The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

should be themselves taught to sing and
play or not. Clearly there is a considerable difference made in the
character by the actual practice of the art. It is difficult, if
not impossible, for those who do not perform to be good judges of
the performance of others. Besides, children should have something
to do, and the rattle of Archytas, which people give to their
children in order to amuse them and prevent them from breaking
anything in the house, was a capital invention, for a young thing
cannot be quiet. The rattle is a toy suited to the infant mind, and
education is a rattle or toy for children of a larger growth. We
conclude then that they should be taught music in such a way as to
become not only critics but performers.
    The question what is or is not suitable for different ages may
be easily answered; nor is there any difficulty in meeting the
objection of those who say that the study of music is vulgar. We
reply (1) in the first place, that they who are to be judges must
also be performers, and that they should begin to practice early,
although when they are older they may be spared the execution; they
must have learned to appreciate what is good and to delight in it,
thanks to the knowledge which they acquired in their youth. As to
(2) the vulgarizing effect which music is supposed to exercise,
this is a question which we shall have no difficulty in
determining, when we have considered to what extent freemen who are
being trained to political virtue should pursue the art, what
melodies and what rhythms they should be allowed to use, and what
instruments should be employed in teaching them to play; for even
the instrument makes a difference. The answer to the objection
turns upon these distinctions; for it is quite possible that
certain methods of teaching and learning music do really have a
degrading effect. It is evident then that the learning of music
ought not to impede the business of riper years, or to degrade the
body or render it unfit for civil or military training, whether for
bodily exercises at the time or for later studies.
    The right measure will be attained if students of music stop
short of the arts which are practiced in professional contests, and
do not seek to acquire those fantastic marvels of execution which
are now the fashion in such contests, and from these have passed
into education. Let the young practice even such music as we have
prescribed, only until they are able to feel delight in noble
melodies and rhythms, and not merely in that common part of music
in which every slave or child and even some animals find
pleasure.
    From these principles we may also infer what instruments should
be used. The flute, or any other instrument which requires great
skill, as for example the harp, ought not to be admitted into
education, but only such as will make intelligent students of music
or of the other parts of education. Besides, the flute is not an
instrument which is expressive of moral character; it is too
exciting. The proper time for using it is when the performance aims
not at instruction, but at the relief of the passions. And there is
a further objection; the impediment which the flute presents to the
use of the voice detracts from its educational value. The ancients
therefore were right in forbidding the flute to youths and freemen,
although they had once allowed it. For when their wealth gave them
a greater inclination to leisure, and they had loftier notions of
excellence, being also elated with their success, both before and
after the Persian War, with more zeal than discernment they pursued
every kind of knowledge, and so they introduced the flute into
education. At Lacedaemon there was a choragus who led the chorus
with a flute, and at Athens the instrument became so popular that
most freemen could play upon it. The popularity is shown by the
tablet which Thrasippus dedicated when he furnished the chorus to
Ecphantides. Later experience enabled men to judge what was or was
not really conducive to virtue, and they rejected both the flute
and several other old-fashioned instruments, such as the Lydian
harp, the many-stringed lyre, the ‘heptagon,’ ‘triangle,’
‘sambuca,’ the like—which are intended only to give pleasure to the
hearer, and require extraordinary skill of hand. There is a meaning
also in the myth of the ancients, which tells how Athene invented
the flute and then threw it away. It was not a bad idea of theirs,
that the Goddess disliked the instrument