For the people of ancient Greece, music education was as important as philosophy in cultivating young people’s souls. They perceived the disciplines as parts of a whole.
For them, music was the “art of the sounds.” Great philosophers such as Plato and Pythagoras correlated music and philosophy, suggesting that, together, they coordinated the human soul with universal harmony.
Correlating music with the psychological development—the development of psyche—was also a popular belief for most citizens in the Classical period, mostly in Athens. They believed that music was important in formulating moral character, while, at the same time, music had the power to soothe the soul.
In his dialogues, Plato discussed the impact of music in the education of the young. He described music as a divine art that led people to find harmony. Plato was against innovation and deviations from the traditions of the time and discouraged students to mix sounds and avoid multi-harmonious musical scales and instruments.
Plato condemned music that was purely for the pleasure of the audience or for recreation in symposia because he believed this undermined the essence of music.
Aristotle introduced a number of theoretical issues on music. Like Plato, he recognized the importance of music in building the moral character of the youth. He believed that music consisted of universal laws, which formed universal prototypes. Music offered intellectual and aesthetic pleasure to the humans, upgrading their daily lives.
Furthermore, Aristotle believed music had therapeutic qualities in the sense that it cleansed the soul from its passions. Mental emotions were generated by the sounds, which were based on the standardized structures of music.
Practical aspects of music education in ancient Greece
Information on the music education of the ancient Greeks is mostly limited to Athens and Sparta. Throughout Classical antiquity, the education systems of the two powerful city-states used to set the standards for the education of youth in most parts of the Greek world.
Music education in ancient Greece is likely to have begun long before the spread of the alphabet and the general use of writing. The Homeric Epics (8th-7th centuries BC) include various mentions of musicians and other performers. Homer describes Achilles as someone who had been taught music and never neglected practicing it even during times of war.
It is likely that, during early Greek antiquity, education in general and music education in particular, were privileges of the elite. From the Classical period onwards, music was seen as the foundation for educating free citizens. This probably suggests that during the Classical period, music education became more accessible to the youths of the less prominent social strata.
Despite this expansion of music education, there were also young people who could not follow any music lessons due to broader social limitations of the time. In general, learning how to play music was neither feasible nor affordable for a large proportion of Athens’ and Sparta’s populations.
First attestation of music education in ancient Greece
Music education in the ancient Greek world is officially attested for the first time in textual sources of the 6th century BC, which consists of the early Archaic period. Although Athens and Sparta followed different education models, they both had incorporated music into their education systems.
The modern notion of a public education system is probably close to the Spartan model, whereby the schooling and training of children was strictly regulated and supervised by the state. In contrast, Athens had a private education system, whereby parents determined the type of education for their children.
In both city-states, education began at the age of six or seven. Music went along with reading and writing, while physical exercise and sports were compulsory. In that sense, children had three main types of educators: the guitarist (κιθαριστής) who taught music; the grammar teacher (γραμματιστής), who taught language, spelling, writing and reading; and, finally, the children-trainer (παιδοτρίβης), who was tasked with physical education.
Knowledge and fluent use of the Greek alphabet in ancient education was highly important for three reasons. The alphabet was used to record the spoken language of the time and was seen as essential proof of literacy. Secondly, the alphabet was used in mathematics to record numbers and proportional relationships between sums. Thirdly, it was used in music to represent sounds.
Music education in Sparta
In Sparta and the Dorian city-states of Crete, music education was not only connected with schooling but was also of military importance. The Spartans used to conduct their battle maneuvers under the sounds of the aulos (flute), which kept the marching rhythm and used to coordinate movement in the fighting divisions.
It is assumed that music education in Sparta probably aimed to accustom the youths to the sounds of the battle flutes and teach them to coordinate their movements under the flute rhythm. This coordination was partly responsible for the notorious discipline of the Spartan hoplites.
Unlike Sparta, in Athens, the education system was not connected with soldiers and military activities, at least not directly. It was private, and parents paid for it. This meant that orphaned children were less likely to receive proper education. In such cases, the state would pay for the schooling of “the nation’s orphans” who were mostly children of fallen soldiers.
Moreover, also unlike Sparta, Athenian students had the choice to choose between lyre lessons and flute lessons.
The ancient lyre in ancient Greece’s music education scene
The word ‘lyre’ (λύρα) describes a series of stringed musical instruments played with a key. In modern musicology, this category of instruments is described as yoke lutes. Such instruments consist of three parts: a yoke (known as the chordotone), a number of strings attached on the yoke, and a hollow ‘speaker’ right under the strings.
The most common types of ancient Greek lyres were seven: the phorminx, also known as the kitharis; the lyre, which resembled a small harp; the barbitos, also know as chelonα (turtle), which was made of turtle shell; the κithara (guitar), which was in reality a seven-stringed forminx; the aeoric kithara, which was mostly connected with female performers; the harp; and the lute.
The ancient Greek word aulos (Greek: αυλός) translates as flute. Ηowever, the term included a variety of woodwind instruments, which consisted of single or double pipes of equal length, carrying three or four perforations. Ancient Greek flutes were rarely played by a single performer. Most of the time, music was simultaneously played by two performer, who either carried single or double-piped flutes.
Despite the use of flutes in music education, the Athenian aristocrats believed that stringed musical instruments were more suitable for their social status and matched their social position.
This was due to the origins of stringed musical instruments, which were known to be indigenous, as opposed to woodwind musical instruments, which were introduced from Asia Minor together with the cult of Dionysus.
Attic vases depict young men playing lyre or aulos
Significant information on music education in ancient Athens comes from decorative depictions on Attic vases from the Classical period (490/478 – 323 BC). Such representations depict young men attending music classes, offered by adult male instructors. During aulos lessons, students practiced without phorbeia, which was a leather strap worn around the head that fixed the flute on the musician’s lips.
For yoke lute lessons, pottery representations depict students and teachers seated across each other. It is likely that during the lesson, the teacher played a specific tune, which the student had to repeat. In the same representations, students are depicted with seven-stringed guitars, which they played with fingers or a key (plectron).
The lesson was probably empirical, based on the acoustic repetition of the taught material. Music semiotics were most likely not employed in music education for the recording of sounds, although they actually existed. The main advantage of yoke lutes was that they did not occupy the musician’s mouth, which was the case with flutes. This allowed students to simultaneously practice singing and playing the strings.
A decorated vase depicts a music teacher playing kithara and singing, while his student accompanies the performance with his flute. This shows that, in ancient Greek music education, singing was taught together with playing stringed musical instruments.
Music in social and religious activities
Music education in ancient Greece was not only important for cultivating the souls of the city-state’s future citizens but also for preparing and integrating them to social life and religious activities. Cult and other religious activities for adult citizens, which formed the backbone of social unity and cohesion, were directly connected with songs and music.
The hymns to the gods, the paeans, the musical nomoi (nomos in singular), the dithyrambs, the prosodies, the parthenia, and the hyporchemata were songs dedicated to the city-state’s patron gods. They combined singing and music and most likely demanded a generalized level of music education by the citizens in order to enjoy them or even participate in their performance.
In ancient Athens, in particular, music education was meant for adults, as well. The reason was the drama contests, which were an essential element of Athenian social life and regulated by the city-state. All adult Athenian citizens participated in the drama contests either as actors and members of the chorus or as members of the audience at the theater of Dionysus.
The citizens who participated in the chorus learned and rehearsed songs embedded in the plays. Professional musicians played the music and, during their rehearsals, music teachers and choreographers supervised the chorus. Such songs consisted of the choric parts of tragedies and the parabaseis (parabasis in singular) of comedies.
The participation of women in music and dance performances, particularly in relation to official religious events, can be attested by representations of women holding musical instruments in Attic vases. The parthenia were festive chorus songs primarily associated with the cult of Dionysus. They were executed by choruses of young maidens. This suggests that young girls received music education, as well.
The teaching of music to young maidens is also attested by the painted representation on ceramic marital cauldrons. Such pots usually depicted the bride and her female friends playing music with triangular harps and flutes.
Further attestation of participation of women in music education is the House of the Maiden Muses (Greek: Οίκος των Θεραπαινίδων Μουσών), which was directed by the poetess Sappho at the island of Lesbos during the early 6th century BC. The House was a type of boarding school for young females, who were taught to read, write, play music, and sing.
Professional unions for musicians in ancient Greece
The first professional unions for musicians appeared in Athens during the 4th century BC. These were called ‘Commons’ (koina = κοινά), and their members were known as The Artisans of Dionysus. Such unions included guitarists (kitharistes = κιθαριστές), guitar-singers (kitrharodoi = κιθαρωδοί), flute—or aulos—players (auletes = αυλητές), aulos-singers (aulodoi = αυλωδοί), singers (aoidoi = αοιδοί), composers, actors, and poets.
The foundation of Commons resulted in the foundation of private music and drama schools, connected with the members of these unions. Such schools used to teach ‘psalms’ (psalmoi = ψαλμοί), which were compositions for stringed musical instruments played without keys. There was also guitar practice (kitharismoi = κιθαρισμοί) available as were singing, accompanied by guitar-playing (kitharodies = κιθαρωδίες); rhythmography (ρυθμογραφία), which was the composition of rhythms; melography (μελογραφία), which was the composition of melodies; tragedy; and comedy.
Teaching in such schools was done through memorization, with the use of acoustic repetitions. No music texts were used in this type of music education. Teaching manuals with ancient music appeared for the first time during the 3rd century AD towards the end of the Roman era. This suggests that the teaching and transmission of music during the Classical and Hellenistic periods was based solely on the oral tradition.
In ancient Greece, a truly educated man was regarded as a “musical man” (mousikos aner = μουσικός ανήρ). For the ancient Greeks, education could not have been complete unless it included music. Themistocles, who was one of the most important Athenian generals, used to feel disadvantaged due to his incomplete education, as he never learned to properly tune the lyre or use the psalterion.
The importance of music in education is also confirmed by textual sources from the city of Teos in Ionia, where guitarists were reported to have been the best-paid teachers of the Classical period.
[With information from: Neubecker, A.-J., 1986, Music in Ancient Greece, translated by M. Simota-Fidetzi, Athens: Odysseus
Papaoikonomou-Kipourgou, K., 2003, ‘Supplementary features of ancient Greek music’, in Lekkas, D. (ed.) Arts II: Review of Greek Music and Dance, Volume II, Greek Music Praxis: Ancient and Middle Ages, Patra: Greek Open University]