Aristoxenus (Greek: Ἀριστόξενος) of Tarentum (4th century BC) was a Greek peripatetic philosopher, and writer on music and rhythm. Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, southern Italy. ... The 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 301 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. ... Peripatetic means wandering. The Peripatetics were a school of philosophy in ancient Greece. ...

He was taught first by his father Spintharus, a pupil of Socrates, and later by the Pythagoreans, Lamprus of Erythrae and Xenophilus, from whom he learned the theory of music. Finally he studied under Aristotle at Athens, and was deeply annoyed, it is said, when Theophrastus was appointed head of the school on Aristotle's death. This page is about the Classical Greek philosopher. ... Pythagoras of Samos (Greek: ; between 580 and 572 BC–between 500 and 490 BC) was an Ionian (Greek) philosopher[1] and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. ... For other uses, see Aristotle (disambiguation). ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... Theophrastus (Greek Θεόφραστος, 370 — about 285 BC), a native of Eressos in Lesbos, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. ...

His writings, said to have numbered four hundred and fifty-three, were in the style of Aristotle, and dealt with philosophy, ethics and music. The empirical tendency of his thought is shown in his theory that the soul is related to the body as harmony to the parts of a musical instrument. We have no evidence as to the method by which he induced this theory (cf. Theodor Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, Eng. trans. 1905, vol. iii. p. 43). For other uses, see Philosophy (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Ethics (disambiguation). ... Theodor Gomperz (March 29, 1832 - August 29, 1912), German philosopher and classical scholar, was born at Brünn. ...

In music he held that the notes of the scale are to be judged, not as the Pythagoreans held, by mathematical ratio, but by the ear. The only work of his that has come down to us is the three books of the Elements of Harmony, an incomplete musical treatise. Grenfell and Hunt's Oxyrhynchus Papyri (vol. i., 1898) contains a five-column fragment of a treatise on metre; probably this treatise of Aristoxenus.

Vitruvius in De architectura Book V Chapter IV paraphases the writings of Aristoxenus on music. Translated by Morris H. Morgan, Ph.D, LL.D. Late Professor of Classical Philology in Harvard University. The full text of this translation is available from the Project Gutenberg^[1] Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born ca. ... De architectūra (Latin: On architecture) was a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus. ... Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

1. ^ "Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius"

Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

Further reading

• Winnington-Ingram, R.P. (1970). "Aristoxenus". Dictionary of Scientific Biography 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 281-283. ISBN 0684101149.