The Doctrine of Ethos in Greek Music
Thesis statement: The pre-historic Doctrine of Ethos in Greek Music stimulated an immense change in the erstwhile ways of music education and instruction. This doctrine is relevant even in the present world.
The doctrine explored the influence of sound on human behaviour, character, morals, and emotion. The Greek music doctrine prescribed the music into separate bands or scales, which have an immense impact on human conduct, as some conjured feelings of lethargy, joy, mental concentration, happiness, sorrow, rage, and other diverse emotions. The doctrine incited the exploration of sound vibrations on the human condition and new identifications of harmony. This was the beginning of western scales and chord progressions (Anderson, pp.131). The Doctrine of Ethos specifically talked about incorporating non-instrumental components into music and its effect on the mind and soul. The Doctrine of Ethos in Greek music pertains to how music influenced emotion and character among the Greek people through ethics or morals.
Greek music was prearranged into specific bands, each band encompassing a particular facet or characteristic. These clear scales or bars, for that matter, were contemplated to be capable of inspiring sadness or rage. Nevertheless, some scales were said or contemplated to arouse happiness and joy, and the general simplicity of the music weakened the minds of even the foremost Greek music enthusiasts (Anderson, pp.135). The Doctrine of Ethos, when it comes to Greek music, was not only contributory but also instrumental. Greek music mainly combined dance and lyrics. The Greeks studied music to a degree, which would be contemplated as extreme in our current society by all persons except music theorists, musicologists, ethnomusicologists, and a small minority of persons whose passionate love for music is much more than just aesthetic. Unlike the Greek society, our present world is full of scepticism and empiricism; hence the Doctrine of Ethos might seem a little bit difficult to trust or believe.
Be it as it may, Greek music is mystical and magical and contains fundamental elements of truth. Musicians and philosophers have all articulated the significance of Greek music on the soul, mind, and body. Moreover, in his ‘The Mourning Bride’, William Congreve affirmed rather symbolically that Greek music was instrumental in bending a knotted oak, soothing a savage breast, and softening the rocks (Anderson, pp.136). Nonetheless, it is a bit hard to demonstrate the impact of Greek music among individuals or groups of people. Still, it is rather seamless to observe how a person chose genres of Greek music centred on mood. Usually, after listening to most Greek music, it was easy to follow that they did not select a particular song just because it resonated with the prevailing circumstance. Greek music is heard, loud and extremely fast. Greek music had a certain aura of pumping up the adrenaline of Greek music enthusiasts (Anderson, pp.124).