Music and Dance in the Greek world

Music and dance in the Greek world developed together as forms of artistic expression. The word mousike came from the muses, who created the arts through their cultural patronage. Greek music was based on more numerous and complex scales than modern diatonic half-tones, with twelve half-tones creating an octave. Instead, the Greeks used quarter-tones, with forty-five scales of eighteen notes each. As such, there were three groups of scales—the diatonic scale, created on the tetrachord E D C B; the chromatic, based upon E C (sharp) C B; and the enharmonic, based on E C C(flat) B. Seven modes or harmoniai were created by tuning the strings in the diatonic tetrachord to alter the position of the semitones in the octave.

Mixing bowl showing players of musical instruments. (The Cleveland Museum of Art, The A. W. Ellenberger, Sr., Endowment Fund 1926.549)

These produced the Dorian modes of E F G A B C D E, which gave a martial and grave sentiment in a minor key; the Lydian mode C D E F G A B C, which in a major key was tender and plaintive; and the Phrygian D E F G A B C D in a minor key, which was orgiastic and wild. These major modes were then said to have produced from their half-tone variations that evoked partial emotions. When played, the Dorian produced an effect of making men dignified and excited. The Lydian produced a weak and sentimental effect, while the Phrygian produced an excited and headstrong effect. While modern music uses ovals and stems on a staff of lines, the Greeks employed alphabetical letters for musical notation to create sixty-four signs located above the song’s words, thus allowing quarter-tones to be produced.

These notes allowed for a variety of music used throughout Greek life. Legend told the tale of the satyr and the priest Marsyas, who challenged and lost a musical competition to Apollo. According to the bet, whoever won could treat the other as he desired. The god then flayed Marsyas alive. Marsyas’ pupil Olympus supposedly created the enharmonic scale of quarter-tones having learned how to play the flute from Marsyas. There were the Dionysian dithyrambs, hymns for the gods; epinikia, or victory songs; paeans for Apollo; symposiaka, for dining, skolia for drinking; erotica for loving, hymenaioi for marriage, elegiai for mourning; and threnoi for burials.

The highest form for the Greeks was choral music, which produced complex and emotional events for festivals. Cities would also organize competitions for choral songs. A composer would write both the words and the music, which professional singers then performed. The teacher of Heracles, Linus, was accorded the honor of creating musical notation and establishing modes. The singer sang in the same key.

Accompanying music was dance, which in its highest form was linked to choral singing. In fact, in music the term foot owed its origin to dance, which accompanied a song, and orchestra, which in Greek means a dancing platform. Unlike modern dance, which is often associated with physical contact between men and women, Greek dance was an artistic expression. It had a variety of forms, approaching 200, which allowed its association with music, poetry, and song. There were religious dances such as those performed at the Spartan Gymnopedia, or Festival of Naked Youth; military dances, which resembled a march; and the Lypochema, featuring two opposing choruses, with one singing while the other danced.

As time went on, music and dance began to separate and become individual art forms. This in turn created new professions so that rhapsodes now recited rather than sang their poetry. Archiloches would sing his words but without musical accompaniment and ultimately produced poetry that was without song or even spoken, just read. The choral dance split into choral singing and dance. These in turn led to the development of drama, where the role of the chorus was reduced so that a single player went forward to speak; this created the major performers or the protagonists, instead of the chorus being the dominant performers. Music and dance in time helped create the art form of theater.