Morning journal and courier., 1893-12-12
Ancient Music of Greece.

From the London Standard.1
 The classical world has received with much interest the news of the discovery at Delphi, on the site of the ancient Ora ole, of a hymn to Apollo, inscribed on stone, with the musical notes cut over each syllable. This is, so far, an unprece- dented incident in the history of archao- logical discovery. The inscription is re- ported to date from the second century before Christ, aud the musical notation to be that of Aristoxenos, pupil of Aristo- tie. It has been suggested that this may prove key to the music of ancient Greece. But 1t would be premature at present to encourage the enthusiasm of scholars In this direction. Of learned dissertation and of energetic disputation there will, no doubt, be enough and to spare, both st home and abroad; but the controversy will present In one respect singular as pect. The best of Grecians will practical ly be out of court If he have not a musi- cal scholars knowledge of the musical art; while, on the other hand, the musician who has no Greek will be st s dissdvan- tage in arguing on the work of recon struction. No doubt the laws of thor ough-bsss will enable the professor of mu- sic to build theory on these scanty slaves, at least as successfully as those of physiology enabled the late Professor Owen to reconstruct the extinct Mos and Dinornis of New Zsaland. But there will be many authorities good in Greek and bad in music, or good in music and bad In Greek. Collaboration will doubtless suc- ceea In the end, but the end will not be near.
 Moreover, it is as likely ss not that, af- ter everything has been comfortably set tled-and let us say, the rising generation of Eton lads shall have grown old and dis appeared-some new discovery will upset "the foundations of things," ss hopelessly as, within the last few years, the sc.enees of ethnology, arcb@ ology and craniology have conspired to upset the popular Indo- European theory of Arysn migration to the west from the highlands of central Bactris, which was supposed to account for everything in philology worth account ing for. Twenty years sge-nay, even ten the scholar who should have doubted his Peile, questioned his Max Muller, or looked suspiciously at his Curtius, would have been counted & blssphemsr. Yet to- day the "Lectures on the Science of Lam gusge" is technically obsolete-vsluable only as a brilliant exposition of doctrine since abandoned as futile by well nigh every one except the expositor and faith full few. It is pathetic to remember how, one by one, the champions of the plsusi- | ble theory fell regretfully out of the ranks | and went over to the enemy. Could Bopp, | "the father of & comparative grammar, | could Jacob Grimm, or even Dr. Donald son, rise from his grave, he would. at hrst | blush, regard tho modern subversion of ! the foundations on which he had epent so | much labor and learning with some such | feelings ss Nelson might be expected to ex- perience were he suddenly resuscitated on board a modern ironclsd.
 We need not, then, be ssnguine that the | key to the music of ancient Greeos is about to be easily inserted Into the lock of | oblivion, or that when inserted 1t will all | at once work smoothly. It is something, l however, to have found likely sort of key. Perhaps with the average of readers 1t is only the astonishing music of the Greek language itself which has redeemed much of Euripides from something. Dr. Yerrall notwithstanding, very like dullnees. With the exception of those mighty choruses In Greek trsgedy-such, for example, as those In the "Agamemnon" or "Antigone." 7"
 great lyric outbursts of which chorus Is
 merely the mouth-chorus Is, not seldom,
 regarded as @ nuisance, not only by the
 undergraduate, who finds 1t occasionally
 dangerous to his prospects in the Little Fo," but by those who resent the frequent
 ly cold -blooded fatuity or desperate incon-
 sequence of its comments on the situation.
 It may at least be confessed that, If the
 Greek chorus does not impede the action,
 1t seldom contributes to 1t. In the "Alces'
 tis," for example, one can scarcely doubt
 that the patience of 1.-the gods" would be
 severely taxed were the interei sculations
 of the chorus intrusted to & single per.
 sona. For the chorus there was safety in
 numbers.
 Those who have ksd the advantage
 book In hand, of witnessing the perfor.
 nance of the "Ajsx" or the "Antigons'
 on a modern stage will recollect, probably,
 how the frigid dullness of the ohorio in-
 terludes was relieved by the music. Oi
 course the music of Mendelssohn's "An'
 tigone" might have proved quite distaste
 ful to an Athenisn audience, and 1t ap
 peals, no doubt, for the most part, to Sc
 verely classical ears. What-with theil
 narrow range of orchestral instruments-
 was the music which was worthily adapted
 to the masterpieces of Eschylus and
 Sophcelesl How comes 1t that not 6 nots
 of 1t has until now been forthcomingi Il
 we consider the great expense which 1t wa
 fashionable and even patriotic for ths
 wealthy "Aecenates" of the times to in
 eur on the training of ''ths chorus" an6 1n6 pErtS pIeySQ Dy tuo uuec 6uQ Tyre hl
 accompaniments, 1t is plain that musics
 competition must have received every en
 couragement in Greece. It Is 6 singuls, reflection that, with all the wild Sicilial harmony of Theooritus, the lordly pagean , try of Pindar, the rugged stateliness O ! the "Agamemnon," the awful grandeur O the "Persse'-as vivid o-dsy as when , was first produced-the Shakespearial self sacrifice of the "ARtigone," the wils
 despair of the "Hscuba," the scornful bit f terness of "Philoctetes." the scathing sa tire of the "Alcestis," that the only clue i if clue 1t bs-to the music which wa . married to immortal verse;" In the de i lineation of the sufferings and passions 0 : an impetuous and poetic race, should hav
 lain htd for two thousand years, while tn song and the dance and the burning sic | quence have been ever in mems hands an . before their eyes. The unparalleled musi ! of the language has endured for ever j while of the-written music nothing hs . hitherto escaped oblivion.