The Influence Of Ancient Greece On Music

Ancient Greece has had one of the biggest influences towards music. The Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus became the original role models to Classical and Romantic genres who have been facing Western cultural history. Most of these techniques and knowledge is still used nowadays with the help of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome who took most of Greece’s knowledge took it to enhance over time. The Greeks had such a broad influence among all other cultures not just in their music but they laid out the basic foundations in Architecture, philosophy, literature, medicine and so much more that we still use in everyday lives. Some terms that we use in music came from the Greek language as well like symphony, chord, chorus and many more. I think that without their help in all the previously stated subjects but especially in music we wouldn’t be as knowledgeable as we are now. The real question is which era has been most affected by the Greeks spectacular influences?

Apollonians known attributes were simplicity, clarity, and expression. Their favored instrument was a boxed shaped body with two arms from three strings to later on improved up to 12 strings, called Kithara. I think Mozart’s’ work reflects some of these attributes, as his work shows clarity in distinguishing peasants and aristocrats in the Opera Don Giovanni. In this same opera we find how expressive his work had been during the Classic period where the character Don Giovanni was a handsome guy and rebelled against society as a womanizer.

Dionysian’s on the other hand, had the more sensuality, emotional, and abandon type of attributes. Their favored instrument would be the aulos it’s a wind instrument. One or two pipes made from wood, cane, or metal. I would compare these types of characteristics to those of Beethoven’s work because of how much he reflected success through human struggle. Which around the Classical era there was much of human struggle towards the people’s individual freedom. Beethoven even dedicated a Symphony to Napoleon because he admired him. To me that shows some emotion and admiration, especially because he withdrew that dedication to him after he was named Consul for life. This is another example on how music was a big part of people’s lives during this age and even up to our current date. Musicians get inspired from everyday objectives and can create an emotion, where people can relate to those events.

Greek society revolves a lot around music and influenced it among the rest of the world. This became a real big widespread when the Roman Empire took over and spread out much of Greece’s beliefs. Among those beliefs is how Greek philosophers thought that music had direct effects on the soul. I think that is still the case nowadays. If we investigate everything we see, everything has music. Everything in social media, TV, ads, Instagram etc. they all have music. Why? You might ask yourself, it’s because there is an impact that music can do without words. It can change perspective and give your perspective. Music is used to persuade into anything, like buying clothes and eating. If you have ever paid attention to the background music played at clothing departments like Guess, Lacoste, and Prada they all have music that will make you feel great about yourself so you can buy more. In restaurants they play music where you can feel comfortable and want to order something a bit more expensive to feel fancy.

Without the help of the Greek’s music that we hear today may have not ended up as they are. The evolvement of music came to unleash what we know about tuning, modes, rhythms, and instruments today. All this also, became possible because of the Roman Empire expanding the everyday music that Greece had applied to everything like science. Pythagoras was a philosopher and mathematician and the first to record the vibratory ratios, which brought us to the series of note that are still used in Western Music. For further composition from the Romans they inherited tones, rhythmic, pitch and duration to have them as principles for composition.

All eras of music took a bit of the Greeks basics, but I still believe that the Classical era took most because of the type of composers it had during the time. Mozart and Beethoven, who are still some of my favorite to listen to on occasion and made a big impact in the composer world, are also major inspiration to the rest of the musicians. The Musicians then up until the present date they remain the best composers all thanks to the Greek’s passion for music.