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were, among others, Melanippides of Melos, Timotheus of Miletus, Telestes of Selinus, and Philoxenus of Cythera, while the only native Athenian dithyrambist of note is Cinesias.100 These, together with the Lesbian citharode Phrynis, stand out as the principal representatives of the so-called New Music that we find unfavourably contrasted with the old by comedians and philosophers. |
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We shall come back to the New Music in the next chapter. But first some further remarks on the general state of music in fifth-century Athens. |
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Many older songs, and traditional aulos melodies such as were attributed to Olympus, were still current. What we are told of the archaic style would lead us to suppose that they were essentially pentatonic and without modulation. On the other hand there were modern compositions, some of which perhaps maintained the same simplicity, while others tended to the richer enharmonic scales and the greater rhythmic complexity and variability of Lasus and his followers. |
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Apart from his musical innovations, Lasus had aroused new interest in the history and theory of the art. We hear of several musicians at Athens in the first half of the fifth century who seem to have been in some sense also musicologists. Plato names Pythoclides of Ceos and Agathocles of Athens as men who used music as a cover for sophistry. Pythoclides was an aulete who taught Pericles;101 Agathocles is said to have taught Pindar and Damon.102 Then there was Lamprocles, a composer of dithyrambs, who 'realized' that the Mixolydian scale was not related to others in the manner that had been supposed. He is said to have been a pupil of Agathocles and a teacher of Damon.103 Then there was Damon himself, whose influential disquisition on music has been described elsewhere.104 |
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The tragic poet, unlike the dithyrambic, had to apply to the mayor for a chorus and a performing slot. He apparently presented speci- |
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100 Unless Crexus, whose place of origin is not recorded, was an Athenian. |
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101 Pl. Prt. 316e, Alc. I 118c, Arist. fr. 401. Schol. Pl. Alc. 118c says he was a Pythagorean. His name may suggest an auletic family background. According to one opinion he invented the Mixolydian harmonia (Aristox.[?] ap. ps.-Plut. De mus. 1136d). |
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102 P1. Prt. loc. cit., La. 180d; Vita Pindari i. 1. 12 Dr. and Eust. Proleg. Pind. iii. 301. 2 Dr., poet ap. eund. 301. 19. Schol. Pl. Alc. 118c makes him a pupil of Pythoclides. |
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103 Above. p. 223, schol. Pl. loc. cit. |
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104 Above, p. 246. |
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