Aristides Quintilianus (EN)

Aristides Quintilianus, active probably in the last decades of the 3rd century and at the beginning of 4th century, was a Greek music theorist. There is no detailed information about Aristides’ life. His only known work, the treatise Perí musikḗs (‘on music’), contains references to Neoplatonic views (including those of Plotinus and Porphyry) and a summary of the theory of music derived from the tradition of Aristoxenus. Of the three books of this treatise, the first contains an extensive classification of music and explanations of harmonics (musical tuning system, intervals, systemata, genera, tonoi, melody composition) and rhythm (in terms of metrical feet).

Book 2, devoted to the ethical and educational properties of music, based largely on the views of the Pythagoreans, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, is one of the main sources for understanding ancient musical aesthetics. Book 3, which addresses the problems of music in arithmetic and cosmological terms, shows the influence of Plato, as well as Neoplatonic philosophy and the writings of Aristotle, Theon of Smyrna, and Ptolemy. The views of Aristides Quintilianus were known in Latin Europe through the work De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii by Martianus Capella (4th century).

Literature: H. Abert Die Lehre vom Ethos in der griechischen Musik, Leipzig 1899; H. Potiron Les notations d’Aristide Quintilien et les harmonies dites Platoniciennes, “Revue de Musicologie” XLVII, 1961; H. Vogel Die Enharmonik der Griechen, 2 vols., Düsseldorf 1963; R.P. Winnington-Ingram The First Notational Diagram of Aristides Quintilianus, «Philologus» CXVII, 1973; and Aristides Quintilianus and the Harmonics of M. Bryennius, “Journal of Music Theory” XXVII, 1983; A. Barker Aristides Quintilianus and Constructions in Early Music Theory, “Classical Quarterly” XXXII, 1982; T.J. Mathiesen: Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, London 1999.