the name of a musical note in the Greek system.

As the two tetrachords of the Greeks were conjunctive, or, in other words, as the highest note of the first served likewise for the lowest note of the second, it is plain that a complete octave could not be formed. To remedy this deficiency, therefore, one note beneath the lowest tetrachord was added, as an octave to the highest of the last tetrachord. Thus, if we suppose the first to have begun on B, the last must have ended upon A, to which one note subjoined immediately beneath the lowest B in the diatonic order must have formed an octave. This note was called proslambanomene. But it appears from authors who have scrutinized antiquity with some diligence, and perhaps with as much success as the data upon which they proceeded could produce, that the names of the notes in the Greek system, which originally signified their natural station in the scale of ascending or descending sounds, were afterwards applied to their positions in the lyre. Higher or lower, then, according to this application, did not signify their degrees of acuteness or gravity, but their higher or lower situation upon this instrument.