Excerpt from The Conservatory Bi-Monthly, Vol. 1
As it was with the Greeks, so it was with the Romans, the gradual decay of the tonal art but foretold the gradual decay of the nation. Aristotle is credited with the saying that "an art having for its object the mere display of digital skill and sensuous attraction was unbecoming to the dignity of man, and fit only for slaves," and to this very sentiment may be ascribed the cause which prompted the Roman Senate to expunge music from the curriculum of education, for it was argued that an art which was practised by the despised classes of society was not befitting to the training of patricians. With the Greeks, music was held in high esteem by the State, it was also one of the most important subjects in the education of youth; with the Romans, on the other hand, music was cultivated only to the extent of affording pleasure to the ear, and it is not a matter of surprise, therefore, that it finally became the handmaid of luxurious and licentious enjoyment.
The chief writers on the theory and practice of music were Vitruvius, Macrobius and Boethius. Though based upon that of the Greeks, the Roman system of scales was to a certain extent independent, for example, the major third, which had been hitherto regarded and treated as a dissonance, was, about the year 50 A.D., introduced and regarded as a consonance. This scale may, therefore, be said to be the immediate precursor of the modern major diatonic scale.
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