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Among the Damonian scales there is a 'tense Lydian'. Plato mentions it together with Mixolydian as lamentatory and suitable for women, and he distinguishes these from 'slack' modes, Ionian and Lydian, which are soft and suited to the symposium.62 The meaning of 'tense' and 'slack' in this context is made plainer by Aristotle's remark that the tense harmoniai are not easy for old men to sing; nature offers them the slack ones instead.63 Clearly a 'tense' mode involved more high notes and was taxing for that reason. It was not necessarily higher in pitch overall than a slack mode. It might be that both occupied the range d-d', for example, but that in the tense mode the melody moved more in the upper part of that octave, in the slack one more in the lower. In any case, 'tenseness' must have affected the character of the mode by putting greater strain on the voice and altering its quality. It is significant that Plato uses tenseness and slackness as a principle of classification connected with ethos. |
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Let us now survey the references made to the various modes in Greek writers, especially those before 300 BC. Later authors are sometimes worth citing, but their testimony has to be treated cautiously, because, as will be explained in the chapter on theory, the concept of mode came to be mixed up with that of key. |
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The Dorian mode was one of the most widely used in the fifth century and probably earlier, and it was always well regarded. A traditional spondaic invocation attributed to Terpander was deemed to be in this mode, and so were some of Alcman's Partheneia and various poems of Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, and Pindar. It was used for processionals, paeans, songs of love, and in tragedy, especially for laments.64 Clearly it was a versatile mode, often employed for choral song but not confined to it, and compatible with more than one mood. Generally, however, it was perceived as dignified and manly. Pratinas perhaps alludes to the musical mode when he contrasts his 'Dorian' dance-song with a wilder performance in which the aulos provided a more prominent and elaborate accompaniment. Pindar certainly, in a Paean, acclaimed the 'Dorian melody' as being the most dignified or |
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62Resp. 398e, cf. Arist. Pol. 1340d40ff., Poll. 4.78. |
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63Pol 1342b20; cf. Plut. An seni 793a. On the difficulty of singing high notes and the sort of composition involving them cf. ps.-Arist. Pr. 19. 37. |
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64 Aristox. frs. 81, 84, Posidonius fr. 471 Th., ps.-Plut. De mus. 1136f, Psell. De trag. 5. |
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