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tonos (Greek:a stretching), concept in ancient Greek music probably having to do with the placement of scale patterns at different pitches. For the Greek theorists, the tonoi were double-octave scales built on successive degrees of the scale system basic to Greek musical theory (the Greater Perfect System, comprising two octaves descending from the A above middle C to the second A below).
The prevalent view of modern scholars seems to be that the tonoi function as relative pitch levels that can make concrete for the performer the abstract Greater Perfect System developed by the Greek theorists.
Tonoi are closely connected with the concept of octave species (q.v.), which are scale patterns, or arrangements of intervals. By permitting a transposition of the Greater Perfect System to a higher or lower pitch level, each tonos causes a different octave species to fall within the octave e’—e (E above middle C to the E below), which is important in Greek performance. The names of the tonoi correspond to the names of the octave species that are created between e’ and e when the tonoi are used, In effect a tonos can cause the octave species bearing its name to fall within the e’—e octave.
For example, when the Greater Perfect System is begun on the pitch b’ (rather than a’, as in the abstract), the octave species falling between e’ and e is the Phrygian; hence, the tonos is also Phrygian.
The concept of tonos first appeared in the 4th century ac. Even among Greek theorists the number and correct names of the tonol underwent constant dispute. Aristoxenus (flourished 4th century BC) lists 13; Ptolemy of Alexandria (2nd century AD), 7; other theorists, 15. For modern scholars the concept of tonos is obscured by a great deal of confusion, and the conflicting views of the Greek theorists have not contributed a solution.
In opposition to the view explained above, some modern scholars believe the tonol were real keys in the modern sense—i.e., that they provided contrasting tonal centres of specific pitch (although the Greeks did not have an absolute pitch standard). It is thought by others that the tonoi were abstract theoretical concepts or that they were melodic frameworks (melody types).
