Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cazden, Pythagoras and Aristoxenos Reconciled
Cazden, Pythagoras and Aristoxenos Reconciled
BY NORMAN CAZDEN
97
98 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
agreement. Therefore musical instru- main right to this day. But the com-
ments are best tuned by fourth and plementary nature of their principles
fifths and octaves, not normally by has also been obscured by ostensibly
relations less easily determined. This opposed prescriptions for intonation.
is also the definition obtained for In European harmonic practice,
consonance by Aristoxenos, and he the judgment of the ear which Aris-
equates discord with indeterminate toxenos upheld tended to accept the
relations.16Perfect consonance means, major triad as the model unit of the
then, the standard by which a de- tonal system.'1 But the official norms
sired ordering of musical pitches may for tuning, approved by science and
be established through direct meas- theology and
mistakenly made ac-
urement of their internal agreements. countable also for harmonic conso-
The Pythagorean doctrine does nance, called without qualification
not apply, therefore, to the art of for the pre-eminence in harmony of
music; it applies to what happens relations expressible as simple ratios.
before music is sounded. The har- The conflict reached a critical state
monious agreement which the an- by the i6th century, resulting in a
cient Greeks termed consonance had cleavage between the theory of mu-
nothing to do with procedures of sic that was still dominated by misap-
musical composition; it provided plied Pythagorean involutions with
rather a scientific prescription for their mystical authority and by the
tuning, which we still follow. The harmonic practice of musicians,
law of nature is not the mystic source which showed the working of wholly
of the melody, the harmony, or the different laws. The solution, first ob-
form of a Beethoven or a Sch6nberg tained in general form by Zarlino,
string quartet; it merely explains consisted in the hypothesis that the
why the players of the quartet tune major triad, rightly conceived, could
their strings at distances of perfect also be made to exhibit
simple nu-
fifths. merical ratios.18Only, instead of the
Thus, the positions of Pythagoras consonant numbers stopping at the
and Aristoxenos are not really in ratio index 4, they would have to
conflict here. Pythagoras correctly be extended to include also the index
generalizes that standards for iden- 5. The major triad would then be
tifying harmonious agreement among expressible as the compound ratio
musical tones are susceptible of nu- 4:5:6, the major third would hence-
merical formulation. Aristoxenos cor- forth be declared a proper natural
rectly observes that this primitive consonance by virtue of its measure-
level of the recognition of tones and
their distances does not yet consti- 17 Knud Jeppesen, The Style of Palestrina
tute the art of music, for music be- and the Dissonance (London, I927), p. 77.
Cf. Walter Odington, "De Speculatione
gins only when there is a musical Musices" (c. 1300), and Anonymi i, "Trac-
system for the collocation of tones, tatus de Consonantus Musicalibus," in Cousse-
and such a system is not given by maker, Scriptores, t. I; Lionel Power, "Treat-
ise on Counterpoint," from Old Hall Manu-
external measurements but only by script, in Sanford B. Meech, "Three Musical
the ear of the musician nurtured in Treatises in English from a Fifteenth Cen-
that system. In their facts and in their tury Manuscript," Speculum, X (I935), pp.
235-269; Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareja,
interpretations, Pythagoras and Aris- Musica Practica (1482), ed. by Johannes
toxenos are thus both right and re- Wolf (Leipzig, I90o), pp. 63, 98.
18 Gioseffo Zarlino, Istitutioni Harmoniche
16 The Harmonics, p. 198. (Venice, 1573), pp. 176 ff.
102 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
ment by the ratio 4:5, and the minor ther complication, while the 64:81
third similarly as the ratio 5:6. ratio for the third is correctly called
This theoretical achievement of a Pythagorean, the alternative just ra-
"consonant" form for the major triad tio 64:80 has been loosely termed
served to dissipate the then existing Aristoxenian by some theorists, lead-
impasse between musical theory and ing to utter confusion. The just in-
practice. But in this way the perma- tonation principle was indeed set
nence of the Pythagorean principle forth by Aristoxenian-minded theo-
was breached, and natural ratios rists, who were bent on justifying
were no longer self-evident to the the judgments of their ears. But here
ear. In our time the acoustician John they appealed with unconscious irony
Redfield belabors the ancient Greeks to the mathematical calculations of
for their clumsiness in not discover- the Pythagoreans, while they loudly
ing the just major triad and asserts fulminated precisely against the fit-
that the musical development of the ness of such calculations and decried
classical symphony would have oc- the Pythagorean thirds as harsh, un-
curred some two thousand years holy, false, intolerable, and like symp-
earlier but for this theoretical blind- toms of fair evaluation. The mythical
19 But more than an abstract standard called just intonation may
spot!
absurdity is involved here. There re- better be described as a theoretical
mains the concrete question of the compromise between Pythagoras and
actual intonation of the major third. Aristoxenos reached by eliminating
The new view requires this interval the facts supporting either view and
to be in the so-called just ratio of combining the mystical efflorescences
4:5 (or we might say, 64:80), while of both.
the older Pythagorean calculations The concept of a just or naturally
set its value at 64:81, noticeably consonant scale remains alive only
larger. Since the Pythagorean and because some well-established facts
Aristoxenian principles alike accept have been consistently misrepre-
the ear's judgment as final, can we sented, largely in such unlikely places
not find a more factual basis for the as physics texts, following hasty
correct value of the major third? thinking that musicians also fall into
We can measure intonation by ob- when they are not alerted to these
serving the practice of musicians dur- subtleties. Let us observe how the
ing performance and by sampling values in column I of our table, Just
preferences of normal listeners ex- Intonation, differ from those of Equal
posed to various sizes of intervals. Temperament in column 2.21 Every
The latter technique has proved violinist learns early in life that the
somewhat faulty, because tests either compromise intervals of equal tem-
have presented intervals wholly iso- perament are quite abominably out
lated from musical contexts or have of tune, but fortunately whenever he
introduced some successions too hap- 20 Principles of intonation standards, with
resultant values (in cents) for major and
hazardly for the results to be valid. minor thirds:
Critical principles of the relevant M3 m3
intonation values20 affect not only i. Just Intonation: Triads I, IV, V
in ratios 4:5:6. 386 316
the major third but the entire scale, 2. Equal Temperament: Half-step
including chromatic tones. As a fur- = 2 = 1.059. . . 400 300
22
J. Murray Barbour, "The Persistence of
the Pythagorean Tuning System," Scripta of Temperament," Mus. Q., XXXIII (1947),
Mathematica, I (I932), pp. 286-304; Auguste p. 65 (see also Barbour, n. 22 above, p. 302);
Cornu and E. Mercadier, "Sur les intervalles Ernst Nauman, Cber die Verschiedenen
musicaux," Comptes Rendus, Academie des Bestimmungen der Tonverhaltnisse (Leipzig,
Sciences, Institut de France, t. 73 (87 I), pp. 1858), p. v; Ottokar Cadek, "Problems of
178-I83 (this and other studies in the series String Intonation," Proc. MTNA, XXXIII
are well summarized by Alexander J. Ellis in (1938), pp. 119-125.
Appendix to Helmholtz, n. 5 above, pp. 486- 24M. W. Dr6bisch, Nachtriige zur Theorie
488); C.-M. Gariel, "Acoustique Musicale," der musikalischen Tonverhiltnisse (Leipzig,
Encyclopddie de la Musique et Dictionnaire 1855), pp. 28-29; Carl Stumpf and Max
du Conservatoire, Partie 2, Tome I (Paris, Meyer, "Maassbestimmungen iiber die Rein-
I923), pp. 405-5I8; Paul C. Greene, "Violin heit consonanter Intervalle," Ztschr. f. Psy-
Performance with Reference to Tempered, chologie u. Physiologie der Sinnes-Organe, Bd.
Natural and Pythagorean Intonation," Uni- 18 (1898), pp. 321-404; Engelbert R6ntgen,
versity of Iowa Studies in Psychology of "Einiges ilber Theorie und Praxis in musi-
Music, IV (1936), pp. 232-250; Arnold Small, kalischen Dingen," Vierteljahrschrift f. Musik-
"An Objective Analysis of Artistic Violin wissenschaft, Bd. 9 (1893), pp. 365-380; Cornu
Performance," ibid., pp. 172-231. and Mercadier, series cited in n. 22 above, t.
23 J. Murray Barbour, "Bach and The Art 76 (1873), pp. 43I-434.
I04 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
encies. Finally, it is vveil recognized25 and minor thirds in mixed succes-
in finer detail that intonation prac- sions29 and thus proved unwittingly
tice does not simply match Pythago- that the unparalleled beauty of the
rean values but also is variable in ac- just minor third is correct only for
cordance with musical context, as the dissonant augmented second and
Aristoxenos predicts in a principle of that the equally unearthly consonant
latitude. Instructive is a summary of value of the just major third occurs
deviations in cents from the three only for the dissonant diminished
standards of intonat:ion, obtained in fourth.30
analysis of violin performance by The just or "natural consonance"
Paul C. Greene.26 theory is thus contrary to the facts
Among indicatio ns contrary to and to both the Pythagorean and
these conclusions are, first, the hesi- Aristoxenian principles. It arose from
tant declarations by Comu and Mer- a false extension of the Pythagorean
cadier27 that justly intoned major numbers to the point of comprising
triads may be pref erred when iso- wholly incommensurable properties
lated from musical c ontexts, and sim- of a harmonic system in which the
ilar claims by H[elmholtz28 and central fact of the major triad seemed
others. But argumrents along such to require metaphysical justification.
lines are ultimately futile, for with In positive fashion our intonation
the slightest uncertainty over the ac- data show that proper derivatives of
cepted intonation oif the thirds, it is the Pythagorean norms are closely
already proved that they cannot be approximated in musical performance
the automatically pure natural con- and in preferences for listening and
sonances they are cllaimed to be. No that simultaneously the Aristoxenian
such indeterminacy ever appears for ideal of variable magnitudes depend-
the fifth or octave. Second, in par- ent upon collocation and function is
ticular the psycholc)gist Max Meyer achieved. Thus we may say that the
mistakenly tested responses to major Pythagorean norms for intonation
25 Barbour, Cornu ant Mercadier,
describe correctly objective stand-
ards for the measurement and psy-
Greene, Stumpf and M annen,
cited above, n. 22 and 24; Aristoxenos, p. 217; cho-acoustic identification of the
D. Antonio Eximeno, D, il
tbbio sopra saggio terms of musical relations, in pre-
fondamentale pratico di contrappunto del
Reverendissimo Padre IVlaestro Giambattista cisely the same way as they define
Martini (Roma, 1775), pp. 75-86; Charles
Meerens, La Gamme Afusicale, Majeure et
tuningn standards, whereas the Aristo-
Mineure (Bruxelles, i89fo), p.3e Llewelyn xenian principle correctly describes
S. Lloyd, The Musical iEar (London, 1940), the treatment or transformation of
pp. 72-74; Samuel Gard,ner, School of Violin these elementary natural materials
Study (New York, 1939'), P. 5; J. E. Orlow
"tber Tiuschungen des Geh6rs,"Archiv f. , for the purposes of art, operating on
gesamte Psychologie, Bd, 74 (I930), pp. 39I- the much higher level of organized
400.
26 Deviations:
musical systems. The seemingly op-
Int. I. Just E. T. 3. Pythagorean
2. . posed views require each other for
m 2 -6 -I completion, and the conflict between
M 2 [ 9:8] + 1 them is resolved in favor of both.
M 2 [1o:g] +12
_ We are dealing in fact with the
m 3 --o -2
M 3 +lo +3 -I 29 Stumpf and Meyer, cited in n. 24 above,
P 4 o -I o p. 342.
27 Cornu and Mercadii er, t. 68 (I869), 304- 3o Norman Cazden, "Musical Consonance
308 (see n. 22 above). and Dissonance" (unpubl. diss., Harvard Uni-
28 Op. cit., pp. 319-32( 5~~6. ~ versity, I947), pp. 420-423.
PYTHAGORAS AND ARISTOXENOS RECONCILED Io5