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Music has been a part of human cultures for as long as humans have had cultures.
The Greek and Roman cultures form much of the basis for a lot of our modern
education system, philosophy, government, and, yes, even our own culture. As a culture
and society, we tend to hold these civilizations in high esteem for their accomplishments
and great thinkers. And each of them had their own unique relationship with the art of
music.

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Greek education system were often built on music to purify and develop the body. Music
played an imtegral part of boy’s education to develop citizens capable of participating in
Greek society and worthy of receiving benefits.

If one asked parents today why they would send their children to school, the
answer would be standard. They would send them to get an education that would enable
them initially to enter a university, which with some luck might help them eventually
to earn a comfortable and financially rewarding life. The answer that one would
not get is that they would send them to school to develop respect for the laws and
sensitiveness for the prerequisites of living in a cohesive social environment.

Education system of S and A included Music in their curricula. No civilization held music in as
high esteem as classical Greece. Music dominated religious, aesthetic, moral and scientific life.
To be called unmusical was to be labelled ‘brutish’. The primary role of music in Greece was to
build character and health. Greeks believed that music puts us in touch with the vibrations of the
universe

Thinking rationally, each city-state might be expected to adopt an organization to alleviate the
factors in which each were disadvantaged. In what must be the fairest system of education yet
proposed, all children in ancient Greece received the same schooling to the age of twenty. Early
education began with physical education—gymnastics, and so on, followed by six years of
training in music, so that the soul may learn harmony, rhythm and grace.

Athens led the forefront of the musical as well as the educational focuses. Being the cultural and
educational center at that time, it would only make sense. In Athens, the great philosophers such
as plato and Aristotle studied a nd theorized about music, further regulating the art and more
importantly makng it a part of the society.

7 Pythagoras, fmous for the Pythagorean theorem, is also responsible for the development of
octave. He also has extensive theories about music involving nature and morality as well as
music’s association with poetry and human morality that were widely accepted11
Plato in particular strongly stressed musics role in education, he himself ing a teacher,. He
believed music education,both vocal and instrumental, was necessary to strengthen the minds of
his students.

Platos’ republic-Focus is justice and justice for plato is the right way to live . Right way to
conduct one’s life.

Training of leaders (guardian) thorugh gymnastics and music. Gymnastics=training the body,
music= enlivens the pirit to more inclined in virtue and moe noble things in life.

Just society=just person

Harmonious adjustments of these two pinciples by the proper degree of tension and relaxation of
each.

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Then he who blends gymnastics with music and applies them most suitable to the soul is the man
whom we should rightly pronounce to be the most perfect and harmonious musician, far rather
than the one who brngs the strings into union with one another.

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Being a student of Plato, aristptle followed these ideas while inuting his own.

Aristotle starts by claiming that music is pleasureable and that education means habituating the
young to love and hat in the right way

1. Aristotle's Politics theorizes on how music affects behavior.

a. Since music imitates certain passions, it can arouse those passions as
well.
b. Habitual listening to certain types of music can shape a person's
character.
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As Roman pressure finally corroded the gree Empire, Greek music at that time, fell with it and
was all but forgotten. Even with the great development made, music and music eduation was
completely at the mercy of it’s country’s well being.Rsponsible for the downfall of Greece as
well as taking its place as the Great empire of the time was none other than, Rome

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Boethius
 summarized ancient Greek thought on music in his De Institutione Musica (The Principles of
Music), in which he described the Pythagorian unity of mathematics and music, and discussed
the Platonic concept of the relationship between music and society. Liberal education in the time
of Boethius and during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance consisted principally of the study
of four mathematical subjects: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

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During the Middle Ages of Ancient Greece -as defined in the 5th century AD by
Martianus Capella, the seven liberal arts were divided into an advanced division –the
quadrivium, and a lower division –the trivium. Here, the word ‘arts’ is not as the word is
understood today. In classical antiquity, the liberal arts denoted the education ‘proper’ to
a free person (as opposed to a slave), a curriculum that imparts general knowledge and
develops the student’s rational thought and intellectual capabilities, unlike the
professional, vocational and technical curricula emphasizing specialization.
It was the Greeks who considered music as one of the four branches of mathematics. In
classical Greece a master’s degree required completion of the quadrivium. The
quadrivium included arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, and these subjects
were seen as wholly mathematical in so much that maths is concerned with quantity (for
which we have arithmetic) and magnitude at rest (for which we have geometry),
and magnitude moving (for which we have spherics as evident in astronomy). Music was
included because it considered the relations between quantities, that is, it dealt with
the ratios inherent in melody and harmony. Music was considered a mathematical
science, so the quadrivium therefore was all mathematical science. Incidentally, the
lower ‘trivium’ preceded study of the quadrivium, and consisted of grammar, rhetoric
and logic (or dialectic as it was called at the time and some would say –sadly missing
from decision making and thought clarification today).

After the decline of the roman empire, the Christian church became the main
unifying force of culture in Europe
St. Augustine- music’s ability to arouse strong feelings (confessions)
Christianity from Jewish roots- assimilated several traditions
Inhabitants (Italy, france an Germany) developed a repertory of sacred melodies with latin
texts
Gregorian chant ( Frankish monks and nuns)