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greatest diversity of rhythms is found towards the end of the fifth century and in the early fourth, in the elaborate compositions of citharodes such as Timotheus and in some of the long solo arias and lyric dialogues of late Euripides and Sophocles. An analysis of Philoctetes' dialogue with the sailor chorus in Sophocles' Philoctetes, 1169-217, will serve to illustrate the point: 1169-74 iambic, 1175-85 ionic, 1186-7 anapaestic, 1188-95 aeolic, twice diversified with dactylic lines, 1196-208. dactylic, 1209 aeolic, 1210-12 iambic, 1213 aeolic, 1214-15 dactylo-epitrite, 1216-17 aeolic. |
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It should be emphasized that this heterogeneity was a feature of a particular style of music fashionable at that period, and not of Greek music overall. By Aristoxenus' time the fashion had faded. He observes: |
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Complexity of rhythmic composition was taken further by the older musicians. They certainly valued rhythmic intricacy, and the business of the instrumental discourses was more complex then. For whereas the moderns are lovers of melody, the men of that time were lovers of rhythm.59 |
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Most later Classical, Hellenistic, and post-Hellenistic texts, including the fragments that we possess with musical notation, are characterized by homogeneous rhythms. |
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Some kinds of dance were faster than others, and some kinds of song. A dramatic chorus or aria expressing urgency or excitement, for example, would have gone quicker than a solemn hymn sung round an altar. Greek writers recognize tempo (agoge) as one of the variable factors in music that make a difference to its effect. To some extent it was bound up with rhythm, certain rhythms being perceived as intrinsically faster or slower than others.60 We saw that the trochaic rhythm was felt to have a running or tripping effect, that paeonic was associated with lively dancing, and that dochmiac was used only when the tone was urgent or impassioned. A predominance of short notes went with rapidity, and a predominance of long ones with the opposite.61 On the other hand, a measure in a given rhythm might be taken at perceptibly different tempi.62 |
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59 Aristox. ap. ps.-Plut. De mus. 1138bc. |
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60 Cf. Damon ap. Pl. Resp. 400c, Aristid. Quint. pp. 82 15, 83. .3, 84. .3. |
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61 Aristid. Quint. p. 82. 15. |
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62 Aristox. Harm. 2. 34 and fr. ap. Porph. in Ptol. Harm. pp. 78f. (pp. 32-4 Pearson); Aristid. Quint. p. 39. 26ff. |
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