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lower part of the Phrygian scale had a similar structure. For the supernumerary low note, or infrafix, the name Hyperhypate ('beyond Hypate') is occasionally found.9 It is obviously an addition to the original set of names, since Hypate's name marks it as the end point. The addition implies that Hypate is no longer the name of the first and lowest-tuned string, but of a scalar degree defined by its intervallic relationships with other degrees. Besides its original 'thetic' sense referring to physical position, the term has acquired a 'dynamic' sense relating to its scalar function.10 |
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By Aristoxenus' time the integrity of the scheme had been compromised more severely. The original octave was extended to nearly two by adding a whole conjunct tetrachord at each end. The note-names below Mese and above Paramese were repeated in the new annexes to the scale, and therefore it now became necessary to specify which tetrachord one was talking about. The notes added below Hypate were unimaginatively called the Hypatai, so that the bottom note became Hypate of the Hypatai (hypate hypaton), while the original Hypate became Hypate of the Middle Notes (hypate meson). At the other end of the scale it was slightly more complicated. There still remained the alternative patterns with and without Paramese, in other words, with either a conjunct or a disjunct tetrachord above Mese. The scale was treated as bifurcating at Mese. The conjunct tetrachord (synemmenai) was a cul-de-sac, while the disjunct one (diezeugmenai) led on to the additional tetrachord, which was called that of the Overshoot Notes (hyper-bolaiai). Thus the name Trite or Nete could now signify three different notes, according to whether it was qualified by synemmenon, diezeugmenon, or hyperbolaion. |
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By now, of course, we are no longer dealing with the scale of a particular instrument or a particular piece of music, but with an abstract scheme intended to be comprehensive. The final step was to tack on another note at the bottom, a tone below Hypate hypaton. |
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9 Thrasyllus ap. Theon. Smyrn. p. 88. 18 if., Boeth. Inst. Mus. 1. 20, cf. Aristid. Quint. p. 8.12. In the curious document called the Common Hormasia (Pöhlmann, DAM 32f.) it is called diapemptos, 'at the fifth' (from Mese downwards). Cf. Winnington-Ingram, Mode 25. |
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10 This distinction between the thetic and dynamic was articulated by Ptolemy. Harm. 2. 5. perhaps. as Barker says (GMW ii. 325 n. 37), 'in an attempt to reduce the ambiguities of ordinary musical talk to clarity and order'. In the theorists' writings Hypate and the other names are almost always used in the dynamic sense, while lyre-players may have continued to use them in the thetic sense, i.e. Hypate = 'my bottom note', irrespective of the sequence of intervals separating it from my top note. |
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