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ARISTOXENUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 522 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARISTOXENUS , of See also:

Tarentum (4th See also:century B.C.), a See also:Greek peripatetic philosopher, and writer on See also:music and See also:rhythm. He was taught first by his See also:father Spintharus, a See also:pupil of See also:Socrates, and later by the Pythagoreans, Lamprus of See also:Erythrae and Xenophilus, from whom he learned the theory of music. Finally he studied under See also:Aristotle at See also:Athens, and was deeply annoyed, it is said, when See also:Theophrastus was appointed See also:head of the school on Aristotle's See also:death. His writings, said to have numbered four See also:hundred and fifty-three, were in the See also:style of Aristotle, and dealt with See also:philosophy, See also:ethics and music. The empirical tendency of his thought is shown in his theory that the soul is related to the See also:body as See also:harmony to the parts of a musical See also:instrument. We have no See also:evidence as to the method by which he deduced this theory (cf. T. See also:Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, Eng. trans. 19o5, vol. iii. p. 43). In music he held that the notes of the See also:scale are to be judged, not as the Pythagoreans held, by mathematical ratio, but by the See also:ear. The only See also:work of his that has come down to us is the three books of the Elements of Harmony (pvOµwrcd urorxeia), an incomplete musical See also:treatise.

Grenfell and See also:

Hunt's OxyrhynchusPapyri (vol. i., 1898) contains a five-See also:column fragment of a treatise on See also:metre, probably this treatise of Aristoxenus. The best edition is by See also:Paul Marquard, with See also:German See also:translation and full commentary, See also:Die harmonischen FragmentedesAristoxenus (See also:Berlin, 1868). The fragments are also given in C.W. See also:Muller, Frag. Hist. Graec., ii. 269 sqq.; and R See also:Westphal, Melik and Rhythmik d. klass. Hellenenthums (2nd vol. edited by F. See also:Saran, See also:Leipzig, 1893). Eng. trans. by H. S. Macran (See also:Oxford, 1902).

See also W. L. Mahne, Diatribe de Aristoxeno (See also:

Amsterdam, 1793) ; B. See also:Brill, Aristoxenus' rhythmische and metrische Messungen (1871); R. Westphal, GriechischeRhythmik and Harmonik (Leipzig, 1867); L. Laloy, Aristoxene de Tarente et la musique del'antiquiti(See also:Paris,,904). See See also:PERIPATETICS,See also:PYTHAGORAS (Music) and See also:art. " Greek Music" in See also:Grove's Did. of Music (1904). For the Oxyrhynchus fragment see Classical See also:Review (See also:January 1898), and C. See also:van See also:Jan in See also:Bursian's Jahresbericht, civ. (1901).

End of Article: ARISTOXENUS

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