ABSTRACT
Aristoxenus' Harmonics embodies both the culmination of several centuries of discussion about the nature of musical sound as well as the establishment of an entirely new method of treating that subject. Furthermore, his innovative conception of the subject as it appears in the Harmonics is not merely a tentative exploration of the possible status of a newly independent science, but appears in his treatise in an advanced stage of development. That is not to say that, even from what is left to us, we cannot see oversights in aspects of its realisation, and its internal structure indicates that it did not spring fully formed from its author's head. Since the sixth-century Pythagorean speculations, and the first book about music written by Lasus of Hermione, 1 there had been continuous discussion on the subject, within and without the Pythagorean school. In the fourth century music was one of the subjects worthy of serious scientific inquiry for Plato and Aristotle. 2 Despite these precursors, as a treatise which aims at a coherent description and explanation of musical structures as an independent science capable of axiomatic exposition, the Harmonics of Aristoxenus has no comparable predecessors; considering this, it is a surprisingly sophisticated work.
