|
|
|
|
|
|
|
solo aria, a rambling lament in a kaleidoscopic medley of different rhythms.123 Both parodies contain the word heieieilisso, so spelt to indicate and exaggerate the modern expressive division of the first syllable between three (?) notes.124 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Of course, the whole criticism is exaggerated. We cannot believe that Euripides' lyrics, which are far from vulgar in their verbal style, so readily evoked the atmosphere of the night club. Yet Aristophanes is able to point a connection. Other fragments of ancient comment reflect rather the growing influence on tragedy of contemporary citharodic and dithyrambic music: Euripides uses more notes than the older tragedians, he ventures into the chromatic genus, which was too 'soft' for them, and in general he shows a greater variety of styles and colours.125 Again we should beware of overstatement. Euripides' use of chromatic, for example, can hardly have been more than occasional, since after his death, with his plays becoming increasingly popular, we still find it asserted that the singers of tragedy 'use enharmonic throughout', and that tragedy 'has not adopted the chromatic genus even today, although the kithara, which is many generations older, has used it from the beginning'.126 The two preserved fragments of music to Euripidean lyrics are best interpreted as enharmonic (with divided semitones), although the notation is compatible with chromatic. One is probably in the Dorian mode, the other perhaps in a form of Mixolydian.127 They show some division of long syllables between two notes, but this was not necessarily a modernistic feature.128 There is more reason to suppose this of the touches of heterophony in the accompaniment, but the evidence on the matter is equivocal.129 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The much younger tragedian Agathon, who won his first victory in 416 when Euripides was in his sixties, was more closely associated with modernist tendencies. Besides being named (alternatively to Euripides) as the first to use the chromatic genus in tragedy, he is said to have introduced to it the Hypodorian and Hypophrygian modes. His melodies were full of intricate bends like ant-tracks, and had a sensuous effect. His aulos music itself had a distinctively soft and voluptuous character; presumably he used mesaulia, instru- |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
123Ran. 1331-63. For the contemporary vogue for rhythmic diversity see p. 153. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
124 See pp. 201, 203 n. 29. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
125 Pse!l. De trag. 5. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
126 Alcid.(?) in PHib. 13.20f., ps.-Plut. De mus. 1137e, where 'even today' must reproduce the wording of a 4th-c. source, probably Aristoxenus. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
127 pp. 285f. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
128 p. 202. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
129 pp. 206f. |
|
|
|
|
|