[picture of Greek pottery, with musicians on it, narrator speaking:]The ancient Greeks held music in the highest esteem, relating it to science, mathematics, politics and philosophy. Plato believed that music was an important but potentially dangerous spiritual, psychological and political influence – an idea that strongly impressed thinkers of the middle ages.

[abstact picture of space] Tolomay, Pythagoras and other Greek scientists and mathematicians were among the first to develop music theory. For them, music was closely tied to laws of astronomy.  [picture of Greek chorus] The chorus was not only an essential component of Greek drama, but also a popular activity for people of all social classes.

Children’s choirs were a part of civic and religious festivals. Poetry and music were so closely linked, that the Greeks used the same word for both. Bards wandered  [painting of musicians]  from place to place, singing and reciting, accompanying themselves on a kithara.  As much as we know about the importance the Greeks placed on music, we know practically nothing about the music itself. Nevertheless, in later times Europeans idealized their conceptions of Greek music. And the development of western art music was influenced by this conception for many centuries.

[mosaic of musicians] The ancient Romans, whose civilization grew as Greek civilization declined, did not share the Greek esteem for music. Music became mainly a form of mass entertainment, designed to appeal to uneducated popular tastes. Rome, as the center of the Roman empire, served as a cultural conduit for the influences of Greek, Hebrew and Egyptian traditions and culture.

[picture of catacombs, chanting] Hidden away in the catacombs under the city of Rome, early Christians were strongly affected by all these traditions, as they shaped their own forms of religious observance and of music.