Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/174

152 Ib2 HISTORY OF THE octave — that is to say, the fourth and fifth — governed the whole*. Hence the heptachord of Terpander long remained in high repute, and was employed by Pindar ; although in his time the deficient string of the lower tetrachord had been supplied, and an octachord produced f- § 4. It will be convenient in this place to explain the difference between the scales (ytV^), and the styles or harmonies (rjoo7rot, apfioi'iai) of Greek music, since it is probable that they were regulated by Terpander. The musical scales are determined by the intervals between the four tones of the tetrachord. The Greek musicians describe three musical scales, viz., the diatonic, the chromatic, and the enhar- monic. In the diatonic, the intervals were two tones and a semi- tone ; and hence the diatonic was considered the simplest and most natural, and was the most extensively used. In the chromatic scale the interval is a tone and a semitone, combined with two other semi- tones J. This arrangement of the tetrachord was also very ancient, but it was much less used, because a feeble and languid, though pleasing character, was ascribed to it. The third scale, the en- harmonic, was produced by a tetrachord, which, besides an interval of two tones, had also two minor ones of quarter-tones. This was the latest of all, and was invented by Olympus, who must have flourished a short time after Terpander §. The ancients greatly preferred the enharmonic scale, especially on account of its liveliness and force. But from the small intervals of quarter tones, the execution of it required great skill and practice in singing and playing. These musical scales were further determined by the styles or harmonies, because on them depended, first, the position or succession of the inter- vals belonging to the several scales |[, and, secondly, the height and depth of the who'e gamut. Three styles were known in very early times, — the Doric, which was the lowest, the Phrygian, the middle one, and the Lydian, the highest. Of these, the Doric alone is named from a Greek race; the two others are called after nations of Asia Minor, whose love for music, and particularly the flute, is well known. It is probable that national tunes were current among these tribes, whose highest, Njitjj, ■xa.fiu.vriTr), wa^afiicrn, ftitry, Xi%a.vo;, irxgwrarn, vvurn. The intervals were 1, 1, 1^-, 1, 1,£, if the heptachord was strung, according to the diatonic scale, in the Doric style. f In proof of the account of the heptachord given in the text, see Boeckh de Metris Pindari. iii. 7, p. 205, sqq. } Of these short intervals, however, the one is greater than the other, the former being more, the latter less, than a semitone. The first is called apotome, the other leimma. § See Plutarch de Musica, 7, 11, 20, 29, 33; a treatise full of valuable notices, but written with so little care that the author often contradicts himself. For example, whether the intervals of the diatonon are J, 1,1, as in the Doric style, or 1, $, 1, as in the Phrygian, or 1, 1 J, as in the Lydian.
 * The strings of the heptachord of Terpander were called, beginning from the