Elementa harmonica (Ἁρμονικὰ στοιχεῖα in Greek; Elements of Harmonics in English) is a treatise on the subject of musical scales by Aristoxenus, of which considerable amounts are extant.The work dates to the second half of the 4th century BC. It is the oldest substantially surviving work written on the subject of music theory.
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👉 Elementa harmonica in the context of Aristoxenus
Aristoxenus of Tarentum (Greek: Ἀριστόξενος ὁ Ταραντῖνος; born c. 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher, and a pupil of Aristotle. Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy, ethics and music, have been lost, but one musical treatise, Elements of Harmony (Greek: Ἁρμονικὰ στοιχεῖα; Latin: Elementa harmonica), survives incomplete, as well as some fragments concerning rhythm and meter. The Elements is the chief source of our knowledge of ancient Greek music.
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Elementa harmonica in the context of Octave species
In the musical system of ancient Greece, an octave species (Greek: εἶδος τοῦ διὰ πασῶν, or σχῆμα τοῦ διὰ πασῶν) is a specific sequence of intervals within an octave. In Elementa harmonica, Aristoxenus classifies the species as three different genera, distinguished from each other by the largest intervals in each sequence: the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic genera, whose largest intervals are, respectively, a whole tone, a minor third, and a ditone; quarter tones and semitones complete the tetrachords.
The concept of octave species is very close to tonoi and akin to musical scale and mode, and was invoked in Medieval and Renaissance theory of Gregorian mode and Byzantine Octoechos.