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time, and to be measured by time-units. The minimal unit, the 'primary duration' (protos chronos), was not a physical constant: it was whatever served as the smallest indivisible unit in a given piece of music. In the case of vocal music it normally corresponded to the time occupied by a short syllable, since at Aristoxenus' period short syllables were never divided between more than one note. But in a piece in spondaic tempo the primary duration would be significantly longer. Besides the primary duration there are other durations that are multiples of it (diseme, triseme, etc.) or else irrational. The durations must be arranged according to certain rules if the sequence is to be rhythmical, just as notes and intervals must be if their sequence is to be melodic. Hence we get feet of various shapes and sizes.70 But the abstract scheme is only realized when time is actually divided up by the rhythmicization of a text. The syllables of the text do not necessarily match on a one-to-one basis the durations that constitute the feet. A syllable is flexible, and a particular sequence of syllables may fit more than one rhythmic scheme. In the papyrus fragment the principle is illustrated with the syllabic sequence  . The author explains how, by treating one of the long syllables as triseme, we can use such a sequence to fill feet of the form  or  or  . |
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Post-Aristoxenian writers do not seem to have added much of significance to the theory of rhythm. Definitions of rhythm by one Leophantus and by Didymus and Nicomachus, cited by Bacchius, are mere variations on Aristoxenus'.71 Aristides Quintilianus, after expounding rhythm on Aristoxenian lines, describes the approach of others who made a clearer separation between rhythm and metre. They analysed rhythmic structures purely in terms of numerical ratios without, apparently, using terms such as 'dactylic' and 'iambic', which were shared with metrics.72 For the rest, while they differed from Aristoxenus over some details, their concepts seem generally to have been in accord with his.73 |
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70 It is not necessary to go into the details of them. Reference has been made as appropriate in Ch. 5. |
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71 Bacchius p. 313.6-10. |
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72 Metricians' usage of these terms, however, did not coincide with that of rhythmicians; cf. pp. 136, 137 with n. 22. Metricians were those who analysed the metres of verse texts without reference to performance. |
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73 Aristid. Quint. pp. 38.17-39.25. |
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