Music
Music
Greek Background. It is often said with some justification that music was far less important to the Romans than to the Greeks of the Archaic and Classical periods (circa 750-320 B.C.E.). Although certain Greek musical styles and musicians received adverse criticism by the late fifth century B.C.E., within traditional Greek culture music was generally endowed with divine resonances and profound psychological powers. In Greek culture, music played a central role in poetic and dramatic performances, in religious festivals, and ritual ceremonies, as well as education and even warfare. Indeed, the Greek word mousikê, from which the word “music” is frequently derived, conveyed poetry, song, and dance in addition to musical accompaniment. For the Romans, too, music had an important, if less prominent, role in civic and religious activities—public and private—and was also considered worthy of inclusion in an educated citizen’s upbringing. The comedies of the early playwright Plautus (active circa 205-184 B.C.E.) included an overture played on the pipes, and a number of Plautine passages have been compared to operatic arias and probably had some musical backing. Patrician boys and girls are known to have sung at the Secular Games of 17 B.C.E., under instruction from the poet Horace. And a number of cults to foreign deities or to gods like Bacchus (Rome’s answer to Dionysus) involved hymns of praise to the accompaniment of pipes, cymbals, and percussion. Although some musicians attained great popular success, for most Roman intellectuals, it seems, musical performance of their own times had little of the significance that it had in early Greek culture where it permeated all levels of society. Possible reasons for the relatively marginal position of music in Roman culture, include the fact that most extant Latin poetry was composed without musical accompaniment and was designed instead to be read or spoken. This style is perhaps a natural consequence for a society in which prose and oratory became prime vehicles for public expression in elite circles; such was not the case in Greece until the late fifth century B.C.E. or even later. As well, Roman musical theory tended to focus on older Greek models, which were considered superior to contemporary standards. Even in this sphere one finds criticisms in Roman times, such as in the writings of the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus (circa 110-45 B.C.E.), who challenged the views of Platonic and Stoic philosophers on the ethical and character-building significance of music.
Musical Instruments. In any event, information about the Romans’ musical instruments—another instance of their material culture—can be gleaned from ancient literature, inscriptions, depictions in art, and survivals of musical artefacts. The main stringed instrument was the lyre, based on Greek models. Lyres had two arms joined by a crossbar fixed to a sound box of wood or sometimes tortoise shell. Strings of gut, sinew, or flax were stretched over a bridge on the face of the box and secured near its base, and usually struck with a plectrum of wood or bone. There were various types of Greek lyre, such as the phorminx and kithara. This latter eventually became the prime stringed instrument of antiquity, and with its enlarged soundbox, is the ancestor the modern guitar and zither in etymological and musical terms. This instrument appears in some Roman statues, which show it having tuning-pins with triangular heads. A common wind instrument was the Roman tibia, the equivalent of the Greek aulos. This instrument was a cylindrical reed instrument, closer to an oboe or clarinet than to a flute, and often played as a pair of pipes with finger holes. A cloth band went around the player’s head to keep the pipes in place, as they were held one in each hand. The pipes varied in size and pitch and were deemed to have strongly emotional and expressive effects; thus they were frequently used in dramatic performances and concerts. The Etruscans and Romans introduced a variation on the Greek panpipe, by making connected pipes of different lengths for different pitch whereas the Greeks plugged pipes of the same length with wax to different levels. Bag-pipes were known in Italy by the second century B.C.E., as were hydraulically piped organs from the third century B.C.E. Brass instruments such as the straight tuba or curved cornu (horn) were used by the army and at games for signalling. Percussion instruments such as the tympanum (a handheld drum shaped like a tambourine), wooden clappers, and metallic cymbals were used in many contexts. This music could include social entertainment or cult practice, as is attested by a fresco from the “House of the Mysteries” in Pompeii of about 60 B.C.E.
Sources
Andrew D. Barker, “Music,” in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, third edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 1003–1012.
Giovanni Comotti, Music in Greek and Roman Culture, second edition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
Curt Sachs, The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, East and West (New York: Norton, 1943).