Editing Aristoxenus

{{Short description|4th century BC Greek Peripatetic philosopher}}
{{other people}}
[[Image:Aristosseno.jpg|thumb|200px|A modern imagining of the appearance of Aristoxenus.]]
'''Aristoxenus of Tarentum''' ({{langx|el|Ἀριστόξενος ὁ Ταραντῖνος}}; born {{circa}} 375, [[fl.]] 335 BC) was a [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[Peripatetic school|Peripatetic]] [[philosopher]], and a pupil of [[Aristotle]]. Most of his writings, which dealt with [[philosophy]], [[ethics]] and [[music]], have been lost, but one musical treatise, ''Elements of Harmony'' (Greek: {{math|Ἁρμονικὰ στοιχεῖα}};<!--genitive in original is followed by the ordinal number of each book that make up the whole work and should not be used in isolation--> [[Latin]]: ''[[Elementa harmonica]]''), survives incomplete, as well as some fragments concerning [[rhythm]] and [[Metre (music)|meter]]. The ''Elements'' is the chief source of our knowledge of [[Music of ancient Greece|ancient Greek music]].<ref name=Chambers>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Aristoxenus of Tarentum |encyclopedia=[[Chambers's Encyclopædia]] |place=London, UK |publisher=[[George Newnes Ltd]] |year=1961 |volume=1 |page=593}}</ref>

==Life==
Aristoxenus was born at [[Taranto|Tarentum]] (in modern-day [[Apulia]], southern Italy) in [[Magna Graecia]], and was the son of a learned musician named Spintharus (otherwise Mnesias).<ref name=suda>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[Suda]] |title=Aristoxenos |edition=Aelian |at=''H. A.'' ii. 11}}</ref> He learned music from his father, and having then been instructed by [[Lamprus of Erythrae]] and [[Xenophilus (philosopher)|Xenophilus the Pythagorean]], he finally became a pupil of [[Aristotle]],<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Aulus Gellius]] |title={{grey|[no title cited]}} |at=iv. 11}}; {{cite book |author=[[Marcus Tullius Cicero]] |title=[[Tusculanae Disputationes]] |at=i. 18}}</ref> whom he appears to have rivaled in the variety of his studies.

According to the ''[[Suda]]'',<ref name=suda/> he heaped insults on Aristotle after his death, because Aristotle had designated [[Theophrastus]] as the next [[scholarch|head]] of the [[Peripatetic school]], a position which Aristoxenus himself had coveted, having achieved great distinction as a pupil of Aristotle. This story is, however, contradicted by [[Aristocles of Messene|Aristocles]], who asserts that he only ever mentioned Aristotle with the greatest respect. Nothing is known of his life after the time of Aristotle's departure, apart from a comment in ''Elementa Harmonica'' concerning his works.<ref>{{cite book |author=Aristocles ap. Eusebius |title=[[Praeparatio Evangelica]] |at=xv. 2}}</ref><ref name="A. Barker">
{{cite book
 |first=A. |last=Barker
 |year=2007
 |title=The Science of Harmonics in Classical Greece
 |publisher=Cambridge University Press
 |place=Cambridge, UK
 |isbn=978-1139468626
 |quote=[ed.:] No more of his life-history is known ...&nbsp;.
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xRM9WLpswiEC&dq=Elementa+Harmonica&pg=PA113
 |access-date=2015-05-03
}}
</ref>

==Overview of his works==
His writings were said to have consisted of four hundred and fifty-three books,<ref name="suda"/> and dealt with [[philosophy]], [[ethics]] and [[music]].  
Although his final years were in the [[Peripatetic school]], and he hoped to succeed Aristotle on his death, Aristoxenus was strongly influenced by [[Pythagoreanism]], and was only a follower of Aristotle in so far as Aristotle was a follower of [[Plato]] and [[Pythagoras]]. Thus, as Gibson tells us: "the various philosophical influences"<ref name=Gibson-2005>
{{cite book
 |last=Gibson |first=Sophie
 |year=2005
 |title=Aristoxenus of Tarentum and the Birth of Musicology
 |place=New York, NY
 |publisher=Routledge
 |isbn=041597061X
}}
</ref>{{rp|style=ama|pp= ...}}{{page needed|date=October 2021}}
on Aristoxenus included growing up in the profoundly Pythagorean city of [[Taranto#History|Taras]] (Tarentum), home also of the two Pythagoreans [[Archytas]] and [[Philolaus]], and his father's (Pythagorean) musical background, which he inculcated into his son. Gibson tells us that, after the influence of his father:

{{quote|
The second important influence on Aristoxenos' development was [[Pythagoreanism]]: Born in [[History of Taranto|Tarentum]], the city in which both [[Archytas]] and [[Philolaos]] had lived, it can be seen that the extended period of time that Aristoxenus spent in a Pythagorean environment made an indelible impact on the subject matter of his writings. Such titles as "Pythagorou bios", "Peri Pythaorou kai ton guorimon autou" and "Peri tou Pythagorikou biou" indicate Aristoxenus' interest in the society. Furthermore, his works on education show evidence of Pythagorean influence, particularly in their tendency towards conservatism. Most importantly, speculation on the structure of music had its origin in a Pythagorean environment. Its focus was on the numerical relationship between notes and, at its furthest stretch, developed into a comparison between musical, mathematical and cosmological structures.<ref name=Gibson-2005/>{{rp|style=ama|pp= 3–4}}
}}

However, Aristoxenus disagreed with earlier Pythagorean musical theory in several respects, building on their work with ideas of his own. The only work of his that has come down to us is the three books of the ''Elements of Harmony'', an incomplete musical treatise.  Aristoxenus' theory had an empirical tendency; in music he held that the notes of the scale are to be judged, not as earlier Pythagoreans had believed, by mathematical ratio, but by the ear.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} [[Vitruvius]] in his ''[[De architectura]]''<ref>Vitruvius, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20239/20239-h/29239-h.htm#Page_139 Book V Chapter IV]</ref> paraphrases the writings of Aristoxenus on music.  His ideas were responded to and developed by some later theorists such as [[Archestratus (music theorist)|Archestratus]], and his place in the methodological debate between rationalists and empiricists was commented upon by such writers as [[Ptolemais of Cyrene]].

The Pythagorean theory that the [[soul]] is a 'harmony' of the [[classical elements|four elements]] composing the body, and therefore mortal ("nothing at all," in the words of [[Cicero]]<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Marcus Tullius Cicero]] |title=[[Tusculanae Disputationes]] |at=1.22.51, cf. 1.11.24}}</ref>), was ascribed to Aristoxenus (fr. 118–121 Wehrli) and [[Dicaearchus]]. This theory is comparable to the one offered by [[Simmias of Thebes#Character in Plato.27s Phaedo|Simmias in Plato's ''Phaedo'']].

==''Elementa harmonica''==
In his ''[[Elementa harmonica|Elements of Harmony]]'' (also ''Harmonics''), Aristoxenus attempted a complete and systematic exposition of [[Music of ancient Greece|music]]. The first book contains an explanation of the [[Genus (music)|genera]] of [[Music of ancient Greece|Greek music]], and also of their [[Octave species|species]]; this is followed by some general definitions of terms, particularly those of [[sound]], [[Interval (music)|interval]], and [[Musical system of ancient greece|system]].<ref name=hawkins66>{{cite book |first = John |last = Hawkins |year= 1868 |title = A General History of the Science and Practice of Music |volume = 1 |pages = 66–67}}</ref> In the second book Aristoxenus divides music into seven parts, which he takes to be: the genera, intervals, sounds, systems, tones or modes, mutations, and ''melopoeia''.<ref name=hawkins66/> The remainder of the work is taken up with a discussion of the many parts of music according to the order which he had himself prescribed.<ref name="hawkins66"/>

While it is often held among modern scholars that Aristoxenus rejected the opinion of the [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagoreans]] that arithmetic rules were the ultimate judge of intervals and that in every system there must be found a mathematical coincidence before such a system can be said to be harmonic,<ref name="hawkins66"/> Aristoxenus made extensive use of arithmetic terminology, notably to define varieties of [[semitone]]s and [[diesis|dieses]] in his descriptions of the various genera.{{sfn|Barker|1989|pp=142–144}}

In his second book he asserted that "by the hearing we judge of the magnitude of an interval, and by the understanding we consider its many powers."<ref name=hawkins66/> And further he wrote, "that the nature of melody is best discovered by the perception of sense, and is retained by memory; and that there is no other way of arriving at the knowledge of music;" and though, he wrote, "others affirm that it is by the study of instruments that we attain this knowledge;" this, he wrote, is talking wildly, "for just as it is not necessary for him who writes an Iambic to attend to the arithmetical proportions of the feet of which it is composed, so it is not necessary for him who writes a Phrygian song to attend to the ratios of the sounds proper thereto."<ref name="hawkins66"/> However, this should not be construed as meaning that he postulated a simplistic system of harmony resembling that of modern twelve tone theory, and especially not an equally tempered system. As he urges us to consider, "(a)fter all, with which of the people who argue about the shades of the [[Genus (music)|genera]] should one agree? Not everyone looks to the same division when tuning the [[Genus_(music)#Chromatic|chromatic]] or the [[Genus_(music)#Enharmonic|enharmonic]], so why should the note a ditone from mesé be called lichanos rather than a small amount higher?"{{sfn|Barker|1989|p=163}}

It is sometimes claimed that the nature of Aristoxenus' scales and genera deviated sharply from his predecessors. That Aristoxenus used a model for creating scales based upon the notion of a topos, or range of pitch location,{{sfn|Barker|1989|p=140}} is fact, but there is no reason to believe that he alone set this precedent as he himself does not make this claim. Indeed, the idea of unfixed pitch locations that cover certain ranges, the limits of which may be defined by fixed points, is a notion that was popular until the modern fixation upon fixed pitch systems, as is indicated by Baroque theoretical systems of pitch and intonation.  Another way of stating this, however perhaps less accurate, is that instead of using discrete ratios to place intervals, he used continuously variable quantities.

The postulation that this resulted in the structuring of his tetrachords and the resulting scales having 'other' qualities of consonance<ref>John Chalmers, (1993) ''Divisions of the Tetrachord'', Chapter 3, pp. 17–22. Frog Peak Music. {{ISBN|0-945996-04-7}}.</ref> is one that can only be accounted for by the recourse to often repeated inconsistencies amongst his interpreters and modern confirmation bias in favour of simplified twelve tone theories. Aristoxenus himself held that "...&nbsp;two things must not be overlooked: First, that many people have mistakenly supposed us to be saying that a tone can be divided into three equal parts in a melody. They made this mistake because they did not realise that it is one thing to employ the third part of a tone, and another to divide a tone into three parts and sing all three. Secondly we accept that from a purely abstract point of view there is no least interval."{{sfn|Barker|1989|p=160}}

In book three Aristoxenus goes on to describe twenty eight laws of [[Melodic pattern|melodic succession]], which are of great interest to those concerned with classical Greek melodic structure.{{sfn|Barker|1989|pp=170–183}}

==On rhythmics and metrics==
[[File:P. Oxy. 9.jpg|thumb|[[Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 9]] is a fragment of the "Ruthmica Stoicheia"]]
Part of the second book of a work on rhythmics and metrics, ''Elementa rhythmica'', is preserved in medieval manuscript tradition.

Aristoxenus was also the author of a work ''On the Primary Duration'' (''chronos'').

A five-column fragment of a treatise on meter ([[Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 9|P. Oxy. 9]]) was published in [[Bernard Pyne Grenfell|Grenfell]] and [[Arthur Surridge Hunt|Hunt]]'s ''[[Oxyrhynchus Papyri]]'', vol. 1 (1898) and is probably by Aristoxenus.{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326120024/http://163.1.169.40/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0POxy--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4----ded--0-1l--1-en-50---20-about-1708--00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=POxy&cl=CL5.1.1&d=HASH016fbbe3e0ae766e1d920699 |title=2687}}<ref>{{Cite book
 | last = Grenfell
 | first = B. P.
 | author-link = Bernard Pyne Grenfell
 | last2 = Hunt
 | first2 = A. S.
 | author-link2 = Arthur Surridge Hunt
 | title = Oxyrhynchus Papyri I
 | year = 1898
 | location = London
 | pages = 14–21
 | url = https://archive.org/stream/oxyrhynchuspapyr01grenuoft#page/14/mode/2up
 }}</ref>

==Other works==
The edition of Wehrli presents the surviving evidence for works with the following titles (not including several fragments of uncertain origin):
* ''Life of Pythagoras'' ({{math| Πυθαγόρου βίος }}): fr. 11 Wehrli
* ''On Pythagoras and his pupils'' ({{math| Περὶ Πυθαγόρου καὶ τῶν γνωρίμων αὐτοῦ }}): fr. 14 Wehrli
* ''On the Pythagorean life'' ({{math| Περὶ τοῦ Πυθαγορικοῦ βίου }}): fr. 31 Wehrli
* ''Pythagorean maxims'' or ''Pythagorean negations'' ({{math| Πυθαγορικαὶ ἀποφάσεις }}): fr. 34 Wehrli
* ''Educational customs'' or ''Rules of education'' ({{math| Παιδευτικοὶ νόμοι }}): fr. 42–43 Wehrli
* ''Political laws'' ({{math| Πολιτικοὶ νόμοι }}): fr. 44–45 Wehrli
* ''Mantinean character'' ({{math| Μαντινέων ἔθη }}): fr. 45, I, lines 1–9 Wehrli
* ''Praise of Mantineans'' ({{math| Μαντινέων ἐγκώμιον }}): fr. 45, I, lines 10–12 Wehrli
* ''Life of [[Archytas]]'' ({{math| Ἀρχύτα βίος }}): fr. 47–50 Wehrli
* ''Life of [[Socrates]]'' ({{math| Σωκράτους βίος }}): fr. 54 Wehrli
* ''Life of Plato'' ({{math| Πλάτωνος βίος }}): fr. 64 Wehrli
* ''On tonoi'' ({{math| Περὶ τόνων }}): a brief quotation in [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]]'s [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721083538/http://www.toxolyros.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5663&Itemid=857 commentary] on [[Ptolemy#Music|Ptolemy's ''Harmonics'']], p.&nbsp;78 Düring (not edited by Wehrli)
* ''On music'' ({{math| Περὶ μουσικῆς }}): fr. 80, 82, 89 Wehrli
* ''On listening to music'' or ''Lecture course on music'' ({{math| Μουσικὴ ἀκρόασις }}): fr. 90 Wehrli
* ''On Praxidamas'' ({{math| Πραξιδαμάντεια }}): fr. 91 Wehrli
* ''On melodic composition'' or ''On music in lyric poetry'' ({{math| Περὶ μελοποιίας }}): fr. 93 Wehrli
* ''On musical instruments'' ({{math| Περὶ ὀργάνων }}): fr. 94–95, 102 Wehrli
* ''On [[aulos]]'' ({{math| Περὶ αὐλῶν }}): fr. 96 Wehrli
* ''On auletes'' ({{math| Περὶ αὐλητῶν }}): fr. 100 Wehrli
* ''On the boring of aulos'' ({{math| Περὶ αὐλῶν τρήσεως }}): fr. 101 Wehrli
* ''On choruses'' ({{math| Περὶ χορῶν }}): fr. 103 Wehrli
* ''On tragic dancing'' ({{math| Περὶ τραγικῆς ὀρχήσεως }}): fr. 104–106 Wehrli
* ''Comparisons of dances'' ({{math| Συγκρίσεις }}): fr. 109 Wehrli
* ''On tragic poets'' ({{math| Περὶ τραγῳδοποιῶν }}): fr. 113 Wehrli
* ''Life of Telestes'' ({{math| Τελέστου βίος }}): fr. 117 Wehrli (according to whom this Telestes is the [[dithyramb]]ic poet)
* ''Miscellaneous [[Table talk (literature)|table talk]]'' or ''[[Symposium|Sympotic]] miscellany'' ({{math| Σύμμικτα συμποτικά }}): fr. 124 Wehrli
* ''Notes'' or ''Memorabilia'' ({{math| Ὑπομνήματα }}), ''Historical notes'' (Ἱστορικὰ ὑπομνήματα), ''Brief notes'' ({{math| Κατὰ βραχὺ ὑπομνήματα }}), ''Miscellaneous notes'' ({{math| Σύμμικτα ὑπομνήματα }}), ''Random jottings'' ({{math| Τὰ σποράδην }}): fr. 128–132, 139 Wehrli

==Editions and translations==
* [[Andrew Barker (classicist)|Barker, Andrew]] (1989).  ''Greek Musical Writings'', vol. 2: ''Harmonic and Acoustic Theory'' (Cambridge), pp.&nbsp;119–89, English translation with introduction and notes, {{ISBN|0-521-61697-2}}
* Macran, Henry Stewart (1902). ''The Harmonics of Aristoxenus'' (Oxford), Greek text with English translation and notes ([https://archive.org/search.php?query=macran%20AND%20aristoxenus%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts archive.org], [https://archive.org/details/aristoxenouharm00arisgoog Internet Archive])
* Marquard, Paul (1868).  ''Die harmonischen Fragmente des Aristoxenus'' (Berlin), Greek text with German translation and commentary ([https://archive.org/details/aristoxenoyharm00marqgoog archive.org], [https://books.google.com/books?id=-dyxQXD4cdIC Google Books])
* Pearson, Lionel (1990). ''Aristoxenus: Elementa rhythmica. The fragment of Book II and the additional evidence for Aristoxenean rhythmic theory'' (Oxford ), Greek texts with introduction, translation, and commentary, {{ISBN|0-19-814051-7}}
* Wehrli, Fritz (1967). ''Die Schule des Aristoteles'', vol. 2: ''Aristoxenos'', 2nd. ed. (Basel/Stuttgart), Greek text (excluding the harmonic fragments, rhythmic fragments, ''On the Primary Duration'', and ''On tonoi'': see p.&nbsp;28) with commentary in German
* [[Rudolf Westphal|Westphal, Rudolf]] (1883–1893).  ''Aristoxenus von Tarent: Melik  und Rhythmik  des classischen Hellenenthums'', 2 vols. (Leipzig) ([https://archive.org/details/aristoxenusvont01arisgoog vol. 1], [https://books.google.com/books?id=DgrF3KQ1U98C vol. 2])
* [[Rudolf Westphal|Westphal, Rudolf]] (1861).  ''Die Fragmente und die Lehrsätze der griechischen Rhythmiker'' (Leipzig), pp.&nbsp;26–41, Greek text of ''Elementa rhythmica'' and ''On the Primary Duration'' ([https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ZAVBAAAAcAAJ/page/n42 <!-- pg=26 --> Internet Archive])

==See also==
* [[Plato's unwritten doctrines]], for Aristoxenus's report on Plato's Lecture on the Good

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book | last=Barker | first=Andrew | title=Greek Musical Writings | publisher=Cambridge University Press | location=Cambridge New York | year=1989 | isbn=978-0-521-30220-3 }}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Aristoxenus|volume=2|page=522}}

==Further reading==
*[[Annie Bélis|Bélis, Annie]] (1986). ''Aristoxène de Tarente et Aristote: le Traité d'harmonique''. Paris, Klincksieck.
*{{cite journal|last=Barker|first=Andrew|title=''Hoi Kaloumenoi harmonikoi:'' The Predecessors of Aristoxenus|journal=Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society|volume=24|year=1978|pages=1–21|doi=10.1017/s0068673500003990}}
*{{cite journal|last=Barker|first=Andrew|title=Music and Perception: A Study in Aristoxenus|journal=Journal of Hellenic Studies|volume=98|year=1978|pages=9–16|doi=10.2307/630189|jstor=630189|s2cid=161552153 }}
*{{cite encyclopedia|last=Bélis|first=Annie|title=Aristoxenus| encyclopedia=The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians| editor1=Stanley Sadie|editor1-link=Stanley Sadie|editor2=John Tyrrell|editor2-link=John Tyrrell (musicologist)|volume=1| page={{Page needed|date=February 2012}}<!--where a volume number is given, a page number should accompany.--> |location=London: Macmillan Publishers|year=2001}}
*{{cite book|last=Crocker|first=Richard|chapter=Aristoxenus and Greek Mathematics|title=Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music|editor-first=Jan|editor-last=LaRue|location=New York|publisher=W. W. Norton and Co|year=1966}}
*{{cite book|last=Henderson|first=Isabel|editor1-first=Egon|editor1-last=Wellesz|chapter=Ancient Greek Music|series=The New Oxford History of Music|volume=1|title= Ancient and Oriental Music|location=London |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1957}}
* Huffman, Carl A. (ed.) (2011). ''Aristoxenus of Tarentum. Discussion''. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. (RUSCH XVII).
*{{cite book|last=Huffman|first=Carl|title=Aristoxenus of Tarentum: Texts and Discussions|location=New Brunswick|publisher=Transactions Publications|year=2012}}
*{{cite journal|last=Levin|first=Flora|author-link=Flora Levin|title=Synesis in Aristoxenian Theory|journal= Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association|volume=103|year=1972|pages=211–234|doi=10.2307/2935976|jstor=2935976}}
*{{cite book|last=Lippman|first=Edward|title=Musical Thought in Ancient Greece|url=https://archive.org/details/musicalthoughtin00lipp|location=New York|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1964}}
*{{cite journal|last=Rowell|first=Lewis|title=Aristoxenus on Rhythm|journal=Journal of Music Theory|volume=23|issue=Spring|year=1979|pages=63–79|doi=10.2307/843694|jstor=843694}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|last=Winnington-Ingram|first=R. P.|title=Aristoxenus| encyclopedia=The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|editor-last=[[Stanley Sadie]]|volume=1| page={{Page needed|date=February 2012}}<!--where a volume number is given, a page number should accompany.-->|location=London: Macmillan Publishers|year=1980}}

==External links==
* {{wikisource author-inline}}

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