(fl ?4th century ce). Greek writer on music. He was the author of a small musical catechism preserved under the title Introduction to the Art of Music (Eisagōgē technēs mousikēs). The treatise is usually (though not always) followed in the manuscripts by a second distinct treatise but with the same title and author; the second treatise in turn is followed in most (but not all) manuscripts by this epigram:
Of
music, Bacchius the Elder described
the tonoi, tropoi, mele and consonances.
Echoing him, Dionysius writes.
The all-powerful Emperor Constantine
he shows to be a wise lover of the works of art.
For one who, of every wise subject of instruction,
has been seen as discoverer and giver,
it is most unseemly to be a stranger to music.
The epigram, however, is never found with the first treatise of Bacchius when it appears alone (the earliest instance of which is the marginal text in a 13th-century hand in I-Vnm gr.app.cl. VI/3: RISM, B/XI, 270), and even in its earliest appearance with the second treatise (Vnm gr.app.cl. VI/10: RISM, B/XI, 273), the epigram is separated from the text by a large space. When it does appear, the epigram is usually followed by the musical hymns attributed to Mesomedes (2nd century ce). Nevertheless, the epigram has commonly been taken to refer to the second treatise, the attribution of which is accordingly modified (even in some of the manuscripts) to Dionysius and dated to the reign of Constantine the Great (c283337 ce). The epigram could, however, be referring to another emperor of the same name, including the Byzantine Constantine VII Porphyrogennetus (90559 ce), known for his support of classical scholarship. Although Bacchius's floruit has been assumed to be contemporary with Dionysius, this cannot be demonstrated on any grounds. In the end, the epigram is of no use in dating either treatise.
The first treatise, written as a series of simple questions and answers, presents a mixture of definitions and theories that cannot be assigned exclusively to any one school. The first 88 questions deal with definitions of common terms and concepts in harmonics; questions 89101 deal with definitions in rhythmics. Some of the answers (11, 1318, 2934 and 3842) make use of musical notation, recognizable from the tables of Alypius. Nothing in the treatise is completely new, but several of the answers, especially in the section on rhythmics, provide useful clarification or confirmation of other sources. The unassuming character and routine content and style of the treatise suggest a date no earlier than the 4th century ce. Parts of the first treatise are also preserved in an untitled anecdoton surviving in seven manuscripts, including one of the 11th century (D-HEu Palat.gr.281: RISM, B/XI, 14).
The second treatise, written in prose, remarks on the inability of the senses (sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing) to make consistent quantitative discriminations, and for this reason musicians must turn to the canon for precise measurements. Most of this appears verbatim, but without attribution, in Bryennius's Harmonics (ii.6). The second treatise concludes with eight theorems demonstrating the proportions for the consonant octave, 5th, 4th, 12th and 15th; the dissonant 11th; the tone; and the impossibility of dividing the tone into two equal parts. In approach, style and content, the second treatise is entirely different from the first, and its attribution to Bacchius in some of the manuscripts is simply due to the inadvertent connection of the end-title of the first treatise with the beginning of the second.
The treatise of Bacchius was used by later writers, including Manuel Bryennius, Franchinus Gaffurius, Giorgio Valla, Francisco de Salinas, Girolamo Mei, Marin Mersenne (who published the first edition in 1623 and a translation in 1627) and others. Meibom included the treatise in his collection of 1652, but Jan's editions presented the first detailed study of the text. The second treatise was first published (under the name of Bacchius) by Bellermann.
M. Meibom, ed. and trans.: Bacchii senioris introductio artis musicae, Antiquae musicae auctores septem (Amsterdam, 1652/R), i [separately paginated; with parallel Lat. trans.]
J.F. Bellermann, ed.: Eisagōgē technēs mousikēs Bakcheiou tou gerontos, Anonymi scriptio de musica (Berlin, 1841), 1018
A.J.H. Vincent, trans.: Introduction ΰ l'art musical par Bacchius l'ancien, Notice sur divers manuscrits grecs relatifs ΰ la musique, avec une traduction franηaise et des commentaires (Paris, 1847), 6472
K. von Jan, ed. and trans.: Die Eisagoge des Bacchius (Strasbourg, 189091)
K. von Jan, ed.: Bacchii gerontis isagoge, Musici scriptores graeci (Leipzig, 1895/R), 283316
C.E. Ruelle, trans.: Alypius et Gaudence Bacchius l'Ancien (Paris, 1895)
O. Steinmayer, trans.: Bacchius Geron's Introduction to the Art of Music, JMT, xxix (1985), 27198
L. Zanoncelli, ed. and trans.: Bacchio il vecchio: Introduzione all'arte musicale, La manualistica musicale greca (Milan, 1990), 245304 [incl. commentary]
J.F. Bellermann, ed.: Die Hymnen des Dionysius und Mesomedes (Berlin, 1840)
G. Hermann: De hymnis Dionysii et Mesomedis, Opuscula, viii, ed. T. Fritzsche (Leipzig, 1877/R), 34352
J. Solomon: Ekbole and Eklusis in the Musical Treatise of Bacchius, Symbolae osloenses, lv (1980), 11126
T.J. Mathiesen: Ancient Greek Music Theory: a Catalogue Raisonnι of Manuscripts, RISM, B/XI (1988)
T.J. Mathiesen: Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Lincoln, NE, 1999), 58393
THOMAS J. MATHIESEN