Mathiesen - Rhytm and Meter in Ancient Greek Music - Music Theory Spectrum -1985

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Rh ythm an d M eter in An c ient Greek Mu sic

T h o m a s J . M a t h ie s e n

The resurgence of interest in ancient Greek music in the last

ten years has resulted in the publication of many im portant

monographs and articles on m usical instruments, scales, partic-

ular treatises, and musical fragments, the latter of which con-

t inue to be discovered from time to t ime. ' Yet the subject of

rhythm and meter in ancient Greek music has remained almost

totally unexplored by modern scholars.

2

On the surface , this

A considerably abbreviated version of this paper was presented at the 115th

annual m eeting of the Am erican Phi lological Assoc iation , 27-30 December

1983, in Cincinnati, Ohio. I am indebted to Ms. Nan cy Sultan for presenting

my paper at the meeting w hen I was prevented at the last mom ent from attend-

ing.

1 There h ave been more than 90 major publications in this field since 1974.

These, as well as som e additional earlier publications, are l isted in the latest

supplement to m y

Bib l iography o f Sources for the S tudy o f Ancient Greek M u-

sic, Music Indexes and Bib l iographies , no. 10 (Hackensack, N. J . : Boonin ,

1974) . Copies of the supplement are avai lab le to interested persons free of

charge and m ay be obtained by writing to me .

2

The notable exceptions are Francois Auguste G evaert,

Histoire et theorie

de la m usique de l an t iqu i t e , 2 vols. (Gand: Detaille, 1875-81; reprint ed.,

Hildesheim: Olms, 1965), who devotes considerable and often incisive atten-

tion to the matters of rhythm and meter in ancient Greek music; Rudolf

Westpha l, Die Aristoxen ische Rhythm uslehre,

Viertel jahrsschrift fur Mu-

sikwissenschaft 7 (189474

07; idem,

Ar is toxenos von Taren t , M el ik und

Rhy thmik des c la ssi schen Hel l enentums,

2 vols. (Leipzig: Abel, 1883

3; re-

print ed. , Hildesheim: Olms, 1965); idem,

Die Fragmente und d i e Lehrsi i t z e

der g ri echi schen Rhy thmiker

(Leipzig: Teu bner, 1861); idem, Griechische Rhy-

t h m i k u n d H arm on i k n e bs t de r G e sc h ic h t e de r dr e i m u s i sc h e n Di sz i p l in e n

(Leipzig: Teubner, 1867); idem, System der antiken Rhythmik (Breslau:

Leuckart, 1865); Giovann i Pighi, Ricerche sulla notazione ritmica greca,

will no doubt seem to be a fantastic assertion. The re are, after

all, numerous book-length treatments of Greek meter and

countless articles dealing w ith particular meters or passages in

Greek lyric poetry that appear to be metrically troublesome.

Nevertheless, these studies (1) do not deal with the actual musi-

cal fragmen ts; (2) are based on analyses of published editions

deriving from a manuscript tradition that by the second century

B.C. had already altered the rhythmic cha racter of the original

poetry to conform to certa in not ions of Greek meter and that

by all accounts was altered many times over the succeeding cen-

turies; 3(3) assume that G reek verse was con ceived by its com-

posers or heard by its audience as a series of meters rather than

a flexible and varying rhythmic pattern; (4) make no differenti-

ation between rhythm a nd meter; and (5) almost uniformly ig-

nore the tes t imon y of the ancient and early treatises , which

present a view of rhythm and meter quite at variance with mod-

Aegyptus

21 (1941):189-220, 23 (1943):169-243, and 39 (1959):280-89;

Lewis Rowell, Aristoxenus on Rhythm,

Journal of Music Theory 2 3

(1979):63 79; and Thrasybulos G eorgiades,

M u s ik u n d R h y t h mu s b e i d en

Griechen

(Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1958). The work of Westphal is best known to

classicists, who have largely rejected his conclusions. While many of

Westphal's conclusions are extreme or m isguided, his work con tains many in-

sights and can be read with profit .

3

These alterations can be seen clearly by comparing the man uscript tradi-

tion and the papyrus fragment for lines 783-93 of Euripides'

Iphigenia in

Aulis.

For a full study of this fragment, see my New Fragm ents of Ancient

Greek M usic ,

Acta musicologica

53 (1981):14-32 .

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1 60 M u s i c T h e o r y S p e c t ru m

ern studies of m etrics.

4

A few exam ples of this last point may be

informative:

Ancient metrical theory offers nothing but superficial description,

mechanical c lass if ication, and unprofitable speculation. Only a few of

the technical terms it used are of value today, and the most useful are

those which m ake no claim to express an essential characteristic of the

thing described. With the possible exception of Damon, who was one

of Pericles' teachers . . . , no Greek writer of any importance seems to

have concerned himself with metric.

5

The ancient metricians, of whom Hephaestion . . . is the chief, do not

help us greatly towards an understanding of G reek m etric, and it is

unlikely that they represent a tradition dating back to the classical

period.

6

Passing references in ancient metrical theory are of no great impor-

tance to the argument either way; neither the affirmative of Aristides

Quintil ianus and Marius Victorinus nor the denial of Hephaestion

and his comm entators need influence us.

7

It seems clear, therefore, that rel iance on modern treatments of

metrics wil l not provide i l lumination o f the function of rhythm

4

Earlier scholars were not so quick to dismiss the testimony of the theorists.

In addition to the works cited in n. 2, one might note Maximilian Consbruch,

De veter um HEPI 1101HMATOI doctrina,

Breslauer philologische

Abhandlunge n, V/3 (Breslau: Koebner, 1890); Georg Am sel,

De vi atque in-

do le rhy thmor um quid v e t eres iud icaverin t ,

Breslauer philologische Untersu-

chungen, 1/3 (Breslau: Koebner, 1887); Charles Thurot, De l'emploi des mots

OEZEI,

positione, Revue de philologie

4 (1880):92 97; and Hermann

Wiegandt, De ethico antiquorum rhythmorum charactere auctore Aristide

Quintilian o (Ph.D. diss., Halle, 1881).

5 Paul Maas, G r eek M e t r e ,

trans. Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Oxford: Clarendon,

1962), p. 5.

6

J. D. Denniston , Metre, Greek , in

The Oxford Classical Dict ionary, 2 d

ed. by N. G. L. Ham mond a nd H. H. Scullard (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970), p.

67 9

7

A. M. Dale,

The Lyri c M et res o f Greek Drama,

2d ed. (Cambridge: Cam-

bridge University Press, 1968), p. 34, n. 1.

and meter in ancient Greek music orgiven the inextricable re-

lationship of the melos, rhythm, and text

8

in Gre ek lyric po-

etry in general. As an alterna tive, this study will draw together a

number of the oretical passages, articulate some general obser-

vations about the difference between rhythm and meter and the

way in which they w ork together, and i l lustrate the rhythmic

construction of the two earliest surviving fragm ents (both from

plays of Euripides) as well as several later pieces.

Co n c e p t s of R h y th m a n d M e te r

With a few exceptions, the ancient theo rists mark a clear dis-

tinction between rhythm and m eter and are consistent in their

conception of rhythm. One of the exceptions, as might be antic-

ipated, is Aristoxenus, wh o speaks only of rhythm .

9His treat-

men t survives in two fragments: the so-cal led

Rhy thmic Ele-

ments,

which is transmitted in a number of manuscripts; and

another pa rt of this (most probably), which is preserved in Oxy-

rhynchus Papyrus

(P. Oxy.)

9. 10

Aris toxenus'

f lorui t in the

fourth century B.C. makes him a particularly important witness

on the subject of rhythmics (as he is on the subject of harm on-

ics) , and the fact that there are no apparent contradictions be-

tween Aristoxenus and later authors such as Hephaestion and

his comm entators, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Aristides Quin-

tilianus, Plutarch, Aug ustine, and Bacchius supports their relia-

8

Cf. Aristides Quinti l ianus

De m usica

1.12.

9

The possibil ity that a discussion of metrics appeared in a treatise now lost

cannot be rejected. A fragment dealing with metrics and ascribed to Aristox-

enus is preserved in Psellus 1 (see Westphal,

Aris toxenos ,

2:76).

10

For editions, see Westphal,

Aristoxenos,

2:75-85; and Heinrich

Feussner, Ari stoxenus, Gr undzuge der Rhythm ik , e in Bruchst i ick , in beri cht ig-

t er Urschr i f t mi t deu tscher Uberset zung

(Hanau: Edler, 1840).

P.Oxy.

9 ap-

pears

i n T h e O x yr h y n ch u s P ap yr i

1 (1898): 14-21 and plate 3. A valuable

translation of the largest fragment appears in Rowell, Aristoxenus, pp. 70

76.

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R h y t h m a n d M e t e r in A n c i e n t G r e e k M u s i c 16 1

bility as represen tatives of an ancient tradition, though sepa -

rated from it by four to six centuries.

Aristoxenus defines rhythm in his characteristically precise

m anner. He differentiates between rhythm (an abstract es -

sence) and a thing rhythm ically organized (a concrete man ifes-

tation of the abstract):

3.

One must first understand that there are two certain natures: that

of rhythm and the rhythm icized substance, c lose ly re lated to one an-

other just as the form [ oxfilia] and that which is formed [ oxi[ta

46-

REvov ] are related.

4.

For just as the body takes on man y sorts of shapes whenever its

parts are placed in different ways (either some or all of them), in like

manner each o f the rhythmic ized substances takes on m any forms,

not in accordance with its own na ture but in accordance with the na-

ture of rhythm. For speech, which is likewise arranged into time units

differing one from ano ther, takes on certain divisions which corres-

pond to the divisions produced by the natural order of rhythm. A nd

the sam e principle obtains with respect to

melos

and anything else

that is organized rhythmically by means of this rhythm that is com-

posed of t ime un its.

5. To continue with the previous analogy, we m ust now consider the

subject of sense perception in our a ttempt to discernin the case of

each of the previous topicswhat is the essential nature of rhythm

and of the rhythmicized substance. For to have form imposed on the

body is by no means the sam e thing as any of the forms themselves; on

the contrary, the form is a certain disposition of the parts of the body,

from w hence each individual form som ehow arises and is recognized

as such. Similarly it must be conceded that the rhythm is by no means

the sam e as the rhythm icized substance, nor is this substance identical

to the arrangements of t ime units made in one w ay or another.

1 1

So, rhythm is, as Lewis Rowell observes in his translation of the

Rhy t hm i c E l em ent s , a dynam ic species of form, signifying the

11

Aristoxenus Rhythmica

3-5 (trans. from Rowell, Aristoxenus, p. 71).

internal structure of a moving thingordered movement,

movement in accordance with certain principles of structure.

12

This com prehens ive ontological view is con s iderably s im-

plified by A ristides Quintil ianus (fl . late third or ear ly fourth

century A .D.) in his

On M usic, the most com plete of the ancient

musical treatises. He writes:

Rhythm is a scale of chronoi

13

compoun ded according to some order,

and the conditions of these we ca ll arsis and thesis , noise and quie-

tude. Since, in general, notes, by a similarity of motion, m ake an inex-

pressive succession of melos an d lead the heart astray, the parts of

rhythm palpably compose the power of the m elody, moving the hea rt

now by turns, now regularly. Arsis is the movement u pwards of part

of a body; thesis , the movem ent downwards of the sam e part. Rhyth-

mics is the science of the use of the aforesaid things.

14

Rhythm w ill therefore exist in pure diction, in pure m elos (or,

what m ight be loosely considered a melodic l ine without text) ,

in pure dance, or in a combination of these. The science of

rhythm, or rhythmics (parallel to harmonics in ancient Greek

music theo ry), is separated into f ive parts: chronoi protoi ,

15

the

12

Rowell, Aristoxen us, p. 68. Rowe ll's empha sis on structure accords

with the interpretation of Robert Renehan, The Derivation of t luOluig,

Clas-

sical Philology

58 (1963): 36-38. For a fuller treatment of th e term, see Ernst

Wolf, Zur Etymologie von tou0gOg and seiner Bedeutung in der alteren grie-

chischen Literatur, W iener S tud ien 68 (1955):99 119.

13

The chronos (pl.: chronoi) is the measure of time in rhythm. It may be a

single short rhythmic duration (the chronos protos )that of a short

syllableor it may be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled to produce rhyth mic

groupings.

14

Aristides Quinti l ianus De musica 1.13 (trans. from Thom as J. Mathiesen,

Aris t ides Q uin t il ianus on M usic in Three Books: Tr ans la t ion , wi th In t roduc-

t ion , Commentary, and Annota t ions ,

Music Theory Translation Series [New

Haven: Yale University Press, 1983], p. 94). Unless otherwise n oted, transla-

t ions throughout this study are mine.

15

This is defined by Aristides Quintilianus (1.14) as an uncompo unded

and smallest chronos, which is also called a point. I shall call that chronos small-

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162 M u s i c T h e o r y S pe c t ru m

genera of m etric feet , tempo, modulat ion, and rhythmic com -

position. 16

Bacchius (fl. fourth cen tury

A.D.), the author of a very useful

musical catechism preserving fragmen ts from earlier treatises

now lost, responds to the question What is rhythm ? with a

series of definitions ascribed to various early authorities:

(a ) a measuring of chronos when there is a certain sort of movement;

17

(b )

according to Phaedrus, 1 8

rhythm is the measured sett ing of sylla-

bles placed one to another in a certain way; (c) according to Aristox-

enus, [rhythm is] chronos divided with a view to each of the things that

can be rhythmically organized; 1 9

(d) according to Nico mac hus, [it is]

orderly motion of c h r o n o i ;

2

(e) according to Leophantus, [it is] a com -

position of chronoi considered in proportion and symmetry to each

other;

21

and (f) according to Didymus, [it is] a configuration of a cer-

tain soundsoun d configured in a certain way mak es rhythm, and

rhythm arises either in diction or melos or bodily motion. 22

est, as far as we are concern ed, which is the first to be grasped by sensory per-

ception (Mathiesen, Aris t ides , p. 95).

16 Aristides Quinti l ianus

De m usica

1.13.

In the text, I am following the readings of Venetus Marcianus app. cl. VI/

3 instead of the em ended text as it appears in Karl von Jan,

Musici scriptores

graeci

(Leipzig: Teubner, 1895; reprint ed. , Hildesheim: Olms, 1 962), p. 313.

Cf. Char les-Em ile Ruel le ,

Alyp ius e t Gaud ence , . . . Bacchius l Ancien, t ra-

duct ion ent irement nouvel le,

Collection des auteurs grecs relatifs a la m usique,

no. 5 (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1895), p. 134.

18

Possibly the fabulist (ca. 15 B.C.-A.D.50),

but it is impossible to be certain.

19 Aristoxenus Rhythmica

9 actually states: chrono s is divided by the things

rhythmically organized with respect to the parts of each of them.

2

This does not appear in an y of the surviving works of Nicomachu s (fl . 2d

century

A.D.).

21 Leophantus i s o therwise unknow n.

22

This

Didymus (1st century B.c.) may be the same one kn own to Ptolemy.

Aristoxenus

R h y t h mi ca 9 identifies three things rhythm ically organized: dic-

tion, melos, and bodily motion. Aristides Quintilianus De musica

1.13 states:

In music, motion of body, melody, and diction are rhythmically organized

(Mathiesen,

Arist ides, p. 94). The entire passage from Bacchius appears in Jan,

Musici scriptores,

p. 313.

Meter , on the other hand, is different from rhythm. Aris -

tides Quintil ianus, who treats m eter only after com pleting his

discussion of rh ythm, notes in Book I, section 23 that meter is a

division of rhythm and uses different material. He states:

Meter is a scale of feet com pounded of dissimilar syllables, symmetri-

cal in length. Some say that meter differs from rhythm as the part

from the whole (they say that it is a division of rhythm, for which rea-

son it is termed meter, from meirein, which means to parti-

tion ); others say that it differs with respect to the material: since they

are born of at least two dissimilar progenitors, rhythm has its

essence

in arsis and thesis, and m eter in syllables and their dissimilarity. So in

truth, rhythm is composed through s imilar syl lables and opposing

feet , but meter is never com posed through h aving al l syl lables s imilar

and seldom through opposing feet.

23

Longinus'

(f l . third century A.D.) commentary o n Hephaes-

tion's (fl. second cen tury

A.D.) Handbook

observes: the father

of meter is rhythm an d god, for meter began from rh ythm and

god called forth meter. 2 4

Ch oeroboscus' ( f l. e ighth century

A.D.) comm entary phrases it a bit differently: the father and

source of the meters is rhythm. 25

A nu mber of additional and com parable definit ions could be

adduced, but it is already clear from these tha t meter or m etrics

is on the one hand a tool by which a pattern of rhythmic chronoi

might be determined and on the other hand a means of measur-

ing quantity in syllables. These two functions are related in a

way, as will become apparent. It is likewise clear that rhythm is

a scale of chr onoi involving arsis and the sis (the sense of these

terms w ill be developed below) in differing tempi, me ters, and

forms brought about by modulation. The matters of rhythmic

23

Mathiesen,

Aris t ides , pp. 107-8.

24 Longinus

Prol . Heph. 1.1 (Consbruch 81.10-11).

25 Choeroboscus

Scholia in Heph.

1.1 (Consbruch 177.12). On the differ-

ence between rhythm and meter, cf. Longinus

Prol. Heph. 1.4 (Consbruch

83.1-25) and Choeroboscus

Schol ia in H eph.

1.1 (Consbruch 179.1-180.15).

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Rhythm and Meter in Ancient G reek Music 163

tempi, modulation, and composition in general are discussed

by Aristides Quintil ianus in Book I, section 19 of his treatise.

One of the m ost important surviving treatises on poetic the-

ory is Dionysius of Halicarnassus' (fl. first century B.C.)

On Li t -

erary Composi t ion, which together with Hephaestion's H a n d -

book may have been the source for much of Aristides

Quintilianus' material on rhythm and meter. Dionysius of Hali-

carnassus' definitions are perfectly in line with those noted

above, but his treatment is more detailed and reveals clearly

the primacy of rhythm. In section 11, he comm ents that the nat-

ural m etric quantity of syllables

26 is often altered by music and

rhythm, so that they often pass into their opposites: the chro-

noi are n ot regulated by th e syllables, but the syllables by the

chronoi.

27

Augustine's treatiseO n M us ic , Book II, section 1,

confirms this point, but of greater importance is the fact that

the earliest fragments of ancient G reek m usic, both dating from

the third century B.c. , exhibit this power of rhythm and m usic,

as will be demonstrated later in this study. Dionysius offers fur-

ther clarification on the quantity of syllables in section 15 of his

treatise: The re is not one nature of long and short syllables,

rather some are longer than longs and some shorter than

shorts.

28

This statement is followed by a num ber of examples

in which syllables are shown to be of varying length depending

on the num ber of elements.

29 Dionysius' observations are con-

firmed in the discussion of elem ents in Aristides Quintil ianus'

Book I, section 21. Section 15 of Dionysius' treatise concludes

with the observation that every short syllable and every long

syllable do not have the same function in pure prose or in po-

ems or in m elos, whether constructed in meters or rhythms.

3

26

One

of the functions of me ter, i t wil l be recalled, is to measure the nature

of syllables.

27

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

D e co mp . ve r b .

11 (Roberts 128.19-130.2).

28

Dionysius

of Halicarnassus D e co mp . ve r b . 15 (Roberts 150.22-152 .2) .

29

Elemen ts are similar to what are now called phonem es.

30

Dionysius of Halicarnassus

D e co mp . ve r b .

15 (Roberts 154.1-3).

Section 17 elaborates on these matters through

a series of ex-

cerpts subjected to an alysis.

In the last parts of

On L i t era ry Co m p o s it i o n

(sections 2 5-

26), Dionysius provides extensive treatments of the way in

which prose may be m ade to resemble verse and verse to re-

semble prose. In both cases, it is a m anipulation of the rhythm

that accomplishes the end. Dionysius gives examples from th e

works of Plato, Demosthenes , Hom er, Euripides, and others

to demonstrate h is points.

31

In order to understand the important matter of the metric

quantity of syllables, which is so crucial to an understanding of

rhythmic fun ction, it is now ne cessary to interject an

excursus

on the elements. Book I, sections 20-21 of Aristides Quinti-

lianus' treatise provides a clear and useful summary, and it will

be the basis for the following treatment.

All the letters of the Greek alphabet can be classed as vow-

els, semivowels, and mutes. The vowels are alpha, epsilon, eta,

iota, omicron, upsilon, and ome ga (a,

c,11, L, 0, 13, w). Some of

these are classed as short ( i .e., equal to the sm allest chronos):

epsilon and omicron; some as long (i.e., requiring a longer

chronos

32 ): eta and omega; and some are dichronic (i .e. , am-

biguous in chronos ): alpha, iota, and upsilon. The sem ivowels

are zeta, lambda, mu, nu, xi, rho, sigma, and psi G , X, .t , v,

Q,

a, and 4). Some of these are called double consonants (be-

31

An exce l lent translation of the treati se of Dionysius of Hal icarnassus ,

with copious annotations, is W. Rhys Roberts,

Dionysius of Halicarnassus on

L i t e rary Com pos i t ion (London: Macmillan, 1910; reprint ed., New York:

AMS Press, 1976). Without detailing them, I note that the same sorts of defini-

t ions of rhythm, meter, and their various parts are found in later treatises, such

as those by Serg ius (Keil ,

Gr ammat i c i La t in i

[GL], 4:533), Marius Victorinus

(GL 6:40-43, 50-53), Maximus Victorinus (GL 6:206-7), Atilius Fortuna-

t ianus (GL 6:282 ) , Audax (GL 7:331-32) , Cass iodorus Institutiones

5.5, and

Quintilian

Inst i tut io oratoria

9.4.

32 Note that Ar ist ides Quinti lianus does n ot say that the long vowels are

twice the length of the short vow els, yet this is commonly asserted to be the case

by modern metricians.



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cause they require two sounds): zeta, xi, and psi; some are

called liquids (because they blend with other sounds and are

therefore equal to less than one consonant) : lambda, mu, nu,

and rho; and on e is called a spirant: sigma. Finally, the mutes

are beta, gamma, delta, theta, kappa, pi, tau, phi, and chi

3 ,

y,

x,

7t, T,(P,

x). The mutes are further subdivided into rough

(theta, phi, and chi) , smooth (kappa, pi, and tau), and m edial

(beta, gamm a, and delta); or labial (beta, pi, and phi) , dental

(delta, theta, and tau), and palatal (gamma, kappa, and chi).

The combination of these letters produces syllables, which

are me asured (or, metered) by their vowels or by certain com-

binations of semivowels and mutes. Long syllables are those

with (1) a long vowel, (2) a lengthene d dichronon,

33(3) a short

vowel and a dichron on, (4) two dichrona, or (5) any vowel fol-

lowed by two sem ivowels or one double consonant (with cer-

tain exceptions involving mutes and liquids), whether or not

these are in the sam e syl lable . The f irs t four types are cal led

long by nature because the vowels themselves provide

length; the fifth type is called long by position because the

length is provided by the position of the sem ivowels in relation

to the vowels. Short syllables are those with (1) a short vowel or

(2) a shortened dichronon, provided these stand alone or are

followed by only a simple semivowel.

Arist ides Quinti l ianus observes in conn ection with these

that there are certain relationships between short and long syl-

lables and that the consonants themselves have a certain

length:

It has been dem ons trated that the m agni tudes of the e l ements are

equal in num ber to the intervals of the tone, for the smallest of these is

a fourth part of the largestas the dies is is of the tone, and the inter-

mediate is half of the larger and dou ble the smaller. A short syllable is

half of a long and a simple consonant is h alf of a short; it is evident that

from the juxtaposing of either a double consonant or one vowel, a

short becomes a long. 34

33

Some of these w ill appear in the fragments analyzed later in this paper.

34 Aristides Quintilianus

De m usica

1.21 (Mathiesen, A ristides

p. 104) .

He then points out that there are also comm on syllables, which

are so ca l led because sometimes short , sometimes long , they

fulfill the need. 35Syllables that are long by nature becom e

comm on whe n the syllable terminates in a long vowel and (1) is

followed by another syllable in the same word that begins w ith a

vowe1

36

or (2) is followed by a syllable in the succeeding w ord

that begins with a vowel. 37Syllables that are short by nature be-

come com mon w hen the syllable terminates a word, either be-

cause the interval between words causes the short syllable to

seem a bit longer or, when the n ext word begins with an aspi-

rated vowel, because the aspiration prevents the short syllable

from being absorbed into the following vowel. Syllables that are

long by posit ion become comm on when the two sem ivowels are

a mute an d a l iquid.

38

Dionysius of Halicarnassus provides some examples of the

complexity of metering syllables in section 15 of his treatise. In

the word crre6(1)og, the short first syllable is seen as longer than

the short first syllable in 686g because the vowel is preceded by

two semivowels and a mute. Likewise, the long syllable wally

would be longer than the syllable 0. The first syllable of

668og

is longer than the first syllable of 686g, the first syllable of

tgOitog is longer than the first syllable of

668og,

and the first syll-

able of cirQ6cOog is longer than the first syllable of ToOnog . As he

conclude s, So, there are four different types of short syllables,

which have only irrat ional sense as a measure of their varia-

tion.

39

35 Ibid.

36

The second vowel tends to take som e of the length of th e first as the voice

blends the sounds.

37 In this case, both vowels are more clearly sounded to distinguish the two

words.

38

Because these are weak sounds, they do not add enough length to the syl-

lable to make it ful ly long. If the l iquid is a m u, however, the syllable is a l i ttle

longer because the mu adds length by requiring the lips to fully close in order to

produce the m sound. If the mu is fully sounded, the syllable will be long. On

the matter of the mu, see Aristides Quinti l ianus

De musica 1.21.

39 Dionysius of Halicarnassus

De comp. verb. 1.15 (Roberts 152 .14-15).



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It should now be clear that a syllable in G reek verse w ill be

not only long or short but also com mon and that al l these sylla-

bles are variable in length. Thu s , to recal l Dionys ius ' words

once again: There is not one nature of long and short syllables,

rather some are longer than longs and some shorter than

shorts.

40

This variety will appear most clearly in the musical

fragments to be discussed later.

Ar sis and T hesis

A basic distinction between rhythm and meter, as noted

above, is stated by Aristides Quinti lianus in Bo ok I, section 2 3:

Rhythm h as its essence in arsis and thesis, and meter in sylla-

bles and their dissimilarity. 41If the essence of rhythm is arsis

and thesis, it is clear that these terms must be properly under-

stood in order to form a conception of ancient Greek rhythm;

nevertheless, the terms are casually dismissed by modern metric

studies. Paul Maas, for instance, states:

The present exposit ion has the l imited aim o f describing the m ost im-

portant phenomena with as few preconceptions as poss ible. It wi l l

therefore be necessary not only to avoid using the terms arsis and

thesis , but to keep our minds clear, so far as possible, of the no-

t ions associated with them . This is so for the fol lowing reasons:

1. In English rhythmic arsis and thesis signify the stressed

and unstressed syllables respectively, a distinction which does not ex-

ist in Greek metric .

2.

The G reek m etrical writers (e.g. , Bacchius 98-101, p. 317

von Jan) mean by arsis what we, who tend to confuse short with

unaccen ted, mea n by thesis and by thesis what we mean by

arsis.

3. Even in their original sense these terms are u seless , because

they make a unit not of the organic groups of e lements but of parts of

these arbitrarily separated from the w holes. These parts are the so-

called feet OtOOEg, x6vaL).

40Ibid. (Roberts 150.22-152.2).

41

Aristides Quinti l ianus

De m usica

1.23 (Mathiesen, Ari st i des , p. 108).

4

Most important of al l , we are in any case obliged to give names

to the e l ements and groups of e l ements that we l earn to recognize

through the principle of responsion . . .; and this makes the concepts

of arsis and thesis superfluous.

42

Maas's arguments are, of course, either irrelevant (1 and 2) or a

priori (3 and 4). Perhaps it wil l be possible to show that the no -

tions associated with arsis and thesis are indeed valuable to an

understanding of ancient Greek rhythmics.

Aristides Quintil ianus, once again, provides useful comm ent

on the natu re of arsis and thesis. In Book I, section 13, he mak es

it clear that arsis and thesis are conditions of the chronoi that

make up rhythm . Later, in section 14, he points out that arsis

and thesis are the two parts of a foot. Then, in sections 15

through 17, he defines many feet in terms of their arses and the-

ses, and it becomes clear that feet of similar qu antity will be dis-

tinguished by which part is the arsis and w hich the thesis. For

example, in comparing the greater anapestic, lesser anapestic,

iamboid choreic, and trochoid choreic, it may be seen that the

first has a long thesis and an arsis of two shorts; the second is the

exact reversean arsis of two shorts and a long thesis; the third,

which in order of chro noi is identical to the greater an apestic, is

defined as having a long arsis and two theses; and the fourth,

which in order of chronoi is identical to the lesser anapestic, is

defined as having two arses and a long thesis. Figure 1 exhibits

these patterns. Even without determ ining precisely what arsis

and thesis mean , i t is clear that the difference between greater

and lesser anapestic is not the arsis and thesis, but rather the

order of the arsis and thesis; that the difference between greater

anapestic and iamboid choreic is not in the chronoi, but in the

order and num ber of the arsis and thesis; that the difference be-

tween lesser anapestic and trochoid choreic is not in the chro-

noi, but in the num ber of arses and theses; and that the differ-

ence between iamboid choreic and trochoid choreic is not in the

order of arsis and thesis, but in the number of arse s and theses.

42 Maas,

G re e k M e t re ,

pp. 6-7.



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166 M u s i c T h e o r y S pe c t r u m

Figure 1. Comparison of greater and lesser anapestic, iamboid

and trochoid choreic (following Aristides Quintilianus

De

mus .

1.15, 17)

greater anapestic

lesser anapestic

iamboid choreic

trochoid choreic

It may be informative to see how these distinctions could be

represented through the analogy of modern rhythmic notation.

Figure 2 shows the notational patterns for the four rhythms, and

the subtle differences should be imm ediate ly apparent. The

Figure 2. Rhythmic patterns in m usical notation for the greater

and lesser anapestic and the iamboid and trocho id choreic

greater anapestic

J

J1.1

J IJ

J

lesser anapestic

JIJJIJ

J

iamboid choreic

jj

j

J

I

J

IJ

trochoid choreic

JIJ

JI

I

J

J 1 a

I = thesis

= two chronoi

in one posit ion

greater and lesser anapestic, which come from the dactylic ge-

nus, 43are equal rhythm s because the arsis and thesis are equal;

the iamboid and trochoid choreic are, however, like the dactylic

genus in rhythm (as is apparent) but l ike the iambic genus in

num ber because there are two theses or arses to one arsis or the-

sis. The way in which rhythms may differ one from another in

respect to their arses and theses is an important distinctive fac-

tor, as is made clear in Aristoxenus' Rhythm ic Elements :

Feet d i f fer from one another in ant i thes is , some having the t ime o f

arsis in opposition to that of the thesis. This same difference will also

exist in those feet equal in duration yet unequal in the placem ent of

the arsis against the thesis,'

and in Aristides Quinti lianus' Book I, section 14:

Foot is a part of every rhythm, through which we comprehend the

whole. There are tw o parts to this: arsis and thesis. There are seven

differences of feet: . . . The seventh differen ce is that by antithesis, as

whenever, with two feet, the one has the larger chronos leading and

the smaller following and the other is the opposite.

45

The significance of arsis and thesis to rhythmic design is evi-

dent, but how were they conveyed to the audience? In this

area, the theorists are unfortunately largely silent. Aristides

Quintil ianus in Book I, section 13 refers to arsis and the sis as

noise and quietude, and it is possible this refers to the clap-

ping sound of the

kroupala

worn by the

koryphaios .

46

This pos-

sibility is supported to some deg ree by A ugustine's On M u s ic ,

43

Aristides Quinti l ianus De musica 1.15.

44

Aristoxenus

Rhythmica

29 (Rowell, Aristoxenus, p. 75).

45Aristides Quinti l ianus

De m usica

1.14 (Mathiesen, Ari st i des , p. 96).

46

See Curt Sachs,

R h y t h m an d T e m p o: A S t u dy i n M u s i c H i s t ory

(New

York: Norton, 1 953),

P.

140. Sachs's entire chap. 7, Greece and Rome, con-

tains a wealth of remarkable insights on rhythm and meter in ancient Greek

music. His sections on the difference between m etricists and rhythmicists and

on stress (pp. 138-43) are particularly noteworthy, even whe n his conclusions

are not entirely convincing.

thesis

arsis

uu

arsis

2 arses

arsis

u

thesis

2 theses

thesis



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R hy t hm a nd M e t e r in A nc ie n t Gr e e k M us ic 16 7

Book II, section 10: In making a beat, since the hand is raised

and lowered, the arsis claims one part of the foot, the thesis the

other ; and Book III, section 1:

And so first I ask you whether those feet w hich can properly be put

together can be combined to create a sort of continuing number w ith-

out def inite end, as when chorus-boys beat castanets and cymbals

[scabella et cymbala] with their f eet according to numbers w hose

combinations are pleasing to the ear, but yet in an unending flow so

that, unless you should hear the flutes [tibias]

you could in no way

mark ho w far the com bination of feet runs forward and from where it

returns to begin again.

47

Aristides Quintilianus observes in Book II, section 4 that the

trainer of the ancient choruses is the science of rhythm ic, and

thistaken together with his definition of arsis and thesis as

noise and quietude might we ll suggest some sort of clapping

sound. Mar ius Victorinus also me ntions the sound of arsis

and thesis:

Arsis and thesis of which the Greeks speakthat is,

subla t io

an d

pos i t iosignify

a m otion of the foot. Arsis is the raising

[sublatio] of

the foot without a sound, and thesis is the placement

[pos i t io ] of the

foot with a sound. Arsis is a lengthening of the chronos

[ tempus] ,

sound, and voice; thesis is the lowering and a certain contrac tion of

syllables.

It is also possible that the arsis and the sis are directly related to

particular bodily movements associated with particular

rhythm s, which are well attested (though no t fully described) by

47 Augustine

De musica

2.10, 3.1 (trans. from Robert Catesby Taliaferro,

On Music, in

The Fathers of the Church

[New York: Fathers of the Church,

1947], 4:226, 2 37). Taliaferro provides a useful introduction to his tran slation

and many informative annotations. For a text with Ital ian translation, useful

annotation s, and a valuable index, see Giovann i Marzi,

Aureli i Augustini de

musica,

Collana di classici della fi losofia cristiana, no. 1 (Florence: Sansoni,

1969).

48 Marius Victorinus

Ars gramm at i ca

(GL 6:40).

many early writers, including Aristides Quinti lianus in Bo ok I,

section 13, and Boo k II, sections 4, 10, and 1 6; and Qu inti lian's

Oratorical Principles,

Book XI, section 3 (which provides an ex-

tensive treatment of the actions used in delivery). Any of these

possibil i ties could con vey the distinction of arsis and thesis and

clarify the meaning and structure of rhythmic patterns.

It is now time to make some summary statements about

rhythm and m eter. Rhythm is a pattern of durations (or, chro-

noi) articulated by arses and theses an d exhibiting in generic

terms certain proportions of short, long, and comm on syllables,

which are in actual practice made shorter or longer by musical

or rhythmic forces (or by both combined). Meter, on the other

hand, provides (1) a means of mea suring certain gram matical

elements ,

49

(2) a m eans of m easuring syllables in words, which

are quite variable, and (3) a mean s of mea suringas A ristides

Quinti l ianus states in Book I, section 12 feet compounded of

dissimilar syllables, symme trical in length. Whereas a rhyth-

m ic pattern may be endless ly varied, as Augu stine shows in

Book III of his treatise , a metr ic pattern must be m ade up of

symm etrical feet (but not n ecessari ly of the same feet) , as is

shown clearly in Dionysius' treatise, section 25, Aristides

Quintilianus' Book I, sections 24-29, and Augustine's Book

III, section 1. So, every meter m ust have rhythm , but not every

rhythm m ust have meter. Final ly, verse or poetry i s a sca le o f

meters, but not necessarily the sam e m eter, as Aristides Quinti-

l ianus observes in Book I, section 2 9 and Au gustine in Book V.

Here again, a m odern parallel may be informative. Figure 3 ex-

hibits the famous and much-noted rhythmic cycle in the four

movements of Beethoven's Symphony no. 5: though the

rhythm is the same in each case, the meter and tempo are differ-

ent and thus the effect of each rhythm ic-metric complex. So too

the rhythmic-metric interplay (not simply the meter or the

rhythm alone) in Greek verse is one of the main centers for ex-

pression, as wil l become clear in the fol lowing analyses.

49

Cf. Longinus

Prol. in Heph.

4 (Consbruch 83.1-25).


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Figure 3. Rhythmic-metric patterns for the four movem ents of

Beethoven's Symphony no. 5

Allegro con brio

J

T D I

Andante con moto

Allegro

III

JJ

Allegro

V

t J ;IL JAI J

Rests

Before proceeding to an examination of the two E uripidean

fragments and other pieces o f ancient Greek mu sic, the func-

tion of rests in rhythm and m eter should be addressed. It is per-

fectly clear that rests formed a part o f the rhythmic and m etric

patterns. Aristides Quintilianus refers to rests twice in his trea-

tise:

Moreover, they render some [patterns] of all shorts, some from longs,

and some as a mixture; or by expanding the longs and the shorts, they

make the arses correspond to the theses either through similar or dis-

s imilar chronoi, and they employ some com plete and some with le im-

mata a nd prostheses , in which are rests . A rest is a chronos without a

note equal to the full value of the rhythm; a leimm ain rhythm is

the sm allest rest and a prosthesis is a long rest , double the smallest .

5

50

Aristides Quintilianus

De musica 1.18 (Mathiesen,

Aristides p. 101).

Later, in connection with the characters of rhythm ic patterns,

he states:

Those having complete feet in periods are more naturally suited;

those having short rests are more artless and petty, and those having

longish rests are more mag nif icent.

51

Augustine adds a gre at deal of additional information in Book

III, sections 7-8, and Book IV, sections 1-3, 7-8, and 10-17.

For instance:

Then you m ust hold there are fixed rest-intervals in meters. And so

when you have found som e defect in a regular foot , you ought to con-

sider whether there will be compensation when th e rest has been mea-

sured and accounted for .

52

And again:

I think you now certainly understand there are a great ma ny kinds of

meter. In fact, we found there were five hundred and sixty-eight,

when n o examples were g iven o f res ts except the f ina l ones , and no

mixture of feet made, and no resolution of long syllables into two

shorts stretching the foot to m ore than fou r syllables. But, if you wish

to get the nu mber of meters with every possible insert ion of rests ap-

plied, and every combination of feet, and every resolution of long syl-

lables, the number is so great i ts nam e is perhaps not at hand.

53

In dist inguishing the di f ferences between rhythm and me ter,

Quintilian observes that rests play a role:

There are also the following differences, that rhythm has un limited

space over which it may range, whereas the spaces of metre are

51 Aristides Quintilianus

De musica 2.15 (Mathiesen,

Aristides

p. 146).

Since rests represent an absence, their measurement raised certain philosophi-

cal difficulties; the difficulty of justifying duration in vaca ncy can sti l l be clearly

seen in the tortuous definitions of rests that abound in thirteenth- and

fourteenth-century mensura l theory.

52 Augustine De musica

3.8 (Taliaferro, 4:255). The ensuing sections pro-

vide a detailed analysis of the rest functioning in a variety of m etric patterns.

53

Augustine

De musica

4.17 (Taliaferro, 4:296).

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confined, and that, whereas metre has certain definite cadences,

rhythm m ay run on as it comm enced until it reaches the point of Rent-

, or transition to another type of rhythm: further m etre is con-

cerned with words alone, while rhythm extends also to the m otion of

the body . Aga in rhythm m ore read i ly admits o f

res ts

although they

are found in metre as wel1. 54

Finally and of greatest importance, rests appear in the musical

fragmen ts. Sometimes the rests are indicated by textual

stigmai

(dots), sometimes the y are the result of an instrumental inter-

jection.

Despite this evidence, rests are virtually never discussed in

modern metric studies. There are a few exceptions. Lionel

Pearson emphasizes the function of rests in his article The Dy-

nam ics of Pindar's Music :

In every strophe there must be one or m ore places where the singer is

given time to take a breath without disturbing the rhythm, where he

has a rest (the equivalent of a l o n g u m

or a breve , somet imes even

longer), during which the instru men ts will not necessarily be silent or

the dancers at a stan dstill; and genera lly it is not difficult to see where

these rests are (they need not be the same in each strophe).

55

Curt Sachs, thirty years ago, also noted the l ine-end rest in his

Rhy t hm and Tem po:

The end of a l ine could be m ade more definitive , masculine , and even

solemn by dropping the last syllable or the last two syllables (or,

rather, by replacing them w ith an equivalent rest) in order to con-

clude on a long syllable. . . . 56

54

Quintilian Institutio oratoria

9.4.50-51 (trans. from H. E. Butler,

The In-

s t i tu t io orator ia of Quint i l ian,

4 vols. , Loeb Classical Library, nos. 105 8

[Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1921], 3:535).

55

Lionel Pearson, The Dynamics of Pindar's Music: Ninth Nemean and

Third Olympian, Il linois C lassical Studies 2 (1977):55. Prof. Pearson remarks

on the general disregard for rests in studies of Greek lyric and observes (p. 55,

n. 2): Although critics, in restoring the text, have considered difficulties of

tonality . . ., they seem prepared to treat the singers as having 'lungs of

bronze.'

56 Sachs, R h y t h m a n d T emp o ,

pp. 133-34.

Rests were needed, of course, for purposes of breathing, but

they also helped articulate rhythmic and m etric patterns, just as

they sti l l do in modern music. It should be noted, by the way,

that rests do not necessarily have to be accom modated within a

metric pattern; they may simply provide articulation points for

a rhythmic pattern, and this is the way the instrum ental inter-

jections function in the

Orestes

fragment, which will be exam-

ined directly. Scholars who w ish to reject or ignore rests in

Greek lyric m ust be prepared to present a case for their point of

view, since the preponderance of evidence supports the pres-

ence and function of rests .

57

The M usica l Fragments : Ear ly

The two earl ies t extant fragments of an cient Greek m usic

come from two works by Euripides:

O r es t e s (P . W i en G2315)

and

Iphigenia in Aulis (P. Leid.

inv. 510). Detailed discussions

of these fragments h ave appeared elsewhere, especially in con-

nection with problems of reconstruction and transcription, and

there is no purpose in recoun ting al l this materia1.

58The focus

57

Pearson, Dynam ics, underscores the point (pp. 54-55): We canno t

give l ife to Pindar's music unless we can supply more th an the patterns wh ich

metricians offer us. We may not want to trust our im agination to supply details

that are missing, but refusal to use our imagination does no t protect us from

error. It is hard for me to sympathize with anyone wh o thinks that, because he

cannot see rou nd the corner, there canno t be anything of interest there. . . . I

propose, instead, to begin by stating quite dogm atically that in every strophe

there must be one or m ore places where the singer is given time to take a breath

without disturbing the rhythm, where he has a rest (the equivalent of a longum

or a

breve ,

sometimes even longer), during which the instrumen ts wil l not nec-

essarily be si lent or the dancers at a standsti l l ; . . .

58

The

Orestes

fragment appears in Egert POhlmann, Denkmaler al tgriechis-

c h e r M u s i k ,

Erlanger Be i trage zur Sprach- and Ku nstwissenschaft , no. 31

(Nuremberg: Carl, 1970), pp. 78-82; and the

Iph igen ia fragment is recon-

structed and transcribed in Mathiesen, New Fragments, pp. 23-31. Tran-

scriptions of the Greek notation into modern notation have been included in

the ensuing figures simply to assist the reader's aural sense of the fragmen ts.

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1 70 Music Theory Spectrum

of this discussion will be l imited to rhythmic and m etric prob-

lems, which h ave thus far re ceived l itt le attention.

An analysis of the text in the

Orestes papyrus, using the prin-

ciples explained earlier in this study, will reveal that some of th e

syllables are long, some short, some dichron ic, and some com -

mon. The papyrus preserves only the m iddle part of each line,

and if the beginnings and ending s of each line are supplied from

the m anuscript tradition, further syllabic characteristics, per-

fectly in accord with those on the papyrus, emerge. The r hyth-

mic and metr ic pattern of the text remains am biguous i f i t i s

strictly interpreted by the theoretical principles. But the papy-

rus also exhibits musical notation, including symbols for notes,

rhythmic duration, and instrumental pitches. There are also a

considerable number of stigmai dots placed over the pitch

notes and rhythm ic symbols. The rhythmic symbols that appear

are the diseme (a horizontal l ine), which lengthens the chron os

protos of a single pitch note to two chron oi; the triseme (three

vertical lines or a horizontal line with a vertical line attached to

the right end) , which lengthens the chronos to three chronoi;

and the pentaseme (wh ich looks l ike a supine E), which length-

ens the chronos to five chronoi.

59

T h es e rhythmic s ymbols

make it possible to clarify the purely textual rhythm, and by

combining the two levels of analysistextual and musicalit is

possible to see how the m usic defines the rhythm and m eter of

the com position, just as the theorists have stated it should. Fig-

ure 4 provides a transcr iption of the seven lines of the

Orestes

papyrus, showing the musical notation, the text (the brackets

For a new stu dy that attempts to provide a fuller analysis of both these frag-

ments and their ethos, see my Harmonia and Ethos in Ancient Greek Music,

Journal of Musicology 3(1984):264-79.

59

The rhythm ic symbols appear in the so-called Bellermann Anonym ous I

and III. See Dietmar Najock,

Drei anonyme griechische Traktate fiber d ie Mu-

s ik : E i n e k o mm en t i e r t e N eu a u sg a b e d es B e l l er ma n n s ch en A n o n ym u s ,

Got-

l inger Musikwissenschaftl iche A rbeiten, no. 2 (Kassel: Bdrenreiter, 1972), pp.

66, 138. The symbols are also discussed in POhlmann, D e n k m W e r , p. 141; and

Mathiesen, New Fragments, pp. 27-28.

indicate the beginnings and the endings of each l ine supplied by

the m anuscript tradition), the textual rhythm, and the m usical

rhythm.

It is immediately clear that the presence or absence of the

diseme c larifies the value of dichron ic syllables in the text ( in

every line) or syllables of ambiguous length (in line 3, where the

mu-beta juxtaposition admits of varying interpretations)

60

or

doubled syllables (in line 6, where the singer could not know

without the musical notation whether the two omegas are to be

sung as two longs or are to collectively equal one long) or a syl-

lable fol lowed by a double consona nt ( the alpha-xi in l ine 4 ,

where the singer might conceivably fail to recognize this as a

syllable long by position). The only anom aly is the diseme over

the diphthong in l ine 4, which should surely be recognized as

long by nature. But since the notator has placed a diseme over

the corre sponding syllable in every line, he did so he re simply

for the sake of consistency and as a precaution.

One of the m ost striking features of this papyrus is the ap-

pearance of the instrum ental interjections in l ines 5 and 6.

61

Without these interjections, the rhythmic pattern of line 5

would be seriously incomplete; the function of the interjection

in line 6 is not clear because so little of the text of the first half of

the line is preserved. It is not possible to be sure how the second

half of l ine 5 or most of l ine 6 wou ld actually be sung, but the

first half of l ine 5 would suggest that instrume ntal notes would

complete the rhythm ic pattern in these places.

It has always been assum ed that the squ ared zetas in l ines 1

4 represent an instrum ental note (or an instrum ental f lourish),

and the rhythmic analysis bears this out. These notes provide

an articulation point between th e basic rhythmic pattern of S-S-

S-L-S-L (assuming that mo st if not all of the dichronic and com -

6Cf. Ar istides Quinti l ianus

De m usica

1.21 and n. 38

supra.

61

The instrumen tal interjections are indicated by the presence of a diastole,

which looks somewh at l ike a reverse C. On this symbol, see Bellermann Anon-

ymous I (Najock, p. 72).

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Figure 4. Rhythmic design of E uripides

Orestes

in P. Wien G2315

ffPC

4

n

xetToXocp]ti popect,

1- pat Epos [(Alla

Gas

SS SL

DSSLDD

L

LI SSS

8 a Ocvai3a]xxexiEt,

1-

O p6yets [5Xaos

S

DLLLI SSDLSL

LLLI SSS

Musical notes

1.

Text rhythm

Musical rhythm

Musical notes

2 .

Text rhythm

Musical rhythm

Musical notes

T

C

z

3.

Text rhythm

Musical rhythm

pcivutio] s

o-rots L. ava[bE

Xai ,

(pos

S D S

S?)S L

D D

LSL

L

L

S S

Musical notes

PIT

CP

4 .

d ixolTou

- aoas

uvot [Eas

Text rhythm

DDLSLIDLLLL

Musical rhythm

SLSLISL

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172 M usic Theory Spectrum

Figure 4 continued

41111

116

117.11 1111,

1,1MM, INIM .4111

=

Musical notes

5.

Text rhythm

Musical rhythm

Musical notes

6.

Text rhythm

Musical rhythm

irrr P

T r

xovr6xxu6cv 91 D

[ctivibv

DCDS

L

SSSL7SSI

2 i z

itOvw]v 7i

D wcos R O v T [ou

S L

L

ISSISSL

Musical notes

E PZ

7.

text uncertain]

*on the special function of the m u in syllabic quantity, see Aristides Quinti lianus 1.21.

D = dichronic syllable

= poss ible pos it ion of the thes is

S = short syllable

L = long syllable

C = common syllable

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mon syllables in the l ine marked text rhythm would be made

short by the m usic , as the surviving notation w ould suggest)

that appears twice in each line. The pattern is , of course, the

dochmiac:luuu I .

Final ly , the m atter of the st igmai

demands attent ion. The

initial note of each half of the dochm iac receives a st igme,

as can

be reasonably inferred from the presence of the second half of

each dochm iac on the left side of the papyrus and the first half

of each fol lowing dochm iac on the r ight s ide of the papyrus .

The o nly exceptions are the first note in l ine 2 of the papyrus,

which is not preserved, and the two notes over the repeated

vowel in line 6 of the papyrus. Since these two notes collectively

sound the f irst syl lable, perhaps it was thou ght necessary to re-

peat the stigme.

There i s a lso a s t igme over each of the instru-

mental notes in l ines 1-4 that divide the dochmiacs. Since the

dochmiac is defined (by, among others, A ristides Quintilianus

in Book I, section 17) as composed of two parts, an iamb

(v or u u u ) and a paeon diaguios ( u ), it would

appear that the stigme

marks off the beginning of each rhythmic

part, as well as the articulation poin t provided by the instru-

mental interjection.

A num ber of features have emerged with some consistency

in this fragment. These m ust be kept in m ind for comparison

with the other Euripidean fragment, the fragment from Iphige-

nia in Aulis .

Analysis of the text in this papyrus reveals the same sort of

features encountered in the

O res t e s

papyrus . The

Iphigenia

papyrus preserves the left side of each line, and while it might

be possible to complete each line from the manuscript

traditionas was done with the Orestes

papyrusthis wil l not

contribute anything of significance to the topic at hand. In this

papyrus , the textual rhythm is once again a mbiguo us i f i t is

strictly interpreted by the theoretical principles. The musical

notation, however, offers some very remarkable indications.

Figure 5 provides a transcription of the four notated lines of the

papyrus, once again showing the musical notation, the text

(with the brackets indicating where th e papyrus breaks off), the

textual rhythm, and the musical rhythm.

As in the

Orestes papyrus, the presence or absence of the

diseme clarifies dichronic syllables, but it is also used in conne c-

t ion with a tr iseme ( in l ine 2) and a pentasem e ( in l ine 3) to

show h ow the value o f a s ingle note is to be extended over a

number of syllables to make them longer than one wou ld other-

wise assume them to be. In this way, the musical notation func-

tions just as Dionysius of Halicarnassus observed. The rh ythm

of this textwith its shifts from choriambs ( u u ) to

bacchics ( u ) at the ends of lines 1 and 2 to trochees

( u ) at the beginnings of l ines 2 and 4is much m ore com-

plicated than that of the

Orestes

papyrus, and the mu sical nota-

tion helps clarify a rhythm that is otherwise almost irrational.

Th e

st igmai

are also of interest in this fragment. Here, the

s t igmai mark

the end of each initial rhythmic pattern (choriamb

in lines 1 and 3, trochee in lines 2 and 4) and then the long sylla-

ble of the new pattern that follows. Thus, the st igme would

seem to mark each rhythmic pattern in a manner similar

(though not identical) to that of the Orestes papyrus.

To review and summ arize these two fragments, a few gener-

alizations can be offered.

1.

The com poser has added a diseme for the m ost part only

where the syllable (metrically speaking) is short, dichronic, or

doubled (as in votag in line 4 of the Iphigenia fragment). The

exceptions to this occur in every case over alphas (which are

dichronic) followed by a double mute (kappa-chi), a double liq-

uid (lambda-lambda), or a double consonant (xi); and over the

diphthong omicron-upsi lon. The disemes over the alphas are

not too surprising because these syllables are metrically ambig-

uous ( in the f igures , these could be notated as D or C rather

than L). The diseme over the diphthong is anomalous.

2.

The com poser has not placed a diseme over other notes

falling on dichronic or common syllables in order to indicate

that these are short.

3. All the other values are u nam biguously long or short, un-


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o a

U

p

rl

TE Spot pri-te e-potak, T6xvwv .

LSSLI LSSLI DC L

LSSL LSSL[SLLn

C.T CT.

oC-av at: noA.Ixpu-croL AuOat [mat

LDL

ICDLIDL

[LSL

ISLL+SSL

L?]

(SS)

M NN NMES

,..11 .

Z

r

EL/ Fain=

17 4 M u s i c T h e o r y S pe c t r u m

Figure 5. Rhythmic design of Euripides

Iphigenia Au lidensis in

P. Leid. inv. 510

Musical notes

1 .

Text rhythm

Musical rhythm

Musical notes

2 .

Text rhythm

Musical rhythm

Musical notes

3.

Text rhythm

Musical rhythm

icl-SE ES

O t

X X

rD t

t' s

pa

SSLL

S

LSSL

LL+St SS[SS?]

Musical notes

Tr

T

4.

raci'g ye:is

na T

pC-as 6Ao Newts .

Text rhythm

L IDDSSSD

Musical rhythm

s Lsj:ss s s s[Sn

*or short because of the

s t igme?

D = ichronic syllable

= possible position of the th esis

S = short syllable

L = long syllable

C = common syllable


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- U

uU7


less modif ied by a tr iseme or a pentaseme, which m ake them

rather l ike a dotted note in m odern m usical notation and set

them off on important w ords or at the ends of phrases (e .g . ,

nokkomot and &Mika; in lines 2-3 of the Iphigenia

frag-

ment) .

4. The

stigmai

placed within the m usical line mark off major

rhythmic un its: in Orestes ,

the two parts of the dochmiacs (just

as Aristides Quintilanus describes the rhythm as composed of

an iamb and a paeon diaguios); and in Iphigenia,

the initial cho-

riambs (alternating with trochees) and the shift to bacchic or

reversed bacchic, a pattern noted by Hephaestion in section 9

of the

H a n d b o o k .

5 .

Rests or instrumental interjections either articulate or

complete the rhythmic patterns.

6. The rhythmic pattern is made clear only by the music; it

remains am biguous in the text alone,

62 which is subordinate to

the me lody, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus observes in section

11 of his treatise.

The m anner in which the rhythm ic patterns are established

is clear from Figures 4 and 5, but it is important not to neglect

the question of arsis and thesis, which has been deferred in the

analys is unti l now. Both of these fragmen ts use com plex pat-

terns: the dochmiac (u v

u

I

-

-

v

-),

which is a mixed

rhythm according to Aristides Quintil ianus in Book I, section

17 and Hephaestion in section 10 of the

H a n d b o o k ;

and the

choriambic, which is a composite rhythm according to Aristides

Quinti l ianus in Book I, section 2 6 and Hephaestion in section 9

of the

H a n d b o o k .

The doch miac pattern, therefore, will have

an arsis, a thesis, a thesis, and an arsis. Thus, the Ores tes pa t-

tern might be notated as follows (a vertical stroke denotes the

62

Particularly good examples of the am biguity appear in the

Iphigenia

frag-

ment in connection with l ine 2, note 2, l ine 3, note 6, and l ine 4, note 4, where

comm on syllables and articulating rests appear; and in the Orestes

fragment in

connection with line 5, note 2, and line 6, notes 3 and 4, where a comm on sylla-

ble and a doubled vowel appear. Unti l now, the proper rhythmic transcription

for these notes has not been clear.

thesis and the brackets indicateas beforethe missing part of

the papyrus reconstructed from the manuscript tradition):

u]

L )

u u

o

[ L

u

u

I u

[L

U

vOu

7uL)

I [ ?

7 uulu LI)

The ch oriambic ( if it is construed as a com posite of a trochee

and an iam b, as might be inferred from A ristides Quinti l ianus

in Book I, section 16) w ill have a thesis, an arsis, an arsis, and a

thesis: (The bacchic, which is used with the chori-

amb, should continue w ith an arsis and a double thesis.) Thus,

the

Iphigenia pattern might be n otated as fol lows:

:

VVV I u

u

U

UUL) U_LY



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Mathiesen - Rhytm and Meter in Ancient Greek Music - Music Theory Spectrum -1985

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