Ancient Greek Music

Rating:
Summary: Varieties of Ancient Greek Music
Review: First published in 1992. Written by a classical philologist on ancient Greek literature who is at the same time familiar with musicology. This interdisciplinarity makes this book invaluable, that is to say, there realizes an excellent coexistence of the detailed musical descriptions and strict historicity of ancient Greece. Firstly, the author outlines the musical situations in Greek society. Secondly, he exhibits the structure of 'aulos' like our oboe that was one of the most important instruments of ancient Greece. One can get to know in detail its shape, temperament and somewhat bizarre interface. There are also the explanations of Kithara, Harp and Percussion. Thirdly, the author very concretely explains the ancient Greek system of rhythm a bit different from that of European music. Fourthly, he seems much more faithfully to describe the theory of tetrachord in which there were several kinds of modulation besides ordinary 'transposition' than Xenakis, although as for Iannis Xenakis it is of course significant to have reinstated this theory in the modern way. By the way, Chapter X provides thirty fragmentary transcriptions of ancient Greek music (e.g. Euripides' Orestes), so one can actually play and sing their songs. Finally, the author reveals the history of ancient Greek music, that would be interesting for anyone, because here we will have known the historical facts of the aesthetical struggle between the generations of those times. Their new trend the author qualifies as "exharmonic", which sounds better and far more precise than the so-called 'chromaticism' in a wider musical sense, although it is neologized mainly so as to avoid confusion between ancient Greek and contemporary meanings of 'chromatic'. In such ways the various aspects of ancient Greek music will emerge with high resolution through this marvelous book.

Rating:
Summary: Varieties of Ancient Greek Music
Review: Published in 1992. Written by a classical philologist on ancient Greek literature who is at the same time familiar with musicology. This interdisciplinarity makes this book invaluable, that is to say, there realizes an excellent coexistence of the detailed musical descriptions and strict historicity of ancient Greece. Firstly, the author outlines the musical situations in Greek society. Secondly, he exhibits the structure of "aulos" like our oboe that was one of the most important instruments of ancient Greece. One can get to know in detail its shape, temperament and somewhat bizarre interface. There are also the explanations of Kithara, Harp and Percussion. Thirdly, the author very concretely explains the ancient Greek system of rhythm a bit different from that of European music. Fourthly, he seems much more faithfully to describe the theory of tetrachord in which there were several kinds of modulation besides ordinary 'transposition' than Xenakis, although as for Xenakis it is of course significant to have reinstated this theory in the modern way. By the way, Chapter X provides fifty fragmentary transcriptions of ancient Greek music (Euripides' Orestes, etc.), so one can actually play and sing their songs. Finally, the author reveals the history of ancient Greek music, that would be interesting for anyone, because here we will have known the historical facts of the aesthetical struggle between the generations of those times. Their new trend the author qualifies as "exharmonic", which sounds better and far more precise than so-called 'chromaticism' in a wider musical sense, although it is neologized mainly so as to avoid confusion between ancient Greek and contemporary meanings of 'chromatic'. In such ways the various aspects of ancient Greek music will emerge with high resolution through this marvelous book.