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(c. 400 BC, author of a book On the Ancient Poets and Musicians), Heraclides Ponticus (mid-fourth century BC), and Aristoxenus (lost writings), and it paraphrases substantial excerpts from them in undigested form. |
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There are other, still later sources that preserve valuable nuggets of information derived from Classical historians of music. There is the Chrestomathy' of the fifth-century Neoplatonist Proclus, a history of poetry of which half survives in an epitome by Photius; and a brief discussion of tragedy by Michael Psellus (eleventh century), not published until 1963.8 Many elements of Greek theory were taken over by the Arab writers on music, the most important of whom is Abu n-Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarhan ibn 'Uzlag al-Farabi, popularly known as Al-Farabi (c. 870-950).9 |
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Two Latin authors occasionally cited are Martianus Capella (early fifth century) and Boethius (early sixth century). Martianus' De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii is a survey of the liberal arts. The treatment of music, which occupies the ninth book, is based primarily on Aristides Quintilianus. Boethius too is writing a compendium of the subject as one branch of the higher learning among others. His main authorities are Nicomachus, Cleonides, and Ptolemy. Though he has little of independent value for our inquiry, he is of great historical significance as the point of departure for medieval theorists. |
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Finally a mention must be made of the so-called Anonymus Bellermanni, the notional author (or, according to the latest editor, three authors) of a scrappy collection of material on music, transmitted in a number of Byzantine manuscripts and first published by F. Bellermann in 1841. It is drawn to a marked extent from Aristoxenus and Aristides Quintilianus, but contains some valuable matter not found elsewhere, including half a dozen little instrumental tunes and exercises. 10 |
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8 By R. Browning in  : Studies presented to G. Thomson (Prague, 1963). 67ff. |
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9 His Grand Book of Music (Kitabu l-Musiqi al-Kabir) is translated by R. D'Erlanger in La Musique arabe. i (Paris, 1930). |
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10 D. Najock, Anonyma de musica scripta Bellermanniana (Leipzig, 1975).The above brief survey is not intended to be a comprehensive catalogue of all who wrote on music. but merely to introduce the names of the main ones whom the reader will find referred to in the book. For a fuller review see Neubecker, 16-38. Of the authors and works I have mentioned, the following are translated, with excellent introductions and notes. in Barker, GMW: the pseudo-Aristotelian Problems (selection). Aristoxenus, Euclid, Nicomachus, Ptolemy, pseudo-Plutarch, Athenaeus (selection). Aristides Quintilianus. |
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