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37-527: Located on Córdoba Avenue and two blocks north of Buenos Aires' renowned opera house , the Colón Theatre , the Cervantes houses three performance halls. The María Guerrero Salon is the theatre's main hall. Its 456 m (4,900 ft) stage features a 12 m (39 ft) rotating circular platform and can be extended by a further 2.7 m (9 ft). The Guerrero Salon can seat 860 spectators, including 512 in

74-450: A complete and systematic exposition of music . The first book contains an explanation of the genera of Greek music , and also of their species ; this is followed by some general definitions of terms, particularly those of sound , interval , and system . In the second book Aristoxenus divides music into seven parts, which he takes to be: the genera, intervals, sounds, systems, tones or modes, mutations, and melopoeia . The remainder of

111-405: A religious nature found a special place in the mystery plays performed on cathedral squares. As before, they dealt with sacred subjects, but they were not about worship per se. Secular musical theater also existed, but had a more popular and intimate aspect (see, for example, Adam de la Halle 's Jeu de Robin et Marion ("Play of Robin and Marion"), in the 13th century). At the beginning of

148-413: A simplistic system of harmony resembling that of modern twelve tone theory, and especially not an equally tempered system. As he urges us to consider, "(a)fter all, with which of the people who argue about the shades of the genera should one agree? Not everyone looks to the same division when tuning the chromatic or the enharmonic , so why should the note a ditone from mesé be called lichanos rather than

185-440: A small amount higher?" It is sometimes claimed that the nature of Aristoxenus' scales and genera deviated sharply from his predecessors. That Aristoxenus used a model for creating scales based upon the notion of a topos, or range of pitch location, is fact, but there is no reason to believe that he alone set this precedent as he himself does not make this claim. Indeed, the idea of unfixed pitch locations that cover certain ranges,

222-512: A tone can be divided into three equal parts in a melody. They made this mistake because they did not realise that it is one thing to employ the third part of a tone, and another to divide a tone into three parts and sing all three. Secondly we accept that from a purely abstract point of view there is no least interval." In book three Aristoxenus goes on to describe twenty eight laws of melodic succession , which are of great interest to those concerned with classical Greek melodic structure. Part of

259-414: Is a theater building used for performances of opera . Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage , an orchestra pit , audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institution's administration. While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other opera houses are part of larger performing arts centers. Indeed, the term opera house

296-420: Is by the study of instruments that we attain this knowledge;" this, he wrote, is talking wildly, "for just as it is not necessary for him who writes an Iambic to attend to the arithmetical proportions of the feet of which it is composed, so it is not necessary for him who writes a Phrygian song to attend to the ratios of the sounds proper thereto." However, this should not be construed as meaning that he postulated

333-457: Is often used as a term of prestige for any large performing arts center. Based on Aristoxenus 's musical system, and paying homage to the architects of ancient Greek theater , Vitruvius described, in the 1st century BC, in his treatise De architectura , the ideal acoustics of theaters. He explained the use of brazen vases that Mummius had brought to Rome after having had the theater of Corinth demolished, and as they were probably used in

370-551: Is the chief source of our knowledge of ancient Greek music . Aristoxenus was born at Tarentum (in modern-day Apulia , southern Italy) in Magna Graecia , and was the son of a learned musician named Spintharus (otherwise Mnesias). He learned music from his father, and having then been instructed by Lamprus of Erythrae and Xenophilus the Pythagorean , he finally became a pupil of Aristotle , whom he appears to have rivaled in

407-521: Is the three books of the Elements of Harmony , an incomplete musical treatise. Aristoxenus' theory had an empirical tendency; in music he held that the notes of the scale are to be judged, not as earlier Pythagoreans had believed, by mathematical ratio, but by the ear. Vitruvius in his De architectura paraphrases the writings of Aristoxenus on music. His ideas were responded to and developed by some later theorists such as Archestratus , and his place in

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444-516: The Opernhaus vorm Salztor in Naumburg in 1701. With the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to a publicly supported system. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, and vaudeville shows as well as operas and other musical events. In

481-568: The Teatro Odeón , her adaptations of classics in Spanish literature took her to theatres nationwide. Following the opening of a number of large, ornate opera houses and stage theatres in Argentina, Guerrero and her husband, Fernando Díaz de Mendoza, set aside a share of their fortune in 1918 for the creation of their own grand theatre house. The project caught the attention of both local high society and

518-556: The Theater of Dionysus in Athens was, according to the Suda , intended for the rehearsal of music that was to be sung in the grand theater or, according to Plutarch , for the jury to audition musicians competing for a prize. Ancient theaters provided the ideal conditions, but it was not yet time for opera: the aim was to worship the deities, not to venerate the muses . The subject was religious, it

555-488: The Theater of Pompey . As wooden theaters were naturally sonorous, these vases, placed between the seats on the stands, served as resonators in the stone buildings: "By means of this arrangement, the voice, which will come from the stage as from a center, will extend in circles, will strike in the cavities of the vases, and will be made stronger and clearer, according to the relationship of consonance that it will have with one of these vases." The odeon built by Pericles near

592-656: The 17th and 18th centuries, opera houses were often financed by rulers, nobles, and wealthy people who used patronage of the arts to endorse their political ambition and social position. There was no opera house in London when Henry Purcell was composing and the first opera house in Germany, the Oper am Gänsemarkt , was built in Hamburg in 1678, followed by the Oper am Brühl in Leipzig in 1693, and

629-857: The 17th century, in Italy, singing underwent yet another renewal, with the emergence of Baroque art at the height of the Renaissance . Italy continues to have many working opera houses, such as the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (the biggest in the country), the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan . The Teatro San Cassiano in Venice was the world's first public opera house, inaugurated as such in 1637. In

666-483: The 2000s, most opera and theatre companies are supported by funds from a combination of government and institutional grants , ticket sales, and private donations. In the 19th-century United States, many theaters were given the name "opera house", even ones where opera was seldom if ever performed. Opera was viewed as a more respectable art form than theater ; calling a local theater an "opera house" therefore served to elevate it and overcome objections from those who found

703-590: The King of Spain , Alfonso XIII , who collaborated with its construction by commissioning artisanal fixtures, material and elements of stagecraft for the theatre, built accordingly in Spanish baroque style and named in honor of Spain's legendary novelist and dramatist, Miguel de Cervantes . The Cervantes Theatre was inaugurated on September 5, 1921, with a production of Lope de Vega 's La dama boba ( The Foolish Lady ). The proliferation of theatres in Buenos Aires and

740-564: The National Stage Theatre at the ailing Cervantes. The theatre also became home of the National Comedy Theatre in 1933. A massive fire in 1961 nearly destroyed the Cervantes, a misfortune leading to the aging house's extensive modernization, including the construction of a 17-story annex. The main hall itself was rebuilt according to its original specifications and the renovated institution reopened in 1968. Tireless advocacy on

777-413: The advent of the radio in Argentina soon eroded the Cervantes' audience base, however, and in 1926, the couple was forced to auction the institution. Lamenting this turn of events, National Music Conservatory Assistant Director Enrique García Velloso persuaded President Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear , whose wife, Regina Pacini , had been an opera chanteuse and was an avid patroness of the arts, to create

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814-527: The galleries. A secondary hall, the Orestes Caviglia Salon, can seat 150 and is mostly reserved for chamber music concerts. The Luisa Vehíl Salon is a multipurpose room known for its extensive gold leaf decor. The Cervantes Theatre of Buenos Aires owes its existence, in part, to the 1897 relocation to Argentina of Spanish theatre producer María Guerrero and her company, who popularized professional stage theatre in Argentina. A commercial success at

851-528: The greatest respect. Nothing is known of his life after the time of Aristotle's departure, apart from a comment in Elementa Harmonica concerning his works. His writings were said to have consisted of four hundred and fifty-three books, and dealt with philosophy , ethics and music . Although his final years were in the Peripatetic school , and he hoped to succeed Aristotle on his death, Aristoxenus

888-547: The influence of his father: The second important influence on Aristoxenos' development was Pythagoreanism : Born in Tarentum , the city in which both Archytas and Philolaos had lived, it can be seen that the extended period of time that Aristoxenus spent in a Pythagorean environment made an indelible impact on the subject matter of his writings. Such titles as "Pythagorou bios", "Peri Pythaorou kai ton guorimon autou" and "Peri tou Pythagorikou biou" indicate Aristoxenus' interest in

925-408: The limits of which may be defined by fixed points, is a notion that was popular until the modern fixation upon fixed pitch systems, as is indicated by Baroque theoretical systems of pitch and intonation. Another way of stating this, however perhaps less accurate, is that instead of using discrete ratios to place intervals, he used continuously variable quantities. The postulation that this resulted in

962-560: The methodological debate between rationalists and empiricists was commented upon by such writers as Ptolemais of Cyrene . The Pythagorean theory that the soul is a 'harmony' of the four elements composing the body, and therefore mortal ("nothing at all," in the words of Cicero ), was ascribed to Aristoxenus (fr. 118–121 Wehrli) and Dicaearchus . This theory is comparable to the one offered by Simmias in Plato's Phaedo . In his Elements of Harmony (also Harmonics ), Aristoxenus attempted

999-502: The part of Lito Cruz , stage director, actor and one of the best-known figures in Argentine cinema and theatre , led to Congressional passage of a National Theatre Law in 1997, providing yearly subsidies for the art and for the designation of the Cervantes itself as an official entity. 34°35′56″S 58°23′1.7″W  /  34.59889°S 58.383806°W  / -34.59889; -58.383806 Opera house An opera house

1036-532: The second book of a work on rhythmics and metrics, Elementa rhythmica , is preserved in medieval manuscript tradition. Aristoxenus was also the author of a work On the Primary Duration ( chronos ). A five-column fragment of a treatise on meter ( P. Oxy. 9 ) was published in Grenfell and Hunt 's Oxyrhynchus Papyri , vol. 1 (1898) and is probably by Aristoxenus. "2687" . The edition of Wehrli presents

1073-605: The society. Furthermore, his works on education show evidence of Pythagorean influence, particularly in their tendency towards conservatism. Most importantly, speculation on the structure of music had its origin in a Pythagorean environment. Its focus was on the numerical relationship between notes and, at its furthest stretch, developed into a comparison between musical, mathematical and cosmological structures. However, Aristoxenus disagreed with earlier Pythagorean musical theory in several respects, building on their work with ideas of his own. The only work of his that has come down to us

1110-432: The structuring of his tetrachords and the resulting scales having 'other' qualities of consonance is one that can only be accounted for by the recourse to often repeated inconsistencies amongst his interpreters and modern confirmation bias in favour of simplified twelve tone theories. Aristoxenus himself held that "... two things must not be overlooked: First, that many people have mistakenly supposed us to be saying that

1147-546: The theater morally objectionable. Notes Sources Aristoxenus Aristoxenus of Tarentum ( Greek : Ἀριστόξενος ὁ Ταραντῖνος ; born c. 375, fl. 335 BC) was a Greek Peripatetic philosopher , and a pupil of Aristotle . Most of his writings, which dealt with philosophy , ethics and music , have been lost, but one musical treatise, Elements of Harmony (Greek: Ἁρμονικὰ στοιχεῖα ; Latin : Elementa harmonica ), survives incomplete, as well as some fragments concerning rhythm and meter . The Elements

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1184-419: The variety of his studies. According to the Suda , he heaped insults on Aristotle after his death, because Aristotle had designated Theophrastus as the next head of the Peripatetic school , a position which Aristoxenus himself had coveted, having achieved great distinction as a pupil of Aristotle. This story is, however, contradicted by Aristocles , who asserts that he only ever mentioned Aristotle with

1221-411: The various genera. In his second book he asserted that "by the hearing we judge of the magnitude of an interval, and by the understanding we consider its many powers." And further he wrote, "that the nature of melody is best discovered by the perception of sense, and is retained by memory; and that there is no other way of arriving at the knowledge of music;" and though, he wrote, "others affirm that it

1258-601: The work is taken up with a discussion of the many parts of music according to the order which he had himself prescribed. While it is often held among modern scholars that Aristoxenus rejected the opinion of the Pythagoreans that arithmetic rules were the ultimate judge of intervals and that in every system there must be found a mathematical coincidence before such a system can be said to be harmonic, Aristoxenus made extensive use of arithmetic terminology, notably to define varieties of semitones and dieses in his descriptions of

1295-694: Was accompanied by singing and instrumental music. Worship was public, and the audience was made up of citizens as well as other categories of the population. Four centuries later, the Church abandoned spectacles as practiced in Antiquity. Histrions , representative of Greco-Roman civilization , gradually disappeared. The Middle Ages saw the abandonment of ancient theaters, which were transformed into gigantic stone quarries , like many other ancient buildings, both public or private. Music still had its place in worship. It continued to bring audiences together, but its content

1332-510: Was completely renewed. The Jeu de Daniel ("Play of Daniel") was a sung play, characteristic of the medieval Renaissance of the 12th century . The subject, taken from the biblical Book of Daniel , deals with Israel's captivity in Babylon . The play was written and performed by students of the Episcopal School of Beauvais , located in northern France. In the 15th century, sung theater of

1369-484: Was strongly influenced by Pythagoreanism , and was only a follower of Aristotle in so far as Aristotle was a follower of Plato and Pythagoras . Thus, as Gibson tells us: "the various philosophical influences" on Aristoxenus included growing up in the profoundly Pythagorean city of Taras (Tarentum), home also of the two Pythagoreans Archytas and Philolaus , and his father's (Pythagorean) musical background, which he inculcated into his son. Gibson tells us that, after

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