Preface

Ancient Greek music and music theory has fascinated scholars for centuries, as the vast quantity of literature published since the fifteenth century readily attests. But why should this be so? Unlike the other art forms of ancient Greece, the actual sounds of ancient Greek music are forever lost. All that remains are a few notated compositions—most of which are many centuries younger than the Greece of Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Euripides—and a very small number of archaeological fragments of musical instruments. Nevertheless, none of the other ancient Greek art forms was held in such high esteem by the ancients themselves, whose painters and sculptors never tired of showing the Greeks making music, and none could claim such exceptional powers as were commonly attributed to music by the poets, playwrights, and philosophers, in whose work music and musical matters are employed for literary purposes, described, or treated as a subject of technical or scientific inquiry. Surely, then, the task of recovering this lost art and all that pertained to it was worth the effort, as it seemed to early generations of scholars, and there can be little question that they were motivated by the goal of discovering a kind of musical philosopher's stone. As more and more material was published and studied, later generations began to discover in it useful models for the development of their own theories of music, aesthetics, musical forms, musical psychology, and so on. Thus, the study of ancient Greek music and music theory developed not only because of its intrinsic interest as a part of ancient Greek culture but also because the Greeks' grand concept of music has continued to stimulate musical imaginations to the present day.

A number of monographs on ancient Greek music have been published over the years, including several since 1990. The reader might therefore reasonably wonder why another is needed. In

Response, I can only say that the present volume reflects the method and perspective of a musicologist, aimed principally at the reader interested in the musical typologies, the musical instruments, and especially the historical development of music theory and its transmission through the Middle Ages. By contrast, the treatments by Martin West, Warren Anderson, and most recently John G. Landels were written from the perspective of the classicist; their interests, assumptions, aims, concentration, critical perspective, and conclusions are fundamentally different from mine. While I do not agree with all their conclusions, I certainly recommend their works to the interested reader. No single discipline or method can claim sole authority in this field.

Apollo's Lyre has had a long and somewhat fitful gestation. I first outlined it in 1979 and sent the outline in 1981 to Dr. Willis Regier, then Associate Editor at the University of Nebraska Press, marking the beginning of a productive association with him of more than fourteen years' duration as he subsequently became Editor-in-Chief and then Director of the Press. Later in 1981, the Press accepted the book for publication, and I projected its completion for sometime in 1986, by which time I had expected to see two prior commitments—a translation of the treatise of Aristides Quintilianus and my catalogue raisonne of Greek manuscripts for the Repertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM)— through to publication. Such was not to be. Aristides Quintilianus was published in 1983, but as I worked on the catalogue, it grew ever larger as I found more and more manuscripts, each of which had to be separately described. Eventually though, the work was completed, and the catalogue was published in 1988.

Meanwhile, Dr. Regier and I decided to establish at the University of Nebraska Press a new series of critical texts with facing-page translations. This new series, Greek and Latin Music Theory, was launched under my editorial direction in 1982, with the first two volumes published in 1984. Over the next ten years, ten volumes were published. Much of the 1980s was devoted to all these projects, but along the way, I continued to gather material for Apollo's Lyre, and it gradually began to take shape.

In 1990, I was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on Apollo's Lyre. For the first time, I was able to devote nearly my full attention to the book. The first three chapters and most of the fourth were completed during this year, and I anticipated complet-

Ing the rest of the book within the following year. Once again, however, unanticipated projects intervened.

In late 1989 and early 1990, a group of scholars began discussing the possibility of forming a full-text database of the entire corpus of Latin music theory, ranging from the De musica of Augustine through the sixteenth century, discussions that eventually led to the establishment of the Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum (XML), with the project center under my direction at Indiana University and associated centers at Louisiana State University, Ohio State University, Princeton University, the University of Colorado-Boulder, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During the first couple of years, the XML grew rather slowly, but in 1992 and 1994, the project received two generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by the end of 1998, the XML included nearly five million words of text accompanied by more than four thousand graphics, all fully searchable and available to scholars free of charge worldwide on the Internet. Xhis project, together with work on the new editions of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and Strunk's Source Readings in Music History, had to take precedence, it seemed to me, and Apollo's Lyre accordingly languished for a time with only four of its strings.

Over the last two and a half years, with other commitments largely fulfilled, I was at last able to turn most of my attention to this book. Xhe first four chapters were completely revised and three more were added: Apollo's Lyre now has its full complement of seven strings, in which I hope readers will find a harmonious presentation of the endlessly fascinating subject of ancient Greek music and music theory.

Xhroughout the long gestation of this book, the University of Nebraska Press has remained patient and supportive. It is therefore a special pleasure to acknowledge in the first place its former and long-time Director, Dr. Willis Regier (now Director of the University of Illinois Press), without whose vision and enthusiasm over the years, neither this book nor the many others with which I have been involved at the Press would ever have seen the light of day. My long association with him has been a great privilege and pleasure.

I should also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the many who have been unfailingly generous with their advice, assistance, correction, and encouragement, especially my friends and colleagues at Indiana University, Professor Malcolm H. Brown, Professor George J. Buelow, Dr. John W. Glower, and Dr. Andreas Giger; and at other universities. Dr. Andre Barbera (St. John's University), Professor Calvin Bower (University of Notre Dame), Professor Edward N. O'Neil (University of Southern California), Professor Claude V. Palisca (Yale University), and Professor Jon Solomon (University of Arizona).

I remain very grateful to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for my Fellowship in 1990, during which the first part of this book was written.

For advice and assistance in acquiring the illustrations for this book, I am very much indebted to two further friends and colleagues: Professor Steven Buie and Professor Martha Maas. In addition, I am most grateful to the following institutions and individuals for granting me permission to reproduce the various illustrations of works of art and artifacts that appear on the following pages: Brussels, Musees Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (Mrs. Viviane Xhignesse); Copenhagen, National Museum, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities (Mrs. Bodil Bundgaard Rasmussen); Essen, Ruhrlandmuseum (Dr. Charlotte Triimpler); Frankfurt am Main, Stadtische Galerie Liebieghaus (Brigitte Gaebe); London, British Museum; Munich, Staatliche Antiken-sammlungen und Glyptothek (Dr. F. W. Hamdorf); Naples, Soprintendenza Archeologica delle Province di Napoli e Caserta (Stefano de Caro); New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; New York, Art Resource (Diana Reeve); Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale; Paris, Musee du Louvre, Departement des Antiquites Grecques, Etrusques et Romaines (Brigitte Tailliez); Schwerin, Staatliches Museum, Kunstsammlungen, Schlosser und Garten (Dr. Karin Moller); Taranto, Soprintendenza Archeologica della Puglia-Taranto (Dr. Giuseppe Andreassi); and Wurzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum (Dr. Irma Wehgartner).

Finally, I could never adequately acknowledge or express the enormous debt I owe to my wife, Penelope, for her assistance in countless ways (including the preparation of yet another index to one of my books), her selfless patience and ability to dispel every worry and discouragement, and her invariably sensible advice.

She has been and always will be my inspiration, and this book is lovingly dedicated to her.

It is a pleasure to share with all these individuals and institutions whatever praise may be due this book. I reserve to myself, of course, whatever errors and inadequacies may be perceived here, which I nevertheless hope, following the model of Aristides Quintilianus, will stimulate others to improve upon my efforts and "lay down complete in one treatment the things that pertain to music."

Thomas J. Mathiesen April, 1999

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