Greece experienced a musical revolution in the fifth century BC which modern scholars call the “New Music” movement. The movement was encouraged by Greek culture which embraced change and innovation. Under the “New Musicians,” those individuals involved in the movement, many traditional elements of music were changed or discarded. The most prominent place in which to understand the change in musical styles is the nomic and dithyrambic genres: both genres allowed musicians a great range in creativity to the extent that innovations in the nomoi made their way into the dithyramb. The change to traditional music was not always warmly accepted. Instead, while the demos enjoyed the new style of music the aristocracy derided its existence. The split between the demotic and aristocratic views of music may be seen especially in the attitude towards and purpose of the aulos and kithara in fifth-century Athens. Moreover, since the attitude of the aristocrats differed from that of the working-class musicians, we are able to see that the traditionally-minded aristocracy saw music as a gift from the gods while the working musicians saw the instruments and their musical sound as “tools.” The New Music movement was encouraged by Greek society which rewarded novelty and innovation. As Athens grew to become a cultural hot spot in the fifth century, more people saw the incentive to becoming professional musicians; original music would be rewarded either by fame and glory of the festivals or by financial remuneration. As a result, a primitive “entertainment industry” arose at Athens and propelled the new-style musicians to pursue their original compositions in their professional careers. The New Music movement also encouraged the study of music, particularly the study of musical ethics. In addition to having a status as a cultural hot spot, Athens also attracted numerous philosophers and other intellectuals. Those intellectuals contributed to the debate about the function and value of music. As the New Musicians’ popularity increased and the new style of music exerted an influence on the education system, emphasis was placed on the importance of the text and the development of the capacity to judge music. As a result, many philosophers and music theorists debated the moral aspect of music, now called the concept of musical ethos. The concept of musical ethos demonstrates that both philosophers and musicians studied music with a view to determining the most effective music for eliciting a response from the audience. Through a study of the ancient literature, most of which deals with music only incidentally, we will be able to understand how the New Music movement was encouraged by Greek culture, given an incentive by fifth-century society, and studied by some of the most brilliant philosophers and musicians Greek history has known. / February 2009

Greece experienced a musical revolution in the fifth century BC which modern scholars call the “New Music” movement. The movement was encouraged by Greek culture which embraced change and innovation. Under the “New Musicians,” those individuals involved in the movement, many traditional elements of music were changed or discarded. The most prominent place in which to understand the change in musical styles is the nomic and dithyrambic genres: both genres allowed musicians a great range in creativity to the extent that innovations in the nomoi made their way into the dithyramb. The change to traditional music was not always warmly accepted. Instead, while the demos enjoyed the new style of music the aristocracy derided its existence. The split between the demotic and aristocratic views of music may be seen especially in the attitude towards and purpose of the aulos and kithara in fifth-century Athens. Moreover, since the attitude of the aristocrats differed from that of the working-class musicians, we are able to see that the traditionally-minded aristocracy saw music as a gift from the gods while the working musicians saw the instruments and their musical sound as “tools.” The New Music movement was encouraged by Greek society which rewarded novelty and innovation. As Athens grew to become a cultural hot spot in the fifth century, more people saw the incentive to becoming professional musicians; original music would be rewarded either by fame and glory of the festivals or by financial remuneration. As a result, a primitive “entertainment industry” arose at Athens and propelled the new-style musicians to pursue their original compositions in their professional careers. The New Music movement also encouraged the study of music, particularly the study of musical ethics. In addition to having a status as a cultural hot spot, Athens also attracted numerous philosophers and other intellectuals. Those intellectuals contributed to the debate about the function and value of music. As the New Musicians’ popularity increased and the new style of music exerted an influence on the education system, emphasis was placed on the importance of the text and the development of the capacity to judge music. As a result, many philosophers and music theorists debated the moral aspect of music, now called the concept of musical ethos. The concept of musical ethos demonstrates that both philosophers and musicians studied music with a view to determining the most effective music for eliciting a response from the audience. Through a study of the ancient literature, most of which deals with music only incidentally, we will be able to understand how the New Music movement was encouraged by Greek culture, given an incentive by fifth-century society, and studied by some of the most brilliant philosophers and musicians Greek history has known.

Greece experienced a musical revolution in the fifth century BC which modern scholars call the “New Music” movement. The movement was encouraged by Greek culture which embraced change and innovation. Under the “New Musicians,” those individuals involved in the movement, many traditional elements of music were changed or discarded. The most prominent place in which to understand the change in musical styles is the nomic and dithyrambic genres: both genres allowed musicians a great range in creativity to the extent that innovations in the nomoi made their way into the dithyramb. The change to traditional music was not always warmly accepted. Instead, while the demos enjoyed the new style of music the aristocracy derided its existence. The split between the demotic and aristocratic views of music may be seen especially in the attitude towards and purpose of the aulos and kithara in fifth-century Athens. Moreover, since the attitude of the aristocrats differed from that of the working-class musicians, we are able to see that the traditionally-minded aristocracy saw music as a gift from the gods while the working musicians saw the instruments and their musical sound as “tools.” The New Music movement was encouraged by Greek society which rewarded novelty and innovation. As Athens grew to become a cultural hot spot in the fifth century, more people saw the incentive to becoming professional musicians; original music would be rewarded either by fame and glory of the festivals or by financial remuneration. As a result, a primitive “entertainment industry” arose at Athens and propelled the new-style musicians to pursue their original compositions in their professional careers. The New Music movement also encouraged the study of music, particularly the study of musical ethics. In addition to having a status as a cultural hot spot, Athens also attracted numerous philosophers and other intellectuals. Those intellectuals contributed to the debate about the function and value of music. As the New Musicians’ popularity increased and the new style of music exerted an influence on the education system, emphasis was placed on the importance of the text and the development of the capacity to judge music. As a result, many philosophers and music theorists debated the moral aspect of music, now called the concept of musical ethos. The concept of musical ethos demonstrates that both philosophers and musicians studied music with a view to determining the most effective music for eliciting a response from the audience. Through a study of the ancient literature, most of which deals with music only incidentally, we will be able to understand how the New Music movement was encouraged by Greek culture, given an incentive by fifth-century society, and studied by some of the most brilliant philosophers and musicians Greek history has known.

The extant ancient Greek treatises on music show very striking similarities regarding the explanation of music theory, although they span a time period of seven centuries. The aim of this thesis is to prove that these similarities were not caused by the missing development of music, but rather by the habit of ancient musicologists, who seem to have preferred the information contained in their sources, however old they were, to the description of real musical practice. In this respect Aristides Quintilianus, an author of the 3rd century AD, who wrote three books On music, was not different. This thesis includes an explanation of the development of music as it is depicted by contemporary non-musicological writers and notational diagrams, then presents the work of Aristides Quintilianus per se as well as in the context of the other ancient Greek musicological research. There is also a translation and a commentary on Aristides's first book, where the musical changes should be present. Finally, by a comparison of some parallel passages found in Aristides's first book and in the rest of the extant musicological treatises, Aristides's sources are exposed.

This thesis offers a technically informed examination of Plato's pervasive, though not innocent, use of musical theory, practice and musical concepts more generally within the ambitious ethical project outlined in many of his dialogues: fostering the ‘excellence' of the soul. Starting from Republic 3, Chapter 1 will focus specifically on music stricto sensu in order to assess Plato's interpretation of the basic ‘building blocks' of musical performances, creating a core repertoire of musical concepts that will prepare the way to analyse Plato's use of musical terms or categories in areas that, at first sight, do not appear to be immediately connected to this art, such as politics, ethics and psychology. Chapter 2 examines a selection of passages from Laws 2 concerning the concept of musical beauty and its role in ethical education, demonstrating how Plato's definition is far from being moralistic and, instead, pays close attention to the technical performative aspects of dramatic musical representations. Chapter 3 looks first at the harmonic characterisation of the two central virtues of the ideal city, sophrosyne and dikaiosyne, showing how their musical depictions are not purely metaphoric: on the contrary, Plato exploited their cultural implications to emphasise the characteristics and the functions of these virtues in the ideal constitution. The second half of Chapter 3 analyses the Platonic portrayal of musical παρανομία, studying both its educational and psychological repercussions in the dialogue and in relations to contemporary Athenian musical practices. Chapter 4 looks at how different types of music may be used to create an inner harmonic order of passions in the soul in different contexts: the musical-mimetic education outlined in the Republic, the musical enhancement of the psychological energies in the members of the Chorus of Dionysus in the Laws, and finally the role of the aulos in the Symposium.

Partendo da un punto di vista lessicale, la ricerca si ripropone di investigare la presenza di elementi musicali all’interno della produzione epigrammatica del periodo ellenistico, con riferimenti, talora, anche ad autori più tardi. Sono stati analizzati due tipi di fonti: epigrammi di tradizione letteraria (che includono componimenti dall’Anthologia Palatina, dal Nuovo Posidippo, e dal materiale raccolto da Gow e Page) ed epigrafi (che comprendono iscrizioni dagli Steinepigramme aus dem Griechischen Osten e dalle Inscriptions métriques de l’Égypte greco-romain), in modo tale da poter agire su un campo di indagine coerente e bilanciato. Il materiale è stato articolato in due sezioni principali, “Mousikà stoikheia” e “Organikè mousa”, rispettivamente dedicate alle categorie musicali e agli strumenti musicali. L’analisi, partendo dalla ricostruzione della potenzialità semantica di ogni termine, basata sull’origine etimologica e sullo sviluppo letterario e teorico, e procedendo attraverso l’interpretazione delle occorrenze più significative all’interno dei testi epigrammatici, evidenzia una particolare sensibilità verso la componente musicale, richiamando sia la terminologia specifica musicale sia, più spesso, il tradizionale trattamento di alcuni temi appartenenti alla tradizione letteraria. Il presente lavoro include anche una Appendice finale, nella quale sono indicizzati i termini emersi durante l’indagine testuale. / Starting from a lexical point of view, this research aims at investigating the presence of musical elements within the epigrammatic production of the Hellenistic period, with references also to later authors. Two kinds of sources have been analysed: literary epigrams (including poems from the Greek Anthology, the New Posidippus, and the material collected by Gow-Page) and epigraphic epigrams (including inscriptions from Steinepigramme aus dem Griechischen Osten and Inscriptions métriques de l’Égypte greco-romain), in order to have a coherent and balanced field of investigation. The material has been divided into two main parts, “Mousikà stoikheia” and “Organikè mousa”, referred to musical categories and musical instruments. The analysis, starting from the reconstruction of the potential musical meaning of each term, based on etymology and literary and theoretical development, and going on through the interpretation of the most relevant occurrences of the term in epigrammatic texts, shows a particular sensibility towards the musical element, recalling both the terminology of musical theory and, more often, the traditional treatment of some themes belonging to the literary tradition. A final Appendix provides an index with the terms found during the textual investigation.