Note 36 — Chapter IV · THE MUSIC OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS

The statement of Aristotle, that certain low-pitched modes suited the failing voices of old men, is misleading, as it assumes a fixed pitch for the modes, which at least in classic times they had not, and which was not their essential quality. It may be that in Aristotle’s time the ethical conception of modes had been lost and that they had all become practically transposition scales. But the theory advanced by H. S. Macran in ‘Grove’s Dictionary,’ which gives each mode an ‘intrinsic’ pitch character according to the high or low position of its mese, or tonic, is interesting. According to the laws of Greek music, this ‘tonic’ must be the predominating or constantly recurring note in every melody.