Ancient Greek Music by Stefan Hagel

Author:Stefan Hagel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published: 2010-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Table 7 Harmonic context of Lydian paramésē

This method can help us in detecting various modal characteristics of Lydian pieces. For the present, however, we concentrate on the question of paramésē. Of all intervals that this note forms with others, only one shows a significant variation from what we would expect: fifths between hypátē ˚˝ and paramésē are obviously avoided.16 This substantiates the suspicion that the Lydian paramésē of the Roman era did no longer conform to Philolaus’ harmonía with its compulsory resonance between hypátē and paramésē. Interestingly, the extraordinarily high frequency of major thirds between diátonos and paramésē itself is not due to a significant deviation from the expectation, but sufficiently explained by the predilection for these notes and for melodic thirds. Even so, its dominance can be regarded as a potential factor in determining the fine tuning.

A closer look at the sources further confirms the picture. Table 7 lists all Lydian fragments that contain any of the relevant melodic progressions from or to paramésē. The transition from Hellenistic to Roman times is characterised by replacement of chromatic with diatonic music. In strictly chromatic Lydian, both and are naturally missing, so that the absence of their combination with paramésē in the earlier style is trivial.17

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