Abstract
Between the 5th and 1st centuries BCE political theorists in China and Europe saw in music a useful gauge of the political character and condition of peoples and their rulers. Although their ideas lacked a scientific basis, written and archaeological records today place music and its allied forms in frequent proximity to power and its projection, informing identity, selfimage, reputation and status: from household to state, in conquest and control, in resistance and rebellion, in jurisprudence, diplomacy and mediation. A prima facie case thus emerges for the notion that they have indeed something fresh to tell us about power relationships, ideology and political change in the ancient world, and may usefully serve as proxies for political agency in milieux that fall ‘beyond the texts’.