http://www.midicode.com/tunings/greek.shtml
http://www.lyravlos.gr/index-en.asp
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/agm/
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grmu/hd_grmu.htm
Musical Structure
However, diatonic scales were an invention of the ancient Greeks, defined as a seven note musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps, in which the half steps are maximally separated. Because western music theory stemmed from the Greek tradition, and this convention was used to design the layout of modern keyboards, a diatonic scale can also be defined as a scale that can be played using only the white keys on a piano keyboard. Strings with lengths in the ratio 2 : 1 produced the interval of an octave known to the ancient Greeks as diapason, Those in the proportion 3 : 2 produced the interval of the fifth, known to the Greeks as diapente. Strings of equal tension with length in the proportion 4 : 3 produced the interval of a fourth known to the Greeks as diatessaron. The Greek word dia meant between, through or across. All of these intervals are present between strings with relative lengths 2, 3 and 4. Thus the most harmonious of intervals are contained in the number progression 1 : 2 : 3 : 4. This reinforced the concept of spacial and musical harmony being related and the belief that the harmony of the entire universe was inherent in the mystical power of numbers. Pythagoras himself left no written record of his work so it was via his pupil Philolaus that these observations have been passed on. The first record of the use of a monochord to demonstrate this phenomena was by Euclid (c. 300 B.C.).
Who influenced
The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras (?580 - ?500 B.C.) is generally credited with having discovered that musical intervals which are recognized as concordant are related by small integer ratios, an idea he may have acquired from Babylon. [ABRAHAM] It is likely that he determined this result using a monochord, a single stringed instrument having a moveable bridge by means of which the string can be divided into two parts of variable proportion. The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras (?580 - ?500 B.C.) is generally credited with having discovered that musical intervals which are recognized as concordant are related by small integer ratios, an idea he may have acquired from Babylon. [ABRAHAM] It is likely that he determined this result using a monochord, a single stringed instrument having a moveable bridge by means of which the string can be divided into two parts of variable proportion. The basic musical scale unit of ancient Greece was the tetrachord meaning literally four strings. The first and fourth notes of the tetrachord were always tuned to the interval of a diatessaron (fourth) but the tuning of the other strings depended on the genus and mode of the music. In the ancient Greek system notes of a scale were arranged in descending order. The basic musical scale unit of ancient Greece was the tetrachord meaning literally four strings. The first and fourth notes of the tetrachord were always tuned to the interval of a diatessaron (fourth) but the tuning of the other strings depended on the genus and mode of the music. In the ancient Greek system notes of a scale were arranged in descending order. In the diatonic genus the tuning of the other intervals comprised two tones and a semitone. The chromatic genus comprised a minor third (three semitones) and two semitones. The enharmonic mode comprised a major third (two tones) and two quarter tones. [EB] Prior to Pythagoras there appears to be little evidence of a theoretical basis for the tuning of musical scales. Pythagoras was involved with the science of harmonics which was separate from the practical art of music. In the absence of a theoretical basis for the tuning of scales the actual tuning can only have been empirical and probably varied widely.
Generally, we don’t think of mathematics when we en- gage in music listening, and similarly we don’t think about music when proving a theorem. Neverthe- less, mathematics and music have been married by Pythagoras, and never got divorced. During the course of subsequent history, new music theories, ideas and notation have been invented by music theorists. Of- ten, the goal of these systems was to characterise con- sonance and dissonance, and divide the interval of an octave into intervals that maximise consonance. The ultimate intention of these theories was to define rules according to which pleasurable music can be created. The rules of counterpoint developed during the Re- naissance are one example of such system (sec. 5.1). In the twentieth century, more complex mathematical theories were invented. At the end of this historical overview, I introduce one of such theories: Composi- tion with Pitch-Classes (sec. 6).
3.1 Pythagoras: The Father of Music Theory
The link between numbers and music was observed by Pythagoras (585-500 BC) by analysing the vibrations of strings of various lengths.
Imagine a taut string that is plucked such that it vibrates with frequency a (so as to produce sound). If we press with a finger at the midpoint of the string, so that the string would continue to vibrate in each of the produced halves, the frequency of the vibration of the string in each of the halves will double because the wavelength has decreased by a factor of two. In other words, the new frequency of the string vibration is 2a. The frequency ratio between the new sound to the old sound is 2/11. Now imagine a similar experiment, but now we fix the string at two points, such that the string is divided into three equal parts. The original frequency a now triples for each of the segments. The frequency ratio between the notes 2a and 3a is 3/22. Pythagoras noticed that if the ratio between any two note frequencies can be represented by a rational num- ber p/q, where p and q are small integers, then the two notes are consonant. That is, if voiced one after the other they would create a pleasing change in sound3.
What Pythagoras did not know is that when a taut string vibrates, it vibrates at all of its overtones at the same time!4. However, the higher the overtone the smaller is the intensity of the vibration in that fre- quency. The sum of the vibrations of the overtones, that is, what we hear when the string is plucked, is called the ’timbre’ of the musical instrument. It is therefore only possible to hear pure vibrations of a particular frequency (without overtones) with a use of a computer.
Observing the connection between numbers and sounds, Pythagoras went ahead to create a tuning for the diatonic scale based only on combinations of fifths.
The ancient Pythagorean tuning is the de- scending scale with notes 5: 1/1, 8/9, 27/32, 3/4, 2/3, 16/27, 9/16, 1/2[6]6 . Note that all ratios in a de- scending scale are less than 1. Also, notice that all in- tervals involved in this tuning can be created by com- bining (multiplying) intervals 8/9 (called ’second’ or ’tone’) and 243/256 (called ’hemitone’).
Most likely, Pythagoras has produced this scale in the following manner. He started with a root note, and produced ascending and descending fifths, while transposing them in order to keep them in the same octave (i.e multiplying them by 2/1 (transpose up) or dividing them by 2/1 (transpose down), so that the value of the ratio is always at least 1 and at most 2).
Original Fifth Transposed Fifth
27/8 27/8
9/4 9/16
3/2 3/4
1/1 1/1
2/3 2/3
4/9 8/9 8/27 16/27
A reorganisation the notes in the right column produces the Pythagorean scale.
Finally, notice that two hemitones don’t produce a
second,
(256)2 ≈ 1.110 < 9 243 8
.
The intervals descending between consecutive notes
in the scale are: tone, hemitone, tone, tone, tone, hemitone, tone. Compare this scale to the Medieval Pythagorean tuning in Section 4.3.
The Pythagorean tuning, in a slightly modified form, has lasted for two millennia, until it was replaced by the Equal Tempered Tuning as well as the just in- tonation tuning developed by Ptolemy (but forgotten and rediscovered only during the Renaissance!).
3.6 The Greek Modes
In Ancient Greece the word “mode” stood for a scale [7]. Each mode was a rotation of the inter- vals {9/8, 9/8, 256/243, 9/8, 9/8, 9/8, 256/243}. Since there are seven notes here, each mode could effectively be the definition of the diatonic scale.
The lydian mode is one particular tuning of the diatonic scale which corresponds to the white keys on the piano, starting from F and ending on F (roughly; see section 5.4).
3.7 The Tetrachord
The tetrachord, which literally means “four strings” was the basic scale unit of Ancient Greece. The first and fourth strings were always tuned a fourth apart. The two strings in the middle depended on the “genus” and mode of the music. There were three kinds of gen- era7 : the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic.
In the diatonic genus, the two middle intervals were two tones, and a semitone. The chromatic genus com- prised a minor third (three semitones), and two semi- tones. In the enharmonic mode – (major third) two tones, and two quarter tones.
However, in practice these tunings probably were not exact [8], since
Prior to Pythagoras there appears to be little evidence of a theoretical basis for the tuning of musical scales. Pythagoras
was involved with the science of harmon- ics which was separate from the practical art of music. In the absence of a theoreti- cal basis for the tuning of scales the actual tuning can only have been empirical and probably varied widely.
-http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/PDF/math_music_hist.pdf
Instruments
The modern zither—named after the ancient Greek instrument known as a kithara, or cithara—is a stringed instrument with a flat, shallow sound box. Stretched across the wooden sound box are five metal strings situated above a fretboard and a large number of fretless strings, which are usually of gut, nylon, or other materials.
-http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9341119/zither
The kithara (cithara) was a plucked instrument with five strings but more strings were later added.‘Kitos’ means’ hole ‘, so ‘kithara’ means a ‘cavity with strings’. The Cithara was larger than the lyre, and was widely diffused in the ancient world. The Cithara was played by musicians called citharodes. According to Plutarch, the cithara was first made by Cepion, a student of Terpande.
-http://bbhc.com/samsblog/?m=20121028
Cithara plucked instrument with 5 strings originally, but later with as many as 12 strings. Cithara was bigger than the Lyra and it was the principal concert instrument played by professional musicians, the citharodes. According to Plutarch, cithara was designed by Cepion, a student of Terpander. Many instrument names like guitar, cittern, zither etc. derive from the word cithara.
-http://www.homoecumenicus.com/ancient_instruments.htm
the Odeion (roofed concert hall) of Perikles was erected on the south slope of the Athenian akropolis—physical testimony to the importance of music in Athenian culture.
In addition to the physical remains of musical instruments in a number of archaeological contexts, depictions of musicians and musical events in vase painting and sculpture provide valuable information about the kinds of instruments that were preferred and how they were actually played. Although the ancient Greeks were familiar with many kinds of instruments, three in particular were favored for composition and performance: the kithara, a plucked string instrument; the lyre, also a string instrument; and the aulos, a double-reed instrument. Most Greek men trained to play an instrument competently, and to sing and perform choral dances. Instrumental music or the singing of a hymn regularly accompanied everyday activities and formal acts of worship. Shepherds piped to their flocks, oarsmen and infantry kept time to music, and women made music at home. The art of singing to one's own stringed accompaniment was highly developed. Greek philosophers saw a relationship between music and mathematics, envisioning music as a paradigm of harmonious order reflecting the cosmos and the human soul.
-http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grmu/hd_grmu.htm
The aulos was a wind instrument which was extremely difficult to play. The cheeks of aulos players had to be fastened with a leather strap so they wouldn't burst. The aulos sounded similar to today's oboe.
Lyra: originally called Chelys, because of the tortoise shell used as its sound box. According to Nicomachus of Gerasa (Ist cent. AD), the tortoise-shell Lyra was invented by god Hermes, who gave it to Orpheus. "Orpheus taught Thamyris and Linos, and Linos taught Hercules. When Orpheus was killed by the Thracian women, his lyra was thrown into the sea, and washed ashore at Antissa, a city of Lesbos, where it was found by fishermen, who brought it to Terpander, who in turn carried it to Egypt and presented it to the Egyptian priests as his own creation."
We don't know how many strings the original Lyras had. By the time of Terpander (8th-7th cent. BC) Lyra was a seven stringed instrument and from many ancient sources we know that this type remained in use for a long time during the classical period. The addition of an eighth string in the 6th century BC is credited by Nicomachus of Gerasa to Pythagoras. By the fifth century there were Lyras with anything from 9 to 12 strings. The strings (neura) were made of animal gut of sinew, but there are also references of strings made of linen or hemp.
Lyra was mainly used for the musical education of the young, and by amateur players in general.
Barbitos or Barbiton is an instrument of the Lyra family and resembles a Lyra, but it has longer arms and narrower sound box. Musicians of the School of Lesbos, like Alcaeus and Sappho, are frequently depicted in vases playing the Barbitos.
-http://library.thinkquest.org/04apr/00275/ancient_ins.htm
Music in Life
Music was essential to the pattern and texture of Greek life, as it was an important feature of religious festivals, marriage and funeral rites, and banquet gatherings. Our knowledge of ancient Greek music comes from actual fragments of musical scores, literary references, and the remains of musical instruments. Although extant musical scores are rare, incomplete, and of relatively late date, abundant literary references shed light on the practice of music, its social functions, and its perceived aesthetic qualities. Likewise, inscriptions provide information about the economics and institutional organization of professional musicians, recording such things as prizes awarded and fees paid for services. The archaeological record attests to monuments erected in honor of accomplished musicians and to splendid roofed concert halls. In Athens during the second half of the fifth century B.C.,
Entertainment would be provided by professional singers. The songs played a very important role in the ceremony, encouraging the couple in their new relationship and future children as well as complimenting the couple through comparisons with the gods.24 A libation was offered at the beginning of the songs. As the couple entered the bridal chamber itself, they passed to the protection of Aphrodite and Peitho, who would bring harmony and pleasure in the bedroom and ultimately children. While the chamber was still being prepared, the wedding guests could enter the room, but finally the door would shut and remain guarded throughout the night by the thyroros, a friend of the groom. Friends of the bride sang outside the room to reassure the bride as she journeyed to womanhood and to encourage the couple in their attempts to produce a boy baby. They would also beat on the chamber door, ktupia, to scare away the spirits of the underworld. They might also sing playful, even obscene, songs and jokes.32
-http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/consortium/ancientweddings3.html
3.11 Performed Music in Ancient Greece
Contrary to the wealth of theoretical foundations that Ancient Greece has contributed to music, almost no record of the performed music has been preserved [13] p.4. It is known, however, that most of the music was improvised. Also, several instruments did not play si- multaneously.
Surprisingly, Greek artists did not consider the value of music on its own merit; music was played al- ways in combination with poetry reading. Since their poetry often conformed to a beat structure, the ac- companying music was played to that natural beat.
From this description we are able to discern softer/weaker (feminine) and louder/stronger (masculine) sounds. on the auloi. Because of the wide ambitus of pitches, a consort of auloi was available during Antiquity, although one should not assume any type of ensemble playing. Rather the Pythian aulos because of its threnodic nature was used to accompany the Pythic nomoi and paeans and the Choric aulos because of its high range was used to accompany dithyrambs. The aulos was transmitted into early Byzantium where it was used in symposia and was therefore an instrument of ill-repute. For the aulos, according to Aristides, "cultivates what is the leader of the worse portions." -http://www.hellenicnest.com/byzantium.html
In ancient Greece the lament was not a spontaneous outbreak of grief, but a carefully controlled expression of feelings adapted to ritual at every stage and endowed with musical features. One area of interest concerning this particular form of music is its adaptation to various, occasionally contrary, contexts. Before becoming a literary form - like the genre of threnos or the part of the tragedy called kommos[3] - the lament was performed during funeral rituals, for the death of gods and heroes, for remembering disasters affecting a city, or as a song devoted to legendary musicians (e.g. Linos).
-http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_02/olivetti.htm
At one time, the Muses were anthropomorphic goddesses, possibly of prophetic springs, who became the representatives of poetry, the arts and science, and sources of inspiration. They sang, like the bird-bodied Sirens with whom they are sometimes contrasted. Homer refers to them as one Muse and as many Muses, living on Olympus. Plato lists eight muses connected with eight mythical spheres. Hesiod refers to them as 9 daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who were born in Pieria, which is described as "watered by the springs flowing from Olympus," according to "Muses and Sirens," by J. R. T. Pollard; The Classical Review New Series, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jun., 1952), pp. 60-63.
-http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/mgodsandgoddesses/tp/Muses.htm
Linus, also spelled Linos , in Greek mythology, the personification of lamentation; the name derives from the ritual cry ailinon, the refrain of a dirge. Two principal stories, associated with Argos and Thebes, respectively, arose to explain the origin of the lament.
-http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/342644/Linus
http://www.lyravlos.gr/index-en.asp
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/agm/
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grmu/hd_grmu.htm
Musical Structure
However, diatonic scales were an invention of the ancient Greeks, defined as a seven note musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps, in which the half steps are maximally separated. Because western music theory stemmed from the Greek tradition, and this convention was used to design the layout of modern keyboards, a diatonic scale can also be defined as a scale that can be played using only the white keys on a piano keyboard. Strings with lengths in the ratio 2 : 1 produced the interval of an octave known to the ancient Greeks as diapason, Those in the proportion 3 : 2 produced the interval of the fifth, known to the Greeks as diapente. Strings of equal tension with length in the proportion 4 : 3 produced the interval of a fourth known to the Greeks as diatessaron. The Greek word dia meant between, through or across. All of these intervals are present between strings with relative lengths 2, 3 and 4. Thus the most harmonious of intervals are contained in the number progression 1 : 2 : 3 : 4. This reinforced the concept of spacial and musical harmony being related and the belief that the harmony of the entire universe was inherent in the mystical power of numbers. Pythagoras himself left no written record of his work so it was via his pupil Philolaus that these observations have been passed on. The first record of the use of a monochord to demonstrate this phenomena was by Euclid (c. 300 B.C.).
Who influenced
The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras (?580 - ?500 B.C.) is generally credited with having discovered that musical intervals which are recognized as concordant are related by small integer ratios, an idea he may have acquired from Babylon. [ABRAHAM] It is likely that he determined this result using a monochord, a single stringed instrument having a moveable bridge by means of which the string can be divided into two parts of variable proportion. The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras (?580 - ?500 B.C.) is generally credited with having discovered that musical intervals which are recognized as concordant are related by small integer ratios, an idea he may have acquired from Babylon. [ABRAHAM] It is likely that he determined this result using a monochord, a single stringed instrument having a moveable bridge by means of which the string can be divided into two parts of variable proportion. The basic musical scale unit of ancient Greece was the tetrachord meaning literally four strings. The first and fourth notes of the tetrachord were always tuned to the interval of a diatessaron (fourth) but the tuning of the other strings depended on the genus and mode of the music. In the ancient Greek system notes of a scale were arranged in descending order. The basic musical scale unit of ancient Greece was the tetrachord meaning literally four strings. The first and fourth notes of the tetrachord were always tuned to the interval of a diatessaron (fourth) but the tuning of the other strings depended on the genus and mode of the music. In the ancient Greek system notes of a scale were arranged in descending order. In the diatonic genus the tuning of the other intervals comprised two tones and a semitone. The chromatic genus comprised a minor third (three semitones) and two semitones. The enharmonic mode comprised a major third (two tones) and two quarter tones. [EB] Prior to Pythagoras there appears to be little evidence of a theoretical basis for the tuning of musical scales. Pythagoras was involved with the science of harmonics which was separate from the practical art of music. In the absence of a theoretical basis for the tuning of scales the actual tuning can only have been empirical and probably varied widely.
Generally, we don’t think of mathematics when we en- gage in music listening, and similarly we don’t think about music when proving a theorem. Neverthe- less, mathematics and music have been married by Pythagoras, and never got divorced. During the course of subsequent history, new music theories, ideas and notation have been invented by music theorists. Of- ten, the goal of these systems was to characterise con- sonance and dissonance, and divide the interval of an octave into intervals that maximise consonance. The ultimate intention of these theories was to define rules according to which pleasurable music can be created. The rules of counterpoint developed during the Re- naissance are one example of such system (sec. 5.1). In the twentieth century, more complex mathematical theories were invented. At the end of this historical overview, I introduce one of such theories: Composi- tion with Pitch-Classes (sec. 6).
3.1 Pythagoras: The Father of Music Theory
The link between numbers and music was observed by Pythagoras (585-500 BC) by analysing the vibrations of strings of various lengths.
Imagine a taut string that is plucked such that it vibrates with frequency a (so as to produce sound). If we press with a finger at the midpoint of the string, so that the string would continue to vibrate in each of the produced halves, the frequency of the vibration of the string in each of the halves will double because the wavelength has decreased by a factor of two. In other words, the new frequency of the string vibration is 2a. The frequency ratio between the new sound to the old sound is 2/11. Now imagine a similar experiment, but now we fix the string at two points, such that the string is divided into three equal parts. The original frequency a now triples for each of the segments. The frequency ratio between the notes 2a and 3a is 3/22. Pythagoras noticed that if the ratio between any two note frequencies can be represented by a rational num- ber p/q, where p and q are small integers, then the two notes are consonant. That is, if voiced one after the other they would create a pleasing change in sound3.
What Pythagoras did not know is that when a taut string vibrates, it vibrates at all of its overtones at the same time!4. However, the higher the overtone the smaller is the intensity of the vibration in that fre- quency. The sum of the vibrations of the overtones, that is, what we hear when the string is plucked, is called the ’timbre’ of the musical instrument. It is therefore only possible to hear pure vibrations of a particular frequency (without overtones) with a use of a computer.
Observing the connection between numbers and sounds, Pythagoras went ahead to create a tuning for the diatonic scale based only on combinations of fifths.
The ancient Pythagorean tuning is the de- scending scale with notes 5: 1/1, 8/9, 27/32, 3/4, 2/3, 16/27, 9/16, 1/2[6]6 . Note that all ratios in a de- scending scale are less than 1. Also, notice that all in- tervals involved in this tuning can be created by com- bining (multiplying) intervals 8/9 (called ’second’ or ’tone’) and 243/256 (called ’hemitone’).
Most likely, Pythagoras has produced this scale in the following manner. He started with a root note, and produced ascending and descending fifths, while transposing them in order to keep them in the same octave (i.e multiplying them by 2/1 (transpose up) or dividing them by 2/1 (transpose down), so that the value of the ratio is always at least 1 and at most 2).
Original Fifth Transposed Fifth
27/8 27/8
9/4 9/16
3/2 3/4
1/1 1/1
2/3 2/3
4/9 8/9 8/27 16/27
A reorganisation the notes in the right column produces the Pythagorean scale.
Finally, notice that two hemitones don’t produce a
second,
(256)2 ≈ 1.110 < 9 243 8
.
The intervals descending between consecutive notes
in the scale are: tone, hemitone, tone, tone, tone, hemitone, tone. Compare this scale to the Medieval Pythagorean tuning in Section 4.3.
The Pythagorean tuning, in a slightly modified form, has lasted for two millennia, until it was replaced by the Equal Tempered Tuning as well as the just in- tonation tuning developed by Ptolemy (but forgotten and rediscovered only during the Renaissance!).
3.6 The Greek Modes
In Ancient Greece the word “mode” stood for a scale [7]. Each mode was a rotation of the inter- vals {9/8, 9/8, 256/243, 9/8, 9/8, 9/8, 256/243}. Since there are seven notes here, each mode could effectively be the definition of the diatonic scale.
The lydian mode is one particular tuning of the diatonic scale which corresponds to the white keys on the piano, starting from F and ending on F (roughly; see section 5.4).
3.7 The Tetrachord
The tetrachord, which literally means “four strings” was the basic scale unit of Ancient Greece. The first and fourth strings were always tuned a fourth apart. The two strings in the middle depended on the “genus” and mode of the music. There were three kinds of gen- era7 : the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic.
In the diatonic genus, the two middle intervals were two tones, and a semitone. The chromatic genus com- prised a minor third (three semitones), and two semi- tones. In the enharmonic mode – (major third) two tones, and two quarter tones.
However, in practice these tunings probably were not exact [8], since
Prior to Pythagoras there appears to be little evidence of a theoretical basis for the tuning of musical scales. Pythagoras
was involved with the science of harmon- ics which was separate from the practical art of music. In the absence of a theoreti- cal basis for the tuning of scales the actual tuning can only have been empirical and probably varied widely.
-http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/PDF/math_music_hist.pdf
Instruments
The modern zither—named after the ancient Greek instrument known as a kithara, or cithara—is a stringed instrument with a flat, shallow sound box. Stretched across the wooden sound box are five metal strings situated above a fretboard and a large number of fretless strings, which are usually of gut, nylon, or other materials.
-http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9341119/zither
The kithara (cithara) was a plucked instrument with five strings but more strings were later added.‘Kitos’ means’ hole ‘, so ‘kithara’ means a ‘cavity with strings’. The Cithara was larger than the lyre, and was widely diffused in the ancient world. The Cithara was played by musicians called citharodes. According to Plutarch, the cithara was first made by Cepion, a student of Terpande.
-http://bbhc.com/samsblog/?m=20121028
Cithara plucked instrument with 5 strings originally, but later with as many as 12 strings. Cithara was bigger than the Lyra and it was the principal concert instrument played by professional musicians, the citharodes. According to Plutarch, cithara was designed by Cepion, a student of Terpander. Many instrument names like guitar, cittern, zither etc. derive from the word cithara.
-http://www.homoecumenicus.com/ancient_instruments.htm
the Odeion (roofed concert hall) of Perikles was erected on the south slope of the Athenian akropolis—physical testimony to the importance of music in Athenian culture.
In addition to the physical remains of musical instruments in a number of archaeological contexts, depictions of musicians and musical events in vase painting and sculpture provide valuable information about the kinds of instruments that were preferred and how they were actually played. Although the ancient Greeks were familiar with many kinds of instruments, three in particular were favored for composition and performance: the kithara, a plucked string instrument; the lyre, also a string instrument; and the aulos, a double-reed instrument. Most Greek men trained to play an instrument competently, and to sing and perform choral dances. Instrumental music or the singing of a hymn regularly accompanied everyday activities and formal acts of worship. Shepherds piped to their flocks, oarsmen and infantry kept time to music, and women made music at home. The art of singing to one's own stringed accompaniment was highly developed. Greek philosophers saw a relationship between music and mathematics, envisioning music as a paradigm of harmonious order reflecting the cosmos and the human soul.
-http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grmu/hd_grmu.htm
The aulos was a wind instrument which was extremely difficult to play. The cheeks of aulos players had to be fastened with a leather strap so they wouldn't burst. The aulos sounded similar to today's oboe.
Lyra: originally called Chelys, because of the tortoise shell used as its sound box. According to Nicomachus of Gerasa (Ist cent. AD), the tortoise-shell Lyra was invented by god Hermes, who gave it to Orpheus. "Orpheus taught Thamyris and Linos, and Linos taught Hercules. When Orpheus was killed by the Thracian women, his lyra was thrown into the sea, and washed ashore at Antissa, a city of Lesbos, where it was found by fishermen, who brought it to Terpander, who in turn carried it to Egypt and presented it to the Egyptian priests as his own creation."
We don't know how many strings the original Lyras had. By the time of Terpander (8th-7th cent. BC) Lyra was a seven stringed instrument and from many ancient sources we know that this type remained in use for a long time during the classical period. The addition of an eighth string in the 6th century BC is credited by Nicomachus of Gerasa to Pythagoras. By the fifth century there were Lyras with anything from 9 to 12 strings. The strings (neura) were made of animal gut of sinew, but there are also references of strings made of linen or hemp.
Lyra was mainly used for the musical education of the young, and by amateur players in general.
Barbitos or Barbiton is an instrument of the Lyra family and resembles a Lyra, but it has longer arms and narrower sound box. Musicians of the School of Lesbos, like Alcaeus and Sappho, are frequently depicted in vases playing the Barbitos.
-http://library.thinkquest.org/04apr/00275/ancient_ins.htm
Music in Life
Music was essential to the pattern and texture of Greek life, as it was an important feature of religious festivals, marriage and funeral rites, and banquet gatherings. Our knowledge of ancient Greek music comes from actual fragments of musical scores, literary references, and the remains of musical instruments. Although extant musical scores are rare, incomplete, and of relatively late date, abundant literary references shed light on the practice of music, its social functions, and its perceived aesthetic qualities. Likewise, inscriptions provide information about the economics and institutional organization of professional musicians, recording such things as prizes awarded and fees paid for services. The archaeological record attests to monuments erected in honor of accomplished musicians and to splendid roofed concert halls. In Athens during the second half of the fifth century B.C.,
Entertainment would be provided by professional singers. The songs played a very important role in the ceremony, encouraging the couple in their new relationship and future children as well as complimenting the couple through comparisons with the gods.24 A libation was offered at the beginning of the songs. As the couple entered the bridal chamber itself, they passed to the protection of Aphrodite and Peitho, who would bring harmony and pleasure in the bedroom and ultimately children. While the chamber was still being prepared, the wedding guests could enter the room, but finally the door would shut and remain guarded throughout the night by the thyroros, a friend of the groom. Friends of the bride sang outside the room to reassure the bride as she journeyed to womanhood and to encourage the couple in their attempts to produce a boy baby. They would also beat on the chamber door, ktupia, to scare away the spirits of the underworld. They might also sing playful, even obscene, songs and jokes.32
-http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/consortium/ancientweddings3.html
3.11 Performed Music in Ancient Greece
Contrary to the wealth of theoretical foundations that Ancient Greece has contributed to music, almost no record of the performed music has been preserved [13] p.4. It is known, however, that most of the music was improvised. Also, several instruments did not play si- multaneously.
Surprisingly, Greek artists did not consider the value of music on its own merit; music was played al- ways in combination with poetry reading. Since their poetry often conformed to a beat structure, the ac- companying music was played to that natural beat.
From this description we are able to discern softer/weaker (feminine) and louder/stronger (masculine) sounds. on the auloi. Because of the wide ambitus of pitches, a consort of auloi was available during Antiquity, although one should not assume any type of ensemble playing. Rather the Pythian aulos because of its threnodic nature was used to accompany the Pythic nomoi and paeans and the Choric aulos because of its high range was used to accompany dithyrambs. The aulos was transmitted into early Byzantium where it was used in symposia and was therefore an instrument of ill-repute. For the aulos, according to Aristides, "cultivates what is the leader of the worse portions." -http://www.hellenicnest.com/byzantium.html
In ancient Greece the lament was not a spontaneous outbreak of grief, but a carefully controlled expression of feelings adapted to ritual at every stage and endowed with musical features. One area of interest concerning this particular form of music is its adaptation to various, occasionally contrary, contexts. Before becoming a literary form - like the genre of threnos or the part of the tragedy called kommos[3] - the lament was performed during funeral rituals, for the death of gods and heroes, for remembering disasters affecting a city, or as a song devoted to legendary musicians (e.g. Linos).
-http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue_02/olivetti.htm
At one time, the Muses were anthropomorphic goddesses, possibly of prophetic springs, who became the representatives of poetry, the arts and science, and sources of inspiration. They sang, like the bird-bodied Sirens with whom they are sometimes contrasted. Homer refers to them as one Muse and as many Muses, living on Olympus. Plato lists eight muses connected with eight mythical spheres. Hesiod refers to them as 9 daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, who were born in Pieria, which is described as "watered by the springs flowing from Olympus," according to "Muses and Sirens," by J. R. T. Pollard; The Classical Review New Series, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jun., 1952), pp. 60-63.
-http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/mgodsandgoddesses/tp/Muses.htm
Linus, also spelled Linos , in Greek mythology, the personification of lamentation; the name derives from the ritual cry ailinon, the refrain of a dirge. Two principal stories, associated with Argos and Thebes, respectively, arose to explain the origin of the lament.
-http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/342644/Linus