Theophrastus was born in about 370 bc, succeeded Aristotle as head of the Lyceum in 322 bc and died, full of years, early in the second decade of the third century. Like several other Peripatetics of his generation he wrote copiously; Diogenes Laertius (v.42–50) lists the titles of 224 works, many of them in several books, amounting in all to 232,850 lines and addressing an astonishing range of topics. Later writers refer occasionally to his interest in music, and though he can hardly be regarded as a specialist in the field, the works in Diogenes' catalogue include an On Music in three books, and a Harmonics and an On Musicians in one book each. We know little of their contents. The great majority of his writings are lost, or survive only in fragments quoted by others, and from his publications on music we have only a handful of scraps. Only one of them concerns us here. According to Porphyry, the source who quotes it, it comes from the second book of Theophrastus' On Music. It is by far the longest of the fragments on musical topics, running to 126 lines in Fortenbaugh's edition.

The passage begins with a reference to a kinēma melōidētikon, a ‘movement productive of melody’ or a ‘melody-making movement’ which occurs in the soul.