Ethos and Education in Greek Music

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Bringing together a wealth of material in lucid, coherent form, Warren Anderson seeks to determine how and why Greek writers supposed that music could express and even generate moral qualities of good and evil. Following brief examinations of various Pre-Socratics and of poets from Pindar to Aristophanes, he devotes the heart of his book to separate and extensive discussions of the relevant doctrines of Plato and Aristotle. No previous work in English has covered the fascinating problem of ethos in Greek music in so comprehensive a manner, and none in any language has brought out so clearly the fact that the concept of ethos was subject to transformation in the evolution of Greek thought and musical practice.