[3] The work of Alypius consists wholly, with the exception of a short introduction, of lists of the symbols used (both for voice and instrument) to denote all the sounds in the forty-five scales produced by taking each of the fifteen modes in the three genera (diatonic, chromatic, enharmonic).
It treats, therefore, in fact, of only one (the fifth, namely) of the seven branches into which the subject is, as usual, divided in the introduction; and may possibly be merely a fragment of a larger work.
It would have been most valuable if any considerable number of examples had been left us of the actual use of the system of notation described in it; unfortunately very few remain,[4] and they seem to belong to an earlier stage of the science.
However, Alypius's work remains the best source of modern knowledge of the musical notes of the Greeks, including a comprehensive account of the Greek system of scales, transpositions, and musical notation, and serves to throw some light on the obscure history of the modes.
[6][7] Introduction to Music was printed with the tables of notation in Meibomius' Antiquae Musicae Scriptores, (in quarto, Amsterdam 1652).