Title: The rise of music in the ancient world, East and West
First published: 1943
Description: It is an exciting story, how music bas for thousands o£ years been 
held in balance between the basic facts that, on the one hand, sound is 
vibration o£ matter ruled by mathematical ratios and that, on the other 
hand, musical art works are immateriaI, indeed, irrational. And a still 
greater fascination is it to see in how many different ways the two 
counterpoises bave been kept equal, and how, with ail these differences, 
races living far apart went similar ways and met in strange, unwitting 
teams: Greeks and apanese, Hindus and Arabs, Europeans and North 
American Itadians. 
This story bas never been toi& It is t.rue that an incalculable quantïty 
of incompetent, and a less imposing number of competent, describers 
bave dealt with primitive, Oriental, and Hellenic music. But they bave 
only covered certain musical aspects of single countries, of China or 
India or Greece. Wïth the exception of the excellent, though short, survey 
in the one hundred smaI1 pages of Robert Lachmann's Musi k des Orients 
(Breslau, 929), ot a single book has covered ai1 the different and yet so 
dosely related styles of the Eastern world and the manifold problems 
they involve. Sali1 Iess has the music of ancient Greece been organically 
connêcted with the Orientnot to speak of the integration of both of 
them in the urîiversaI history of music. 
In studyïng thîs first attempt at a synthesis, the reader should hot 
forger that this book treats the rïse of music in the ancient world and 
consequentIy îs Iïtde concemed with the practïce, the conceptions, and the 
mîsconceptions of medïevaI and modern Oriental music, except ïn so far 
as they throw light on antîquity. Nor should he forger at what disad- 
vantage such an attempt is placed by the incompleteness of our sources, 
both musical and extramusicaI. 
Despite ifs shortcomîngs, I trust that my endeavor is justified by 
results" the more distinct outlines given to primitive styles; the reinter- 
pretatïon o] Oriental systems; answers to a great many open questions 
in the theory and practice of the Greeks; and an exposure of the roots 
£rom whîch the music of the West has grown.
Subjects: greece, near east, History and criticism, Muziek, Histoire et critique, Greek and Roman Music, Music, Musique, Musique romaine, Musica (Antiguidade), Musique grecque antique, Ancient, Music, history and criticism, to 500, Music, primitive, Music, asian, Music, greek and roman
Places: Asia, Asie
People: curt sachs
Time periods: To 500, Jusqu'à 500