The Contest between Apollo and Marysas.

Ancient Greek frieze after Baumeister.

The Asiatic form of kithara became popular throughout Greece as a consequence of the work of Terpander’s school and attained the leading rank as the Greek concert instrument, employed by professional players exclusively, while the primitive lyre was relegated to the use of amateurs and domestic purposes. With its full complement of strings music in all the modes could be played upon it without especially tuning the individual strings. The relative pitch of the string was based on the Dorian mode in the middle octave (e to e´), but for greater brilliancy of effect virtuosi preferred the higher transpositions, so that finally the instrument was accordingly tuned as follows:

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By special technical practice the higher octave (flageolet) could also be produced. The manner of playing was probably as follows: The left arm held the instrument close to the body by means of a sling, while the right, by means of a plectrum with arrow-shaped ends, plucked the strings from the outside. This left the fingers of the left hand free to touch the strings from the body side. It is thought that this was done as accompaniment (in unison) to the voice, while the right played the solo selections, interludes, etc.

Most prominent among other forms of string instruments was the magadis, a larger harp-like instrument with twenty strings, which was played without plectrum, and, if we read ancient writers correctly, in octaves.[42] Likewise the barbiton (similar to the kithara), the harp-like pectis, simikion, and epigoneion, and the lute-like pandura and nabla (of archaic origin), were played without plectrum, as indeed the lyre and kithara were also played in earliest times. The harp, though known to the Greeks, was not used by them. There only remains to mention the monochord, an instrument of one string stretched over a soundbox, which could be arbitrarily divided by a movable ‘bridge.’ It was used purely for experimental purposes, as we have already seen. Later it was constructed with several strings in order to demonstrate the consonance of intervals; in modern times it became the basis from which the clavichord, and finally the piano, was evolved.

The chief Greek wind instrument, as already indicated, was the aulos, or flute—not, however, a flute in the modern sense, but a reed instrument resembling an oboe, and having a double reed. It was often used in pairs, of equal intonation, but of different size, the larger instrument playing the soli, the smaller the accompaniment. The aulos had as many as fifteen or sixteen holes, but not sufficient to produce all the chromatic degrees of the scale, which, as well as the different genera, were produced by half stops and similar technical manipulations. There were also rings attached near the holes, by the turning of which the pitch could be altered. Overblowing was also practised, by means of a small hole (syrinx) near the mouthpiece. There was a whole family of auloi corresponding to the varying ranges of the human voice. The entire compass from the lowest note of the bass aulos to the highest of the soprano was three octaves. It is recorded that auloi were tuned differently according to the various modes, and that players were usually equipped with an entire set of seven.