Aristoxenus

Aristoxenus of Tarentum (; born 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Greek 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: ; Latin: Elementa harmonica), survives incomplete, as well as some fragments concerning rhythm and meter. The Elements is the chief source of our knowledge of ancient Greek music.

Life Aristoxenus was born at Tarentum (in modern-day Apulia, southern Italy) in Magna Graecia, and was the son of a learned musician named Spintharus (otherwise Mnesias). He learned music from his father, and having then been instructed by Lamprus of Erythrae and Xenophilus the Pythagorean, he finally became a pupil of Aristotle, whom he appears to have rivaled in the variety of his studies.

According to the Suda,

Overview of his works His writings were said to have consisted of four hundred and fifty-three books, on Aristoxenus included growing up in the profoundly Pythagorean city of 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 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. paraphrases the writings of Aristoxenus on music. His ideas were responded to and developed by some later theorists such as 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 four elements composing the body, and therefore mortal ("nothing at all," in the words of Cicero ), was ascribed to Aristoxenus (fr. 118–121 Wehrli) and Dicaearchus. This theory is comparable to the one offered by Simmias in Plato's Phaedo.

Elementa harmonica In his Elements of Harmony (also Harmonics), Aristoxenus attempted a complete and systematic exposition of music. The first book contains an explanation of the genera of Greek music, and also of their species; this is followed by some general definitions of terms, particularly those of sound, interval, and system. 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. 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 "... 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."

In book three Aristoxenus goes on to describe twenty eight laws of melodic succession, which are of great interest to those concerned with classical Greek melodic structure.

On rhythmics and metrics 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 (P. Oxy. 9) was published in Grenfell and Hunt's Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. 1 (1898) and is probably by Aristoxenus.

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 : fr. 11 Wehrli On Pythagoras and his pupils : fr. 14 Wehrli On the Pythagorean life : fr. 31 Wehrli Pythagorean maxims or Pythagorean negations : fr. 34 Wehrli Educational customs or Rules of education : fr. 42–43 Wehrli Political laws : fr. 44–45 Wehrli Mantinean character : fr. 45, I, lines 1–9 Wehrli Praise of Mantineans : fr. 45, I, lines 10–12 Wehrli Life of Archytas : fr. 47–50 Wehrli Life of Socrates : fr. 54 Wehrli Life of Plato : fr. 64 Wehrli On tonoi : a brief quotation in Porphyry's commentary on Ptolemy's Harmonics, p. 78 Düring (not edited by Wehrli) On music : fr. 80, 82, 89 Wehrli On listening to music or Lecture course on music : fr. 90 Wehrli On Praxidamas : fr. 91 Wehrli On melodic composition or On music in lyric poetry : fr. 93 Wehrli On musical instruments : fr. 94–95, 102 Wehrli On aulos : fr. 96 Wehrli On auletes : fr. 100 Wehrli On the boring of aulos : fr. 101 Wehrli On choruses : fr. 103 Wehrli On tragic dancing : fr. 104–106 Wehrli Comparisons of dances : fr. 109 Wehrli On tragic poets : fr. 113 Wehrli Life of Telestes : fr. 117 Wehrli (according to whom this Telestes is the dithyrambic poet) Miscellaneous table talk or Sympotic miscellany : fr. 124 Wehrli Notes or Memorabilia , Historical notes (Ἱστορικὰ ὑπομνήματα), Brief notes , Miscellaneous notes , Random jottings : fr. 128–132, 139 Wehrli

Editions and translations Barker, Andrew (1989). Greek Musical Writings, vol. 2: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory (Cambridge), pp. 119–89, English translation with introduction and notes, Macran, Henry Stewart (1902). The Harmonics of Aristoxenus (Oxford), Greek text with English translation and notes (archive.org, Internet Archive) Marquard, Paul (1868). Die harmonischen Fragmente des Aristoxenus (Berlin), Greek text with German translation and commentary (archive.org, 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, 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. 28) with commentary in German Westphal, Rudolf (1883–1893). Aristoxenus von Tarent: Melik und Rhythmik des classischen Hellenenthums, 2 vols. (Leipzig) (vol. 1, vol. 2) Westphal, Rudolf (1861). Die Fragmente und die Lehrsätze der griechischen Rhythmiker (Leipzig), pp. 26–41, Greek text of Elementa rhythmica and On the Primary Duration ( Internet Archive)