Front cover image for Ancient Greek music

Ancient Greek music

M. L. West
Ancient Greece was permeated by music, and the literature teems with musical allusions. For most readers the subject has remained a closed book. Here at last is a clear, comprehensive, and authoritative account that presupposes no special knowledge of music. Topics covered include the place of music in Greek life; instruments; rhythm; tempo; modes and scales; melodic construction; form; ancient theory and notation; and historical development. Thirty surviving examples of Greek music are presented in modern transcription with analysis, and the book is fully illustrated with plates and diagrams. Besides being considered on its own terms, Greek music is here further illuminated by being seen in ethnological perspective, and a brief Epilogue sets it in its place in a border zone between Afro-Asiatic and European culture. The book will be of value both to classicists and historians of music
eBook, English, 1992
Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, Oxford [England], New York, 1992
Criticism, interpretation, etc
1 online resource (xiii, 409 pages) : illustrations
9780191586859, 9780585229928, 0191586854, 0585229929
45727735
1. Music in Greek Life
2. The Voice
3. Stringed Instruments
4. Wind and Percussion
5. Rhythm and Tempo
6. Scales and Modes
7. Melody and Form
8. Theory
9. Notation and Pitch
10. The Musical Documents
11. Historical Synthesis: 1. Sunrise and Forenoon
12. Historical Synthesis: 2. High Noon and Afternoon
Epilogue: Greece between Europe and Asia
English