Greek Music
Greek Gift of Music

Terri McReynolds


Have you ever wondered about where the words "Music", "Rhythm" or "Melody" came from? Where did music come from? What kind of music did the ancient Greek play? Did it have a purpose? Was there a right and wrong kind of music? What kind of instruments did the ancient Greek play? What did they sound like?

First let me tell you a story.


A very long time ago, even for the ancient Greek, there were two gods. Zeus, the all powerful, and Mnemosyne, or Memory. They fell in love and in a short time Memory had nine little girls. (Yes! Nine girls at once!!) Besides being sisters, these girls shared a great love of music and dance. Each one in her own way let her talent shine through. They were so loved by their parents and the human Greeks, that they played all over Greece at parties, festivals and religious celebrations. They soon became known as the MUSES.


As time passed, the nine sisters also became representatives of different sciences too. Though worship of the muses faded, we still remember them by the word, MUSIC. See how the two words are similar? This is true of the words Rhythmos which is now Rhythm (a pattern of beats), and Melos which is now Melody ( a single voice singing or playing).

For More Mythology


Sometimes when several of us sing together or when we play an instrument, we seem to hear pitches (notes) above and around the one we are actually playing or singing. This is called HARMONICS.

The Greeks played a part in the discovery and study of harmonics. One group of people, the Pythagoreans (say: Pith-a-gor-ee-ans) were a collection of math guys who felt that music was orderly and like math. They also felt that music was related to the universe.

A Bit about Ethos

OOOOOOO TRY THIS!!!!!


Have a friend hold an end of a rubber band and you hold the other. Stretch the band, then pluck the band. A sound!! If you shorten the stretched band, is the sound lower or higher?

Now have your friend pinch the center of the stretched rubber band and you pluck the halved band. What happens to the sound now??!! It is 2 times higher than before. This is a rough example of how harmonics work.
More about harmonics

So what kind of music did they sing and what instruments did the ancient Greek play? One question at a time.

The Greeks LOVED to sing and felt that singing was far superior to just instrumental music. Of course, the two together were fine. More than now, music had definite purposes.


The Greeks had music for the gods (their religion) called Hymnos and Dythyrambs (say: dith-ee-rams), Hyporchema (say: hipor-keema), for dance songs, Threnos (say: three-nos) for laments or sad songs and Skolion (say sko-lee-on) for drinking songs.


Remember everything was centered around their religion or cult. The Greeks fell in love, made war with others, sang and played and worked all for their gods.

So what kind of instruments did the ancient Greek play?

This is a picture of an AULOS

An aulos is a wind instrument. It's a lot like a recorder. Some of you may have played one of these instruments. The aulos is the forerunner (like a great, great, great, great, great grandparent) of the recorder. The first aulos came from Phrygia (say: Fridge-ia).* They were considered an instrument of healing.*Over many many years there have been many, many kinds of recorders and other similar wind instruments.


And here is a picture of a Kithara

The kithara is the earliest form of the modern day guitar and other stringed instruments. Again, the Greeks preferred the voice to instruments and although both of these instruments were widely used, their primary purpose was for accompaniment. In other words the Kithara and Aulos were background music for the singer. The singer was then allowed more room to improvise (to make it up as you go along).*

  • More about Musical Instruments


    So with so much music and different kinds of instruments, how did they learn new music or remember it? The unfortunate answer is that there is so little evidence of written music that we must assume that either all the Greeks knew the music, (sort of like we know the song "Happy Birthday") or that almost all music was destroyed.

    "Yeah, yeah, yeah," you say. "So what did the music sound like???

    Well you're going to have to click below and find out.

    NOTE: SOME MUSIC EXAMPLES TAKE A LONG TIME TO DOWNLOAD, ASK YOUR PARENTS OR TEACHER BEFORE DOWNLOADING.

    Greek Music Home Page/Selida tns Ellnvikns Mousikns