Aristoxenus and PtolemyA look into Greek Music Theory
A comparison of two significant Greek composers, Aristoxenus and Ptolemy, whose surviving works influenced the modern study of Greek music theory as it was known in their time. ... The modern conceptual meaning of the phrase “music theory” is foreign to the writings of Aristoxenus and Ptolemy. It is quite unlikely that any of the authors, or this time, intended his work for practicing musicians or was concerned with actual pieces of music. When scholars expect specific sorts of analytical details in a “music theory” treatise they impose a concept on the treatises that is foreign to their purpose. Ancient Greek music theory is not primarily interested in the analysis of pieces of music or in explaining compositional or performance practice. ... Aristoxenus was certainly one of the most influential thinkers in Athens of the late fourth century B. ... Aristoxenus marked a turning point in Greek musical theory by being the first to base theory on analysis of musical practice. In his two existing treatises, Elements of Rhythm and Elements of Harmony, he systematized Greek music by clear definitions of terms and orderly arrangement of scales. Aristoxenus was concerned with the philosophical definitions and categories necessary to establish a complete and correct view of the musical reality of scales and tonoi, two primary elements of musical composition. Aristoxenus uses important differences among continuous and intervallic motion of the voice. ... When the human voice moves its position continuously “so as to seem to be nowhere stationary,” Aristoxenus defines the result as speaking. But when the voice moves from specific positions to other specific positions, that is, it stands upon one pitch after another, “stepping of the positions bounded by the pitches”1 Aristoxenus observes that “this phenomenon is present not in speaking but in singing. ... Aristoxenus defines the note as, “a falling of the voice on one pitch. ... ” Building on his definition of a note, Aristoxenus observes that an interval is bounded by two notes of different pitch while a scale comprises more than one interval. Aristoxenus stresses the strength of intervals by formulating five distinctions-magnitude, consonant or dissonant, simple or compound, genus, and rational or irrational.