Europe's oldest depictions of musical instruments
and its oldest written music were found in Greece, the
home of antiquity's most famous writers on music: Plato (r. 428—348 ВС),
the founder of Western philosophy, and Aristotle (c. 384—322 ВС), his no
less distinguished pupil. In The Republic, Plato declared:
"Education through music is extraordinarily important because rhythm and
harmony penetrate to the depths of the soul, seize and ennoble it." This
quality would only be brought out of the soul by "good" music:
which was traditional music. In matters of art, Plato
was a conservative: "One should guard against anything novel in music,
otherwise everything will be called into question. Nowhere are the laws
of music broken without the law itself being broken!" The way his
philosophy had it, disordered music produced disordered souls which
produced a disordered society. The serious and sober philosopher
despised the flute above all. To him it epitomised the orgiastic cult of
Dionysus, and was therefore an instrument of evil (there are
"Platonists" today who say the same about Heavy Metal
music). Aristotle agreed with his teacher in principle, but allowed the
flute into his Ideal State, where it would be played only at such
occasions "where listening aims more at cleansing than instructing".
And what did the Etruscans have to do with the flute? It
was some time around the tenth century ВС when this people emigrated
from Turkey to Italy. There they established the first western European
cities in the land to which they gave their name, Tuscany, and to which
they brought Greek music and culture. Yet the Etruscan achievement is
most convincingly attested to by their tombs, some of which are in
superb condition. They are not only Europe's first domed buildings, but
also contain its oldest frescoes. Flute Players is a superb
example of works that were discovered in 1830 in a beautifully decorated
tomb in Tarquinia, one of the largest Etruscan cities, situated about
eighty kilometres north of Rome.
