title: Harmony and Melody: Diatonic Style
author: Elie Siegmeister
description: This book contains an array of musical examples as well as the text.
zlib_text: 	
    
  1 
  The Sounds of Music: Modal Ethos in Problemata 19.48 
  Peter L.P. Simpson 
   
  1. The Problem and a Dubious Solution 
   
  In Pr. 19.48 we read, in Mayhew’s translation,1 the following: 
  Why do choruses in tragedy sing neither in Hypodorian nor in Hypophrygian? Is it because 
  these harmoniai have the least melody, which is most necessary to the chorus? Now the 
  Hypophrygian has a character of action, and this is why in the Geryone the marching out 
  and the arming (episodes) are composed in this manner, while the Hypodorian has a 
  magnificent and steadfast character, and this is why of the harmoniai it is most suited to 
  kithara song. But these (harmoniai) are both inappropriate to the chorus, and more suitable 
  to the (actors) on the stage. For the latter are imitators of heroes; but in the old days the 
  (chorus) leaders alone were heroes, while the people, of whom the chorus consists, were 
  humans. And this is why a mournful and quiet character and melody are appropriate to it; 
  for