No Response<br><br>-
Next as to the music. A song or ode has three parts,--the subject, the
harmony, and the rhythm; of which the two last are dependent upon the
first. As we banished strains of lamentation, so we may now banish the
mixed Lydian harmonies, which are the harmonies of lamentation; and
as our citizens are to be temperate, we may also banish convivial
harmonies, such as the Ionian and pure Lydian. Two remain--the
Dorian and Phrygian, the first for war, the second for peace; the
one expressive of courage, the other of obedience or instruction or
religious feeling. And as we reject varieties of harmony, we shall
also reject the many-stringed, variously-shaped instruments which give
utterance to them, and in particular the flute, which is more complex
than any of them. The lyre and the harp may be permitted in the town,
and the Pan's-pipe in the fields. Thus we have made a purgation of
music, and will now make a purgation of metres. These should be like the
harmonies, simple and suitable to the occasion. There are four notes
of the tetrachord, and there are three ratios of metre, 3/2, 2/2,
2/1, which have all their characteristics, and the feet have different
characteristics as well as the rhythms. But about this you and I must
ask Damon, the great musician, who speaks, if I remember rightly, of a
martial measure as well as of dactylic, trochaic, and iambic rhythms,
which he arranges so as to equalize the syllables with one another,
assigning to each the proper quantity. We only venture to affirm the
general principle that the style is to conform to the subject and the
metre to the style; and that the simplicity and harmony of the soul
should be reflected in them all. This principle of simplicity has to
be learnt by every one in the days of his youth, and may be gathered
anywhere, from the creative and constructive arts, as well as from the
forms of plants and animals.