The Modes of Ancient Greek Music by D. B. Monro

Author:D. B. Monro [Monro, D. B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Good Press
Published: 2019-11-17T16:00:00+00:00

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§ 29. Ptolemy's Scheme of Modes.

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The first writer who takes the Species of the Octave as the basis of the musical scales is the mathematician Claudius Ptolemaeus (fl. 140–160 A.D.). In his Harmonics he virtually sets aside the scheme of keys elaborated by Aristoxenus and his school, and adopts in their place a system of scales answering in their main features to the mediaeval Tones or Modes. The object of difference of key, he says, is not that the music as a whole may be of a higher or lower pitch, but that a melody may be brought within a certain compass. For this purpose it is necessary to vary the succession of intervals (as a modern musician does by changing the signature of the clef). If, for example, we take the Perfect System (systêma ametabolon) in the key of a minor—which is its natural key—and transpose it to the key of d minor, we do so, according to Ptolemy, not in order to raise the general pitch of our music by a Fourth, but because we wish to have a scale with b flat instead of b natural. The flattening of this note, however, means that the two octaves change their species. They are now of the species e-e. Thus, instead of transposing the Perfect System into different keys, we arrive more directly at the desired result by changing the species of its octaves. And as there are seven possible species of the Octave, we obtain seven different Systems or scales. From these assumptions it follows, as Ptolemy shows in some detail, that any greater number of keys is useless. If a key is an octave higher than another, it is superfluous because it gives us a mere repetition of the same intervals [29].

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