Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/A/Agoge

by John Weeks Moore

Agoge. The name given by the ancient Greeks to one of the subdivisions of their melopoeia ; a species of melody, or modulation, in which the notes, both ascending and descending, proceeded by contiguous degrees. Of this modulation there are three species. The first is, when the sounds move from grave to acute, called by the Latins ductus rectus, and by the Italians conducimento recto ; the second, when they pass from acute to grave, called by the Latins ductus revertens, and by the Italians conducimento ritornante ; the third, when they rise by sharps, and fall by flats, called by the Latins ductus circumcurrens, and by the Italians conducimento circoncorrente.