The Modes of Ancient Greek Music is D. B. Monro’s scholarly study of the musical system of classical antiquity, focusing on the much-debated question of the Greek modes. Drawing on the surviving theoretical writings, Monro reconstructs how the Greeks understood scales, tunings, and the character of their music.
The book carefully analyses the ancient sources and the relationship between Greek musical theory and later European ideas of mode. Rigorous and learned, it addresses problems that have long puzzled scholars of ancient music. As a careful piece of classical musicology, it remains a significant reference for students of Greek music and of the foundations of Western musical theory.