Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-08-21
Ancient Greek Music.

The nature of ancient Greek music has
long been the subject on which precise
information has been wanting. 1t was
known that certain antique chants had
been transported with notifications into
the ritual of the Greek church. but on,
knowledge of the subject was so vague
that we could not appreciate the impor.
lance Of the role which Plato and Aris-
totle and Plutarch attributed to music
IN their educational systems. The labors
Of Gevaert, Westphal and Bourgault-D
coudray have thrown considerable LIGHT
on the matter, and at recent meeting of
the French Academy of Moral and Polit-
1cal Sciences M. Leveque gave long and
interesting account of the present state of
the question. NJ. Leveque showed US NJ,
Bourgault-Ducoudray travelling from one
end OF Greece to the other, and collecting
the popular airs which he believed to be
OF ancient origin, carr ling his investiga-
lions into the ecclesiastical music of the
Greeks, and finally having executed at
the Trocadero last year melodies which
ne attributed to the epochs cf Socrates
and Phidlas. Not content with having
recovered his lost art, NJ. Bourgault- Du-
coudray wishes to introduce it into our
modern art with a view of rejuvenating it.
The idea of the regeneration of modern
musical art by the infusion of Greek has
already been glanced at by Gevaert. M.
Bouagault- Ducoudray is more affirmative
and declares himself cow need that a re-
turn to simple processes has become nee
essary for modern music, fatigued as It
is, he says, by all excessive develop
ment Of It's major and MINOR. More
than once, he adds, modern masters
have had recourse to the employment of
the Greek modes, particularly the Dorian,
hypodorian and hypolydian, as we'll as of
the ancient chromatic scale. According
to NJ, Leveque, Greek music had superb
critics of expression which are wanting
in our own. It derives its power from
melodic simplicity by which it acted
with great force on the soul. Its first
merit was not to fall into confusion by
pretending to give more various and d.
verse interpretations of the sentiments of
the soul than the means at it's disposal
permitted. It was at first only the auxili-
airy Of poetry; the human voice was its
JlISt AuSLIuulVuL duu maintained LQdC leg.
itimate supremacy which the abuse of in.
strumentation with us tends to abolish.
The centre Of gravity of Greek music was
chanted poetry. This melody, M. Leveque
went on to show, possessed the same num-
Der of tones as our own it had seven modes
instead of two, and its modes changed &C.
cording as they were put in the diatonic,
chromatic, or cnharmonic melody (genos
It was, therefore, very rich
in tones or modes; it was still more so
from the point Of view of rhythms To the
power of rhythm it joined that of metre,
which allowed it to keep the charm of
with rhythm and metre simple
speech is at once a chant such as is still
found among the Italians. and modern
Greeks: TO sum up, Mr.. Levequc thinks
that it would be advisable to borrow
from the ancient Greeks the simplicity
Of the melody, the abundant diversity of
the rhythms, the. multiplicity of the
modes and perhaps a holder and more
frequent employment: Of: the chromatic
mode. -. .