Abstract The present paper employs Aristotle’s notion of hylomorphism to explain the mimēsis of ethical properties in instrumental music. It argues that melodies, as temporal movements, resemble actions, while scales ( harmoniai ) function as forms that bestow melodies with ethical qualities – mean degrees of emotions. As these mean degrees are characteristic of virtues, music is held to be mimetic because appropriate melodies are perceived as representing virtuous actions. Music is then seen as an auxiliary in the acquisition of virtue, as it habituates children, who are naturally inclined to emotional extremes, to feel appropriate emotions. The advantage of this reading is that it clarifies how non-verbal music can be understood as mimetic and possessing educational powers without a narrative that explains how one should evaluate different situations from a virtuous point of view. This reading also explains how, for Aristotle, music is mimetic in its own right, aside from its causal emotional effects.
Abstract On the basis of book two in Plato’s Laws , Gregory Scott argues that in Aristotle’s Poetics , ἁρµονία and ῥυθµός never (or almost never) designate abstract or temporal notions, but rather concrete notions, namely music and dance (or orderly bodily movement), respectively. Although his thesis is stimulating and some of his arguments are relevant, in this article I instead offer a different thesis. I show that, in these two ancient works, ἁρµονία refers rather to intonation, that is to say the production of properly musical sounds, whether vocal or instrumental, and ῥυθµός to the order in a change. Crucially, this change may be of the bodily figure, σχῆµα , that is to say attitude, posture or gesture, or of pitch, vocal or instrumental, that is to say the melody.
Abstract The music notation of Vienna Papyrus G 29825 a/b recto ( DAGM № 9) is used to recontextualize Claudius Ptolemy’s thetic (‘positional’) view of music as an integral component of a two-sided music system where octave species and instrument tunings are used in conjunction with notation keys and modulations as part of a consistent musical tradition that lasted at least six centuries. This thetic approach is applied to a comprehensive modal analysis of surviving ancient Greek melodies to demonstrate that mesē by position is the most commonly used note in a substantial proportion of ancient Greek music, resulting in more detailed practical definition of Greek ‘mode’ than has been previously understood.
Abstract A small aulos from the Pompeii region that was recently published without experimentally validating the proposed interpretation is evaluated by means of a carefully designed functional model. Possible playing techniques are discussed, demonstrating how the precise design of the instruments may have substituted for a mechanical positive-locator device for the speaker hole ( sŷrinx ), how a harmonically meaningful note is obtainable that the mathematical model had not predicted, and how the Mixolydian hypothesis holds out in practice.
