Chapter 12
Sense and Sensation in Music
Armand D'Angour,
Armand D'Angour
Search for more papers by this authorArmand D'Angour,
Armand D'Angour
Search for more papers by this authorBook Editor(s):Pierre Destrée,
Penelope Murray,
Pierre Destrée
Search for more papers by this authorPenelope Murray
Search for more papers by this authorSummary
This chapter aims to elicit ways in which ancient listeners, principally those of Classical Greek times, responded aesthetically to music. Ancient terms for aesthetic responses lack complexity, and the philosophical tendency is to think of mousikē in terms of its ethical effects. It is argued that this stems largely from the associations of mousikē with textual meaning. A distinction must therefore be drawn between the ancient term mousikē and our term “music.” This leads to a discussion of different elements of musical sound in antiquity (principally rhythms, melodies, and instrumental execution), how these may be accessed by the modern listener, and aesthetic issues that arise in relation to them.
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Further Reading
- M.L. West's Ancient Greek Music (Oxford 1992) is an indispensable guide to the subject: a scholarly and readable synthesis of the evidence for ancient Greek music, with a clear exposition of the ancient notation and a collection of the most important melodies in modern transcription. It has been updated in respect of the musically notated documents by Pöhlmann and West (2001), now the standard edition with musical transcriptions. Of paramount importance for understanding ancient Greek ideas about music is the two-volume collection of translated texts by Andrew Barker. Greek Musical Writings Vol. 1, The Musician and His Art (1984) contains passages from poets, philosophers, and historians, while Vol. 2, Harmonic and Acoustic Theory, contains the major theoretical treatises, including of Aristoxenus, Ptolemy and Aristides Quintilianus (but regrettably not Philodemus’ fragmentary On Music). The more obscure area of Roman music is admirably treated (in German) by Wille (1967), and aesthetic issues are raised in Moore (2012); for the aesthetics of Latin metrical usage, Wilkinson's (1963) sensitive interpretation remains required reading.
