The history of music

The situation of music at the end of the ancient world

Who lived in a province of the Roman Empire in the fifth century of the Christian era Could see roads where people had once traveled and now no longer Traveled, temples and arenas built for multitudes now voted to abandon them And to the mine, and life, generation after generation, a little everywhere, taking Increasingly poor, insecure and more difficult. Rome, in the time of its greatness, Peace in most of western Europe, as well as in Africa and Asia, but in the meantime had weakened and was no longer able to defend. The barbarians were coming from the North and the East, and civilization The whole of Europe was disintegrating into fragments that only many centuries later Would gradually begin to merge again, giving birth to modern nations. The decline and fall of Rome marked European history so deeply That we still find it difficult today to realize that, in parallel with the Process of destruction, an inverse process of Creation centered on the Christian church. Until the tenth century this institution was the main - and often the only - unifying link and culture channel of Europe. The first Christian communities, despite having undergone persecution for three hundred years. More or less sporadic, grew steadily and spread By all the regions of the empire. The Emperor Constantine adopted a policy of Tolerance after its conversion, in 312, and made Christianity the religion of the family imperial. In 395 the political unity of the ancient world was formally The division into Empire of the East and Empire of the West, taking by capitals Byzantium And Rome. When, after a terrible century of wars and invasions, the last emperor Of the West was finally deposed from its throne, in 476, the foundations of power Were so firmly established that the Church was To assume the civilizing and unifying mission of Rome.

The Greek heritage

The history of western music, in the strict sense, begins with the Christian church. However, throughout the Middle Ages, and even today, Artists and intellectuals have continually gone to Greece and Rome in search of Teachings, corrections and inspiration in the most diverse fields of activities. This Also valid for music, although with some important differences in Relation to other arts. Roman literature, for example, has never ceased to exercise Its influence throughout the Middle Ages. Virgil, Ovid, Horace and Cicero Continued to be studied and read. This influence has become much more Important in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as more works were Roman At the same time gradually recovering what had survived Of Greek literature. However, in the field of literature, as well as in several other Fields (notably in sculpture), medieval and Renaissance artists Had the advantage of being able to study and, if they wished, imitate the models Of antiquity. They had before their eyes the poems or the authentic statues. Already with The music was not the same. The musicians of the Middle Ages did not know Example of Greek or Roman music, although some hymns have come to Be identified in the Renaissance. We are currently in a fairly Better, therefore, about forty pieces or fragments have been reconstituted Of Greek musical pieces, most of which are of relatively late Covering a period of about seven centuries. Although there are no authentic traces Of the music of ancient Rome, we know, by verbal reports, bas-reliefs, mosaics, Frescoes and sculptures, that music played an important role in life Military, theater, religion and rituals of Rome. There was an important reason for the disappearance of the traditions of practice Roman music in the early Middle Ages: most of this music was associated To the social practices that the early church viewed with horror or pagan rituals Thought should be eliminated. Therefore, every effort has been made to Only to remove from the Church this music, which would bring such abominations to the spirit of the Believers, as if it were possible to completely erase her memory

MUSIC IN LIFE AND IN THE THOUGHT OF ANCIENT GREECE

Greek mythology attributed To divine music and designated as its inventors and first interpreters Gods and demigods, such as Apollo, Amphion, and Orpheus. In this obscure prehistoric world The music had magical powers: people thought it was capable of healing Diseases, purify the body and the spirit, and work miracles in the realm of Nature.

Also in the Old Testament the same powers were attributed to music: just remember Only the episode in which David heals the folly of Saul playing harp (1 Samuel, 16, 14-23) or the sounding of the trumpets and voices that overturned the walls of Jericho (Joshua 6: 12-20). In the Homeric era the bards sang heroic poems during The banquets (Odyssey, 8, 62-82). Since the earliest times music has been an inseparable element of ceremonies Religious In the cult of Apollo the lyre was the characteristic instrument, while Not of Dionysus was the aulus. Both instruments were probably brought to The Greece of Asia Minor. The lyre and its larger variant, the zither, were Instruments of five and seven strings (a number that later rose to eleven); Both were played, either solo, accompanying the chant or recitation Of epic poems. The aulus, a single or double vane instrument (it was not a Flute), often with two tubes, had a shrill, penetrating timbre, (The dithyramb) in the cult of Dionysus, worship Which is believed to be the origin of the Greek theater. Consequently, in the great tragedies Of classical times - works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides - choirs and other parts Were accompanied by the sound of the aulo or alternated with it. At least since the sixth century a. Both the lyre and the aulus were touched as Independent instruments, solo. An account of a festival or contest is known

Of music performed on the occasion of the Pythian Games in 586 a. C. in which Sacadas rang A composition for aulo, illustrating the pipo nomo the various phases of combat Between Apollo and the dragon Python. The contests of players of sitar and aulo, as well as The festivals of instrumental and vocal music, have become increasingly popular to From the fifth century onwards. C. As music became more independent, Multiplied the number of virtuous; At the same time, the music itself became Increasingly complex in all respects.

Alarmed by the proliferation of art Musical, Aristotle, in the fourth century, manifested against excessive professional training In the musical education of the common man: The exact measure will be achieved if music students abstain from Are practiced in contests for professionals and do not seek to master these fantastic Execution prodigies that are now in vogue in such competitions and which have For teaching. Let the young people practice the song as we prescribe, just Until they were able to enjoy melodies and noble rhythms and not merely in this Common part of the music that even any slave, or child, or even some Animals, can give pleasure1. Some time after the classic time (between 450 and 325 BC, approximately) There was a reaction against the excess of technical complexity, and at the beginning of the The Greek musical theory, and probably also the practice, was very Simplified. Most examples of Greek music that have come to us Come from relatively late periods.

The most important of them are a Fragment of a choir from Euripides' Orestes (v. 338-344), from a dated papyrus From around the year 200 a. C, being the music, possibly of the own Euripides

A fragment of the Iphigenia in Áulide of Euripides (v. 783-793), two Delphic hymns to Apollo, practically complete, dating the second of 128-127 a. W, A scolio, or song of drink, that serves as epitaph to a grave, also of the Century, or slightly later (N A W M 2), and Hymn to Nemesis, Hymn to the Sun and Hymn to Musa Calliope of Mesomedes of Crete, n. Greek music resembled that of the early church in many fundamental respects. It was, in the first place, monophonic, that is, a melody without harmony or counterpoint.

Often, however, several instruments embellished the melody in Simultaneous with its interpretation by a group of singers, thus creating a Heterophony. But neither the heterophony nor the inevitable cornering in octaves, when Men and boys sing together, constitute a true polyphony.

Greek music, moreover, was almost wholly improvised. Moreover, in its Most perfect form (teleion means), was always associated with the word, dance or both; Their melody and rhythm were intimately linked to the melody and rhythm of the Poetry, and the music of religious cults, theater and major public competitions Was interpreted by singers who accompanied the melody with movements of Dance.

MUSIC AND PHILOSOPHY IN GREECE

To say that the music of the early church had With the Greek, the fact that it is monophonic, improvised and inseparable from a Text is not to postulate a historical continuity between the two. It was the theory, not the Practice of the Greeks that affected Western European music in the Middle Ages.

We have Much more information about Greek music theories than about music in itself. These theories were of two types: (1) doctrines about the nature of music, Its place in the cosmos, its effects and the convenient way of using it in society (2) systematic descriptions of the models and materials of musical composition.

Both in philosophy and in the science of music the Greeks had intuitions and Have formulated principles that in many cases are not yet exceeded. It's evident That Greek thinking in the field of music did not remain static Pythagoras (about 500 BC), his celebrated founder, Aristides Quintiliano (century Iv a. C), last Greek author of relief in this field; The following summary, although Necessarily simplified, insists on the most characteristic and important aspects of To the later history of western music.

The word music had a broader meaning for the Greeks than Today we give you. It was an adjectival form of muse - in classical mythology, any Of the nine sister goddesses who presided over certain arts and sciences. The relationship Verbal suggests that among the Greeks music was conceived as something common to all Activities that concerned the pursuit of beauty and truth. In the teachings Of Pythagoras and his followers music and arithmetic were not disciplines separated; Numbers were considered the key to the entire spiritual universe and physicist; Thus, the system of sounds and musical rhythms, being governed by the number, Exemplified the harmony of the cosmos and corresponded to this harmony. It was Plato who, In the Timaeus (the best known of all his dialogues in the Middle Ages) and in the Republic, Expounded this doctrine in a more complete and systematic way. Plato's ideas

About the nature and functions of music, as they came later to be interpreted By medieval authors, had a profound influence on the speculations of these About music and its role in education. For some Greek thinkers the music was also closely linked to the astronomy.

In fact, Cláudio Ptolemeu (11th century AD), the most systematic of the Ancient music theorists, was also the most important astronomer of antiquity. It was thought that mathematical laws were at the base of both the system of intervals The celestial bodies system and it was believed that certain ways and even Certain notes corresponded to one or another planet. Such connotations and extensions Mysteries of music were common to all Eastern peoples.

Plato3 gave this Idea of a poetic form in the beautiful myth of «music of the spheres», the music produced By the revolution of the planets, but which men could not hear; such conception Was evoked by several authors who wrote about music throughout the Middle Ages and later, among others, by Shakespeare and Milton. The intimate union between music and poetry also gives the measure of the Concept of music among the Greeks. For the C ^ gos the two terms were practically Synonyms. When we speak of the 'music of poetry' today, we are Rhetorical figure, but to the Greeks this music was a real melody, whose Intervals and rhythms could be accurately measured. "Lyric" poetry meant Poetry sung to the lyre; The term tragedy includes the noun ode, "the art of corner".

Many other Greek words designating the different genres of Poetry, like ode and hymn, were musical terms. The forms devoid of music Were also devoid of name. In Poetics Aristotle, after presenting the Melody, rhythm and language as the elements of poetry, states the following: "There are Another art that imitates using only language, either in prose or in verse [...] but for the time being such art has no name. » The Greek idea that music was inextricably linked to the spoken word Has resurfaced, in various forms, throughout the history of music: with the invention Of the recitative, around 1600, for example, or with Wagner's theories about Of musical theater in the nineteenth century.

TO THE DOCTRINE OF ETHOS

The doctrine of ethos, of the moral qualities and effects of music, Was integrated in the Pythagorean conception of music as miscrocosmos, a system of Tones and rhythms governed by the same mathematical laws that operate throughout the Creation visible and invisible.

Music, in this conception, was not just an image Of the ordered system of the universe; Was also a force capable of affecting the Universe - hence the attribution of miracles to the legendary musicians of mythology. in one Later, more scientific, the effects of music on the Will and consequently on the character and conduct of human beings.

The way that music acted on the will was explained by Aristotle5 through Of the doctrine of imitation. Music, he says, imitates directly (that is, it represents) the Passions or states of the soul - gentleness, anger, courage, temperance, as well as their Opposites and other qualities; Hence, when we hear a musical piece that mimics.

A certain passion, let us be imbued with that same passion; And, if during a Long enough time to listen to the kind of music that awakens passions Ignoble, our whole character will take an ignoble form. In summary, if Listening to inappropriate music, we become bad people; On the other hand, If we listen to the proper music, we will tend to become good people6.

Plato and Aristotle agreed that it was possible to produce people "Good" through a public education system whose two fundamental elements Were gymnastics and music, aimed at the first discipline of the body and the second That of the spirit. In the Republic, written around 380 a. C, Plato insists on the necessity Balance between these two elements in education: excessive music Will take the effeminate or neurotic man; Excess gymnastics will take you uncivilized, Violent and ignorant.

"He who combines music with gymnastics in the The right proportion and which best fits your soul may well be called true Musician. "But only certain types of music are advisable.

the melodies Who express gentleness and laziness should be avoided in the education of Individuals who are prepared to govern the ideal state; Only the modes Doric and Phrygian are admitted, since they promote, respectively, the virtues of the Courage and temperance. The multiplicity of notes, complex scales, Of inconsistent forms and rhythms, different sets of instruments Between them, "the instruments of many strings and bizarre tuning", even the Manufacturers and players, should be banned from the state.

The fundamentals of Music, once established, should not be changed, as the Art and education inevitably leads to debauchery in customs and anarchy In society9. The saying "let me do the songs of a nation, which It matters who makes its laws' was a political maxim, but also a pun, For the word nomos, which means "custom," or "law," also meant the scheme Melodic sound of a lyrical song or an instrumental solo10.

Aristotle, in Policy (about 330 BC), proved to be less restrictive than Plato in terms of Rhythms and modes. He conceived that music could be used as a source Of fun and intellectual pleasure, and not only in education. It is possible that by limiting the types of music authorized in the ideal state, Plato and Aritoteles were deliberately deploring certain tendencies of life Music of his time: rhythms associated with orgiastic rites, instrumental music Independent, popularity of virtuous professionals.

Unless We Face These philosophers as men so detached from the real world of art as their Opinions in the field of music have no relevance, we must remember the Following facts: first, in ancient Greece the word music had a very Wider than the one we give you today; Second, we do not know what the The sound of that song, and it is not impossible that it really had certain powers About the spirit that we can not idealize; Third, there were many historical moments In which the state or other authorities prohibited certain types of music.

On the assumption that it was an important issue for the well-being public. There were laws about music in the earliest constitutions of Athens and Sparta.

The writings of the Fathers of the Church contain many censures to certain types of music. And even in the twentieth century the subject is far from being closed.

At Dictatorships, both fascist and communist, sought to control musical activity Of their respective peoples; The churches usually stipulate which songs can or Not be touched in religious services; Educators continue to worry about The type of music, as well as the kind of images and texts they are exposed to today's youth.

The Greek doctrine of ethos, therefore, was based on the conviction that Affect the character and that different types of music different. In these distinctions made between the many types of music we can To detect a generic division in two categories: the music that had as effects Calm and spiritual elevation, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the music that tended to Arouse excitement and enthusiasm.

The first category was associated with the cult of Apollo, his instrument being the lyre and poetic forms correlative to ode and epic. The second category, associated with the cult of Dionysus, used the aulus and had As poetic forms related to dithyramb and theater.

The Greek musical system

Greek musical theory, or harmony, was traditionally composed of seven topics: Notes, intervals, genres, scaling systems, tones, modulation and composition Melodica These points are enumerated in this order by Cleonides (date author Uncertain, perhaps n century d. W . ) 1 2 in a compendium of Aristoxenian theory; himself Aristoxene, in its Elements of Harmony (c.330 BC), discusses at length Each of the topics, but ordering them differently.

The concepts of note and Interval depend on a distinction between two types of voice movement Human: the continuous, in which the voice changes height in a constant, ascending slide Or descending, without being fixed on a note, and the diastatic, in which the notes are Clear distances between them, known as '. The intervals, such as the tones, the midtones, and the (third) Whether in systems or scales.

The fundamental block from which The scale of one or two octaves was the four-note tetracorde, comprising A fourth, or fourth interval. The fourth was one of three intervals Recognized as consonants. It tells us the legend that Pythagoras discovered the consonances from simple quotients, by dividing a String vibrating in equal parts. In the 2: 1 ratio you will have found the octave, in the range of 3: 2 The fifth and in the 4: 3 to the fourth.

There were three genera or types of tetrachordes: the diatonic, the chromatic, and the enarmonic. The extreme notes of the tetracordes were considered as having stable height, While the two intermediate scores could be placed at convenient points in the Between the extreme notes. The lower interval was generally the smallest.

Greater or greater [example 1.1 (a), (b), (c)]. In the diatonic tetracorde the two intervals Upper ones were whole shades and the lower one half-shades. In chromatic interval Superior was a semi-deciduous, or third smaller, and the two lower intervals, forming A dense zone, or pyknon, were halftones.

Not inharmonic or upper range Was a third or greater, and the two lower intervals of the pyknon were Smaller than half-tone, quarter-tone, or close-quarter tone. All These tetracorde components could vary slightly in amplitude, and this Variety created "nuances" within each genre.

Aristotle argued that the true method of determining intervals was Through the ear, and not of numerical quotients, as the followers of Pythagoras.

However, to describe the amplitude of intervals smaller than the Fourth divided the whole tone into twelve equal parts and used these as units of Measure.

From the descriptions of Aristoxene and some texts by later theoreticians We can infer that the ancient Greeks, like most eastern peoples, still In our days, made use of intervals shorter than the halftone. And we found, Indeed, such microtons in the Euripides fragment (N A W M 1).

Each of the notes, except the month and the proslambanomenos, had a name For example, in it hyperbolaion, in which the first term indicated the position Of the note in the tetracorde and the second was the name of the tetracorde itself.

The tetracordes Were denominated according to their position: hyperbolaion, "extreme notes"; Diezeugmenon, 'disjunction'; Meson, "middle"; Hypaton, "the last." Two tetracordes could be combined in two different ways to form Heptacordes (seven note systems) and one or two octave systems.

If the last Of one Tetracorde was also the first of another, the Tetracords were said to be sets; If separated by an entire tone, were disjoint (see example 1.2, Where T = integer and m = halftone).

From here, it has derived, over time, the Perfect complete system - a two-octave scale composed of tetracordes Alternately sets and disjoints, as seen in Example 1.3. The most serious Since it was outside the tetrahedron system, it was considered An extra tone (proslambanomenos).

Some of the notes are designated from the position of the hand and fingers when lira. Lichanos means "index finger". Hypate means that it is the first note Of the first tetracorde, whereas nete derives from neaton, or "last to arrive".

The name Of the tetracorde diezeugmenon stems from the fact that the interval Si-Lá is the integer tone Separates two disjoint tetraheles, the 'point of disjunction' - in Greek, diazeuxis. In Example 1.3, the external or fixed tones of the tetracordes will have been represented In modern notation by white notes.

The height of the two intermediate shades of Each tetracorde (represented by black notes) could, as explained above, be Modified in order to produce the various shades and the enarmonic and. However, regardless of the height change, these notes The same names as in the diatonic genus (eg, mese, lichanos, Parhypate and hypate in the middle set tetracorde).

There was also a system Perfect minor that consisted of an octave from there to There, as in the perfect larger system, With an additional set tetracor (called synemmenon, or associated) Constituted by the notes ré'-dó'-sib-lá. The tonei issue was the subject of considerable divergence between writers Old, which is not surprising, since the tonoi were not buildings Prepositions to composition but a means of organizing the melody, and the practices Melodic differences diverged greatly within the geographical and chronological Greek: The music of ancient Greece encompassed Ionic (ie Asian) pieces such as the songs Epics of Homer and the Rappods, Aeolian pieces (of the Greek islands), as the songs of Sappho and Alphaeus, Doric pieces (from Southern Greece), like the verses of Pindar (poet Epinician) *, Squirrel, Sophocles, Euripides (the tragic poets) and Aristotle (the poet Humerous parts (from Northern Greece), such as the hymns to Apollo, the Pagan funerary inscription of the seventh century, a Christian "hymn" of the fourth century and all Rest of a vast corpus, which has been lost almost entirely, of Greek music composed First, and then with the help of a notation and a technical apprenticeship, to the Over the period of some 1200 years between Homer and Boethius.

Aristotle compared the disagreements regarding the number and height of tonoi with The disparities between the calendars of Corinth and Athens. The part of the treaty where His perspective did not reach us, but the exhibition of Cleonides Derives from it in all likelihood. The word tones, or "tone," he said, had Four meanings: note, range, voice region and height.

It is used with the sense of Region of the voice when it refers to Doric, Phrygian or lydian tones. Aristoxene, Cleonides further added, distinguished thirteen tonei. Then he enumerated them and Showed that each of them begins at its octave halftone. To get a better idea of what the tonoi were, we have to resort to Other authors, possibly later, such as Alípio (about the ninth or fourth century) and Ptolemy. Alípio presented notation boards for fifteen tonei (those of Aristoxene And two more acute), which reveal to have each tones the perfect system structure, greater Or smaller, one half-tone being higher or lower tones than the next. The notation suggests that hypolysis would correspond to the natural scale, such as there Example 1.3.

Ptolemy considered that thirteen was an excessive number of tonoi, According to his theory, the purpose of the tonoi was to allow them to be sung or Within the limited scope of this or that voice or instrument, certain Harmony, and there were only seven ways of combining the sounds of the octave into harmony. Harmony, as later the mode, was characterized by a certain Number of attributes, such as the ethos, the female / male, the excluded notes, the Ethnic preferences, and so on, but each harmony was associated with A particular kind of octave. In discussing the issue of species of consonants, Cleonides demonstrated that There were three species of quartas, four species of fifths and seven of octaves.

Want this Tones or halftones (or smaller intervals) could be ordered from a Number of forms always equal to the number of notes of the interval minus one. The fourth Diatonic could ascend in the following ways: m-T-T (as the fourth Si-mi), T-T-m (As do-fa) and T-m-T (as re-sol). There were equivalent species for the fourth Chromatic and enharmonic, and also to the fifth and eighth. Octave species Attributed Cleonides the ethnic names Doric, Phrygia, etc., demonstrating that all Could be represented as segments of the complete perfect system in their Natural form.

Thus, the eighth mixolydia corresponds to Si-si, a lídia a do-do ', the phrygia The back-to-back, the doric to mi-mi ', and so on, to the hypodoric, which corresponds to lá- -Over there'. Consequently, octave species are like an ascending series of But this is a false analogy, since the author intended only with Easier the memorization of succession of intervals. It is, however, Extraordinary the coincidence between the names of Cleonides for the seven species Of octaves and those of Ptolemy to the tonoi, from which those species derive in their system. Ptolemy's argument for putting aside all Tonei, except for seven, In the conviction that the height of sound (what we now call record) Was not the only important source of variety and expressiveness in the field of music, Being more important the combination of the intervals within a given Within the voice.

In fact, he despised the change or modulation of the tones, which, In his opinion, did not alter the melody, while the modulation of octave species Or harmony modified the ethos by altering the structure of intervals of the melody. Only Seven pitches were required to make seven combinations or species of the Intervals in the space of one octave, or double octave, for example, the Central octave mi-mi '.

In the central position he placed the Doric tones, just as he had done Cleonides, and that was the natural scale, which in our notation would arise without accidents. An entire tone above this vines the Phrygian tones, a tone above this the lithium and half- -tom up the mixolídio. Half-tone below the Doric came the hypolídio, a tone Whole below this the hypofrígio and a tone below the hypodórico.

While Alípio Represented through letters the whole set of fifteen notes transposed upwards Or down, Ptolemy faced the limits of his voice as if confined to two octaves, So that the only tones that featured the entire perfect system fully In its normal order was the Doric (see example 1.4); To the highest tonoi The lower notes were missing and more serious supplementary notes were added, Succeeding the reverse with the tonoi inferior to Doric.

The central octave contained the Mesai (plural de mese) of all tonoi. Thus, aft was the mound of the mixolídio, The month of the lydian, and so on. These notes were mesai by virtue of their Function in the transposition of the complete perfect system, while the tactical, or fixed, Always remained in the center position. Imagine a harp of fifteen strings, each Rope with a proper name, such as mese or paramese diezeugmon, preserving this Name was given a different function. Thus the functional Frigid could be placed in itself, or paramethical, a whole tone above the month Natural, tactical or Doric, that is there.

Plato and Aristotle

We can now consider what Plato and Aristotle called harmony, Term that is usually translated by mode. Let's not forget that they wrote About the music of a period much earlier than the theoretical essays mentioned above. "The musical modes," says Aristotle, "present themselves with fundamental differences, And he who hears them is affected by them in various ways. Some leave men Serious and sad, such as the so-called mixolídio; Others weaken the spirit, as the Softer modes; Another still gives off a moderate and quiet mood, and it seems Be the particular effect of Doric; The phrygian inspires enthusiasm.1 "It will be the position Center of the Octave Doric mi-mi 'in the perfect complete system, ie the location Of their tones, or the combination of tones and halftones of their respective (T-T-m-T-T-T-m), the factor that Induces a moderate and quiet mood or, more generally, any other state Of spirit? Possibly a combination of both, but most likely Is that Aristotle had in mind nothing so technical and specific, but rather the Generic expressive nature of the melodies and characteristic melodic configurations In a certain way, since it clearly associated those elements with the Rhythms and the poetic forms corresponding to this mode.

There may have been other associations, neither poetic nor musical, such as traditions, Customs and attitudes acquired, more or less unconscious, towards the Different types of melody; It is also possible that, originally, the names Doric, Phrygian, etc., referred to particular styles of music or forms of interpretation Characteristics of the various races of which the Greek people of historical times descended.

Despite the contradictions and inaccuracies that hinder the work of the student of Ancient texts on music, there is a remarkable correspondence between the precepts Theorists from Aristoxene to Alipio and the musical fragments that survived. two of Among these they lend themselves to be studied in some detail: the epitaph of Seikilos (N A W M 2) and a choir from the Euripides Orestes (N A W M 1).

Both examples illustrate the extent to which theoretical writings can Guide to the understanding of the technical resources of Greek music that Our days. The tonal systems described in literature seem to have application in music And may have been equally fundamental for the more current music that Was not recorded in writing. However, it should be remembered that, if Euripides wrote The music of the Orestes fragment, did so almost a century before Aristoxene and others Begin analyzing the tone system.

Therefore, it is no wonder That this fragment does not harmonize so well with theory. If the song of Seikilos Is more in accordance with the theory, perhaps it is because the theory oriented its composition.

NAUM 2 - SEIKILOS EPITHAPHY

The epitaph of Seikilos, although it is the later of the two examples, will be examined In the first place, since it is complete and presents fewer analytical problems.

The text and music are inscribed on a stele or funerary stone found in Aidine, in Turkey, near Trales, and date, approximately, of century I d. W. All the notes of the eighth mi-mi ', with Sun and C sharp (see example 1.5), enter the The octave species is unequivocally identifiable as To which Cleonides gave the name of phrygia, equivalent to the scale of Ré in the white keys Of a piano. The note that stands out most is the there, the two extreme notes are mi mi'. The note there is the most frequent (eight times), and three of the four sentences begin with she; Mi 'is the highest note of the four sentences and is repeated six times; Mi is the final grade Of the part. Of subsidiary importance are sol, which concludes two of the sentences, but is omitted In the end, and aft, which is the last note of another sentence The importance of there is significant because it is the central note, or Perfect complete system. In Problems, a work attributed to Aristotle (but which may not be entirely his own), states the following: "In all good Music is often repeated, and all good composers turn to the Often to the month, and, if they do leave him, they will soon return to him, They do it with no more notice. " The octave mi-mi ', with two sharps, is a segment of the double octave Si-sï, Identified by Alípio as corresponding to the diatonic iastic tones, a form The phrygian mode, which is also known as the Ionic tone name (see example 1.5 and figure 1.1).

This tones transpose the perfect larger system to an entire tone Above its natural, hypolidic location, in Lá-lá ', in the notation of Alípio. identity Of tones, however, does not seem to be essential to the structure of the piece, since the In it more stand out, there and me, they work in such tones as meson lichanos and Diezeugmenon paranete, both unstable (see example 1.3). In the tactical scale, in contrast, The notes mi, there and mi 'are hypate meson, meson, mese and nete diezeugmenon, All stable notes, and the species of quinta lá-mi ', which dominates most of the play, As well as the species of fourth mi-lá, which prevails at the end, divide the species of Octave in two consonant halves. It was possible to analyze the tonal structure of this short song according to the criteria Explained by theorists. Concerning the ethos of the song, it can be said that Not euphoric or depressive, but rather balanced between the two extremes, which is In harmony with the Ionian tones. In the ordering of the fifteen tonoi according to Alipio, the With proslambanomenos in Si and mese in itself, occupies an intermediate place between The most severe, the hypodoric, with proslambanomenos in F and mese in fa, and the most Acute, the hyperlidium, with proslambanomenos in sun and mese in sun '. The third Would give the listener today, and probably also the one of the time, a Impression of joy, such as the fifth opening upward. The message from the Poem is, in fact, optimistic.

The song of Seikilos had special interest for historians because of the clarity Of its rhythmic notation.

The notes without rhythmic signs above the letters of the alphabet They are equivalent to one unit of duration (chronos protos); The horizontal trace indicates a signal, equivalent to two times, and the horizontal signal with a vertical extension On the right side is a triseme, equivalent to three times. Each verse has twelve times.

NAWM 1 — EURÍPIDES, Orestes (FRAGMENTO)

The fragment of the choir of the Orestes of Euripides reached us in a papyrus of the centuries 1 H or 1a. C. It is estimated that the tragedy is 408 a. C. It is possible that the song has Composed by Euripides himself, who became famous for his accompaniments Musical instruments.

This choir is a stasimon, an ode sung with the choir motionless in its place In the orchestra, semicircular zone between the stage and the audience bench. The papyrus Contains seven verses with musical notation, but only subsisted the central part of the verses; The beginning and the end of each verse therefore come in parentheses in Example 1.6. The verses of the papyrus do not coincide with those of the text.

We arrived forty-two Notes of the musical piece, but many others are missing. Therefore, any interpretation Will have to be based on reconstitution.

Transcription is hampered by the fact that certain alphabetic signs are While others are instrumental, some being enarmonic (or chromatic) and others Diatonic (see example 1.6 and figure 1.2). The present invention presents the intervals Dense as chromatic but, by changing the 'hue', they could also be Transcribed as enharmonics of the denser type. The surviving notes fit into the lithium tones of Alipio.

The three most serious notes of the tetracorde Diezeugmenon are separated by the tone of disjunction of the chromatic meson tetracorde, Which, in turn, arises together with the diatonic hypaton tetracorde, of which only The top two notes are used. The piece thus appears to have been written in a genre mixed.

The species of octave or harmony is apparently the Phrygian, but two harmonies Presented by the musical theorist and philosopher Aristides Quintiliano (fourth century AD) As dating back to Plato's time - the Doric and the Phrygian of its classification - coincide Almost exactly with the scale that we find here, as shown in figure 1.2. In the stasimon the women's choir of Argos begs the gods who have pity Of Orestes, who six days before the play began murdered his mother, Clytemnestra.

He had agreed with his sister Electra to punish his mother for having been unfaithful to his father, Agamemnon. The choir asks Orestes to be freed from the madness that has taken possession of him since The moment of the crime.

The rhythm of poetry, therefore of music, is dominated by Foot that was used in Greek tragedy in excerpts of intense suffering. The syllabus combines three long syllables with two short syllables, Times, as it happens here, one of the long syllables replaced by two shorter syllables, So that, instead of five notes per foot, we have six. In example 1.6, the feet are Separated by vertical bars in the symbols which indicate the 'rhythm of the text' for Each line of the papyrus. The sung text is interrupted by instrumental sounds, sol 'in verses 1 to 4, and mi- -if in verses 5 and 6.

The hypate hypaton (there) is the tone that stands out most, since two of the (Verses 1 and 3, punctuated by the instrumental note sol) end on this note and Several phrases of the melody are organized around the paramese mi '; Both there and me Are stable notes in the lydian tones and are the most serious tones of the two tetracordes Used in the part (see Figure 1.2) ".

THE MUSIC IN ANCIENT ROME

We do not know if the Romans will have been responsible By some important contribution, either to theory or to musical practice. Rome went to get his erudite music to Greece, especially after this region If you take a Roman province in 146 BC. C, and it is possible that this imported culture Has replaced an indigenous, Etruscan or Italian song, of which we know nothing. The Roman version of the aulus, the tibia, and its players, the tibicinos, Important role in religious rites, military music and theater. They stood out Still several other wind instruments.

The tuba, a long, right trumpet, was Also used in religious, state and military ceremonies. The most Characteristic were a large circular, G-shaped trunk, called as, and Its smaller version, the horn. The song must have been present in Almost all public demonstrations. But it also played a Entertainment and education. Many passages from the works of Cicero, Quintilianus And other authors reveal that familiarity with music, or at least With musical terms, was considered to be part of the individual's education Cult, as it was hoped that such an individual could speak and write Greek. In the heyday of the Roman Empire (the first two centuries of the Christian era) Were imported from the Hellenistic world works of art, architecture, music, philosophy, New religious rites and many other cultural assets.

Numerous texts document The popularity of famous virtuosos, the existence of great choirs and orchestras, as well as Such as grand festivals and music contests.

Many emperors were Patrons of the music. Nero aspired to achieve personal fame as a musician. As Economic decline of the empire, in the fourth and fourth centuries, large-scale musical production Naturally expensive, of the previous period eventually disappeared.

To summarize: although there is great uncertainty about the issues of detail, We know that the ancient world bequeathed to the Middle Ages some fundamental ideas Domain of music: (1) a conception of music as essentially consisting of a pure and stripped melodic line; (2) the idea of the melody closely linked to the Words, especially regarding rhythm and metrics; (3) a tradition of interpretation Essentially based on improvisation, with no fixed The interpreter as that created the music again with each execution, although second Conventions and using traditional musical formulas; (4) a philosophy of music that conceived this .arte, not as a combination of In the spiritual and social void of art through art, but rather as a system of Well-ordered, inseparable from the system of nature, and as a force capable of Affect the thought and conduct of man; (5) a scientifically acoustic theory substantiated; (6) a scaling system based on the tetrachords; (7) a musical terminology.

Part of this heritage (Nos. 5, 6 and 7) was specifically Greek; The rest was common For the most part, if not the whole, of the ancient world. Knowledge and ideas in the Music were transmitted, although incompletely and imperfectly, To the West by various means: the Christian church, whose rites and music were originally derived, To a large extent, from Jewish sources, although deprived of the instruments And dances that accompanied them in the temple, the writings of the Fathers of the Church and the Encyclopedic treatises of the early Middle Ages, which dealt with music together With a number of other themes.

The early centuries of the Christian church

Some characteristics of Greek music and oriental mixed societies- -helenistics of the eastern Mediterranean were safely absorbed by the Christian church In its first two or three centuries of existence. But certain aspects of life Ancient music were dismissed.

One of these aspects was the idea of Cultivating the music only for the pleasure that such art provides. And, above all, the Forms and types of music associated with major public events, such as festivals, contests and theatrical performances, as well as music performed in situations More intimate, were by many considered unfit for the Because they disliked the music itself, but because they felt the need To divert the growing number of converts from all that bound them to the His pagan past.

This attitude has even led, at first, to a great deal of Mistrust of all instrumental music.

THE JUDAIC HERITAGE

For a long time the music historians thought That the first Christians had copied the religious services for those of the synagogue Jewish Experts are now more skeptical of this theory, Given that there is no documentary evidence to support this. It is judged until the first Christians will have avoided copying the Jewish services in order to underline the Distinct from their beliefs and rituals.

It is necessary to distinguish between the religious functions of the temple and Of the synagogue. The temple - that is, the second temple in Jerusalem, which existed in the Same place of the first temple of Solomon of 539 a. C. until their destruction by Romans in 70 d. Was a place of public worship. This service consisted mainly of In a sacrifice, usually of a lamb, performed by priests, assisted By Levistas, among whom were several musicians, and in the presence of laymen Israelis.

Sometimes the priest and others also the lay believer ate part of the Roasted animal. These sacrifices were made daily, morning and evening; On sabbath and at festivals there were supplementary public sacrifices. While it was happening The sacrifice, a choir of Levites - with twelve elements, at least - sang a Psalm, different for each day of the week, accompanied by stringed instruments. At the most important festivals, such as the eve of Easter, psalms 113 were sung To 118, who have choruses in alleluia, while the believers made the personal sacrifices, And then a wind instrument similar to aulo came to associate with the String accompaniment.

Believers also prayed in the temple or The temple, but most of the prayers were done at home or on the street. There is a Evident parallel between the sacrifice in the temple and the Christian Mass, which Symbolic sacrifice, in which the priest shared the blood in the form of wine and Believers were associated with the sharing of the body of Christ in the form of bread.

However, The Mass being also a celebration of the Last Supper, also imitating the meal Of Jewish holiday days, such as the ritual Passover meal, which was accompanied by By sung music.

The synagogue was a center of readings and homilies, rather than of sacrifices Or prayers. There, in assemblies or services, the Scriptures were read and commented. Certain readings were made on the normal Sabbath mornings and on the days of Markets, Mondays and Wednesdays, while there were special readings for Festivities for pilgrimages, for the minor festivities, for the days of fasting and For the days of new moon.

After the destruction of the temple, the synagogue service Incorporating elements that replaced the temple sacrifices, but this evolution It was probably too late - at the end of the first century or the second century - To serve as a model for Christians. It seems that the daily chanting of the psalms Only began to take place well after the Christian era began.

What the Christian Liturgy Was due to the synagogue was mainly the practice of the readings associated with a Calendar and public commentary at a gathering place for believers.

As the early Christian church expanded from Jerusalem to Asia Minor And to the West, reaching Africa and Europe, was accumulating musical elements From different areas. The monasteries and churches of Syria played a Important in the development of the singing of psalms and hymns.

These two types of Religious song seem to have spread from Syria, via Byzantium, to Milan and Centers. The song of the hymns is the first documented musical activity Of the Christian church (Mat., 26, 30; Mar., 14, 26).

Around the year 112 Pliny the Younger, Reference to the Christian custom of singing "a song to Christ as if he were a God "in the province of which he was governor, Bithynia, in Asia Minor. The Associated with the act of committing themselves by an oath.

BIZANCY

The Eastern churches, in the absence of a strong central authority, developed Liturgies in different regions. Although manuscripts do not Prior to the ninth century with the music used in these Eastern rites, some inferences Can be made as to the beginnings of religious music in the East. The city of Byzantium (or Constantinople, now Istanbul) was rebuilt by Constantine and designated in 330 like capital of its reunited empire.

Starting Of 395, the date on which the permanent division between the Eastern Empire and From the West, until its conquest by the Turks in 1453, that is, for a period of More than a thousand years, this city remained as capital of the Empire of the East.

For much of this lapse of time Byzantium was the seat of the most powerful government Of Europe and the center of a flourishing culture, combining elements of Hellenistic and Oriental.

The Byzantine music practice left marks on the chant Particularly in the classification of repertoire in eight modes and in a certain Number of songs imported by the West at different times between the Vi and the ninth century. The most perfect and characteristic pieces of medieval Byzantine music were The hymns. One of the most important types is the kontakion strophic, sort of elaboration About a biblical text.

The highest exponent of kontakia composition Was a converted Syrian Jew who carried out his activity in Constantinople in First half of the fifth century, S. Romano Melodius. Other types of hymns Origin in the brief responses (troparia) interspersed between the verses of the psalms And which were based on melodies or musical genres, perhaps from Syria Or Palestine.

These inserts were gaining increasing importance and some Between them became independent hymns, of which there are two Main types: stichera and kanones. The stichera were sung among the Verses of the normal psalms of the office. A kanon was a composition in nine Parts, based on the nine songs or odes of the Bible. Each of these parts.