ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the methods Aristoxenus uses in his studies of the music of the distant past, the tools that he brings to the task and the reasons why he engages in it. The fragments and testimonia that preserve the remains of Aristoxenus' work give clear evidence of his lively interest in the music of the past, and show that he discussed at least some of the earlier composers and compositions in considerable detail. If he did indeed set himself the task of writing musical history, and if he tackled the project in an appropriate way, this treatment of his testimony will be tolerably justifiable. The word is commonly used of people who are not professional musicians, but are people of refined culture, well educated devotees of mousikē in its broadest sense. The technical knowledge displayed by the mousikoi in our passage of the De musica is of quite a different order.
