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cannot be of great antiquity, but there is no reason to doubt that it is, as Aristides implies, pre-Aristoxenian. It is only in the pre-Aristoxenian period that we hear of harmonic theorists mapping out the octave in quarter-tones.26 From Aristoxenus onwards, so far as we know, everyone operated with some form of heptatonic Perfect System, and the standard notation had by then probably established itself to the exclusion of all rivals. |
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Although it does not properly belong under the heading of notation, a rudimentary scheme of solmization attested in late sources may best be mentioned here. By solmization is meant the association of degrees of the scale with different syllables for mnemonic or didactic purposes.27 In the Greek system the syllables repeat in each tetra-chord; they do not therefore identify specific degrees of an octave or double octave scale, but only the position of a note in its local interval-sequence. The notes of the disjunctive tone (Proslambanomenos to Hypate hypaton, or Mese to Paramese) are designated te ta; other standing notes are ta; and the movable notes in any tetra-chord are (rising) te to. The Unmodulating System is thus solmized as illustrated in Fig. 9.3. Aristides Quintilianus, who is our main source for the scheme, explains it in terms of a sexual classification of vowel sounds, according to which o is masculine, e/e feminine, and a intermediate. He finds these qualities in the corresponding notes of the tetrachord. It is uncertain how old this idea is, and whether the solmization scheme originally had any such associations.28 |
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FIG. 9.3.
Solmization of the Unmodulating System |
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26 Cf. p. 225. |
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27 See NG xvii. 458 ff. for a survey of such systems in European and oriental musics; the ancient Greek system is recorded on p. 466. |
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28 Aristid. Quint. pp. 77.30-81.6, cf. above, p. 247 n. 81, and Barker, GMW ii. 479 if. with notes; Anon. Bellerm. 9-10, 77, 86, 91, who gives to for Proslambanomenos, and represents the diatonic intervals from Proslambanomenos to Mese as to-a, ta-e, te-o, to-a, ta-e, te-o, to-e. For A. Belis's proposal to recognize the solmization syllables in the representation of a trumpet signal on an early Classical painting see p. 120 n. 184. |
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