Music in Greece

Much importance was attache dto music in Greece, and its nature an duses were made the object of study by the most profound philosophers; yet for several reasons music did not develop at all proportionately to the other arts. One of these reasons was the Greek predilection for the visual arts, which voiced itself in the beauty of line and the symmetrical proportions of plastic productions. Another was the fact that, while occasional supporting chords might have been used with melodies, the Greeks never arrived at a logical system of harmonic combinations, with the result that music was severely limited in its scope. Partly on this account, also, music never attained an independent existence, but was rigidly subject to poetry, as was painting to architecture. But with all its limitations, Greek music had a considerable influence on our own; both directly, transplanted to our system through the work of the early Christians, and indirectly, in the study of Greek ideals which has been active at various periods.

Notwithstanding the many ancient writings on the subject of Greek music, however, our knowledge of it is extremely vague; since many of these accounts, written at different periods, seriously conflict, and also since many of them are rather theoretical than practical. Very few authentic fragments of Greek music are extant, and the interpretation of these, even, is the subject of much controversy.