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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Greek music is the one branch of Greek art which makes no emotional appeal to us at the present day. The specimens which have come down to us are few in number, and with one exception belong to the post-classical period; yet these should be sufficient in quantity for us to form a judgment upon them. There are technical treatises, and the literature of the subject is by no means small. But the fact remains, that though musicians may have some idea of the position of Greek music in the historical development of musical technique, they are utterly unable to assign any aesthetic value to it. Mediaeval music, if it does not stir us profoundly, is to us at least as intelligible as the painting and sculpture of the same period. But to compare the sculptures of the Parthenon with what we know of Greek music seems ridiculous.
1 I have said nothing of the revived Greek music which accompanies the performances at Bradfield, never having had the advantage of hearing it. It is difficult to judge from the reports of other people: but I gather that those to whom it appeals most strongly feel it only as a decorative background, not, as in a modern opera, the most poignant emotional force.