Delahoyde & Hughes Archaeological evidence and written accounts,
both historical and literary, show that music was vital to
ancient Greek culture. Choruses in the Greek plays were sung,
and music was central to religious and state ceremonies and to
social rituals such as weddings, funerals, banquets, etc. The
Homeric epics were probably "sung to formulaic melodies" (Bonds
4). But memorization was key to performance, not written
notation, so only about 45 pieces of music, mostly fragments,
survive from the time in bits of papyri and marble, and in
documents copied in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Plato
defined song (melos) as the fusion of word, rhythm, and melody;
so Greek music seems to have been monophonic. Indeed "'Ode' and
'song' were virtually synonymous in the Greek world" (Bond 4).
Vocal music was more respected than instrumental because of
notions like Aristotle's that voices are found only in creatures
with souls. The kinds of instruments used by the ancient Greeks
have been identified primarily f