Aristoxenus

Aristoxenus of Tarentum(Greek: $Ἀριστόξενος$ $ὁ Ταραντῖνος$ ;bornc.375,fl.335 BC) was aGreek Peripatetic philosopher,and a pupil ofAristotle.Most of his writings, which dealt withphilosophy,ethicsandmusic,have been lost, but one musical treatise,Elements of Harmony(Greek: $Ἁρμονικὰ στοιχεῖα$ ;Latin:Elementa harmonica), survives incomplete, as well as some fragments concerningrhythmandmeter.TheElementsis the chief source of our knowledge ofancient Greek music.^[1]

Life

Aristoxenus was born atTarentum(in modern-dayApulia,southern Italy) inMagna Graecia,and was the son of a learned musician named Spintharus (otherwise Mnesias).^[2]He learned music from his father, and having then been instructed byLamprus of ErythraeandXenophilusthePythagorean,he finally became a pupil ofAristotle,^[3]whom he appears to have rivaled in the variety of his studies.

According to theSuda,^[2]he heaped insults on Aristotle after his death, because Aristotle had designatedTheophrastusas the nextheadof thePeripatetic school,a position which Aristoxenus himself had coveted, having achieved great distinction as a pupil of Aristotle. This story is, however, contradicted byAristocles,who asserts that he only ever mentioned Aristotle with the greatest respect. Nothing is known of his life after the time of Aristotle's departure, apart from a comment inElementa Harmonicaconcerning his works.^[4]^[5]

Overview of his works

His writings were said to have consisted of four hundred and fifty-three books,^[2]and dealt withphilosophy,ethicsandmusic. Although his final years were in thePeripatetic school,and he hoped to succeed Aristotle on his death, Aristoxenus was strongly influenced byPythagoreanism,and was only a follower of Aristotle in so far as Aristotle was a follower ofPlatoandPythagoras.Thus, as Gibson tells us: "the various philosophical influences"^[6]^(pp ...)^{[page needed]} on Aristoxenus included growing up in the profoundly Pythagorean city ofTaras(Tarentum), home also of the two PythagoreansArchytasandPhilolaus,and his father's (Pythagorean) musical background, which he inculcated into his son. Gibson tells us that, after the influence of his father:

The second important influence on Aristoxenos' development wasPythagoreanism:Born inTarentum,the city in which bothArchytasandPhilolaoshad lived, it can be seen that the extended period of time that Aristoxenus spent in a Pythagorean environment made an indelible impact on the subject matter of his writings. Such titles as "Pythagorou bios", "Peri Pythaorou kai ton guorimon autou" and "Peri tou Pythagorikou biou" indicate Aristoxenus' interest in the society. Furthermore, his works on education show evidence of Pythagorean influence, particularly in their tendency towards conservatism. Most importantly, speculation on the structure of music had its origin in a Pythagorean environment. Its focus was on the numerical relationship between notes and, at its furthest stretch, developed into a comparison between musical, mathematical and cosmological structures.^[6]^(pp 3–4)

However, Aristoxenus disagreed with earlier Pythagorean musical theory in several respects, building on their work with ideas of his own. The only work of his that has come down to us is the three books of theElements of Harmony,an incomplete musical treatise. Aristoxenus' theory had an empirical tendency; in music he held that the notes of the scale are to be judged, not as earlier Pythagoreans had believed, by mathematical ratio, but by the ear.^[7]Vitruviusin hisDe architectura^[8]paraphrases the writings of Aristoxenus on music. His ideas were responded to and developed by some later theorists such asArchestratus,and his place in the methodological debate between rationalists and empiricists was commented upon by such writers asPtolemais of Cyrene.

The Pythagorean theory that thesoulis a 'harmony' of thefour elementscomposing the body, and therefore mortal ( "nothing at all," in the words ofCicero^[9]), was ascribed to Aristoxenus (fr. 118–121 Wehrli) andDicaearchus.This theory is comparable to the one offered bySimmias in Plato'sPhaedo.

Elementa harmonica

In hisElements of Harmony(alsoHarmonics), Aristoxenus attempted a complete and systematic exposition ofmusic.The first book contains an explanation of thegeneraofGreek music,and also of theirspecies;this is followed by some general definitions of terms, particularly those ofsound,interval,andsystem.^[10]In the second book Aristoxenus divides music into seven parts, which he takes to be: the genera, intervals, sounds, systems, tones or modes, mutations, andmelopoeia.^[10]The remainder of the work is taken up with a discussion of the many parts of music according to the order which he had himself prescribed.^[10]

While it is often held among modern scholars that Aristoxenus rejected the opinion of thePythagoreansthat arithmetic rules were the ultimate judge of intervals and that in every system there must be found a mathematical coincidence before such a system can be said to be harmonic,^[10]Aristoxenus made extensive use of arithmetic terminology, notably to define varieties ofsemitonesanddiesesin his descriptions of the various genera.^[11]

In his second book he asserted that "by the hearing we judge of the magnitude of an interval, and by the understanding we consider its many powers."^[10]And further he wrote, "that the nature of melody is best discovered by the perception of sense, and is retained by memory; and that there is no other way of arriving at the knowledge of music;" and though, he wrote, "others affirm that it is by the study of instruments that we attain this knowledge;" this, he wrote, is talking wildly, "for just as it is not necessary for him who writes an Iambic to attend to the arithmetical proportions of the feet of which it is composed, so it is not necessary for him who writes a Phrygian song to attend to the ratios of the sounds proper thereto."^[10]However, this should not be construed as meaning that he postulated a simplistic system of harmony resembling that of modern twelve tone theory, and especially not an equally tempered system. As he urges us to consider, "(a)fter all, with which of the people who argue about the shades of thegenerashould one agree? Not everyone looks to the same division when tuning thechromaticor theenharmonic,so why should the note a ditone from mesé be called lichanos rather than a small amount higher? "^[12]

It is sometimes claimed that the nature of Aristoxenus' scales and genera deviated sharply from his predecessors. That Aristoxenus used a model for creating scales based upon the notion of a topos, or range of pitch location,^[13]is fact, but there is no reason to believe that he alone set this precedent as he himself does not make this claim. Indeed, the idea of unfixed pitch locations that cover certain ranges, the limits of which may be defined by fixed points, is a notion that was popular until the modern fixation upon fixed pitch systems, as is indicated by Baroque theoretical systems of pitch and intonation. Another way of stating this, however perhaps less accurate, is that instead of using discrete ratios to place intervals, he used continuously variable quantities.

The postulation that this resulted in the structuring of his tetrachords and the resulting scales having 'other' qualities of consonance^[14]is one that can only be accounted for by the recourse to often repeated inconsistencies amongst his interpreters and modern confirmation bias in favour of simplified twelve tone theories. Aristoxenus himself held that "... two things must not be overlooked: First, that many people have mistakenly supposed us to be saying that a tone can be divided into three equal parts in a melody. They made this mistake because they did not realise that it is one thing to employ the third part of a tone, and another to divide a tone into three parts and sing all three. Secondly we accept that from a purely abstract point of view there is no least interval."^[15]

In book three Aristoxenus goes on to describe twenty eight laws ofmelodic succession,which are of great interest to those concerned with classical Greek melodic structure.^[16]

On rhythmics and metrics

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 9is a fragment of the "Ruthmica Stoicheia"

Part of the second book of a work on rhythmics and metrics,Elementa rhythmica,is preserved in medieval manuscript tradition.

Aristoxenus was also the author of a workOn the Primary Duration(chronos).

A five-column fragment of a treatise on meter (P. Oxy. 9) was published inGrenfellandHunt'sOxyrhynchus Papyri,vol. 1 (1898) and is probably by Aristoxenus."2687".^[17]

Other works

The edition of Wehrli presents the surviving evidence for works with the following titles (not including several fragments of uncertain origin):

Life of Pythagoras( $Πυθαγόρου βίος$ ): fr. 11 Wehrli
On Pythagoras and his pupils( $Περὶ Πυθαγόρου καὶ τῶν γνωρίμων αὐτοῦ$ ): fr. 14 Wehrli
On the Pythagorean life( $Περὶ τοῦ Πυθαγορικοῦ βίου$ ): fr. 31 Wehrli
Pythagorean maximsorPythagorean negations( $Πυθαγορικαὶ ἀποφάσεις$ ): fr. 34 Wehrli
Educational customsorRules of education( $Παιδευτικοὶ νόμοι$ ): fr. 42–43 Wehrli
Political laws( $Πολιτικοὶ νόμοι$ ): fr. 44–45 Wehrli
Mantinean character( $Μαντινέων ἔθη$ ): fr. 45, I, lines 1–9 Wehrli
Praise of Mantineans( $Μαντινέων ἐγκώμιον$ ): fr. 45, I, lines 10–12 Wehrli
Life ofArchytas( $Ἀρχύτα βίος$ ): fr. 47–50 Wehrli
Life ofSocrates( $Σωκράτους βίος$ ): fr. 54 Wehrli
Life of Plato( $Πλάτωνος βίος$ ): fr. 64 Wehrli
On tonoi( $Περὶ τόνων$ ): a brief quotation inPorphyry'scommentaryonPtolemy'sHarmonics,p. 78 Düring (not edited by Wehrli)
On music( $Περὶ μουσικῆς$ ): fr. 80, 82, 89 Wehrli
On listening to musicorLecture course on music( $Μουσικὴ ἀκρόασις$ ): fr. 90 Wehrli
On Praxidamas( $Πραξιδαμάντεια$ ): fr. 91 Wehrli
On melodic compositionorOn music in lyric poetry( $Περὶ μελοποιίας$ ): fr. 93 Wehrli
On musical instruments( $Περὶ ὀργάνων$ ): fr. 94–95, 102 Wehrli
Onaulos( $Περὶ αὐλῶν$ ): fr. 96 Wehrli
On auletes( $Περὶ αὐλητῶν$ ): fr. 100 Wehrli
On the boring of aulos( $Περὶ αὐλῶν τρήσεως$ ): fr. 101 Wehrli
On choruses( $Περὶ χορῶν$ ): fr. 103 Wehrli
On tragic dancing( $Περὶ τραγικῆς ὀρχήσεως$ ): fr. 104–106 Wehrli
Comparisons of dances( $Συγκρίσεις$ ): fr. 109 Wehrli
On tragic poets( $Περὶ τραγῳδοποιῶν$ ): fr. 113 Wehrli
Life of Telestes( $Τελέστου βίος$ ): fr. 117 Wehrli (according to whom this Telestes is thedithyrambicpoet)
Miscellaneoustable talkorSympoticmiscellany( $Σύμμικτα συμποτικά$ ): fr. 124 Wehrli
NotesorMemorabilia( $Ὑπομνήματα$ ),Historical notes(Ἱστορικὰ ὑπομνήματα),Brief notes( $Κατὰ βραχὺ ὑπομνήματα$ ),Miscellaneous notes( $Σύμμικτα ὑπομνήματα$ ),Random jottings( $Τὰ σποράδην$ ): fr. 128–132, 139 Wehrli

Editions and translations

Barker, Andrew(1989).Greek Musical Writings,vol. 2:Harmonic and Acoustic Theory(Cambridge), pp. 119–89, English translation with introduction and notes,ISBN 0-521-61697-2
Macran, Henry Stewart (1902).The Harmonics of Aristoxenus(Oxford), Greek text with English translation and notes (archive.org,Internet Archive)
Marquard, Paul (1868).Die harmonischen Fragmente des Aristoxenus(Berlin), Greek text with German translation and commentary (archive.org,Google Books)
Pearson, Lionel (1990).Aristoxenus: Elementa rhythmica. The fragment of Book II and the additional evidence for Aristoxenean rhythmic theory(Oxford ), Greek texts with introduction, translation, and commentary,ISBN 0-19-814051-7
Wehrli, Fritz (1967).Die Schule des Aristoteles,vol. 2:Aristoxenos,2nd. ed. (Basel/Stuttgart), Greek text (excluding the harmonic fragments, rhythmic fragments,On the Primary Duration,andOn tonoi:see p. 28) with commentary in German
Westphal, Rudolf(1883–1893).Aristoxenus von Tarent: Melik und Rhythmik des classischen Hellenenthums,2 vols. (Leipzig) (vol. 1,vol. 2)
Westphal, Rudolf(1861).Die Fragmente und die Lehrsätze der griechischen Rhythmiker(Leipzig), pp. 26–41, Greek text ofElementa rhythmicaandOn the Primary Duration(Internet Archive)

Notes

^"Aristoxenus of Tarentum".Chambers's Encyclopædia.Vol. 1. London, UK:George Newnes Ltd.1961. p. 593.
^^a ^b ^c"Aristoxenos".Suda(Aelian ed.).H. A.ii. 11.
^Aulus Gellius.[no title cited].iv. 11.;Marcus Tullius Cicero.Tusculanae Disputationes.i. 18.
^Aristocles ap. Eusebius.Praeparatio Evangelica.xv. 2.
^ Barker, A. (2007).The Science of Harmonics in Classical Greece.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1139468626.Retrieved2015-05-03.[ed.:] No more of his life-history is known....
^^a ^b Gibson, Sophie (2005).Aristoxenus of Tarentum and the Birth of Musicology.New York, NY: Routledge.ISBN 041597061X.
^Chisholm 1911.
^Vitruvius,Book V Chapter IV
^Marcus Tullius Cicero.Tusculanae Disputationes.1.22.51, cf. 1.11.24.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^fHawkins, John (1868).A General History of the Science and Practice of Music.Vol. 1. pp. 66–67.
^Barker 1989,pp. 142–144.
^Barker 1989,p. 163.
^Barker 1989,p. 140.
^John Chalmers, (1993)Divisions of the Tetrachord,Chapter 3, pp. 17–22. Frog Peak Music.ISBN 0-945996-04-7.
^Barker 1989,p. 160.
^Barker 1989,pp. 170–183.
^Grenfell, B. P.;Hunt, A. S.(1898).Oxyrhynchus Papyri I.London. pp. 14–21.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

References

Barker, Andrew (1989).Greek Musical Writings.Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-30220-3.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Aristoxenus".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 522.

External links

Works by or aboutAristoxenusatWikisource

[Chambers-1] "Aristoxenus of Tarentum".Chambers's Encyclopædia.Vol. 1. London, UK:George Newnes Ltd.1961. p. 593.

[suda-2] "Aristoxenos".Suda(Aelian ed.).H. A.ii. 11.

[3] Aulus Gellius.[no title cited].iv. 11.;Marcus Tullius Cicero.Tusculanae Disputationes.i. 18.

[4] Aristocles ap. Eusebius.Praeparatio Evangelica.xv. 2.

[A._Barker-5] Barker, A. (2007).The Science of Harmonics in Classical Greece.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1139468626.Retrieved2015-05-03.[ed.:] No more of his life-history is known....

[Gibson-2005-6] Gibson, Sophie (2005).Aristoxenus of Tarentum and the Birth of Musicology.New York, NY: Routledge.ISBN 041597061X.

[FOOTNOTEChisholm1911-7] Chisholm 1911.

[8] Vitruvius,Book V Chapter IV

[9] Marcus Tullius Cicero.Tusculanae Disputationes.1.22.51, cf. 1.11.24.

[hawkins66-10] Hawkins, John (1868).A General History of the Science and Practice of Music.Vol. 1. pp. 66–67.

[FOOTNOTEBarker1989142–144-11] Barker 1989,pp. 142–144.

[FOOTNOTEBarker1989163-12] Barker 1989,p. 163.

[FOOTNOTEBarker1989140-13] Barker 1989,p. 140.

[14] John Chalmers, (1993)Divisions of the Tetrachord,Chapter 3, pp. 17–22. Frog Peak Music.ISBN 0-945996-04-7.

[FOOTNOTEBarker1989160-15] Barker 1989,p. 160.

[FOOTNOTEBarker1989170–183-16] Barker 1989,pp. 170–183.

[17] Grenfell, B. P.;Hunt, A. S.(1898).Oxyrhynchus Papyri I.London. pp. 14–21.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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