The serious puzzles mentioned by Andrew Barker do not concern some remote niche of ancient musical studies; they have partly obscured the significance of what can rightly be called the most practical chapter of ancient music that has come down to us. This may seem perplexing after centuries of almost unbroken interest in the topic, during which many eminent scholars have devoted their genius to elucidating its more difficult aspects. The other faction, that one referred to by R.P. Winnington–Ingram, can only partly be blamed for this: those who have been considering ancient music the convenient playground for original ideas of their own, a field reasonably secure from the danger of refutation by new facts. Admittedly, some unfounded opinions, uttered enthusiastically long ago, still ripple the surface of scholarly discourse; but sober judgement now dominates it.

Even so, how can one hope to add something worthwhile to a discussion that has been based on the ever–same pieces of evidence for such a long time?

Several pitfalls are to be avoided. The most important is that of finding a possible explanation for some aspect of the evidence, and subsequently forcing the rest of it to compliance, or where this proves wholly impossible, disregarding it. We must be especially careful to acknowledge the complexity of a musical culture synchronically and diachronically, its richness in different aspects (cf. Solomon 1984: 242–4). Therefore, this book does not claim to present some new key that unlocks the doors to all secrets.