Unlocking the Riddles of Imperial Greek Melodies: the 'Lydian' metamorphosis of the Classical harmonic system

Abstract

Building upon the evidence discussed in Lynch 2022a and 2022b, this article offers the first account of the historical evolution and use of the Greek notation keys (tónoi) that bridges the gap between the Hellenistic and Imperial harmonic systems. More specifically, this article sheds light on the metamorphosis that turned the Classical Dorian-based harmonic system into the ‘Lydian’ system employed in Imperial Greek scores. In contrast with previous scholarship, the new picture offered in this article reconciles key theoretical insights provided by Ptolemy, Porphyry and other theoretical sources with documentary evidence that illustrates the structure of the Imperial harmonic system and its use in the Imperial musical documents (dDAGM). The new solution offered in this article entails a shift of a mere semitone between the tonal centre of the Classical harmonic system (Dorian mésē F₃) and its counterpart in the Imperial harmonic system (Hypolydian mésē E₃, which corresponded to the Classical mode Lydistí). §§2–3 of the article show how this small shift in pitch had wide-ranging theoretical implications that affected the organisation of the Imperial harmonic system as a whole, as it undermined the central role that fourths had in the Classical system and introduced the new system described by Porphyry, which is based on a structural fifth. §4 shows how this new solution allows us to reconstruct, for the first time, a continuous, if evolving, tradition that stretches from Euripides’ Orestes to late antiquity.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barker, A. (1989). Greek Musical Writings 2. Cambridge: CUP.

Barker, A. (2007). The Science of Harmonics in Classical Greece. Cambridge: CUP.

Barker, A. (2020). ‘Harmonics’ in Lynch, T. A.C. and Rocconi, E. (eds) A Companion to ancient Greek and Roman Music, Malden: Blackwell, 257–274.

DAGM = Pöhlmann, E. and West, M.L. (2001). Documents of Ancient Greek Music: The Extant Melodies and Fragments. Oxford.

dDAGM = Lynch, T.A.C. (2021). Database ‘Documents of Ancient Greek Music’. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5181743 

Hagel, S. (2010). Ancient Greek Music – A New Technical History. Cambridge

Lynch, T. (2018). ‘ “Without Timotheus, much of our melopoiia would not exist; but without Phrynis, there wouldn’t have been Timotheus”: Pherecrates’ twelve strings, the strobilos and the harmonic paranomia of the New Music’, Greek and Roman Musical Studies 6.2, 290–327.

Lynch, T. A.C. (2020). ‘Tuning the Lyre, Tuning the Soul: Harmonía and the koś mos of the Soul in Plato’s Republic and Timaeus’, Greek and Roman Musical Studies 8.1, 111–55.

Lynch, T . A.C. (2022a). ‘Unlocking the Riddles of Classical Greek Melodies I: Dorian Keys to the Harmonic Revolution of the New Music and the Hellenistic Musical Documents’ Greek and Roman Musical Studies 10.2 [preprint: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5266960]

Lynch, T. A.C. (2022b). ‘Unlocking the Riddles of Classical Greek Melodies II: the Revolution of the New Music in the Ashmolean Papyri (DAGM 5–6) and Athenaeus’ Paean (DAGM 20)’, Greek and Roman Musical Studies 10.2. [preprint: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5267084].

Martinelli, M.C. (2020). ‘Documenting Music’, in Lynch, T. A.C. and Rocconi, E. (eds) A Companion to ancient Greek and Roman Music, Malden: Blackwell, 103–115.

West, M.L. (1994). Ancient Greek Music. Oxford: OUP.