The Politics of the “New Music” Tradition in Roman Greece and Warring States China

Roman Greece (circa. 1st c. BCE – 4th c. CE) and Warring States China (5th c. – 3rd c. CE) both saw significant evolutions of their political structures over their histories. Occurring in parallel to these evolutions, however, are observable transitions in musical cultures of these societies as well. While it remains popular to analyze the interrelated dynamics between poetry and political structures (Bessone 2014), attempts to do the same with musical cultures are few and far between (Csapo 2004). Thus, the parallel developments of “New Music” traditions challenging previous modes of “Ancient/Old Music” in Roman Greece and Warring States China is ripe for comparative analysis. This paper examines these musical transitions, and highlights the interlinked nature of political and musical discourse in Greco-Roman and Chinese perspectives. To do so, I will analyze the major textual sources of musical debate in their original social and political contexts. I will examine the nature of social and cultural change in these cases, and how these changes differ and impacted musical evolution and discourse. Lastly, I will examine the impact of “New Music” itself on later musical and political transitions. In Roman Greece, this took the form of writings like Ps. Plutarch’s De musica, which discusses distinctions between ““μοῦσα παλαιά” and “ἀρχαίας μουσικῆς,” compared against “μοῦσαν νεοτευχῆ.” In China, discussions such as that in the Liji 禮記 center around the suitability and appropriateness of “Guyue 古樂[Ancient Music]” as opposed to “Xinyue 新樂 [New Music].” In studying the musical transition from new to old, one highlights cultural distinctiveness in the social and political place of music. On the Greco-Roman side, “New music” traditions were regarded as “Theatre Music” and supported by mass audiences rather than aristocratic patronage in earlier times (Csapo, 2004; Richter 1968). In Early China, for one example, a dialogue between Marquis Wen of Wei (魏文侯) and Zixia (子夏) in the Liji sees traditional music decried as “boring” by the Marquis, with its use mainly pertaining to rituals and ceremonies (Journeau, 2019; Cook 1995). However, Zixia emphasized the political significance of Guyue and criticized Xinyue for ruining the old tradition. Both traditions viewed “New” music as “vulgar,” despite its popularity with the masses, and disliked and criticized mainly by elites and scholars. Despite this similarity, clear cultural differences arise through comparative analysis. Greco-Roman “New Music” was supported by some poets and dramatists in a cultural “movement” that can be seen as “rebellious” and “revolutionary” (Wright 2008); such features are absent from the Early Chinese case. Additionally, Chinese “New Music” was also often described in regional terms, as “the Sound of Zheng and Wey (鄭衛之音, Zhengwei zhiyin),” distinguishing it from the Greco-Roman case where regionality did not factor into the Old/New debates. This allows key insight into the differing valuations of regionality as it pertains to cultural practices outside of political structures and engages comparative analysis of music to build on the growing examination of Greek regionalism (Beck 2020).