greek mind with elegies elegies and lam entation s. Th is is by no means the case with us.

 

HAYDN'S CREATION

129

The composer, through his rhythmical scheme, brings before us so vivid a picture of the idea conveyed by the words, that we almost seem to have the action of the drama before our eyes. The second pentapody of the period is made dramatic by rests, and by the extension through a whole foot of the final major triad,

fortissimo,   thus, anac.  

T

1

3

And God | said   (crousis),  | Let there be | light (silence): 4

5

and there was | light.

(fortissimo)

The sudden   fortissimo  is very fine from a purely musical point of view, but it has always struck us as being somewhat near the indefinite line between "word-painting" and the expression through musicc of the drama tic idea, musi idea, rather than of the the individual individual words. But this must always be a matter of opinion ; we imagine that there can scarcelyy be two opinions abo ut the bea uty and dra m atic signi scarcel signific ficance ance of the a whole. Th eabove Aria period " W ithasverdure clad  "  is tetrapodic, and has two feet in the bar. Its first period ha s three me mb ers, the third of which is a repetition of the first, with the difference that the melody is here divided between the o rchestra and the voice, voice, instead of being given to the voice voice alone. Th is is a device used used by classical classical composers of all epochs. In the prese nt instan ce it has no aestheti aestheticc significance significance beyond its freshness of effect. The second period, ending with the full close in the tonic, has the form   4 + 6,  the latter rhythm being catalectic in the voice, complete in the instruments. In the next period the word   " pla nt" is extended by  " divisions " over sever several al rhy thm s, which are separa ted by rests. Dividing a single syllable into two or more portions was a common practice with the composers of the eighteenth century: it originated in Italy, where the voices had a natural flexibility and agility for which material was dem anded on which these qualities could could be exercised. Custom , early associations, and education have a strong influence on the appreciation appreciat ion of music, and the northern nations, having been tau gh t that all good things musical came from Italy, learned to accept and assimilate every thing off offer ered ed by Italia n si singers. ngers. Such passag es as the one to which which we are alluding, though contrary to dram atic propriety, and making nonsense of the text, not only cause us no aversion when on the aree reallyy delightful reall deli ghtfulweinaretheaccustomed han ds of toa them, gre at but, artist. W e contrary, adm ire th w.

9

 

13 0

MOZART' MOZART'S DON GIOVANN I

flexibility of the voice, we are charmed by its tone-quality, and the personality of the singer, which is necessarily brought into prominence, attracts us, so that we lose sight of the fact that such passages of fioritura   are dram atically superfl superfluous uous and mean ingless. By a fortunate arrangement of our nature, we do not always seek the strictly logical in ar t ; if we did did we should should live live iinn a very dull w orld. Th e words " He re shoots the healing healing p la n t" are now repeated in a three-membered period, broken by pauses and crousis. The middle section of the song consists of a period of three hexap odies, all all of which which are catalectic. T he rep etition of the o pening section sect ion calls calls for no com com ment. Th ere is here no rhy thm ical device, no appeal to the deeper feelings: all is as clear and bright as the air of a sunn y day. T he composer places in the fo fore refr front ont th e pleasu re that is derived from hearing a beautiful voice, and a complete comm and of vocal techniqu e. As a rule, songs like this were composed with special reference to the capacities of some individual singer; but in the present instance this does not appear to have been the case. case. Form ality of harm ony and m elody blends with periods periods which have just enough unconventionality to escape being commonplace. To those brought up on Bach, and the great composers of the last fifty years, this m usic usic seems formal formal and con ven tion al: yet it has its charm for those who can temporarily place themselves, in imagination, in the musical atmosphere of the year 1797 1. M ozart, ozart, " Don Giovanni." Giovanni." Leporello's opening solo  "Notte  e giorno fati faticar" car" (" Night and day I work so hard") is set to a rollicking melody in tetrapodies, there being two fe feet et in the bar. It is preceded by the usual ritornel. T he first period, which ends with a full close in the tonic in bar 32, consists of seven seven m embers, but by the repetit repetition ion of two of of these, the actual period is extended to nine. Its scheme is: Perio Per iodd I. 4 4 4 + 4 + 6 (pause) (pause) +  5 (  (cr crous ousiis) + 5 a + 6 + 6 a. 1

  A considerable am ount of pleasure m ay be derived from from man y kind s of music of the past if we can obtain a more or less vivid idea of the circumstances under which it was first heard: to enjoy it thoroughly we must make the necessary effort of imagination to place ourselves   en rapport  with the circumstances, just as we do when we witness a play dealing with historical or legenda ry materia l. Th e eff effor ortt with music is grea ter, since in ma ny cases cases there is no scenery scenery or action to assist. Th us, much of of the harpsichor d music of the past is formal in   itself,  but if we imagine the courtly gallants of Queen Elizabeth's day, for exam ple, dancin g to it, and listening to it, it appea rs iinn a new light to us. W e can, in in fact, "acquire a taste" for music of past generations, and this taste gives so much pleasure that it is well worth the effort.

 

MOZART'S MOZART' S DON GIOVAN NI

131

Rhythm   5  a is a repetition of 5 and 6 a of 6, the latter being extended to 8 by two additional feet. Th e repeti repetition tion of  5  emphasises the semi-humorous assertion  "voglio far il gentiluomo"   ("I will be a gentleman") by adding   "e non voglio piii servir"   (" an d no longer wil will I se rve ") to the same melody, and the latter sentence is repeated twice over in the two concluding rhythm s. It is is very true to life: the uneducated man emphasise emphasisess his assertions by repeating them over and over again. In the second period, in which Leporello mockingly addresses his absent master, there is a similar repetition: and in the third he again repeats the words we have quoted, to their own melody. In the fourth period the words   "m a mi par che venga gente" ("but I think that some one comes"),  "non mi voglio far sentir" (" I don't wish that they should hear  ")  "),,  are set to a kind of patter on one note, ending, however, with a repetition of the melody of   " e  n o n voglio piii servir'.'  M ozart has happ ily contrived contrived to utili utilise se his his rh yth m s and melodies to burlesque the natural expressions of a discontented servant. A ritornel now brings Donna Anna and Don Giovanni on the scene. She, in h er a nxie ty, utters a single period of 4 + 4 feet, feet, and, after a  crousis,  is answered by Don Giovanni in a mocking repetition of the same period, slightly altered to suit the bass voic voice. e. H ere again the composer utilises the conventional repetition of a musical period per iod fo for a dramatic o bject: Donn a An na is excited, and Don Giovanni, in the same melody, tells her that her excitement is in vain. In the next period, while the two are shouting at one another, Leporello adds a bass part in long notes, commenting thus, "  Che tumulto 0 ciel che gridi II padron in nuovi guai "   ("W hat a noise, oh heavens, what shouts   master's in another mess   ") .  T h e trio is carried on in regular periods, for the most part in tetrapodies, and the dramatic element is brought out by the contrapuntal arrangement of the parts, so that our composer here, again, is able to subordinate the conventional forms to the dramatic situation. To ward s th e end, while while Lepo rello, in anothe r " patter," is deba ting whether he ought to interfere, the Commandante appears, and, in excited broken phrases, an altercation ensues between him and Don Giovanni, the m usical usical m aterial, however, adherin g to orth od ox tetrapodic con struct struction. ion. During a ritornel ritornel tthey hey fight, and th e

Co mm falbecomes lls, lscomes , mortally mortall a dying spe ech,e, whi which ch andante grad uallyfa be myorewounded. bro ken upH eas utters he g ets weaker,speech whil while 9—2

 

MOZART'S DON GIOVANNI

132

Don Giovanni mocks him,  and the chattering Leporello expresses his fright   in  rapid dotted notes. T h e   art  exhibited  in  this movement  has ha s  much  in  common with that   of the  Greeks.  T he repetitions  and patter  of the serving  man m a y   be  compared with Aristo phan es' bu rlesque imitation  of the rhythms common   to the populace  of his day. (See page  85.) The clever adherence   to  conventional musical form   in  general, combined with details suitable   to the sit  situation, uation, reminds us  of the methods of the old old Greek Greek dram atic p oets:  and throughout there  is an intense  intensely ly hum an expression,   as there  is wit withh them. 1 I n   the  L a ,  ci darem   la  mano "   by a  delicate rhythmical th e  duet  " La nuance,  th the e same melodic phrases   are  made  to  express  th the e  masterful persuasion   of Don Giovanni  and the fluttered excitement  of  Zerlina, E x. 65. Mozart Mozart,,  "Don  Giovanni." Thetic rhythm Don Giovanni.  

1 

Thetic rhythm

2 

La, ci

341

da-re m

la

ma-no

Th ere , we wi will ll give our promise

Vor - rei

I

di - rai

di

si

Anacrusic rhythm

e non vor - re - i,

I would, and yet

mi

The re, thou wilt wilt say me yea

Anacrusic Anacrusi c rhythm

Zerlina.

would would not,

mi tre ma un po - co

il

cor.

my he art is somewh at mo v - ed.

Preliminary measure

Zerlina.

Pres

for for long

fo forr - te, non

- - to non I

Soon

1

la, la,

- te, non - er,

son

can hold out no

piu

I can hold out no

long - er,

son

piu I can hold out no

for - te. longer.

  T o f  ful ully ly appreciate   th e delicacy  of  Mozart's rhythmical treatment here, it is necessary  to have   a  more exact idea   of the m eaning  of the Itali an text than   can be  conveyed by any transnott  mean  to lation that   has to be  fitted  to the  music.  Fo r  example,  Dar la  mano  does  no " g i v e   th e  h a n d , " in the lover's sense, b ut to  "shake hands  on it," to conclude a bargain,  or make   a promise.  Do n Giovanni  is not a  lover who falls on his knees before his mistress, but but an d  Mozart was fully aware  of this characteristic. one who carries things through by force,   and

 

MOZART' MOZAR T'S S REQU IEM

13 3

as she gradually gives way to him  :  thus the orthodox musical form is preser preserved, ved, and yet dram atic req uirem ents are fu fullfi fillled. led. Don Giovanni, in whose utterances there is no hesitation, no beating about the bush, calmly attacks his rhythms on the down beat, while the undecided answers of Zerlina are returned in the same melody with the anacrusis. It wil willl be remem bered fr from om A ristides th at anacrusic fo forms rms are " more agita ted," thetic more calm. This alteration of a single note is a stroke of genius, by which the same music is made to express two different characters; it is continued down to the double bar, where, Zerlina having given way, the joy of the lovers is expressed in a series of dance-like iambic rhythms. T h e   " colo tom y" calls fo forr no com com ment. T he periods are all all in orthodox pairs of tetrapodies, except where Zerlina feels her fortitude giving way, which she expresses in the agitated dipodies of Ex. 65  c  c.. Though from the point of view of purely musical form the repetition of phrases is satisfactory and pleasing to the audience, it undoubtedly sometimes delays the action, in spite of Mozart's genius.  inn th e first secti section on of Zerlina's song song,, " Vedrai, carino, se sei buonino, Thus, i Thus, che bel  remedio ti  voglio  dar"  ("Yo u shall see, see, dear, if yo u are good, ") ,  the rhythms and periods repeat what a fine remedy I can give you   "), one another with justification, for they are discussing a single subject, viz. viz. th e reme dy. In th e second second section, however, in which which the rem edy is applied, by Masetto, at her suggestion, laying his hand on her heart to fee feel how it beats, the man y rep etitions of " sentilo battere (" feel how it be ats" ), written merely in order to m ake this section section balan ce the first from a musical point of vi view, ew, cause the action action to drag. An d in the Finale, again, the repetition of words to make the musical form complete and orthodox, is dramatically unnecessary. A noticeable feature in the opera is the frequency with which an ariaa begins in ari in even even and end s in uneven rhythm . M ozart oft often en contrives to make this convention fall in with some dramatic purpose, as in the danc e-like due t bet between ween Don Giovanni and Zerlina. But throughout the set pieces of the opera, the lyrical element is more in evidenc evi dencee than the dramatic in the rhythm ical structure. Th is was in keeping with the ideas of the day, and it is an evidence of Mozart's genius that he was able to amalgamate the two elements as frequently as he did. Mozart, " Requiem." The words   "Requiem "Requiem ceter ceternam nam dona eis Dom ine"  seem, at first sight, to be set without periodic form, somewhat in the manner of Palestrina. But this is not really the ca case, se, for ther e is an und erlying

 

MOZART'S   REQUIEM

134

tetrapodic construction which makes the first seven bars take the followi foll owing ng Greek-like balance : Period I. 4 + 4 + 2 + 4 + 2. Mystery is produced by the " procatalexis," procatale xis," that tha t is, the omissi omission on of the opening o pening thesis, from each voic voicee part as it enters. ent ers. The Th e co connstruction wi will ll be understood from the analysis in E Ex. x. 66. E x . 66. Mozart, Mozart, "Requiem. "Requ iem.""

Overlap

Adagio. 

1

4

23

Re - - quiem £e-ter £e-ter -

Sop.

Alto

f

Omission of Thesis in voice  (Procatalexis).

Re Re - - qui-em

quiem

 i J

r_C

 

Tenor

-

2

  :

Bass

Re • quiem  se - ter

-

-

nam

se -

ter - nam

do - na

Overlap Half-rhythm

1

4

nam dona e - - is

e - is is

do - na

dona

— I 

e - is

 

Domine, re - qui -em as- ter

1 2

Do-mi-ne.

T

Do- mi -n e.

-

nam

dona

eis Domine, re - quiem se - ternam tern am dona

End of Period.

e - is

-

 

MOZART'S REQUIEM

13 135 5

The succeeding period,   to the  words  et lux perpetua  luceat eis," h as   a dipodic catalectic,  and a  complete dipodic  and  tripodic rhythm. The soprano solo   " Te  decet  kymnus"  &c. ha hass a  period   of two pentapodies   and is  followed  by a  choral period   of the  same kind. The words   Kyrie eleison, C hriste eleison, Kyrie e leison,  are set to a n the Bach double fugue, which  is not  divided into distinct periods  as iin   in  is an example described   Chapter Chapter V II I. There   underlying feeling of tetrapodic rhythms,   not  concealed  by  harmonic devices  as  with Bach;   bu butt  continuity   of  effect  is  produced  by the  overlapping   of musical motives   and  words. Such continu ity  is a  salient feature  in much  of the  best ecclesiastical music, and in fugal work   :  the  rhythms a re   not  always separated clearly,  as in  lyrical music.  In  Bach's Kyrie-Fugue  the th e  periods  are  distinct,  in  Mozart's they   are not. A composition   of  this kind  is not  occupied with  a  continuous narrative   or dramatic action,  or  with lyrical music.  On the  contrary, the interest   is concentrated  on giving musical expression to the single idea, enunciated   in a very  few words.  Th e  words themselves  are, as a rule, scarcely distinguishable, except   at the entrances  of  the them e: th e idea that  is  being musically treated, and the audience well knows   the th e  words should   be  always heard. hence   it is  unnecessary that  the the e Rhythmical form   is  obtained  by the  harmonic basis, while   th continuity, that   is  essential  if the  work  is not to  have  a  halting, cut-up effect,   is  produced  by the  constant overlapping  of  words an d   of  musical motives. The vocal fugue, though rhythmically following general principles  t he  musical form that  is  furthest removed like those  of the an cients, is is the from Greek ideals  in the matter of the words.  It will  be r  remem emem bered that   at the  Council  of  Trent  it was  proposed  to  banish polyphonic th e  Church, because  the th e  words were undistinguishable  in music from   the the network   of  counterpoint.  To the  calm logical mind, holding views similar   to  those  of  Philodemus  of  Gadara,  to  whom allusion has been made   in the  Introduction, nothing   can be  more senseless the e  meaning   of  what  is  sung than   to  sing  in  such  a  manner that  th cannot   be  understood:  and in  this Aristotle   and  everyone else  in Greece would have agreed with Philodemus.   But there  is  this great difference between Eastern   and  modern Euro pean musi music, c, tha t  in the former poetry   is the  predominant partner,  and in the  latter pure music   has  attained such  a  development  as frequently  to  overshadow 1 the e the claims   of its verbal partner . Hence   it  comes that  in a  fugue  th  forr that of moder W estph al uses uses the definit definitions ions "Chr istian   Music " fo  modernn E urope,  and "NonChristian"  for the  more  or  less unison music  of all other civilisations, civilisations, whe ther past  or still existing. 1 

 

I3< 3V  pvdnl£es.

A R I S T O X E N U S ,   Stoicheia, Fragmente,  p. 28, line 23.

5 . 

Apo~iv Trolav \iyofxev 8e  iroiav;

etvai; etv ai;

Orav [ifTt&pos  y 6  novs, fjvina  av fii

Orav K(lp.evo K(lp.evos. s.

lin e 10. 10. B A C C H E I O S  T H E E L D E R ,  in  Fragmente,  p. 67, line 6. 

Hparos  /lev ovv  iari

\povos

  eXa^tcrTos,  os   TOV  a>s a>s  irpbs T)fxast  os eo~ri  npforos  KaraXj/jrroff  alo~drjo~ei.

49,, line 3. A R I S T I D E S Q U I N T I L I A N U S ,  Fragmente,  p. 49 Aristoxenus himself says KaAei'  Sf  nparos  pev  ra>v %povav  6 inb  p.rjd(vos rav  pyBfii^Ofiivaiv bvvarbs

a>v diaipedijvai,  K.T.X.

Stoicheia, Fragmente,  p. 31, line 5.

 

176 7.  

APPENDIX   A *Gt  8c  (Trffiaivoi (TrffiaivoiifBa ifBa

ci s   17  w\elovs

TOV pvBfibv  KCU  yvmpi/xov

noiovficv 

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cvos. 

rjj  alo-6r)o-ci,  TTOVS  io-nv

crvyKcivTai  TOV  TC avto  Kai TOV  TOV

Kara,  ol 8c  CK Tpiwv,  8vo  ficv raiv  ava>,  cvbs  8e  TOV  Karoo  rj i£  cvbs ficv  TOV  ava), 8vo 8c T(ov Kara,   ol 8e  CK Ttrrap(av^  Bvo  peit Ta> v avo)t  8vo $€  TCOV K a r a ))..  Xpovov

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irovs   OVK  av  eXr] (fiavepov,  C7r€i&r]7rep  ev  o~rjfitiov  ov  ffoiei dtaipeo'iv

yap dimpeo-fas

xpovov   T ro i r  oi  Sond

\povov

avev

yiveo-$at.

ARISTOXENUS,  Stoicheia, Fragmente,  p. 33, line  1. 8 .  UpOKekeviTfiaTiKos  ayioo~Lv avTois   )(pr)O~8ai.

8c, 6 Kai  Trvppi^ios,

diro  TOV KCLV  Tats

nvppi^ais 

xdv  TOTS

A R I S T I D E S Q U I N T I L I A N U S ,  Fragmente,  p. 56, 56, lin line e 1. 1.

Pyrrhichius vero, i.e. proceleusm aticus, quia  hie  assiduus vel in certamine vel in ludo quodam puerili. M A R T I A N U S C A P E L L A ,  in  Fragmente,  p. 56. 56. SlpurTat  8e  TS>V  7ro8a> v €Kao~Tos rJTOi  Xoya  TIV\ rj dKoyla TOiavrrj,  TJTIS  8vo  \6yatv

9 . 

yvaipifioiv   Tj K.aTaij> av4s,  el Tjjj  alo~0r)o~fi dva  [ito~ov  e o r a i '  Ttvovro  8e  TO flprjfievov  av  a^Se  K.aTaij> \r)   i j / i i av ,  Tp'iTos  84 T ir  \tj(j)6firj fido-tvv t( fido-t t(rr)v rr)v avTois

ex a> v '  

dfMporepois

' O   yap yap  TOWVTOS  JTOVS  akoyov 

8110 Xoycov yvaplfiwv Xopeios

TTJ   alo~@f]O~€i,  T O V T€  ta'ov  Ka\  TOV 8i7r\ao~lov. 

fiatpas

dp\6fif dp\6fifvos, vos,

Ot p-ivTot,  pvdptKol 

r e X e i a r ,  O VK  e^ o y T es  Si  (lirelv (lirelv

Tiva   TOVT v fipaxttcov dp^dpevos 

XG> pio~avTfs pio~avTfs  OTTO  TS>V  dvanalartov,  K «X

c^ovo-ov T WV  &po-ea> &po-ea> v. K a X e t r a i  S*  o ^ r o s

 34, line 6. ARISTOXENUS,   Stoicheia, Fragmente,  p . 34,

' O  8c  dirb

KaXtiTai 

fiio-ov pfycBos V   ^*  apcriv fiio-ov

rfjv  /lev

 17 dX oyi 'a  perot-i) y.zv  f | f i  T O ava)  irpbs  TO  K ara) - ?o -rai  8* 17

aXoyos.

10 . 

T V

7rovs irapa Toirovs,

fipaxyripav

fiev

eival  v a  av v  e r e p o s  e'ir)  Xoyos. eyKarafiefjuKTai   TV  \oina>v  be  oo~a TOVTOV  e^crai  TOV  x P fitv  rj Tpaycobia K  e s

8i 8i**  ov o~vvayeTai  rj  TJfvxV ^   TaneivorrjTa  Kai  avavbpov avavbpov

os

VP ' 

biddeo'iv. bidde o'iv.

  $* TOVTOIS  fiaKio-ra

OTVCTOXTIKOV  Se, ap[i6o~ei ap[i6o~ei be  be TO

 Kai  OIKTOIS K  Kai ai ro ij  irapan'Kqo'iois. TOIOVTOV   KaTdo~T7]fia rols epoariKols nddecn  Kai Oprjvois   Oprjvois Kai

Tfcrvxao^riKov  be  rf66s iori  /ieXo7roi?af,  ^  irapenfTai irapenfTai ekevdepwv  Te Kai elprjvi elprjviKov. Kov.

i]peft i]peft&njs &njs yj/vxys  Kai  KardaTrjfjia

 Kai apjio apjioaovo aovo-i -i  be  avra vfivoi naiaves  e'yK&fua  a-u/j/3ou\ai Kai

ra  TOVTOIS  ofioia.

 p. 206 206.. C L E O N I D E S ,   in Jan,  Musici scriptores grceci, p.

w.

12

 

APPENDIX B G L OS O S SA SA R Y O F T E C H N I C A L

TER MS

to a rhythm that has its ful full comp lement of arses and ACATALECTIC.  Applied to theses. slow. Ago ge is AGOGE.  Latin  ductus,  the m otion of mu sic, whe ther fast or slow. equivalent to our   tempo,  as in  tempo moderate &c. feeling, ng, as opposed to physical sensation. sensation. He nce ou r AISTHESIS.  Th e me ntal feeli word aesthetic. ANACRUSIS.  Th e unaccented note, or group of notes, tha t precedes and leads up to the fi firs rstt acc ente d note of a rhythm . An an acru sic foot foot or ph rase is one that commences with anacrusis.

ANAPJEST.  An even-tim e foot foot whose figure figure is

2 m

i

4 • • I • But any even rhythm whose feet for the most part commence with the arsis is classed as anapaestic anapaestic rhythm, as the so-called so-called " spondaic anapaest"   . J associated in ancient times with funeral marches. ANTISTR OPHE .

S ee ee

J

STROPH E.

APODOSIS.  Th e concluding mem ber of a period. In Germ an  Nachsatz. ARRHYTHMICAL.   Un rhythm ical, or fault faultyy in rhythm . portion of a foot foot.. In Germ an  Senkung, Schlechter ARSIS.  Th e unaccen ted portion

Tacttheil, Aufschlag.  

An arsis-foot arsis-foot is the unacce nted foot foot of a syzygy syzygy or

pa ir of feet. See pa ge 50. AULOS. AULO S. A kind of oboe, the most im porta nt of of the Gree k wind instrum ents. BRAC BR ACHY HYCA CAT TALEC ALECT TIC. A rh yt hm of wh ich th e who le of th e final foot is repr es en te d by a   rest.  Se e  CATALECTIC. CAESURA.  Th e place where a rhythm , or a portion portion  thereof,  is divided from what

follows fol lows..

T he place to tak e bre ath in in singing. CATALECTIC.  A rhy thm is catalectic w hen the fin final al arsis is repre sente d by a rest, and the first fo foot ot begins on a thesis. In oth er words, a rhy thm whose arse s num ber one less than its theses . But in this work we have applied the term in the sense of brachycatalectic,  q.v. omitted portion portion of a catalectic or brachy catalectic rhythm. CATALEXIS.   Th e omitted CHO REE .

Se Se e

TRO CH EE.

CHOREIC DACTYL.  A triple triple me asure in the form form

„ | J

« «

.

CHOROS. Latin   chorus,  the band of dancers. CHRO CH RONO NOS S ALOG ALOGOS OS.. Irr atio na l, or unp rop ortio na l time, tha t is, a no te whose value bears no simple relation to the primary time.

 

APPENDIX B

179

CHRONOS PODIKOS.  Th e time occupied by the thesis or arsis of of a foot. foot. for an explanation explanation of which see see page 28. CHRONOS PROTOS.  Prim ary time, for CHRONOS RHYTHMOPCEIAS IDIOS.  Th e time occupied by a grou p of feet feet forming

the thesis or arsis of a complete phrase. COLON.  A me mb er of a period, hence, a rhythm . In Germ an  Rhythmisch.es Glied,

Satz.

COLOTOMY. MY. Th e arrang em ent of music in recog nisable phra se-m agnitu des. COMEDY.  A jovial and popular festi festivity, vity, originally con nected with the vinta ge thanksgiving to Bacchus. COMMA.  A portion of a colon sepa rated by a caesura. caesura. In Ge rm an  Rhythmisches

Einschnitt.

CORYPH^US. T he leade CORYPH^US. leade r of of the choru s. CRETIC CRETI C or PiEON. A five-time five-time foot. CROUSIS.   In a vocal composition, those po rtions tha t are allotted to the instruments alone, without the voice, to separate the rhythms and periods where requ ired. T he crousis ful ulfi fills two functions functions,, being both an aid to expression, and a means of giving rest to the voice. CYCLICAL DACTYL.  A triple foot foot in the form form DACTYL.   Th e rhythm ical

figure figure

J 

m m - 

g

J. j

J |.

But all even rhythm is classed as

dactylic rhythm.

DACTYLO-EPITRITIC.   A rhythmical for form m for formerl merlyy supposed to combine dactyls

with trochees and spondees, thus . | J  

m m  I  o J 

m  * 44..  m  • '•'• But i'

is now thought that the second foot contained a three-time long, thus

. J

J j

J . 

m m 

m

an c  t l a t

^ '

  ' ^ e  w ^ ° ' e  rhythm was of even even species.

disposition ion of of the comp onent pa rts of of a rhythm DIAERESIS.  Th e arrange me nt and disposit In Ge rm an   Tactabtheilung. DIASTALTIC ETHOS.  Th e energetic char acter supposed to be produced by commencing a rhythm with the arsis. is represe nted by DIATONIC.  Moving by tones. Th e principal diatonic tetrach ord is the intervals E, F, G, A. or fo foot ot..

DICHR ONOS , DISEMOS.

S ee ee

TIM E.

DISEMOS, DICHRO NOS.

S ee ee

T IM E.

DIPODY.  A rhyth m of two feet feet in in length.

song performed performed roun d the altar of Bac chus during the DITHYRAMB.  A choral song annual vintage thanksgiving. DlTONE. DlTONE. Th e major third, consisting of two tones. DOCHMIAC.  A compound foo foott combining the three simple species. ELEGY.  A poem, on any subject, subject, composed in hexame ters and pen tam eters. Later it came to be applied to funereal lamentations. scale whose two tetrachord tetrachord s rise by the intervals ENHARMONIC GENUS.  Th e scale quartertone, quartertone, major third. foot suitable fo forr war-son gs. ENOPLIUS.  A com pound foot EPIB EP IBATOS ATOS.. Slow quin tuple rh yth m . E P I N I K I O N .   A song of victory. EPITRITOS.   A rhythm ical for form m which was formerly formerly supposed to combine trochees trochees

with spondees, but is now thought to consist of even feet only.

12—2

 

I8O

APPENDIX   B

E P O D E . 

See  S T R O P H E .

ERRHYTHMICAL,  or  ENRHYTHMI ENRHYTHMICAL. CAL. C or re ct  as to  r h y t h m . ETHOS.  Character. Three kinds  of  Character were expressed  in  rhythm,  the Hesychastic,  or  tranquil, suitable  for  religion  an and d  calmness,  the  Diastaltic, or energetic   an d dignified, and the Sy staltic, staltic, or sentimental, suitable  for  lamentations   or  erotic compositions.

EURH EU RHYT YTHMI HMICA CAL. L. H av ing beautiful, well well ba lan ce d,   or  effective rhythm. FOOT.  T he  smallest combination  of  arsis  an d  thesis  by  which rhythm   is  m a d e perceptible. GLYCONIC.   A  compound foot,  in  triple time.  Se See e  page 91. HEGEMON.  ( I ) The  leader  of a  chorus  or  semichorus.  (2) T he  name given by Baccheios   to the  pyrrhic foot,  q.v. HESYCHASTIC ETHOS.  T he  reposeful  or  tranquil character supposed  to be produced   by a  rhythm that commences with  the  thesis. HEXAMETER.   A  verse consisting  of six  feet. HEXAPODY.  A  rhythm  of six  feet. HYPORCHEMA.  A  choral hymn  to  Apollo, generally  in  quintuple rhythm,  of a lively character, accompanied   by  dancing  an d  mimetic action. IAMBUS.  A  triple-time foot having  a  short arsis  an d  long thesis-  g J l

J

Triple measure   in  general  is  called iambic rhythm.

I C T U S . 

See  S T I G M A .

IONICUS.  A  compound foot, consisting  of a  spondee  and a  pyrrhic. S p o n d .  PPy yr.

Ionicus  a major majoree ^ J1  JI P J j Pyr. r y r .   Spond. spo sp o

Ionicus   a  minore  ,  J ^ I R R A T I O N A L T I M E . 

J

See  C H R O N O S

ALOGOS.

KITHARA.  A  powerful form  of  lyre, used  in the  theatre. LOGACEDIC.  A  rhythm which  was  formerly supposed   to  combine trochees with dactyls,  but is  now thought  to consist  of triple m easure only.  See page 80 80.. MAGNITUDE,   in  Greek  MEGETHOS.  T he  relative space  of  time occupied  by any

of  rhythm kind     ical MEASURE. Greek music.  In  modern music  the  measure sometimes, T he foot   in  combination. though   not with either no t  always, coincides with  the bar. But it  may comm ence with the arsis   or  thesis,  and two or  more measures  may  occupy  the  same space of time   as a bar. In America   the  word Measure  is  applied  to  that which  in  E n g l a n d  is called   the Bar. MELOS.  T he melodic side  of music, as  rhythmical hmical side.  a s opposed  to rhythmos,  the rhyt MOLOSSUS.  A  foot containing three two-time notes. MONOPODY.  A  rhythmical section consisting  of a  single foot. form generally. Equivalent  to the word  form "   as used  by us NOMOS.  Musical form in "Sonata-form, " "Rondo-form"   &c. O R C H E S I S .   The act of dancing. O R C H E S T E S .  A dancer.

ORCHESTIC COMPOSITIONS.  Choral songs performed performed with dancing . ORCHESTIKOS.   Suitable  for  dancing.

 

181

APPENDIX   B

ORCHESTRA.  T h e  circular dancing place  in the  theatre,  in  front  of the  stage

or proscenium. ORTHIOS.  An  iambic foot  in  very slow tempo. OVERLAPPING  occurs where  the th e  final thesis  of a  member coincides with  th e first thesis   of the succeeding mem ber.  In German  Tacterstickung Tactverkettung . P.