ACTA MU S ICO LOGI CA

Mitteilungen der Internationalen Gesellschaft fur Musikwissenschaft

Bulletin de la Societe Internationale de Musicologie

Anno MCMXXXXVIII Vol. XX

The oldest sources of octave and octoechos.

Eric Werner (Cincinnati, U. S. A.)

1.
Before starting on the subject of this paper, I would like to explain, why I
deem this theme of special importance. After all, profound studies about the
octave and the Octoechos have been undertaken by greater scholars, and to
add one or two more details to our knowledge would in no way warrant a full
paper. The main reason, why this matter seems to me to merit most serious
examination, is that it demonstrates clearly the intimate relation between
music, religion, astronomy, and especially the calendar. This interdependence
appears to me a symbol of the truly universal function of music in the life
of antiquity, an universalism, which, unfortunately, wast lost early in the
Middle Ages.

II.
The term octave designates today two entirely different things: (a) the acou-
stic relation between a fundament tone and its first overtone, the mathemati-
cal ratio being 1 : 2. (b) the second meaning of the word octave applies to its
being the eighth, or more correctly expressed, the 7 plus 1 tone of the dia-
tonic scale. Today both functions are perfectly identical, and it would be un-
reasonable to distinguish between them. Yet this identity was, and even is,
not always or everywhere valid. The two functions have a different history
and a different origin. The theoretical conception of the octave 1:2 is generally
ascribed by Pythagoras by Nicomachus, (1) Gaudentius, (2) Jamblichus, (3)

(1) Nicomachus, ch. 6, in v. Jan, Musici Scriptores Graeci, Leipzig 1895, p. 249. Also Heraclides
Ponticus, ibid. p. 53/.
(2) Gaudentius, in v. Jan, op. cit., p. 340.
(3) Jamblichus, in Vita Pythagorae, ed. Kuester, 18, 81.
2 The oldest sources of octave and octoechos

Philolaos, (4) and all of their commentators. According to the legend, Pytha-
goras discovered the relation between music and number in a blacksmith's
shop, where he noticed that a heavy hammer produced a lower tone than a
lighter one. This led him to invent the monochord, by which device he estab-
lished the ratio of the octave and that of most of the other intervals. This in-
tuition was glorified by most of the chroniclers of ancient music.
Yet there exists another, much older version of that famous discovery, which
reaches deep into the realm of mythology. Ancient Phrygian chroniclers tell
us that the great Asian Goddess Rhea Cybele, the Magna Mater or Bona Dea
of the Romans, employed in her service dwarfs, (daktyloi), skilled masters of
all crafts. (5). These gnomes discovered in the rhythm of their hammers and
in the different tone of their anvils the essence of all music, namely the ma-
thematical basis of rhythm and tone. For about twenty years we have had
positive knowledge that Cybele, called Kumbaba, belonged to the ancient
Hittite Pantheon. That goddess of fertility was adored long before the time of
king Hattushilish, the contemporary of King Rammses II. of Egypt. Before that
time, the 13th century B. C., the Hittites had build a mighty empire, which
reached from North-East Mesopotamia down to Egypt. They were a Non-Se-
mitic, probably an Indo-European people, but used the Akkadian cuneiform
script of their neigbors. (6).
The obvious resemblance of the two legends proves that the Pythagorean con-
ception of the relation between music and number is of ancient Asiatic origin.
Heretofore it was considered to be a Mediterranean rather than an Asiatic
legacy, although at least Porphyry must have known the ancient tradition; for
he states that Pythagoras learned the secret of music from the dactyloi. (7).
In passing it may be noted that the legend of the musical gnomes might enable
us to understand better certain rather strange pictures of Sumerian musicians,
who look very much like dwarfs.
The Hittites are memorable in musical history for another, even more impor-
tant reason: to my knowledge they were the first ones who, admittedly in ob-
scure language, alluded to the existence of eight musical modes. My colleague
Prof. Julius Lewy, a renowned Assyriologist, gave me his kind assistance in
deciphering certain cuneiform Hittite texts, in one of which we read:
>Know that if thou offerest hymns to the Gods with the help of little Istar, (a musical
instrument), it is best to do this eightfold< (or in eight ways or hymns). (KBo IV -
KUB XI).

(4) Philolaos, in A. Boeckh's Philolaos des Pythagoreers Lehre etc., Berlin 1819, Fragm. 5.
(5) In Gressmann, Die orientalischen Religionen im hellenistisch-roemischen Zeitalter, p. 59;
cf. also Stith Thompson, Motif Index of Folk Literature III., p. 100, >>Dwarfshave Music<<;
also Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, v. Daeumlinge - Daktyloi; also Strabo, lib. X >Stu-
dium musicum inde coeptum cum Idaei dactyli modulos crepitus et tinnitu aeris ...... in
versisicuum ordinem transtulissent<<.
(6) Cf. E. Benveniste in Melanges Syriens I, (Dussaud volume), p. 250 ff.
(7) Porphyrius, Vita Pythagorae, ch. 17, (English in B. S. Guthrie, Pytagoras - source book,
1919, not fully reliable!)
 The oldest sourcesof octaveand octoechos 3

What does this enigmatic precept indicate? Either to chant one hymn eight
times, or to offer eight hymns to please the Gods. For the present we shall
leave the question unanswered; but we shall later return to it.

III.
What do we know about the octave being the eight tone of the diatonic scale?
The oldest literary source which clearly divides the octave into eight tones,
seems to be Euclid. (8). But it can be safely assumed that long before him the
division of the octave interval into eight tones was familiar to Greek musicians.
It is characteristic that again Pythagoras is accredited with the addition of
the eighth tone to the former heptachord. This statement comes from so many
sources that it merits brief consideration. Nicomachus tells us that Pythagoras
added the eighth string to the lyre, which heretofore had had only seven. (9).
Philolaos also refers to that great invention of the eighth tone (10) and Gau-
dentius does what he usually does: he confirms the prior observations. (11).
With the exception of Euclid, all these remarks are couched in intentionally
obscure, almost mystical language.
Let us remember here again that the acoustic octave was long in existence,
before it was identified with the eighth tone of the scale. This fact emerges
from the frequent references to older scales, such as Terpander's hepta-
chord. (12). While praising the simplicity and economy of Terpander, Plutarch
attempts to explain that Terpander by the omission of one or two tones of
the diatonic scale obtained especially fine results. (13). That sounds very much
as if somebody would say: >>Ido not want to spend so much money; it is not
that I don't have it, but by saving it I'll be able to buy even better things<<.
Nor can we really believe Plutarch's argumentation, since Nicomachus, quoting
Philolaos, a much older witness than Plutarch, terms the old seven-tone scale
as Terpandrian and pre-Pythagorean. (14). There is no doubt that the old
heptachord scale has left traces in the music of Asia and Europe; it occurs,
in a form practically identical with Plutarch's so-called >>Troposspondeiakos<, a
heptatonic scale, in Hebrew, Byzantine, and Gregorian chant. (15). In passing it

(8) Cf. Euclid,Sectio Canonis,in v. Jan, op. cit., p. 165 ff. Also I. Duering,Ptolemaiosund
Porphyriosueber die Musik,Goeteborg,1934,p. 64.
(9) Nicomachus,ch. 5 and 7, in v. Jan, op. cit., p. 244,249.
(10) Philolaos-quotation,in HagiopolitesMS, ed. A. J. Vincent, (Notices et extraits),1847,
p. 270.
(11) Gaudentius,HarmonikeEisagoge,ed. Meibom,p. 14.
(12) Ps. Euclid,Introd.Harm.(Cleonides),ed. Meibom,p. 19; also Ps. AristotleProblemata
XIX, in v. Jan, op. cit., p. 94, probl.32.
(13) Plutarch,De Musica,ch. XIed. Reinach-Weil, p. 74 ff.
(14) Nicomachus.ch. XII, in v. Jan, op. cit., p. 263/4.
(15) Cf. my study>>The Attitudeof the EarlyChurch-fathers to HebrewPsalmody,in Review
of Religion,May 1943,p. 349 ff.
4 The oldest sources of octave and octoechos

should be noted that the Greek term for octave, dia pason, does not say any-
thing about the number of tones which the interval comprises; and it is only
so recent a source as Pseudo-Aristotle, which elucidates the question, whereby
again reference is made to the old 7-tone scale. (16). Our first conclusion, then,
must be that the mathematical ratio of the octave interval 1:2 is an ancient Asia-
tic invention, at least 900 years prior to Pythagoras. The identification of the
octave interval 1:2 with the eighth tone of the diatonic scale seems to have
taken place at the time of Pythagoras or not long before. Now the question
arises: Why had it to be the number eight, which designated the octave? In
other words: why was the interval 1:2 divided into eight unequal steps? The
historic importance of this problem is obvious; for out of this eight-fold di-
vision our present diatonic scale was brought into being.

IV.
It has already been acknowledged by some scholars that purely acoustic reasons
cannot have caused this particular division; pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic
divisions are also in evidence, not to mention the divisions into smaller frac-
tions, as the chromatic scale, the Hindu, Chinese, and other Eastern systems.
We must search for other than acoustic reasons.
To begin with, the number 8 was considered by the Pythagoreans the perfect
number for music; (17) but this bare fact does not explain anything. For it
might be argued that since the acoustic octave was made by Pythagoras the
eighth tone of the scale, it was but natural that his followers should have re-
garded the number 8 as the ideal number in music. Hence, we must look for
essential corroboration in older sources.
Throughout the ancient Near East the 8 holds the significance of the musical
number par excellence. We remember now the enigmatic Hittite injunction,
demanding hymns in the eightfold; moreover, in the three of the four recently
discovered Babylonian tablets with a cuneiform kind of notation - the latest
one I have not seen as yet - the columns are all arranged in 7 plus 1 lines.
For our admired Prof. Sachs this constitutes a special triumph, since today
it is generally accepted by Assyriologists that these tablets represent some
kind of notation, if not exactly that tone-by tone system which Prof. Sachs
originally proposed, later withdrew.
From here on we turn to the Hebrews: one of their psalms bears the super-
scription: ban'ginot 'al hashminit. (18) which is being translated >>onNeginot
upon Sheminit<<,contributing nothing to our understanding of the text. The
usual interpretation, sheminit meaning >>theeigth<<tends to to produce titles
like >>tunesin the octave<<,or >>uponan instrument with eight strings<<,like the

(16) Ps. Aristotle, Probl., in v. Jan, op. cit., p. 94, probl. 32.
(17) Theologoumena Arithmetica, ed. Ast, p. 62, 17-22.
(18) Ps. 6:1.
 The oldest sources of octave and octoechos 5

kithara or lyre; this sounds more acceptable since in another passage mention
is made of >kitharas upon the eighth<<(19), whatiever that means. Neither in-
terpretation is very satisfactory to musicians. But there is an old rabbinic ex-
planation of the passage in question, probably of the 6th cent. C. E., which we
must not disregard. R. Saadya Gaon, the great philosopher of the 9th and 10th
centuries, quoting an older, rabbinic authority in Arabic, writes:
>>This is a hymn of David, in which the regular singers of the Temple were ordered to
praise God in the eighth lahan<<, (the arabic term for mode). He continues: >>theexpression
'al hashminit demonstrates that the Levites used eight modes, so that each time one of their
regular groups executed one mode<<. (20).

A similar remark comes from R. Petachya, (12th cent.) who reports that the
Jews of Baghdad in accordance with the term 'al hashminit used eight modes for
the chanting of the psalms. (21).
That in these cases the number 8 had nothing to do with the octave or the
diatonic scale, is evident from the fact that Arabs and Jews employed a system
of eight rhytmic modes besides the melodic ones; obviously the number eight
was artificially imposed upon the system, since there is no equivalent to the
octave in rhytm. (22). But this is by far not the only occasion, where the
psalms stress the number eight in connection with music.
Ps. 119, an alphabetic acrostich, provides 8 verses for every letter, some of
these eight-line stanzas were sung at the Second Temple. If this fact already
induces us to think of musical modes, the principle of modality is - in a
religious manner - much stronger evident in the ancient commentaries to
Ps. 29. The text of that psalm contains the expression >>TheVoice of God<
seven times. Very early was this understood an allusion to the modes of spheric
harmony. Ibn Latif, a mystically inclined philosopher, writes thus:
>>Thescience of music envisages 8 melodic modes which differ froni each other because
of their expansion and contraction ...... The eighth mode functions as a genus which com-
prehends the other seven modes ...... The Psalmist has alluded to this cryptically by means
of the number 7 in the repetition of the term >>God'sVoice<<...... while the phrase >All say
Glory<< (Ps. 29, 9) refers to the eighth mode which comprises all of the others. I cannot ex-
plain any further<<...... (23). See also Midras' chillirn to Ps. 81.

This kind of mystic-musical emphasis upon the number 8 reached its peak in
the first two centuries of the Christian era, under the aegis of a powerful
gnostic movement, which tried to combine all of the prevailing ideas of Greek

(19) I. Chron. 15, 20.

(20) Saadya's arab. Psalm-commentary, ed. Haneberg, Munich, 1841; also E. Galliner, Saadias
Psalmuebersetzung, p. 22; comprehensively treated in Werner-Sonne, Philosophy and
Theory of Music in Judaeo-Arabic Literature, in Hebrew Union College Annual, vol.
XVI, 1941, p. 295 ff; similar statements by Ibn Latif.
(21) Translation and Text in Literaturblatt des Orients, IV, col. 541, n. 44.
(22) Werner-Sonne, op. cit., Hebrew Union College Annual, vol. XVI, 1941, p. 297 ff.
(23) Ibid., vol. XVII, 1943, p. 552.
6 The oldest sources of octave and octoechos

as well as of Oriental philosophy in one great synthesis. Indeed, the entire

concept of Christian religion may be viewed under this aspect. Of the many
relevant passages only two will be quoted:
1. From the apocryphal acts of St. John's, Christ's hymn to his disciples.
...I would be thought, being wholly thought. Amen.
I would be washed, and I would wash. Amen.
Grace (charis) danceth. I shall pipe: dance ye all. Amen.
I would mourn; lament ye all. Amen.
The number Eight (Ogdoas) singeth praise with us. Amen. (24).

This piece originated in the end of the second century. In it, the Ogdoas has
attained divine significance; but what is its place in the gnostic system? This
is explained about two centuries later in one of the Magic papyri, the so-
called eighth (8) Book of Moses. I quote from it:

>... Stored up in it is the Omnipotent Name, which is the Ogdoas, God, who creates and
anministrates everything ...... Only by oracle may the great Name be invoked, the Ogdoas......
For without Him nothing can be accomplished; keep secret, o disciple, the 8 symbolic vowels
of that Great Name<<. (25).

To our surprise we encounter here the famous gnostic vowels as invocation of

the Ogdoas; these vowels have already provided some interesting clues to early
Christian music, as interpreted by Ruelle, Poir6e, and Gastoue. They are 7 or
8 vowels representing either tones or modes. But even this unexpected supple-
ment does not fully clarify the significance of the Ogdoas for music. The first
definite clue comes from a strictly theologic source: Tertullian, the West-Ro-
man Church-father writes in his polemics against certain gnostic sects:

>>According to them, the Demiurg, (creator) completes the seven heavens, with his owin
throne above all. Hence he had the name of Sabbatum from the hebdomadal nature of his
abode; his mother Achamoth had the title Ogdoada, after the precedent of the primeval Og-
doas<<. (26).

At first this sounds like a wildly synchretistic fantasy; yet it contains two
very ancient conceptions: the seven heavens, above which the Allmighty has
His throne, and the calendaric term Sabbatunm.

'V.

The dependence of this passage on Pythagorean musical-cosmological ideas

and the Semit,e Kalendar is obvious; indeed, the Syrian Pythagorean Nicoma-
chus writes in similar terms substituting >>star<<or >>planet<(for >>heaven<<.

(24) The Apocryphal New Testament, ed. Montague Rh. James, Oxford 1924, p. 253.
(25) Papyrus mag. Leyden W; quoted from A. Dieterich, Abraxas, p. 194.
(26) Tertullian, Contra Valentinianos, in Ante-Nicean Fathers, vol. III, p. 514.
 The oldest sources of octave and octoechos 7

(27). Similar statements are common to most of the Pythagoreans. We are,

however, confronted again with the most important question, why it was the
number 8 which assumed so predominant a place in the musical, theological,
and cosmological ideas of Near Eastern Hellenism. The Arabs were the first
ones to raise this question in blunt terms; but their answer is not fully satisfac-
tory. It says:
>>Eight is the perfect number for Music and Astronomy; their are eight stations of the
moon; five planets, plus sun and moon, and earth; eight modes of music corresponding to
the eight qualities of nature: hot-wet, cold-dry, cold-wet, and hot-dry<<. (28).

Since this source originated in the 9th century, it is burdened with the full
load of Neo-Pythagoreanism, which found many adepts in Arabic literature.
We must go back many centuries if we hope to find pre-Pythagorean explana-
tions. It is precisely here, where the ancient calendar of the Near East provides
the decisive clues; I must beg you to permit me a short excursion in which
to explain its system. As Prof. and Mrs. Lewy have demonstrated in a learned
study, the Assyrians and other ancient nations of Western Asia used ori-
ginally that so-called pentekontad Calendar. Its unit is not the month, but
a period of 7 weeks plus one day, that is, 50 days. Their year consisted of 7
pentekontads (350 days) plus 14 intercalated days. (29). The origin of the
pentekontad calendar rests with the conception of seven seasons and seven
winds. Each wind corresponded to a God, and above them all throned a su-
preme deity, later called by the gnostics the Ogdoas. Again we remember the
Hittite passage referring to eight hymns. As you probably know, remnants of
this calendaric system have survived in both the Jewish and Christian tradition.
The period between Easter and Pentecost is such a pentekontad; and originally
the Lent-period likewise covered 50 days. Of all Christian churches, The East-
Syrian Nestorians have retained most of it: up to the present day they use 4
pentekontades, one for Lent, one after Easter, one after Pentecost, and one
from the first sunday in November until Christmas.
The liturgical Octoechos, composed or redacted by Severus of Antioch at the
end of the 5th century, was nothing but a hymn-book for the eight sundays of
the seven weeks after Pentecost. (30). Baumstark and other prominent Syrian
scholars have proved beyond any peradventure of a doubt that the musical
Octoechos was only an adjustment of eight modes to the eight sundays of the
pentekontade. This happened at the end of the 7th century. To the eight sun-
days of a pentekontad eight modes naturally corresponded, the modes of the
musical Octoechos. of the Eastern and Western Churches, of the Armenians no
less than of the Ethiopians and Hebrews. It is not necessary to repeat here the

(27) Nicomachus, in v. Jan, op. cit., p. 241.

(28) Ikhvan es-Safa, ed. Dieterici, pp. 128-131.
(29) Hildegard and Julius Lewy, The Origin of the Week, in Hebrew Union College Annual,
vol. XVII, 1943, p. 41 f., also p. 46, 47, 99-101.
(30) A. Baumstark, Festbrevier und Kirchenjahr der syrischen Jacobiten, p. 44 f, and p. 26.
8 The oldest sources of octave and octoechos

history of the Octoechos; Baumstark and Jeannin have explored the matter
from the philological as well as from the musical point of view. (31). From all
sources the fact emerges that the Octoechos is but another of the numerous
manifestations, where Liturgy, Calendar, and Music form an inseparable and
millenia-old complex entity. While the old rule prescribes that the eight sun-
days should run the gamut of all the eight modes, no provision was made for a
clear identification of the finales of the musical Octoechos with the eight tones
of the diatonic scale. This development seems to have taken place in the
10th century, probably under Byzantian influence, since the famous Hagiopo-
lites Ms. of the 13th cent. shows already the consequences of that identifica-
tion with the eight species of octaves. At any rate, the pontekontad calendar
solves the riddle of the origin of the eight modes.

VI.
It remains for us only to sketch the development, during which the >>disjecta
membra<, viz. the acoustic octave, the eighth tone of the scale, and the eight
modes were interlaced in the theory of the Middle Ages. Most of the accom-
plishments of ancient culture were lost during the storms and migrations,
which accompanied the collaps of the Roman Empire. What has survived, was
either misunderstood or distorted, and was in most cases falsely provided with
the halo of classic Greek scholarship. Thus we are not surprised to find that the
conception of the octave as the eighth tone was half-forgotten: in the early
West-European theory the hexachord at least for the purposes of Solmization
takes the place of the diatonic eight-tone scale.
Gombosi, in his >>Studiesof early scale-theory<<has correctly pointed out that
>>untilthe 10th century the species of octaves were in no way connected with
the modes of the Church<<.And he continues: >>Notthe range of the octave
constitutes the Church-mode, but its finalis and its relation to the area of
psalmody<<.(32). It is only with Guido, that the octave is again and without
ambiguity thought of as the eighth tone of the scale. In his Micrologues he
terms that eighth tone the octave, (33) and goes on to say: >>Forthere are
seven different tones in music, just as there are seven days in the week<<.(34).
This calendaric comparison is not astounding, since the term octava as eighth
day of the week was perfectly familiar to every member of the Roman clergy
since Augustine. (35). Even before Guido, the cosmological derivation of the

(31) J. C. Jeannin, Melodies Liturgies Syriennes, I. p. 85-94; also Baumstark, op. cit. p. 26,
et passim; idem, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, p. 190, (Paul of Edessa); also Pa-
trologia Orientalis, vol. VI and VII, ed. Brooks.
(32) 0. Gombosi, in Acta Musicologica, X, 1938, p. 155.
(33) Guido Ar., Micrologus, ch. V.
(34) Ibid., ch. VII. >>Nam sicut septem dies sunt in hebdomada, ita septem voces sunt in
musica<.
(35) Augustine, Sermo de Tempore CXI, 1. >>Hodie octavae dicuntur infantium ......>>
 The oldest sources of octave and octoechos 9

number 8 in music was not entirely forgotten: Aurelianus Reomensis links the
number of the modes with astronomical and kalendaric observations. (36).
From Guido on the identity of the acoustic with the eighth tone of the scale
is firmly reestablished; likewise the modes of the Octoechos were arranged in
a diatonic octave. In this scheme the eighth mode always presented the greatest
difficulties. (37).

VII.
Let us now summarize the results of our investigation:
(1) The discovery of the acoustic octave, that is, the ratio 1:2, took place
many centuries before the division of the octave interval into 8 unequal steps.
The relation between tone and number was found probably before the second
millenium B. C. in the Near East.
(2) To the historic or legendary Pythagoras the elements of musico-mathe-
matic science were handed down in Asia Minor or through documents origina-
ting there. Probably before, or at his time, the diatonic octave, the eighth tone
of the scale was superimposed upon the octave-interval, dividing it into 8
tones.
(3) The reasons for this superposition of the number 8 upon the interval 1:2
and the number of modes in antiquity were of kalendaric and liturgic, but not
of musical nature.
(4) These conceptions, which were of decisive influence for the constitution
of the Octoechos and its historic antecedents, originated in the Pentekontad
kalendar of 7 weeks with eight holy days, to which the 8 modes were applied.
(5) At the peak of the hellenistic-Asiatic gnosis the musical 8 attained the
rank of divinity, called Ogdoas. Chants in its honor were to be sung in the
order of the 7 or 8 gnostic vowels.
(6) The application of the 8 to the diatonic scale and the Octoechos were
entirely unrelated to one another. From Euclid's time until the 10th cent. C. E.
the originally identical conception had lost its meaning; it was only by a series
of misunderstandings of the medieval theorists that the diatonic octave-scale
and the 8 Church-modes were linked together again. The identity of the octave.
interval with the eighth tone of the scale, however, has, with century-long in-
terruptions remained intact, and proved to be the backbone of European as
well as of Near Eastern music.
(7) A last question ought to be anticipated: Is it not astounding that a kalen-
daric system should have influenced a musical system so decisively? That ans-
wer is simple: the influence of the calendar did not reach music directly. It
was the liturgy which had to follow the kalendar, as it still does in the Chri-
stian and Jewish ecclesiastical year. Music, being the liturgical art par excel-
lence, could not escape the constant pattern of the liturgy.

(36) Aurel, Reomensis, in Gerbert, Scriptores I., p. 40.

(37) 0. Gombosi, op. cit., p. 168 ff.