SCHOLE (Jan 2012)
Aristides Quintilianus. De Musica, II 1–5. Introduction, Russian translation and notes.
Abstract
In his extensive treatise On music Aristides Quintilianus (the late 3rd c. CE, according to Mathiesen 1983) tried to collect everything relevant to the study of musical theory and practice. Although somewhat eclectic, this massive compilation is unique in many respects, both providing us with access to the sources unknown otherwise and offering a unifying and personalized vision of music and musical education in the structure of human society and cosmos. The first book largely deals with the technical side of the Aristoxenian harmonics, rhythmic, and metrics; the most original and well structured second book focuses on the educational and therapeutic value of music, the ethical and emotional (‘male and female’) characters of melody as well as the peculiarities of various musical instruments; while the last third presents a metaphysical outlook, influenced by (Neo-)Pythagorean and Platonic inclinations of the author, and includes the ‘Pythagorean’ number theory (the division of kanon, concordant relations, etc.) and ‘physics’ (presented as a correlation between musical and physical realms, mostly in Platonic terms). The chapters, presented in this study in a new Russian translation, concern the pedagogical aspects of music.
