Ancient Greece and Rome laid the foundation for the development of western music, occupied an extremely important position in the history of European music development, had a far-reaching impact on the development of western music and even the world music, and made an indelible contribution to the progress of human music civilization. During this period, musical instruments, drama, poetry and other artistic forms, as well as the formation of music theory and music concept, became the bright treasures of human civilization and had a far-reaching impact on the development of the whole world music culture.
The development of ancient Greek music civilization has experienced nearly a thousand years and created rich cultural heritage. However, due to the backward notation, there are few pieces of music left. At present, there are only about 40 known pieces of music, most of which were formed in the later period. However, the once brilliant ancient Greek music is often displayed from other ancient Greek cultural carriers, such as written records, pottery reliefs, paintings and sculptures. We can all get a glimpse of the mysterious face of ancient Greek music piecemeal, which is enough for us to understand the general outline of ancient Greek music culture and feel the immortal charm of ancient Greek music culture. Ancient Greece was the first country in Europe to create civilization. Before 12 century BC, some areas had changed from primitive society to class society. The ancient Greeks believed in God, but they did not blindly accept God's explanation of the universe. People often held religious activities to worship God, which also provided favorable conditions for the development of ancient Greek music. In addition, there is a special connection between ancient Greek music and mythology. According to Greek mythology, music originated from gods. According to legend, the earliest music creators and practitioners were gods and demigods such as Apollo, Flo and Amphien in Greek mythology. Even the most important musical instruments in ancient Greece, Lira and Aphrodite, were used to worship Apollo, the sun god, and Dionysus, the wine god.
In the 6th-4th century BC, the ancient Greek culture flourished unprecedentedly, the development of ancient Greek music reached its peak, and instrumental music, drama and lyric poetry all reached a high level. Ancient Greek instrumental music was mainly played by stringed instruments and wind instruments. The most representative instruments were lyre and Aphrodite, which can be used for singing accompaniment and poetry singing, and also as solo instruments, among which lyre has a longer history. As a representative of Greek native musical instruments, its modeling is still regarded as a symbol and symbol of music. As the most important form of ancient Greek drama, tragedy is also an important achievement of Greek civilization. It is mainly a musical, which integrates performance, singing, dancing and poetry. The chorus in the play is singing and dancing, and many monologues and even dialogues are expressed by singing. The appearance of tragedy also laid the foundation for the emergence of17th century opera. The development of ancient Greek poetry was also very successful. In ancient Greece, music and poetry were always linked, and poetry was always accompanied by music. Take the famous Homer era as an example. The heroic epic Odyssey is always sung by bards at banquets.
Compared with musical instruments, drama, poetry and other art forms, the greatest and most complete legacy of ancient Greece is its music theory, which has had a realistic impact on western European music. Pythagoras, who made the earliest achievements in music theory in ancient Greece, was not only the earliest music theorist in ancient Greece, but also a philosopher and scientist, and also made great achievements in the research of music technology. He studied music from the angle of mathematics, and thought that music and mathematics were inseparable. Numbers were considered as the key to the whole spiritual world and material world, and music was a pitch and rhythm system dominated by mathematical laws. His views are strongly characterized by rational speculation. Aristo Seenos is another music theorist after Pythagoras. He opposed the idea of determining the sound by numbers, and thought that Pythagoras lacked perceptual practice, but should pay attention to understanding music from actual auditory experience. Whether music is harmonious or not depends on people's hearing. Aristos Seenos expressed his theoretical viewpoint in his theoretical work Elements of Harmony, and discussed the theoretical problems of music in the basic elements of music creation, such as mode, interval and melody.
Compared with Pythagoras and Aristotle, Plato and Aristotle pay more attention to the expression of music when studying music theory. They believe that music has educational function and is an important means to educate people's character. Good music can purify people's minds, while superficial concerts endanger social and personal peace. So, they think music should be YEATION. When educating and governing the country's talents, we should avoid using melodies that express indulgence and suppleness, so we can only keep Dorian mode and Phrygia mode, because Dorian mode is considered to be simple and manly, which makes people quiet, while Phrygia mode has Dionysian spirit, which can stimulate enthusiasm, and they represent two virtues of restraint and courage respectively. From Plato's point of view, music should also be rejected if it contains too many notes, chaotic rhythms, complex scales and instrumental ensembles. Unlike Plato, Aristotle did not have so many restrictions on rhythm and mode. He allowed music to be used for entertainment and enjoyment as well as education.
As a comprehensive art form integrating music, dance and poetry, ancient Greek music is pure and simple, and most of its works are intended to directly reflect the social life and national history of ancient Greeks, without utilitarianism, and attach importance to the secularity and reality of music. At the same time, the ancient Greeks regarded music as a noble accomplishment. In ancient Greece, only outstanding educated people were called "musicians", while clumsy and stingy people were called "non-musicians" or "people without music". Ancient Greece attached great importance to the role of music in social education and used music to educate citizens. As one of the important forms of ancient Greek music, ancient Greek tragedy is regarded as an effective way to publicize and educate the masses, and performances are often directly organized by the government. Thus, music played an important role in the life of ancient Greeks.
In BC 146, ancient Greece was conquered by the heroic ancient Rome. Subsequently, the center of culture moved to ancient Rome, but relying on the cultural wealth of ancient Greece, ancient Rome had an important influence on ancient Roman culture in music, epic, philosophy, architecture and religion. So that later generations said: "Greece was conquered by Roman forces, and Rome was also conquered by Greek thought." When talking about ancient Roman music culture, some scholars even said, "When we talk about ancient Roman music, we mean Greek music developed and practiced in Rome." Therefore, ancient Roman music was formed by absorbing foreign music, especially ancient Greek music. In fact, due to different social development environments, including national character, government functions, economic development and cultural environment, ancient Rome, on the basis of inheriting ancient Greek instrumental music, drama, music theory and music education, combined with national culture and political characteristics, opened up a new space for the development of ancient Greek music in ancient Rome.
First of all, in the use of musical instruments, in order to adapt to the huge Roman legion, loud military music became a unique tradition of ancient Roman music, and bronze musical instruments represented by tuba were very reused, and a large orchestra with hundreds of people appeared. On the function of music art, music is developing towards practicality and entertainment. Unlike ancient Greece, which attached great importance to the educational function of music, the ancient Romans attached great importance to the hedonic function of music. Music can be seen everywhere in military music ceremonies, public occasions, weddings, funerals and family banquets, which plays a very important role in the life of the Romans. In the upper aristocratic families, mastering music is regarded as a symbol of education and wealth. They selected artistic talents from slaves to learn music for their own enjoyment, which also led to the development of music education. At the same time, professional musicians appeared in ancient Rome, who took touring as their profession and were sought after by people in their musical concepts. In ancient Greece, music has lost its artistry and education, and has become a pure entertainment and propaganda tool serving the ruling class, which is extremely inconsistent with the ancient Greek yearning for freshness and restraint of music.
The wheel of history always rolls forward, and music is no exception. On the basis of inheriting the tradition of ancient Greek music, ancient Roman music continues to develop in a new direction, which is a historical necessity. As the source of western music culture, ancient Greek and Roman music has a far-reaching influence on western music. In the development of western music, many artistic forms can be found in ancient Greek and Roman music, such as the influence of ancient Greek tragedy on opera in the17th century, the relationship between modern European major and minor and ancient Greek music mode theory, and the relationship between modern orchestral music and ancient Greek lyre and Aphrodite. All of them are permeated with the elements of ancient Greek and Roman music culture, which fully embodies the influence of ancient Greek and Roman music on the development of western music. It can be said that without the foundation of ancient Greek and Roman music culture, it is difficult to imagine the formation of western music character in the past thousand years.