The Modes of Ancient Greek Music Part 13

The inscription of which these lines form part was discovered by Mr.

W. M. Ramsay, and was first published by him in the _Bulletin de correspondance h.e.l.lenique_ for 1883, p. 277. It professes to be the work of a certain [Greek: Seikelos]. The discovery that the smaller letters between the lines are musical notes was made by Dr. Wessely.

The Seikelos inscription, as Dr. O. Crusius has shown (_Philologus_ for 1893, LII. p. 161), is especially valuable for the light which it throws upon ancient rhythm. The quant.i.ty of the syllables and the place of the _ictus_ is marked in every case, and we are able therefore to divide the melody into bars, which may be represented as follows:

[Symbols: V?--I v %.)..s 10-I? L, I/4 i v^%., L)? % i:--%. i v1/4d]

[Greek: hoson | zes phai-| nou; meden | holos sy ly-| pou; pros oli-|]

[Symbols: " s 10 V1/4.0,? V? V V Lo V V V L.? I/4.?] [Greek: gon esti to | zen; to telos | ho chronos apai-| tei.] _The hymns recently discovered at Delphi._

Since these sheets were in type the materials for the study of ancient Greek music have received a notable accession. The French archaeologists who are now excavating on the site of Delphi have found several important fragments of lyrical poetry, some of them with the music noted over the words, as in the examples already known. The two largest of these fragments have been shown to belong to a single inscription, containing a hymn to Apollo, which dates in all probability from the early part of the third century B.C. Of the other fragments the most considerable is plausibly referred to the first century B.C. These inscriptions have been published in the _Bulletin de correspondance h.e.l.lenique_ (viii-xii. pp. 569-610), with two valuable commentaries by M. Henri Weil and M. Theodore Reinach.

The former scholar deals with the text, the latter chiefly with the music.

The music of the hymn to Apollo is written in the vocal notation. The metre is the cretic or paeonic ([Symbols:]), and the key, as M.

Reinach has shown, is the Phrygian--the scale of C minor, with the conjunct tetrachord _c--d[Symbol: flat]--d--f_.

In the following transcription I have followed M. Reinach except in a few minor points. When two notes are sung to the same syllable the vowel or diphthong is repeated, as in the fragment of the Orestes (p.

132): but I have thought it best to adhere to the modern method.

[Music: A [Symbols: o r 4] [Greek: [Ton kithari]sei kly-ton pai-da me-ga-lou [Dios a-]]

[Symbols: oruh.u4r] [Greek: eidete pa]r' a-kro-ni-phe ton-de pa-gon, am[broth' hos]]]

[Music: [Symbols: #1? ZS A rty r M Y M] [Greek: pa-si thna-tois pro-phai-neis [logia, tr]i-po-da man-]

[Symbols: 1M I O r O 4ruh.0] [Greek: tei-on hos hei[les, echthros hon e-phr]ou-rei dra-kon;]

[Symbols: 4:I U!or 4 u] [Greek: ho-te te[oisi belesin e-tr]e-sas ai-o-lon he-lik-tan[]

[Symbols: I omio r 4] [Greek:] sy-rig-math' hi-eis a-tho-pe[ut' eba;]

[Symbols: U ior.t. U]

[Greek: nyn] de Ga-la-tan a-res..n epe-ras' a-sep-t[os

[Symbols:] [Greek: sal-li-o](?) [Greek: gen-nan..n thalos phi-lon]

[Symbols:] [Greek: da-moi-o lo....ron e-phor..]

[Symbols:] [Greek: te-on k.. e-nai k..]]

(about 12 bars wanting.)] [Music: B [Symbols: I M G M Th I M] [Greek: Helik]ona ba-thy-den-dron hai la[chete Dios eri]bro-mou]

[Symbols: I M U M Th Th I M I] [Greek: thy-ga-tres eu-o-le[noi]

mo-le[te] syn-o-mai-mon hi-na]

[Symbols: M U M U M W Th G W] [Greek: Phoi-bon o-dai-si mel-pse-te chry-se-o-ko-man;]

[Symbols: Th o Ps o Th o Th I M Th] [Greek: hos a-na di-ko-ry-ni-a Par-nas-si-dos tas-de pet-]

[Symbols: I M U M U M I Th I Th G o Ps G] [Greek:-ras he-dra-na [me]ta kly-tais Del-phi-sin Kas-ta-li-dos]

[Symbols: o Ps o Th G L M] [Greek: eu-u-drou na-mat' e-pi-ni-se-tai, Del-phon a-na]

[Symbols: G M I Th I M Ph G] [Greek: [pr]o-na man-tei-on e-phe-pon pa-gon. [ithi] klyta]] [Music: [Symbols:] [Greek: me-ga-lo-po-lis Ath-this, eu-chai-si phe-ro-ploi-o nai-]

[Symbols:] [Greek:-ou-sa Tri-to-ni-dos da[ped]on a-thrauston, ha-gi-]

[Symbols:] [Greek:-ois de bo-moi-sin Ha-phais-tos ai-thei ne-on]

[Symbols:] [Greek: me-ra tau-ron; ho-mou de nin A-raps at-mos es Y-

[Symbols:] [Greek:-lym-pon a-na-kid-na-tai; li-gy de lo-tos bre-mon]

[Symbols:] [Greek: ai-o-lois [me]le-sin o-dan kre-kei; chry-sea d']

[Symbols:] [Greek: ha-dy-throu[s ki]-tha-ris hym-noi-sin a-na-mel-pe-tai;]

[Symbols:] [Greek: ho de [the]-o-ron pro-pas es-mos Ath-thi-da lach[on]]] The notes employed in this piece of music cover about an octave and a half, viz. from Parypate Hypaton to the Chromatic Lichanos Hyperbolaion. In two of the tetrachords, viz. Synemmenon and Hyperbolaion, the intervals employed are Chromatic (or possibly Enharmonic): in the tetrachord Diezeugmenon they are Diatonic, while in the tetrachord Meson the Lichanos, which would distinguish the genus, is wanting. On the other hand there are two notes which do not belong to the Phrygian key as. .h.i.therto known, viz. [Symbol: O], a semitone below Mese, and [Symbol: B], a semitone below Nete Diezeugmenon. If we a.s.sume that we have before us Chromatic of the standard kind ([Greek: chroma toniaion]), the complete scale is--

[Music: [Symbols:]]

If the intervals are Enharmonic, or Chromatic of a different variety, the moveable notes (in this case [Symbols: A K] and [Symbols: 4 3E]) will be somewhat flatter.

M. Reinach is particularly happy in tracing the successive changes of genus and key in the course of the poem. The opening pa.s.sage, as he shows, is Diatonic. With the mention of the Gaulish invasion ([Greek: Galatan ares]) we come upon the group [Symbols: U 4] (_g--a[Symbol: b]--a_) of the Chromatic tetrachord Hyperbolaion. At the beginning of the second fragment the intervals are again Diatonic, up to the point where the poet turns to address the Attic procession ([Greek: ithi, klyta megalopolis Aththis, k.t.l.]). From this point the melody lies chiefly in the Chromatic tetrachord Synemmenon [Symbols: M AK r]

(_c--d[Symbol: o]--d--f_)--a modulation into the key of the sub-dominant as well as a change of genus. At the end of the fragment the poet returns to the Diatonic and the original key. With regard to the _mode_--the question which mainly concerns us at present--M.

Reinach's exposition is clear and convincing. He appeals to three criteria,--(1) the impression which the music makes on a modern ear; (2) the endings of the several phrases and divisions; and (3) the note which recurs most frequently. All these criteria point to a Minor mode. The general impression made by the Diatonic parts of the melody is that of the key of _C_ minor: the rhythmical periods end on one or other of the notes _c-e[Symbol: flat]-g_, which form the chord of that key: and the note _c_ distinctly predominates. This conclusion, it need hardly be said, is in entire agreement with the main thesis of the preceding pages.

The symbols [Symbol: O] and [Symbol: B], which do not belong to the Phrygian scale, are explained by M. Reinach in a way that is in a high degree plausible and suggestive. In other keys, he observes, the symbol [Symbol: O] stands for the note _b_ (natural). Thus it holds the place of 'leading-note' (_note sensible_) to the keynote, _c_. It has. .h.i.therto been supposed that the standard scale of Greek music, the octave _a-a_, differed from the modern Minor in the want of a leading note. Here, however, we find evidence that such a note was known in practice, if not as a matter of theory, to Greek musicians.

If this is so, it strongly confirms the view that _c_ was in fact the key-note of the Phrygian scale. The symbol [Symbol: B], which occurs only once, answers to our _g_[Symbol: flat], and may be similarly explained as a leading note to _g_, the dominant of the key. We infer, with M. Reinach, that the scale employed in the hymn is not only like, but identical with, the scale of our Minor.

The fragment marked C by M. Weil resembles the hymn to Apollo in subject, and also in metre, but cannot belong to the same work. The melody is written in the Lydian key, with the notation which we have hitherto known as the instrumental, but which is now shown to have been used, occasionally at least, for vocal music. The fragment is as follows:[Music: [Symbols]

[Greek: t' e-pi te-les-ko-pon tan[de] di-ko-ry-phon klei-tyn hym[in]

Pi-erides ai ni-pho-bo-lous mel-pe-te de Py-thi-on Phoi-bon on e-tik-te L[a-to]]

M. Reinach connects this fragment with a shorter one, also in the Lydian key, but not in paeonic metre, viz.--

[Music: [Symbols]

[Greek:.. thon es-che ma ... the-ra kat-ek-ta.... syrigm' a-per..]]

M. Reinach thinks that the mode may be the so-called Hypo-lydian (the octave _f - f_). The materials are surely too scanty for any conclusion as to this.

The fragment D, the only remaining piece which M. Reinach has found it worth while to transcribe, is also written in the instrumental notation of the Lydian key. The metre is the glyconic. The fragment is as follows:--

[Music: [Symbols]

[Greek: ton man-to-sy[na klyton] o-leth' hy-gra ch ... despoti Kre-sion.. ai nae-tas Delphon]] [Music: [Symbols]

[Greek: ...in ap-tais-tous Bak-chou [thiasous] ...te prospolois]]