When we look back in time to an era so distant as the Ancient Greeks, we can have a large degree of speculation and educated guessing to conclude.
Thankfully, there is much evidence that has survived to inform us about the importance of The Arts in the Ancient World and to act as a guide for our enquiries.
We can, for instance, with a high level of certainty know that music as an art form was extremely important to the Ancient Greeks.
As it does today, music often forms a central part of ceremonies and celebrations. Music would have been heard at weddings, funerals, to accompany the military, and in a theatrical context with poetry.
Cultural Significance of the Muses and Historical Figures
It is interesting to note that the word music stems from the Greek Muses, who were the daughters of the all-powerful God Zeus.
Muses were believed to be the divine source of inspiration for the Arts, Literature, Science, and more; vitally important for the creation of ideas. As Greek culture developed, the three first Muses became nine, each eventually with their assigned characteristics from epic poetry to astronomy.
Key cultural Greek figures like Plato, Pythagoras, Ptolemy, and Aristides are our main source of knowledge, especially when considering The Arts.
Their writings, along with pottery and mosaics, often provide invaluable insights into Ancient Greek traditions and practices. Pythagoras and his followers (Pythagoreans), for example, strongly linked music and mathematics.
The laws of music were cosmic in origin, as were the laws surrounding mathematics. These concepts are embedded in the ideas of the Music of The Spheres.
Music’s Role in Education and Society
Music, according to reliable sources like Plato (in his work called The Republic), details how music runs as a constant thread through Greek society. It forms a central component of Greek education alongside gymnastics.
Such was the importance of music that Plato considered that if one alters the modes of music at a fundamental level, then this will result in a fundamental societal change too.
(How interesting it is to compare this ideology with that of the 21st century, where music is frequently relegated to an extracurricular activity in many schools).
Music’s Role In Ancient Greek Tragedies
Greek Tragedies are many, but one of the most revealing is one called Orestes by Euripides. Euripides, along with Socrates and Aeschylus, were the three most important writers of Ancient Greek Tragedies.
Each author wrote many plays, many of which have survived to the present day. The tragedy in question is Orestes from 408 BCE. What’s remarkable about this particular play is that a fragment of musical notation etched on papyrus survived, showing notes for a Chorus section.
According to Oxford Professor Armand D’Angour in his book titled On The Trail of Ancient Music, this fragment of papyrus gives sufficient indication of the whole chorus to make it feasible to reconstruct the entire chorus.
His aim, according to his website, was to then have the reconstructed chorus performed. Professor D’Angour goes on to say that the chorus would have usually consisted of 15 singers and dancers who would have been accompanied by the Greek Aulos; a double-pipe instrument.
(If you want to learn more about his project, there is a link here to the BBC Radio Three page.
The Interconnectedness of the Arts
It’s through valuable insights like the one provided by Professor D’Angour’s work that we learn even more about the important role music played within Greek society.
It also indicates that musicians were also dancers and even poets, making The Arts a more combined experience or set of skills than we often consider usual today. We cannot be completely certain whether epic poetry or lyric poetry was recited or sung, or a mixture of the two.
It seems likely to me that there was a combination of possibilities that may have depended on the nature of the poem, but that is pure conjecture.
What distinguishes Epic Poetry from Tragedy is essentially that Tragedy includes dramatic content, whereas, according to scholarly sources, the recital of often lengthy Epic or Lyric poetry usually doesn’t. Aristotle tends to indicate this to be the case, although variations may well have existed.
If we consider the epic poetry of the eighth-century B.C.E., in particular Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. These are amongst the earliest examples of epic poetry that have such strong links to tragedy.
Probably accompanied by a Greek Lyre (phorminx), these expansive tales would have been sung with simple melodies that took their rhythms dictated by the poetry. In Homer’s case, the form would have been a dactylic hexameter.
Dithyrambs and Their Role in Drama
Dithyrambs were one of the many kinds of Greek song types. Often sung in praise of Dionysus, at celebrations or festivals, dithyrambs are thought to have been similar to the kind of song or even chant used in Greek Drama.
They would have comprised a small ensemble of men and/or boys that would interact with a soloist performer or player.
The interaction between the soloist and Chorus would begin a drama, and the relationship between the two parties was structurally crucial to the unfolding of the drama.
The Dithyramb would have been composed using the Phrygian mode, given its name apparently from the wild mountain people of the Anatolian Highlands. This mode, and each other mode, had very particular characteristics according to the Ancient Greeks, consisting of the pattern of tone and semitone.
Accompaniment was likely to have been with an Aulos, with the text of the performance taking center stage. Other instruments may have been included, but the vital role music played in these events cannot be overstated.
Notable Greek Tragedies
There are perhaps seven better-known tragedies from Ancient Greece. These are Agamemnon, Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus Tyrannus, Hippolytus, Bacchae (or Bacchic Women), Eumenides, and Libation-Bearers.
If for a moment we focus on Agamemnon, the introduction to this tragedy is taken upon the Chorus of singers and dancers, who in this play, are the Elders of Argos. They perform an essential role in this tragedy, bringing the audience up to speed about the events that led to the present story.
Placing this task in the hands of singers and dancers only underlines the key nature of these creative elements in Greek Dramas.