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preponderance appears consistently in every fragment of more than a few bars' length. In 19 per cent the move is to the second nearest degree, and in 12 per cent to a more distant one. In the other 22 per cent the note remains the same. |
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If the fragments are consistent in using conjunct motion as the prevalent procedure, they are less so in their use of the wider intervals. This provides a significant criterion for distinguishing different styles. In most pieces the third enjoys a comfortable preponderance over all larger intervals, but there are some where this is not so. Statistics apart, we cannot help noticing that in some music leaps of a sixth, a seventh, an octave, or even a ninth, either upward or downward, are used from time to time for effect. We can identify certain recurrent patterns: an upward leap on the first or second note of a new line or section, following a pause; a downward plunge at the end of a section; a leap within a section, followed at once by a return to the previous pitch region. In this last type it is usually a downward dive, but the converse is also found, apparently already in the fragment from Euripides' Iphigeneia in Aulis (4). Later texts notable for these leaps are the two Delphic Paeans (12-13), the Oslo papyrus (30-1), and the Oxyrhynchus papyri 3161 and 3704 (45-6, 34). |
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The third point of interest in Aristides' discussion is his (and probably originally Aristoxenus') use of the terms 'direct' and 'returning' for ascending and descending motion. The implication is that a melody, by and large, goes up before it goes down. This is the more noteworthy in view of the fact that the Greeks were accustomed to think of scales as descending, and their notation system was based on a downward alphabetic series. In one of the pseudo-Aristotelian Problems the question is raised why a descending motion through the tetrachord is more harmonious than an ascending one. One answer suggested is that it means beginning at the beginning, because a tetrachord begins at its top note and ends at the bottom; another answer is that low notes after higher ones are nobler and more euphonious than the opposite.3 However, melodies could not descend all the time, and the evidence of the fragments is that from late Hellenistic times, at least, melodies and sections of melodies mostly began with a rise. |
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3Pr. 19. 33, cf. 47; D. B. Monro, The Modes of Ancient Greek Music (Oxford, 1894), 44-6; Winnington-Ingram, Mode, 4f. |
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