Hippias (?) Discurse on music

[Zambelis Spyros]

The Hibeh papyri (1906)

Author: Egypt Exploration Fund. Graeco-Roman Branch; Egypt Exploration Society; Grenfell, Bernard P. (Bernard Pyne), 1869-1926; Hunt, Arthur S. (Arthur Surridge), 1871-1934; Turner, E. G. (Eric Gardner), 1911-1983
Volume: pt.1
Subject: Manuscripts, Greek (Papyri)
Publisher: London : Egypt Exploration Fund
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT
Language: English
Call number: AIH-2094
Digitizing sponsor: MSN
Book contributor: Robarts - University of Toronto
Collection: robarts; toronto

http://www.archive.org/details/hibehpapyri01egypuoft.

 

[Zambelis Spyros]

Hibeh musical papyrus.
A papyrus of the period 280–240 bce, discovered at Hibeh in Egypt at the beginning of the 20th century. It contains an anonymous diatribe against those who claim to be harmonicists (harmonikoi) but make random critical comparisons and handle theory haphazardly. They are said to believe that ‘different types of music’ produce different ethical states, including justness. A brief and erratic rebuttal deals exclusively with the genera; it includes the assertion that the enharmonic genus was used throughout performances of tragedy. The self-styled experts are also accused of maintaining that certain types of music (melē) have associations with laurel or with ivy, and even that (?)mimesis in music is obviously excellent. The text breaks off with a phrase about satyrs dancing to aulos accompaniment.
Grenfell and Hunt, following the suggestion of Friedrich Blass, conjectured that Hippias of Elis (later 5th century bce) might be the author, but Crönert and others argued against this attribution. Stylistic criteria suggest that the author was a contemporary of Isocrates (and perhaps a follower) and, taken with other evidence, that the text dates from around 390 bce. Alcidamus has been suggested (by Brancacci, followed by West). In any case, the general position attacked is that of the school of Damon, but the real targets are enthusiasts who went to absurd extremes or were thought to have done so. The theory of ethos ridiculed here is not in every respect Platonic, as the mention of justness and the failure to consider modality show. The doctrine of mimetic excellence reappeared in Plato's late thought as the criterion of ‘rightness’ in music. The arguments are unconvincing and narrowly empirical throughout. As music criticism, the Hibeh discourse is valuable as a vivid comment on the musical scene in Plato's day.
See also Ethos, and Greece, §I.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
B.P. Grenfell and A.S. Hunt, ed. and trans.: The Hibeh Papyri (London, 1906), pt.i, no.13, pp.45–8 [incl. text and trans.]
H. Abert: ‘Ein neuer musikalischer Papyrusfund’, ZIMG, viii (1906–7), 79–83
C.-E. Ruelle: ‘Le papyrus musical de Hibeh’, Revue de philologie, xxxi (1907), 235–40
W. Crönert: ‘Die Hibehrede über die Musik’, Hermes, xliv (1909), 503–21
L. Carpi: ‘Il papiro musicale di Hibeh’, RMI, xx (1913), 487–93 [incl. trans.]
A.J. Janssens: ‘De muziekaesthetische papyrus van Hibeh’, Philologische Studien, xi–xii (1934–5), 90–111
L. Richter: Zur Wissenschaftslehre von der Musik bei Platon und Aristoteles (Berlin, 1961), 40ff
W.D. Anderson: Ethos and Education in Greek Music (Cambridge, MA, 1966), 147ff, 188–9 [incl. trans.]
G. Sörbom: ‘Hibeh-papyrus om musik’, STMf, lxiv (1982), 59–60 [incl. trans.]
A. Barker, ed.: Greek Musical Writings, i: The Musician and his Art (Cambridge, 1984), 183–5
A. Brancacci: ‘Alcidamante e PHibeh 13 “De musica”: musica della retorica e retorica della musica’, Aristoxenica, Menandrea, fragmenta philosophica (Florence, 1988), 61–84 [incl. rev. Gk. text]
M.L. West: ‘Analecta musica’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, xcii (1992), 16–23 [incl. rev. Gk. text]
WARREN ANDERSON/THOMAS J. MATHIESEN

http://www.law-guy.com/dummygod/Entries/S12981.htm

 

[Zambelis Spyros]

''Κακή μουσική εξασκεί πολύ σοβαρή και καταστρεπτική επίδραση στον ατομικό χαρακτήρα και στην ηθική του λαού. Ο Πλούταρχος (Πώς δει τον νέον ποιημάτων ακούειν, 19F-20A) εκφράζει αυτή τη γνώμη: "Μουσική φαύλη και άσματα πονηρά... ακόλαστα ποιούσιν ήθη και βίους ανάνδρους και ανθρώπους τρυφήν και μαλακίαν και γυναικοκρασίαν" (Φαύλη μουσική και πονηρά τραγούδια... δημιουργούν ήθη ακόλαστα και διεφθαρμένες ζωές, και ανθρώπους που αγαπούν τη μαλθακή ζωή (την καλοπέραση), τη νωθρότητα και την υποταγή στις γυναίκες).
Ωστόσο, υπήρξαν, ιδιαίτερα σε νεότερα χρόνια, διαφορετικές απόψεις σχετικά με την ηθική επίδραση της μουσικής, ακόμα και αντίθετες προς τις παραπάνω. Μπορεί να αναφερθεί η "Hibeh" διατριβή πάνω στη μουσική του 5ου/4ου αι. (Hibeh Papyri, 1906· μτφρ. W. Α. Anderson, σσ. 147-149, στο βιβλίο του που αναφέρεται παρακάτω στη βιβλιογραφία) και του Φιλόδημου (ιδιαίτ. βιβλ. Δ', βλ. σσ. 152-176 του Anderson). O Σέξτος Εμπειρικός (περ. 3ος αι. μ.Χ.) είναι ένα άλλο παράδειγμα· στο Προς Μουσικούς βιβλίο του (VI, 19 κέ.) συζητά αυτές τις απόψεις, τις επικρίνει αυστηρά και τις απορρίπτει, και αρνείται μια τέτοια ηθική ή κοινωνική δύναμη στη μουσική.''

W. D. Anderson, Ethos and Education in Greek Musik, Cambridge, Mass. 1966.

http://www.musipedia.gr/

 

[Zambelis Spyros]

The musician and his art -
Andrew Barker - 1989
CHAPTER 12 The Hibeh Papyrus on music1 The date of this short fragment is uncertain. ... These 'theories' turn out to be ones concerned with musical ethos, ...

books.google.com/books?isbn=0521389119...

 

[Zambelis Spyros]

13. HIPPIAS (?), Discourse on Music.
Mummies 69 and 70. Height 15-6 c7n. Circa b.c. 280-240. Plate V (Col. ii.).

Two consecutive and nearly complete columns from an oration or discourse
upon the subject of music, probably the actual commencement of it. The
author is evidently very ancient, for he speaks of the apiiovia or enharmonic
system as still in wide use, whereas by the time of Aristoxenus it had almost
disappeared; cf. Plut. Mtis. 37, Westphal, Metrik der Gi'icchen, i. pp. 420-1.
Blass makes the happy suggestion that the fragment should be attributed to
Hippias of Elis, the contemporary of Socrates, who gives his name to two of
the Platonic dialogues. This sophist was accustomed to discourse in public
on a variety of topics, of which music was one ; cf. Plato, Hipp. Min. 363 C

[...]

of comparison is therefore available ; but the contents of this papyrus, if they
be not by Hippias, represent what he might well have written.

The substance of the two cohmins is an attack upon certain musical
theorists, who attributed to different harmonies and rhythms different moral
effects. This is the view maintained by Plato in the well-known passage of the
Republic 39(S-40o, where some kinds of music are characterized as having
a voluptuous or depressing tendency, and -are therefore to be excluded from the
ideal state. Hippias will have none of this theory, though it cannot be said
that the arguments with which he opposes it are very convincing. He also
ridicules the more extreme lengths to which it was carried by partisans who
professed to express in music the attributes of natural objects, and whose
perceptions would seem to have been even finer than any possessed by the writers
of some of our modern programmes. Perhaps the person principally aimed at
in this diatribe was Damon, the famous Athenian musician and contemporary
of Hippias. Damon seems to have given more attention to the theory than to
the practice of music (cf. II. 7 sqq. below) ; and he was a believer in the effects
of music upon character (Athen. xiv. 62 <S C, Aristid. Quint, ii. 14), and probably
the views of Plato on this subject were to a large extent influenced by his
teaching; cf. Rep. 400 B, and especially 424 C ovha}xov yap Kivovvrat fxovaLKys
TpoTTOL I'lViv ttoXltlkmv voixodv tcov }xtyi(TT(x>v, COS (l)t](Ti re Adijuov Koi eyw TidOofxai. There
is indeed some evidence for the existence of a work on music by Damon in the
form of a speech to the Areopagus {RJicin. Mns. xl. pp. 309 sqq.). The
llcrculaneum fragments of the treatise of Philodemus De Musica, as Dr. Mahafify
reminds us, take the same side in the controversy as Hippias.

The short, broad columns of the text are carefully written in good-sized
uncials of an ordinary type ; the lines show a noticeable irregularity of length.
Punctuation is effected by means of two (in 1. 9 three) dots, which are sometimes
combined with marks resembling a small coronis, e.g. in 1. 13. On the verso
is a good deal of badly damaged cursive writing, probably by more than one
hand and running in contrary directions.


' It has often been an occasion of surprise to me, men of Hellas, that certain persons,
who make displays foreign to their own arts, should pass unobserved. They claim to be
musical, and select and compare different tunes, bestowing indiscriminate blame upon some
and praise upon others. They assert that they ought not to be regarded as harpers and
singers, for these subjects, they say, they concede to others, while their own special province
is the theoretical part. They appear, however, to take no small interest in what they concede
to others, and to speak at random in what they say are their own strong subjects. They
assert that some tunes make us temperate, others wise, others just, others brave, others
cowardly, being unaware that enharmonic melody would no more make its votaries brave
than chromatic will make them cowards. Who is there who does not know that the
Aetolians and Dolopes, and all ihe folk round Thermopylae use a diatonic system of music,
and yet are braver than the tragedians who are regularly accustomed to use the enharmonic
scale .? Therefore enharmonic melody makes men brave no more than chromatic makes them
cowardly. To such lengths of confidence do they go that they waste all their life over strings,
harping far worse than the harpers, singing worse than the singers, making comparisons
worse than the common rhetorician, — doing everything worse than any one else. With
regard to the so-called harmonics, in which, so they say, they have a certain state of
mind, they can give this no articulate expression ; but go into ecstasies, and keeping time
to the rhythm strike the board beneath them in accompaniment to the sounds of the harp.
They are not even ashamed to declare that some tunes will have properties of laurel, and
others of ivy, and also to ask whether . . .'

 

[Zambelis Spyros]

Anderson, Warren D., Ethos and Education in Greek Music: The Evidence of Poetry and Philosophy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, c1966)

H κλασική μονογραφία του Anderson εξετάζει την εκπαιδευτική, ηθική και φιλοσοφική διάσταση της μουσικής των Ελλήνων από τον Πίνδαρο, τον Πλάτωνα και τον Αριστοτέλη έως τον Πάπυρο Hibeh 13 και τον Φιλόδημο. Ο Anderson πρώτος αμφισβήτησε ως υπερβολική τη σημασία που αποδιδόταν στο Δάμωνα, στα πλαίσια της ιστορία της περί ήθους θεωρίας (π.χ. στον Abert, αλλά και στον Lasserre, βλ. τίτλο αρ. 34).

Brancacci, Aldo et al., Aristoxenica, Menandrea Fragmenta, Philosophica, Studi e testi per il Corpus dei Papiri Filosofici Greci e Latini XCI (Firenze: Olschki,1988)

Κριτική έκδοση από τον Luigi Enrico Rossi δύο Αριστοξενικών αποσπασμάτων σε πάπυρο, ενός αρμονικού και ενός μετρικού-ρυθμικού. Πιθανολογείται ότι προέρχονται από το χέρι μεταγενέστερου συγγραφέα, ίσως κάποιου γραμματικού των Ελληνιστικών χρόνων. Στον ίδιο τόμο περιλαμβάνεται η εξαιρετική μελέτη του Πάπυρου Hibeh 13 από τον Aldo Brancacci. ο συγγραφέας αναλύει το περιεχόμενο του αποσπάσματος και αντιπαρατίθεται με την παραδεδομένη χρονολόγηση και συγγραφική του απόδοση στο σοφιστή Ιππία. Με καθόλα πειστικά επιχειρήματα υποστηρίζει ως πιθανότερο συντάκτη του κειμένου το ρήτορα Αλκιδάμαντα , μαθητή του Γοργία, συνομήλικο του Αντισθένη και του Ισοκράτη, ο οποίος έδρασε στην Αθήνα μεταξύ του 390 και του 365 π.Χ.

Grenfell, Bernard et Hunt, Arthur, edd., The Hibeh Papyri Part I (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1906)

Η πρώτη περιγραφή, δημοσίευση και μετάφραση (αγγλ.) του περίφημου παπύρου Hibeh 13 με αποσπάσματα πραγματείας κατά των αρμονικών και της θεωρίας για την ηθική δύναμη της μουσικής. Οι επιμελητές πρότειναν τον Ιππία ως πιθανό συγγραφέα, θέση που αντέκρουσε ο Croenert αντιπροτείνοντας τον νεαρό Ισοκράτη και χρονολογία περί το 390. Πρόσφατα προτάθηκε ο Αλκιδάμας ως πιθανός συγγραφέας (βλ. τίτλο αρ. 11).

http://www.mmb.org.gr/page/default.asp?la=1&id=1684