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Lewis Rowel1
NOTES
1. The most recent of these is Rudolf Westphal's Aristoxenos von Tarent, Melik
und Rhythmik des classischen Hellenentums (Leipzig: A. Abel, 1883, 1893;
reprint Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1965), 2 vols.
2. The Harmonics o f Aristoxenus, trans. and ed. Henry S. Macran (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1902; reprint Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1974), pp. 88-89.
3. Suda or Suidas is the name of the lexicon, not an author; this most important
historical/literary encyclopedia was compiled near the end of the tenth
century.
4. Op. cit.
5. J. F. Mountford, "Aristoxenus," The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd ed.
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970).
6. The texts have been assembled by Westphal, Aristoxenus, Vol. 11, pp. 75-95.
7. Aristides Quintilianus, De musica libri tres, ed. R. P. Winnington-Ingram
(Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1963). See also Rudolph Schafke's German transla-
tion, Von der Musik (Berlin: M. Hesse, 1937). An English summary can be
found in W. H. Stahl, Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts, Vol. I
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1971) pp. 219-227. Readers who
happen upon C. F. A. Williams, The Aristoxenian Theory o f Musical Rhythm
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911) should be aware that it is not
a textual study but an interpretation that attempts to apply the principles of
Greek rhythm to 19th-century music. (Ed. note: An English translation of the
complete De Musica of Aristides Quintilianus is being prepared for the Yale
Music Theory Translation series by Thomas J. Mathiesen.)
8. A detailed history of the text is beyond the scope of this paper. For the
various sources of the Aristoxenus rhythmic texts see a most important
reference: Thomas J. Mathiesen, A Bibliography of Sources for the Study of
Ancient Greek Music (Hackensack, N.J.: Boonin, 1974) items 46 (Morelli),
49 (Feussner), 50 (Bartels), 52 (Marquard), and 54 (Westphal, cited above).
Feussner (Aristoxenus, Grundziige .,der Rhythmik, ein Bruchstiick, in
berichtigter Urschrift mit deutscher Ubersetzung [Hanau: C. F. Edler, 18401
includes Morelli's critical apparatus as well as his own more extensive col-
lection of variant readings; Westphal's critical apparatus appears o n pp. CCIV-
CCVI of Vol. 11.
9. Cf. Cleonides, "Harmonic Introduction," in Source Readings in Music
History, selected and annotated by Oliver Strunk (New York: W. W. Norton,
1950) pp. 34-46. For the Greek text see Karl von Jan's Musici scriptores
graeci (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1895; reprint Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1962)
pp. 167-207.
10. Ibid., 55 and 38.
11. The terms rhythmizomenon and aisthesis have been retained for the sub-
sequent discussions of their very specialized meanings but discarded in the
translation. See also notes 17 and 22.
12. Especially in Aristotle's De Anima and De Sensu, and Theophrastus' De
Sensibus (for full citations see note 13).
13. The following discussion draws o n the following sources: Aristotle, On the
Soul, Parva Naturalia, On Breath, trans. W. S. Hett (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1936, rev. 1957); Aristotle, De Anima, ed. with
intro. and commentary by Sir David Ross (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961);
and G. M. Stratton, Theophrastus and the Greek Physiological Psychology
before Aristotle (London: Allen & Unwin, 1917).
14. For a comprehensive catalog of the uses of the word pvOpdc and an account
of its semsntic development see Robert Christopher Ross, "'PvOp6c: A
History of its Connotations," Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1972.
15. I, 13.
16. 11, 1.
17. aibOqorc is derived from the verb aloOdvopar (to perceive, apprehend by the
senses, understand).
18. I, 19.
19. On the Soul, 11, 6.
20. Book A , 2.
21. Westphal, Vol. 11, pp. 77-85.
22. Rhythmizomenon is a present passive participle in form, in the nominative
singular, neuter gender, and is regularly derived from the verb buOp&w, (to
bring into measure, rhythmicize). Its literal meaning is thus "that which is
rhythmed." puOpdc is to pvOpddpevov just as form is to matter, active
principle to passive substance. Other similar pairs of terms appear frequently
in rhythmic theory, either derived regularly or by analogy: o x f i ~ a l
oxqparr<dpevov (formlthat which is formed) and ~ i v q o r s l ~ r v o d p e v o(motion1
v
that which is moved).
23. Melos (melodic substance) should not be confused with melodia (melody). In
3 9 Aristoxenus clearly identifies melos as one of the three rhythmizomena.
24. Enrhythmic (in rhythm), eurhythmic (good rhythm), and rhythmic are
synonyms;arrhythmic means "out of rhythm, nonrhythmic."
25. Hermosmenon, translated here as "the harmonious," is a parallel term from
Greek harmonic theory and signifies the substance that is organized according
to the principles of harmony.
26. oqpeiov is an important word in Greek rhythmic theory. Its literal meaning
is "sign, mark, signal." I believe that its musical application derives from its
usage in mathematics and geometry as a "point." There are two applications
in B: (1) [ K W ? ~ U E W C ] or,peiOv, lit. a "point of [bodily] movement," which I
have consistently translated as a "unit of movement," and (2) the oqpeia that
represent the units of rhythm, small time durations (referring generally to
the minimal unit of primary time, ~ p d v o c n p i k o c ) or-as in 5 18-19-the
components of the foot: arsis and thesis.
27. It seems simpler not to translate the names of the multiples of the basic unit.
Seme is an obvious derivation from oqpeiov. These are the durations men-
tioned in B: the diseme (2), triseme (3), tetraseme (4), pentaseme ( 9 ,
hexaseme (6), heptaseme (7), and octaseme (8). See 5 31-36.
28. There are several textual questions in this passage, and its sense is not
immediately apparent. I take it to mean the following: we recognize chronos
protos not because it is the shortest musical duration that can be per-
ceived but because of its appropriateness to the individual units of speech,
music, and movement-the syllables, notes, and units of movement. It is a
relative, not an absolute, standard of measurement. In line 29 of Westphal's
text, I follow Feussner's o t j p a ippaivdv in preference to Westphal's ( o b d
orjpa or,patrov.
29. p e ~ a p o h i , following, Westphal's emendation (although most of the older
sources read pehonoiih).
30. Rhythmopoeia (rhythmic composition), according to Aristides (I, 19), was
divided into the same three categories as melopoeia: lepsis (choice), chresis
(usage), and mixis (mixture). Lepsis refers specifically to the selection of
characteristic rhythms, chresis to the appropriate arrangement of the arses
and theses, and mixis to the artful combining of rhythms. Rhythmopoeia and
melopoeia share also the same three styles (tropoi):the systaltic (contract-
ing), diastaltic (expanding), and hesychastic (soothing). The employment of
these tropoi imparted the characteristic ethos to rhythmic and melodic
composition.
31. III,60, line 10, through III,61, line 3. Cf. Cleonides 5 5.
32. The text of this passage is badly mangled. Westphal (in 0 14, lines 26 and 27)
omits the phrase ~ a ndhiv i 76 piv S d ~ o v o vh o w B e ~ o v76
, 66 x p G p a o h B e ~ o v .
It has all the earmarks of a gloss, but I have restored it, since it adds the
example that clinches the meaning.
33. Here I have omitted the sentence n? 6; o6vBe~oq~ a nr, i h o 6 O e ~ o cb bnb pE)v
sivoq SiqpqpCvoq, bnb S i ~ i v o qh6KLipe70q 6 v ("How composite and how
incomposite [being] that the one is divisible by a certain thing, the other
indivisible by a certain thing"). I strongly suspect that it is another gloss, this
time adding little to the meaning of the text.
34. no6q (foot) has about the same range of meanings as the English "footm-a
human or animal foot, a base for anything, a unit of length, a foot in prosody.
35. Aristoxenus uses 76 hlvw (the upward) and 76 K ~ T W(the downward) in
preference to the more familiar termsarsis and thesis.
36. The opposition between bvepdc (rhythm) and hpdpdq (number) plays upon
the phonetic and accentual resemblances between the two words, despite the
difference of the radical vowel: to be hprOpdc is to be hp&pdc! This passage
emphasizes that the divisions of proper rhythm were relative, few in number,
and in functional relationship to the structure of the whole; the divisions of
the numbers were absolute and included many more possibilities (cf. 58).
Apparently rhythmopoeia is closer to the modern concept of rhythm,
rhythmos closer to what we call meter.
37. Aristides lists two irrational choreics among the feet resulting from mixed
genera (I, 17): the iamboid (a long in arsis and two in thesis) and the
trochoid (two in arsis and a long in thesis). Aristoxenus is citing the first of
these in which the arsis is more than one but less than two of the units in the
thesis.
38. For pE'Aoc Feussner has pE'poc (part), but the evidence of the sense of the
passage as well as the evidence of most of the texts are on Westphal's side.
39. I take this passage to mean that any component of music-while it can in one
sense be considered rational in that it can be measured by some absolute
number-becomes rational in a special, musical sense only by becoming an
actual part of melody or rhythm and can thus be identified as a functioning
component within the system. A rhythmic figure of seven beats can be
arbitrarily broken down into three proportions (4:3,5:2,6:1), as Aristoxenus
points out in $ 35, but none of the three proportions has a specific function
among the accepted genera of rhythm. Hence it is rational only with respect
to the combination of the numbers.
40. Aristoxenus (Harmonics I, 16, 19-31) and Cleonides ($5) agree on the five
differences applying to intervals: in magnitude, in genus, in the symphonic as
opposed to the diaphonic (consonant/dissonant), in composition (incom-
posite/composite), and in proportion (rational/irrational). The differences of
the feet set forth in B $ 22 are obviously patterned after these.
41. E.g., the difference between the simple spondee (long in thesis, long in arsis)
and thegreater anapest (long in thesis, two shorts in arsis).
42. By the first of these principles, thegreater anapest (long in thesis, two shorts
in arsis) differs from the lesser anapest (two shorts in arsis, long in thesis). By
the second principle, the composite foot known as the trochaic bacchic
(long-short in arsis, short-long in thesis), a coupled foot of the iambic [2:1]
genus, would differ from the greater ionic (two longs in arsis, two shorts in
thesis) and the lesser ionic (two shorts in arsis, two longs in thesis), both
coupled feet of the dactylic [1:1] genus; all are a hexaseme in magnitude,
to use Aristoxenus' terms.
43. Dactylic here refers to the proportion 1 :1, not to that metric foot which is
the reverse of the anapest. The scheme is as follows:
Genus
- Proportion Name of the Proportion
dactylic 1:l equal
iambic 2: 1 duple
paeonic 3:2 hemiolic
Aristoxenus did not consider the epitritic (4:3) proportion enrhythmic, but
apparently certain other authorities did.
44. In other words, 3 = 2: 1. The scheme continues: 4 = 2:2 and 3: 1 ;5 = 4: 1 and
3:2; 6 = 3:3, 4:2, and 5 : l ; 7 = 4:3, 5:2,and 6:1;8 =4:4,5:3,6:2,and 7.1,
etc.
45. Feussner must have been asleep here, substituting-on no apparent textual
authority-rpmhaoiou (triple) for rerparrhaoiov (quadruple) in both instances.