Frame Drums in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula, Ph.D. dissertation, 2006. (original) (raw)
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12th Symposium of the International Study Group on Music Archaeology, 2023
While similar studies have been conducted for the Spanish territory, Music Archaeology concerning the Portuguese Islamic Medieval period is still in an emergent state. In fact, although the Archaeology of Portuguese Al-Andalus has provided invaluable studies relating to musical instruments, an in-depth articulation with Musicology is long due. In this endeavour, the study of archaeologically recovered clay drums is of special significance. It is important to precisely quantify how many clay drums have been found in the Portuguese Al-Andalus, to ascertain their main common characteristics, and to hypothesise what new research lines they open. The archaeological record is sparse but invaluable, a crucial resource for answering these questions. In this paper, apart from the description of the recovered drums, an articulation with coeval written, iconographic, and archaeological sources is essayed. This paper aims to contribute to the historiography of sound and music, and their influence on the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Keywords: al-Andalus, Medieval Musical Instruments, Clay Drums, Music Archaeology, Middle Ages, Heritage.
n° 115 - Percussions antiques. Organologie – Perceptions - Polyvalence / L’affichage de la parenté dans le monde antique Auteur : Arnaud SAURA-ZIEGELMEYER (coord. Dossier 1), Karine KARILA-COHEN, Jérôme WILGAUX (coord. Dossier 2) N° ISBN : 978-2-8107-0730-0 Percussion instruments are spread across a broad geographical space and a wide chronological spectrum in the ancient world. Yet it is only recently that percussion instruments have been considered in connection with the contexts of their discovery and their use in performance places and spaces in order to understand their functions in sacred, domestic, and funerary spheres. The difficulty in treating the question of location arises from the fact that, in many cases, it is complicated to establish the precise dating and location of instruments in a given space and this specific location's particular meaning. However, when percussion instruments survive in an archaeological context along with images, inscriptions, and possibly other written sources, it is possible to outline the aspects of the occasion for which they were played and offered within a ritual performance; they serve as valuable pieces of evidence not only for reconstruction of their function in religious and social practices, but also for enriching our understanding of music and dance performances in daily life of the past. Thus, through an archaeomusicological approach to performance which places musical and choral activities within an actual or symbolic space, the study of percussion instruments constitutes a valuable subject of investigation to shed light on the ritual meaning and social function of sonic events, as well as on the role of musicians and dancers in antiquity. This volume, which consists of the proceedings of a workshop held at the University of Toulouse II Jean Jaurès in January 2019, shows how the study of percussion instruments has involved a wide variety of specialists within and beyond the boundaries of anthropology and archaeology, sound studies and archaeomusicology (including, among others, ethnoarchaeomusicologists), as well as history of religion, classics, and history. In organising the workshop, Arnaud Saura-Ziegelmeyer was particularly concerned with approaching the subject from as global a perspective as possible, and was therefore eager to focus on work outside his own particular area of expertise, namely, the Greek and Roman worlds. Thus, the essays included in this publication represent a significant number of geographical areas and cultures of the ancient world, including the Mediterranean, the PALLAS, 115, 2020, PP. 19-23
Telestes, 2023
Sound Experience and Musical Performances in Funerary Rituals of the Ancient World · The study of funerary rituals in ancient societies has been profoundly renewed thanks to new archaeological discoveries as well to new approaches related to performance. Within this context, the evidence offered by material culture should play a critical role in improving our knowledge of music, sounds, body movements, and dance, all of which constituted an important aspect of ceremonies in funerary contexts. Considering funerary rituals in the ancient world, this paper aims to explore material evidence related to musical performances, sounds, and rhythmical movements, and highlight the contribution of this evidence to a deeper understanding of the cultural, sensorial, and social meanings and functions of these performances, by reconstructing the many different ways, spaces, and contexts in which they were experienced. Keywords · Soundscape, Sonic Experience, Funerary Ritual, Sonic Space, Sensory Experience of Death, Body Movements.
In 2012, Ricardo Eichmann, Fang Jinjuan, Lars-Christian Koch (eds.) Studien zur Musikarchäologie VIII, DAI Orient Archäologie 25. Rahden/Westf: 215-225., 2012
Eine wichtige Quelle für die Kenntnisse über die spätbronzezeitliche Gesellschaft der Iberischen Halbinsel sind die Kriegerstelen aus dem Südwesten. Ihre Chronologie und kulturelle Einordnung sind jedoch unklar. Musikinstrumente wie Leiern, Klappern, Chalkophone gehören zu den dargestellten Attributen und Prestigeobjekten der Krieger. Eine eingehende organologische Untersuchung der dargestellten Instrumente erlaubt, die Datierung der Stelen und ihre kulturelle Bedeutung zu präzisieren. In diesem Artikel werden die Musikinstrumente hinsichtlich ihrer Morphologie und ihrer Kontexte klassifiziert und ihre Zuschreibung zu musikalischen Aktivitäten auf einigen Darstellungen diskutiert. Ebenso werden Analogien aus dem mediterranen Raum vorgestellt mit dem Ziel, ihren möglichen kulturellen Ursprung zu klären. The stelae of the southwest form a very important source of knowledge about late Bronze Age society in the Iberian Peninsula. However, agreement among scholars regarding their chronology and cultural placement is far from being attempted. Musical instruments such as lyres, crotals and calcophones appear among the warrior’s panoply and prestige objects. Lyres in particular continue to be a subject of debate as scholars interpret their origin depending on their particular view of the Spanish precolonial and colonial world. Nevertheless, through a deeper organological evaluation some questions regarding the dating of the stelae and their cultural meaning may be answered. In this article we will classify the musical instruments considering their morphology and contexts and we will discuss the ascription to musical activities of some of the representations. We will also propose analogies in the Mediterranean frame to try to clarify their possible cultural origin.
A Classification of Clay Drums from al-Andalus (9th-14th Centuries AD)
SOMA 2012 Identity and Connectivity Proceedings of the 16th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Florence, Italy, 1–3 March 2012., 2013
In this paper, we will propose a classification of al-Andalus clay drums (9th-14th Centuries AD) as a first approach for a music archaeological study of this important amount of findings. These drums, which appear all over the territories that were under Muslim rule during the Middle Ages, mirroring al-Andalus’ archaeological map, constitute a very special corpus. The number of findings suggests that these instruments were produced on a relatively large scale in al-Andalus. Nevertheless, they disappear from the archaeological record after the Reconquista, which suggests that their occurrence was closely linked with the al-Andalus’ culture. However, archaeological literature tends to ignore them. Through this study, we would like to drawarchaeologists’ attention to the important presence of drums in Andalusian archaeological contexts while proposing possibilities for their classification, based on a typological and taxonomical study.
In this paper, we will propose a classification of al-Andalus clay drums (9th -14th Centuries) as a first approach for a music archaeological study of this important amount of findings. These drums, which appear all over the territories that were under Muslim rule during the Middle Age, mirroring al-Andalus’ archaeological map, constitute a very special corpus. The number of findings suggests that these instruments were produced on a large scale in al-Andalus but they disappear from the archaeological record after the Reconquista, which suggests that their occurrence is closely linked to al-Andalus’ culture. They can therefore be considered as a unique production in al-Andalus’ pottery. However, archaeological literature tends to ignore them. Through this study, we would like to draw archaeologists’ attention to the important presence of drums in Andalusian archaeological contexts while proposing possibilities for their classification, based on a typological and taxonomical study.