Editing Sappho (section)

===Music===
[[File:Brygos Painter ARV 385 228 Alkaios and Sappho - Dionysos and maenad (07).jpg|thumb|alt=Red-figure vase painting of a woman holding a barbitos. On the left, a bearded man with a barbitos is partially visible.|One of the earliest surviving images of Sappho, from {{Circa|470{{nbsp}}BC}}. She is shown holding a [[barbitos]] and plectrum, and turning to listen to [[Alcaeus of Mytilene|Alcaeus]].{{sfn|Yatromanolakis|2008|loc=ch. 2}}]]

Sappho's poetry was written to be sung, but its musical content is largely uncertain.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=129}} 
As it is unlikely that any system of [[Musical system of ancient Greece|musical notation]] existed in Ancient Greece before the fifth century, the original music that accompanied her songs probably did not survive until the [[Classical Greece|classical period]],{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=129}} and no ancient musical scores to accompany her poetry survive.{{sfn|Gordon|2002|p=xii}} Sappho reportedly wrote in the [[Mixolydian mode#Greek Mixolydian|mixolydian mode]],{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=130}} which was considered sorrowful; it was commonly used in [[Greek tragedy]], and [[Aristoxenus]] believed that the tragedians learned it from Sappho.{{sfn|West|1992|p=182}}  Aristoxenus attributed to Sappho the invention of this mode, but this is unlikely.{{sfn|Anderson|Mathiesen|2001}}  While there are no attestations that she used other [[Mode (music)|mode]]s, she presumably varied them depending on the poem's character.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=130}} When originally sung, each syllable of her text likely corresponded to one note as the use of lengthy [[melisma]]ta developed in the later classical period.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=131}}

Sappho wrote both songs for solo and choral performance.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=131}} With Alcaeus, she pioneered a new style of sung [[monody]] (single-line melody) that departed from the multi-part choral style that largely defined earlier Greek music.{{sfn|Anderson|Mathiesen|2001}} This style afforded her more opportunities to individualize the content of her poems; the historian [[Plutarch]] noted that she "speaks words mingled truly with fire, and through her songs, she draws up the heat of her heart".{{sfn|Anderson|Mathiesen|2001}} Some scholars theorize that the Tithonus poem was among her works meant for a solo singer.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=131}} Only fragments of Sappho's choral works are extant; of these, her [[epithalamia]] (wedding songs) survive better than her cultic hymns.{{sfn|Anderson|Mathiesen|2001}} The later compositions were probably meant for [[Call and response (music)|antiphonal]] performance between either a male and female choir or a soloist and choir.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=131}}

In Sappho's time, sung poetry was usually accompanied by [[musical instrument]]s, which usually [[Voicing (music)#Doubling|doubled]] the voice in [[unison]] or played [[Homophony|homophonically]] an [[octave]] higher or lower.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=130}} Her poems mention numerous instruments, including the [[Ancient Greek harps#Pektis, trigonus|pektis]], a harp of [[Lydians|Lydian]] origin,{{efn|The [[Ancient Greek harps#Pektis, trigonus|pektis]] harp, also known as the plēktron or plectrum, may be the same as the [[magadis]].{{sfn|Yatromanolakis|2008|loc=ch. 3}}}} and [[lyre]].{{efn|Sappho names both the {{Transliteration|grc|lyra}} and {{Transliteration|grc|chelynna}} ({{lit|tortoise}});{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=131}} both refer to [[bowl lyre]]s.{{sfn|West|1992|p=50}}}}{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=131}} Sappho is most closely associated with the [[barbitos]],{{sfn|Anderson|Mathiesen|2001}} a lyre-like string instrument that was deep in pitch.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=131}}  [[Euphorion of Chalcis]] reports that she referred to it in her poetry,{{sfn|Yatromanolakis|2008|loc=ch. 3}} and a fifth-century [[red-figure vase]] by either the [[Dokimasia Painter]] or [[Brygos Painter]] includes Sappho and Alcaeus with barbitoi.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=131}} Sappho mentions the [[aulos]], a wind instrument with two pipes, in [[Sappho 44|fragment 44]] as accompanying the song of the Trojan women at [[Hector]] and [[Andromache]]'s wedding, but not as accompanying her own poetry.{{sfn|Battezzato|2021|p=132}}  Later Greek commentators wrongly believed that she had invented the [[plectrum]].{{sfn|West|1992|p=65}}