Depicting What Cannot Be Heard? A Preliminary Study of Diagrams in Greek Harmonic Theory

Abstract

This paper considers the shape and function of musical diagrams transmitted in ancient musical treatises, focusing on two main types of musical diagrams. The first of them is the canon-diagram. It originates in arithmetical visualization habits, and shows great variety of degrees ranging from a realistic schema of a tool to an abstract mathematical proof. The second object under investigation is the Lambda-shaped diagram, only described in Greek commentaries to the Timaeus, but handed down to us in its graphical version through the Latin tradition well known to Renaissance scholars. These two examples show the strong and interwoven link between theoretical thinking and diagrammatic visualization as a support for abstraction. As one of the quadrivial arts, music’s borrowing from mathematical tools is not surprising; but their application shaped music-theory as a whole and left a long-lasting mark on the perception of ancient Greek music.