Aristides Quintilianus and the Theory of Mode in Antiquity

The subject of the present article is a small fragment from “De musica” by Aristides Quintilianus (3^rd century A. D.), which immediately relates to the doctrine of musical mode in Antiquity. It reveals how the formation of ancient Greek modes was conceptualized: the point of departure constituted the basic two-octave Perfect System (systema teleion), on which then the so-called “octave species” of diverse intervallic structure have been superimposed. As a result there arose multiple “harmoniai” (according to Aristides’ vocabulary which followed here the earlier tradition), or “tonoi”: Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc. The importance of the studied fragment comes out from the scarcity of our knowledge of ancient modes, of which a little evidence is preserved. Also this excerpt correlates to Ptolemy’s music theory (the only source in Antiquity where a discipline of musical harmony has been treated systematically), and makes a relevant addition to it.