ON THE HISTORY OF PERCEPTION OF TIME: ARISTOXENUS ABOUT RHYTHM
E.A. Afonasin1,2
1Institute of philosophy and law SB RAS, Novosibirsk
2Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk
Keywords: ancient music, temporal duration, rhythmical patterns, composition, foot, ancient medicine, Herophilus, harmonious pulse
Abstract
Rhythmical phenomena are very widespread: «rhythm is applied to bodies that do not move, as when we speak of a statue having “good rhythm”, to anything that moves, as when we speak of someone walking with “good rhythm”… in general rhythm is perceived by three senses, which are these: sight, as in dancing; hearing, as in melody; and touch, by which we perceive, for instance, the pulsations of the arteries» (Aristides Quintilianus, De Musica 1.13, Barker’s translation). In his Elementa Rhythmica, the Peripatetic philosopher Aristoxenus (the 4th century BCE) builds a general and quite abstract theory of rhythm, treating it as a phenomenon, quite distinct from metre and musical intervals. Indeed, the latter are perceived as quantifiers, inherent characteristics of verse and melody. On the contrary, rhythm does not inhere in a poem or musical composition and must be imposed on them: in order to perform a piece of poetry or music, especially if they involve a bodily movement, dance, one has to apply quite an empirical art of rhythmical composition (rhythmopoiia), which allows to structure fluid and unstable temporal events. In the paper, the author offers a translation of the Elementa Rhythmica into Russian and, commenting on it, adduces contemporary evidence for the psychological aspects of time perception and structuring of spatial and temporal patterns.
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