Aristotle

The Poetics Of Aristotle

Where the epic poem makes use only of language, the playing of the lyre implies rhythm and melody. Some poetic forms include a mixture of all the materials for example, the Greek tragic drama included a singing chorus, so music and language were part of the performance. These points also transmit the standard view. Even a recent work argues that translating rhuthmos here as "rhythm" is absurd - the melody already has its own inherent musical rhythm, and the Greek can mean what Plato says it means in Laws. This correctly conveys what dramatic musical creation, the theme of poetics, had in ancient Greece: music, dance, and language. Furthermore, the musical instrument cited in Chapter 1 is not the lyre but the kithara, which was played in the drama while the kithara player was dancing, even if that meant simply walking in a proper manner.