Of their instrumental music, or music without the voice, we are told that the flute.players by profession—who certainly were exceedingly encouraged and most extravagantly paid for their services in the later times of Grcece—piqued themselves chiefly on the strength of the sounds they could produce from the instrument ; and that the trumpeters thought themselves fortunate if, in their contests at the public games, they escaped without the rupture of a blood.vessel by the violence of their exertions. It is to such performances Aristotle must allude in saying, " I disapprove all kinds of difficulties in the use of instruments, and, indeed, in music generally ; I mean such tricks as are practised at the public games, where the musician, instead of recollecting what is the true object of his art, endeavours only to flatter the corrupt taste of the multitude." Facts and remarks like these do not lead to any favourable opinion of Grecian performers. It is likely however that they pleased most when they played the airs set to the favourite poems and popular verses. And there seems some reason to believe that they extended these by additions, sometimes studied, but often extemporaneous, resembling what are in modern language called variations, or an amplification of the theme.
It was a tradition that Cadmus, with his Phoenicians, introduced music into Greece. But Plutarch, in his 'Dialogue on Music,' first makes Lycias, a professor of the art, repeat the statement of Ileraclides, that Amphion, the son of Jupiter and Antiope, taught the Greeks to compose and sing lyric poetry : then, by a second inter locutor, Soteriehus, contradicts the first, assigning to Apollo the merit of having converted Greece into a musical nation. The invention of the lyre of three strings is given to the Egyptian Mercury, or Thoth ; that of seveu strings, to the second or Grecian Mercury. Chiron, the centaur, taught Achilles music. Orpheus was the musical pupil of Linue, and master of Hercules. Then came Olympus, Terpander, and others. Terpander is said to have appeased an insurrection in Lacedmnaon by his songs. Ile rendered a most important service to the art by inventing a method of representing musical sounds. Till his time music was quite 'traditional, and depended on the memory, and sometimes the caprice, of the performer. Plutarch says of him, on the authority of Alexander, an historian, that he took Homer for his model in versification, and Orpheus If or the style of his melodies. The musical compositions of Orpheus, the same writer adds, were wholly original.
Many very celebrated players on the flute are mentioned in musical history. Damon taught Pericles and Socrates the use of this instru ment. Antigenides and Dorion were also renowned for their talents. But the performer who excited most admiration was of the gentler sex. Lamia was no less distinguished by wit and ability than by personal charms. After captivating many by her skill as a flute
player, and by her beauty, Demetrius Poliorcetes became violently enamoured of her, and, through her influence, conferred such extra ordinary benefits on the Athenians, that they dedicated a temple to her. Whatever may have been the style of flute-playing, or of the music, it is certain that in Greece the performers were in great favour. Xenophon says, that if an indifferent player wished to pass for one of superior talent, he must furnish his house richly, and appear abroad with a large retinue of servants, as the great performers do. It is said that a flute used by a celebrated Theban musician, Ismenias, cost nearly six hundred pounds sterling.
Pythagoras, of whom an idle story was long current, about a black smith's shop;hammers and anvils, contributed much to the improve ment of music by his hammers, and philosophical experiments. To him also is attributed the addition of an eighth string to the lyre. His notion concerning the music of the spheres—music produced by the motions of the heavenly bodies—was one of those whims in which great geniuses are apt, now and then, to indulge. He was of the sect of severe musicians, of those who reduced music to mathematical precision, and regulated all sounds by calculations, allowing no licence to the ear. Of an opposing school was Aristoxenus, born at Tarentum in Italy, about 350 years s.c., who thought the ear entitled to share with mathematical principles in determining the effect of modulated sounds. He was a most voluminous writer on many learned subjects. Of these his Elements of Harmonics' are all that have reached us, and stand first in the collection published by Meibomius. Next in that excellent work is an Introduction to Harmonics,' by Euclid, the geometrician ; and this is followed by his ' Section of the Canon,' con taining short and clear explanations of the constituent parts of Greek music. Ptolemy, an Egyptian, and not the astronomer, wrote a treatise in three books on Harmonies,' which Dr. Wallis printed, with a Latin version, a preface, and appendix, in 1682. He enters at large and deeply into the subject, and his principles have a tendency to reconcile the hostile sects of Pythagoreans and Aristoxcnians. This object was pursued with success, by Sir F. H. Styles, in his paper published in the 51st volume of the Philosophical Transactions.' in Plutarch's Dialogue on Music' much information concerning ancient Greek music is to be found, but not of the most valuable kind. Aristides Quintilianus wrote a treatise on music, printed in the collection of Meibomius which has proved a useful work to all subsequent writers on the subject. He was enthusiastic and fanciful, but in matters of fact and calculation is worthy of confidence.