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Aristoxenus of Tarentum (Greek: Ἀριστόξενος ὁ Ταραντῖνος; born c. 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have been lost, but one musical treatise, Elements of Harmony (Greek: Greek: Ἁρμονικὰ στοιχεῖα; Latin: Elementa harmonica), survives incomplete, as well as some fragments concerning rhythm and meter. The Elements is the chief source of our knowledge of ancient Greek music.

Life

Aristoxenus was born at Tarentum (in modern-day Apulia, southern Italy) in Magna Graecia, and was the son of a learned musician named Spintharus (otherwise Mnesias). He learned music from his father, and having then been instructed by Lamprus of Erythrae and Xenophilus the Pythagorean, he finally became a pupil of Aristotle, whom he appears to have rivaled in the variety of his studies.

Overview of his works

His writings were said to have consisted of four hundred and fifty-three books, and dealt with philosophy, ethics and music.

Although his final years were in the Peripatetic school, and he hoped to succeed Aristotle on his death, Aristoxenus was strongly influenced by Pythagoreanism, and was only a follower of Aristotle in so far as Aristotle was a follower of Plato and Pythagoras. Thus, as Gibson tells us: "the various philosophical influences"

Elementa harmonica

In his Elements of Harmony (also Harmonics), Aristoxenus attempted a complete and systematic exposition of music. The first book contains an explanation of the genera of Greek music, and also of their species; this is followed by some general definitions of terms, particularly those of sound, interval, and system. In the second book Aristoxenus divides music into seven parts, which he takes to be: the genera, intervals, sounds, systems, tones or modes, mutations, and melopoeia. The remainder of the work is taken up with a discussion of the many parts of music according to the order which he had himself prescribed.

On rhythmics and metrics

Part of the second book of a work on rhythmics and metrics, Elementa rhythmica, is preserved in medieval manuscript tradition.

Aristoxenus was also the author of a work On the Primary Duration (chronos).

A five-column fragment of a treatise on meter (P. Oxy. 9) was published in Grenfell and Hunt's Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. 1 (1898) and is probably by Aristoxenus.

Other works

The edition of Wehrli presents the surviving evidence for works with the following titles (not including several fragments of uncertain origin):

Life of Pythagoras (Greek: Πυθαγόρου βίος): fr. 11 Wehrli

On Pythagoras and his pupils (Greek: Περὶ Πυθαγόρου καὶ τῶν γνωρίμων αὐτοῦ): fr. 14 Wehrli

On the Pythagorean life (Greek: Περὶ τοῦ Πυθαγορικοῦ βίου): fr. 31 Wehrli

Pythagorean maxims or Pythagorean negations (Greek: Πυθαγορικαὶ ἀποφάσεις): fr. 34 Wehrli

Educational customs or Rules of education (Greek: Παιδευτικοὶ νόμοι): fr. 42–43 Wehrli

Political laws (Greek: Πολιτικοὶ νόμοι): fr. 44–45 Wehrli

Editions and translations

Wehrli, Fritz (1967). Die Schule des Aristoteles, vol. 2: Aristoxenos, 2nd. ed. (Basel/Stuttgart), Greek text (excluding the harmonic fragments, rhythmic fragments, On the Primary Duration, and On tonoi: see p. 28) with commentary in German

Westphal, Rudolf (1883–1893). Aristoxenus von Tarent: Melik und Rhythmik des classischen Hellenenthums, 2 vols. (Leipzig) (vol. 1, vol. 2)

Westphal, Rudolf (1861). Die Fragmente und die Lehrsätze der griechischen Rhythmiker (Leipzig), pp. 26–41, Greek text of Elementa rhythmica and On the Primary Duration (Internet Archive)