Ancient Greek Musical Instruments Research Papers (original) (raw)

- by and +2
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- Philology, Religion, Ancient Egyptian Religion, Sumerian Religion

Publication of the most important mosaic find from Mainz. Description of its saving, reconstruction and meaning. Originally part of a bath building near the Roman theater of Mainz, it perhaps commemorated an entertainment happened there... more

La riflessione sulla musica come fattore di forte coesione culturale e religiosa e di rete di scambi delle popolazioni greche d’Occidente attende ancora uno studio sistematico e complessivo che aiuterebbe a comprendere non solo la rielaborazione della funzione della musica e del far musica nelle singole poleis, ma anche a porre la questione della musica come mezzo del dialogo interculturale fra le comunità greche e gli ambienti indigeni. Se da un lato le pratiche musicali dei Greci d’Occidente erano legate al contesto geografico e ai particolari culti collettivi e alla religiosità domestica e funeraria ed espresse in mito, rito e immagine, dall’altro la musica era intrecciata in maniera complessa con la costruzione delle identità culturali delle varie comunità e intimamente legata alla loro struttura sociale.

- by Angela Bellia
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- Archaeology, Musicology, Iconography, Ancient Greek Religion

O acompanhamento musical das práticas esportivas é uma característica marcante dos jogos na Grécia antiga, seja nos treinamentos, seja nas competições. Este acompanhamento se dava com instrumentos de sopro, especificamente o aulos e a salpinx (trombeta). Amplamente representado na pintura dos vasos áticos de figuras negras e de figuras vermelhas (séc. VI-V a.C.), o acompanhamento das práticas atléticas com o aulos, sobretudo nas provas que integram o pentatlo, tem recebido maior atenção dos estudiosos. Nosso objetivo é abordar a presença da trombeta nos jogos, representada com menos frequência no registro iconográfico, porém informada pelas fontes literárias de diferentes períodos, sobretudo do período imperial (nomeadamente, Plutarco, Ateneu e Pólux). Analisaremos as seguintes situações: acompanhamento musical de corridas (a pé ou de quadriga), contribuindo para marcar o ritmo; celebrações de entrega de prêmios; função comunicativa, pela divulgação de anúncios por intermédio da emissão de sinais; competições para trombeteiros, relacionadas à constituição de um perfil social deste músico-atleta baseado na força muito acima da média. Esta força superlativa, misturada com costumes bizarros, faz do trombeteiro um tipo popular no mundo helenístico-romano.

- by Fábio Vergara Cerqueira
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- Classical Archaeology, Iconography, Organology, Ancient Sports/Athletics
- by Mauricio Giordanelli
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- Early Music, Musicology, Medieval Music, Ancient Greek Music

In this paper I review the religious role of percussive performance in the Greek world. I argue that percussive drōmena convey concepts that are essential to the ritual, and which stem from the origins and effects of mundane percussive actions and from the biological value of rhythmically structured behaviour. The analysis of selected examples of percussive performance in Greek ritual reveals the inherent potential of percussive enactment to imitate the nature of the divine through sequences of metaphorical associations.

- by Patricius Coamceuvensis
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- Ancient Greek Musical Instruments

Zusammenfassung Eine Neuaufnahme des Louvre-Aulos, eines der vollständigsten aus der Antike erhaltenen Instru-mente, ergab korrigierte Maße, die hier erstmals vorgestellt werden und mit Hilfe von Computer-simulation sowie einem neuen exakten Nachbau zu einer genaueren musikalischen Interpretation füh-ren. Details der Bauweise werden bezüglich Funk-tionalität und Ästhetik diskutiert.

- by Stefan Hagel
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- Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Music History, Ancient Greek Music

Mercoledì 17 Dicembre, h. 11, Aula V
Università di Roma La Sapienza
Dipartimento di Studi Greco-latini, italiani, Scenico-Musicali

Evidence on musical instruments in Greek and Roman antiquity falls both on the fields of archaeology and literature. A great number of pictorial representations of scenes displaying musical instruments on pottery and frescos provide us with sufficient indications regarding their overall shape and the relative dimensions to the players' body, playing techniques and social contexts. Partly or fully sculpted musical iconography reveals valuable elements regarding the third dimension, absent in painting. Interestingly, a few archaeological finds, fragmentary or intact remains of musical instruments published during the last three decades, have brought into light fresher data concerning their exact dimensions and materials, also suggesting the ancient techniques of instrument making. In addition to archeological evidence, most of the surviving texts on music bear valuable information on musical instruments, albeit indirect and sometimes approximate, given their author's different main focus or text genre. Contemporary scholars of ancient organology not only combine the available evidence in order to link Greek and Roman nomenclature and descriptions of musical instruments preserved in literature to pictorial representations; they also reassess the above-mentioned types of evidence, evaluating their significance and making suggestions that may help to better understand the role and function of instruments in ancient music. Regarding methodology, it has been satisfactorily argued that: 1. Broadly speaking, iconographical evidence does not provide us with realistic images of instruments. It has been extensively documented (Hagel 2004, 375) that pictorial evidence must be treated with the highest degree of suspicion a priori. 2. Surviving finds of musical instruments, instead, are the instruments themselves, and, should description, dating and measurements have been well documented, they become valuable pieces of evidence for the archaeomusicologists. However, generic conclusions on instruments are not firm if only based on these incidental, rare, and mostly unique archaeological finds.

Euterpe 2022 will focus on the playing technique of ancient Greek lyre, thanks to the expertise of our tutor Nikos Xanthoulis, internationally renowned player of this instrument, assisted by Rosa Fragorapti and Sophia Karakouta. The school is open to every musician (instrumentalists, singers and composers) and scholar interested in ancient compositions and instruments, including the creation of “new ancient music”.
This year's program offers participants the opportunity to approach the lyre in an even more global way. The goal is to train students and improve their lyre playing techniques, to increase the tonal quality of the instrument, to develop the study of lyric poetry by working together with expert vocal coaches, both on diction and intonation and on the synergy between singing and the lyre playing. The teaching can be adapted to the participant's level of knowledge.

- by Placido Scardina and +1
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- Music, Music Education, Classics, Performing Arts
- by Klaus Junker
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- Archaeology, Mythology, Classics, Greek Archaeology

The French archaeomusicologist Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura made two important proposals that have never been fully investigated: first, that the te'amim or cantillation marks of the Hebrew scriptures did not originate with the Masoretes, but date back to temple times; second, that she had developed a system for their musical deciphering. This paper suggests that there is indeed evidence for the great antiquity of the Masoretic cantillation. It also suggests that the basic idea of Haïk-Vantoura's deciphering system—that the sublinear te'amim represent the steps of a diatonic scale—is confirmed by more recent archaeomusicological research. Finally, a comparison between the ancient tonus pere-grinus to Psalm 114 and the cantillation of the same psalm deciphered according to Haïk-Vantoura's system provides strong evidence in support of her claims. The fragrance of the songs of Zion blows down through the leaves of the Bible.

- by David C Mitchell
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- Hebrew Literature, Music, Music History, Music Theory

This paper explores the convergence of musical and architectural theory in Vitruvius’ De Architectura. Section 1 describes Vitruvius’ architectural lexicon, borrowed from Aristoxenus (I.2), and explores his description of the laws of harmony, modeled on Elementa Harmonica (V.4). Section 2 explores how Vitruvius proposes using music theory in practical architectural design, including construction of columns using architectural orders analogous to Aristoxenian genera (I.2.6; IV.1); acoustical designs for theatres (V.5); and the development of machines, including siege engines ‘tuned’ like musical instruments (X.12) and water-organs [hydrauli] constructed to execute all the different varieties of tuning (X.8). Section 3 reflects on Vitruvius’ use of analogies with a musical instrument, the sambuca, to explain his understanding of cosmic harmony and architectural form, and his possible sources (VI.1). Finally, Section 4 discusses Vitruvius’ ideas about the importance of a liberal arts education that includes study of music theory. The best architects, Vitruvius explains, can discover in music the secrets to forms they both encounter in nature and create themselves.

- by Daniel K . S . Walden
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- Acoustic Engineering, History of Science and Technology, Acoustics, Music

A paper for the The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities, Pusey House, Oxford. Tuesday 7 February, 2017. By a process of inductive reasoning, the six lower symbols of the Masoretic poetic te'amim (cantillation marks) are assigned... more

A paper for the The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities, Pusey House, Oxford. Tuesday 7 February, 2017.
By a process of inductive reasoning, the six lower symbols of the Masoretic poetic te'amim (cantillation marks) are assigned musical values to reveal the Jerusalem Temple melody of Psalm 136.

- by David C Mitchell
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- Hebrew Literature, Musicology, Jewish Studies, Hebrew Language

This volume gives on overview on the history of musical instruments in Sicily from Ancient Times to the Present. It includes essays by Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano (Musical instruments in Sicilian Collections), Sergio Bonanzinga (Traditional Sicilian Musical Instruments), Angela Bellia (Archaelogical Musical Instruments in Siciliy), Selima Giuliano and Sandra Proto (The Decoration of Musical Instruments in Sicilian Collections). Furthermore, the catalogue includes 100 entries of instruments in Sicilian museums and collections (idiophones, membranophones, woodwind and brass instruments, necked bowed and plucked-string instruments, keyboard instruments, mechanical instruments). 256 pages; c. 250 colour photographs and drawings; texts in Italian (the book is available for free, please contact me for further information).

- by Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano
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- Musicology, Organology, Musical Instrument Technology, Etnomusicology
- by Angela Bellia
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- Acoustic Engineering, Archaeology, Artificial Intelligence, Acoustics
- by Donald T. Ariel
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- Glass (Archaeology), Roman Glass, Stamped Amphora handles, Bone Tools

A description of the find and an attempt at a reconstruction.

- by Stelios Psaroudakes
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- Ancient Greek Musical Instruments
- by Zozi Papadopoulou
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- Archaeology, Ritual, Ancient Greek Religion, Ancient Greek Music

Η ελληνικότητα αποδεικτικά

- by σταθης κομνηνος
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- Music, Music Theory, Musicology, Music Psychology
- by John C Franklin
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- Religion, Mythology And Folklore, History, Cultural History

The earliest allusions to the performance of tympana (frame drums) in the Aegean are found on Crete: on the well known 8th century BC bronze votive sheet from the Idaean Cave, often referred to as ‘tympanon’ in scholarship, and on two late 7th century BC female terracotta figurines from Praisos. The iconography of both sets of objects demonstrates a multiplicity of musical references from the Assyrian and Neo-Hittite kingdoms of Anatolia to the Cypro-Levantine experiences of drumming. Both Cretan artefacts, however, exploit in an unparalleled manner a visual and notional conflation between a shield and a tympanon, evoking a culture-specific theogonic and initiatory framework for the regenerating and protective qualities of tympanon-playing. Focusing on one of the most striking examples of musico-cultural amalgamation in the Aegean, this paper argues that the process of incorporating foreign musical elements into one’s culture is closely related with internal social negotiations and dynamics, and proposes a shift in the way we qualify musical exchanges.

- by Angela Bellia
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- Archaeology, Classics, Ethnomusicology, Ethnography
- by John C Franklin
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- Music, Musicology, Greek Literature, Homer
- by Antonella Provenza
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- Greek Tragedy, Plato, Catharsis, Ancient Greek Music

This paper puts forward a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the iconography of chelys-lyres and barbitoi associated with satyrs and Dionysos in late 5th and early 4th century Attic vase-painting, in an attempt to confront independent visual evidence with the textually-driven narratives on musical hierarchies and polemics in Classical Athens. The author identifies a coherent lineage of vase-painters which introduce the lyre in the semantics of Dionysiac iconography in the late 5th and early 4th century BC, escaping the musical polarizations associated with the critics of New Music – thus illuminating a largely invisible segment within the Athenian society in a time of political and socio-cultural turmoil.

- by John C Franklin
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- Religion, History, Ancient History, Cultural History

Two aulos pairs (Δ1965 and Δ1964), unearthed in 1980 and 2005 respectively at Megara (Attica), are exhibited in the city's Archaeological Museum. Both are associated with metal sliding keys (resembling the keys on the well-known Pergamon aulos model), either mounted on the pipes (Δ1964) or displayed next to them (Δ1965). The present paper describes the parts, proposes a meaningful re-assemblage of the bone sections, and gives a detailed account of the sliding mechanism, which is here for the first time attested on finds of actual musical instruments, including an entirely new technology of speaker hole keys. A musical analysis, based on determining plausible reed configurations using software modelling, suggests that the finds represent a partially standardised design of professional modulating auloi, playing attested harmoníai while hovering between the enharmonic and chromatic.

- by Stefan Hagel and +1
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- Music History, Ancient Greek Music, Music Archaeology, Ancient Greek Musical Instruments

In this piece, I contend that the war-trumpet (salpinx) was understood in ancient Greek literature as connected to the divine and invincible. I show how this understanding arose from a focus on the sound of the war-trumpet, accompanied by silence around the physical act of playing it, inasmuch as this act, in the parallel case of the aulos, reveals embodiment and vulnerability. In archaic and classical texts, ranging among Aristophanes, Thucydides, Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristotle, we see that the sound of the salpinx is both infallible and capable of connoting the domination of Greek males in several fields: battles, courts of law, and the imagining of human and nonhuman ontology.

- by Sarah Nooter
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- Greek Tragedy, Sound studies, Sound, Ancient Greek Music
- by Jose Pizzani
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- Ancient Greek Musical Instruments

At the beginning of the VII century B.C., the cult of Cybele was already present in Sicily, at Gela, Selinunte, Syracuse, Catania, Lipari, Mozia and presumably Agrigento.
Thanks to the presence of a large group of Sculptures, the main centre of the cult dedicated to the Goddess has been placed at Akrai (Palazzolo Acreide).
It is a rocky shrine on the southern slopes of “Colle Orbo” from which twelve votive niches open up. These niches of different dimensions have relief Sculptures called «Santoni», set out on a 30 metre strip of rock. They date back to a period that goes no further than the century B.C.
In each relief we can see a female figure with a lion on either side of her. It is possible to identify this figure as Cybele because of the presence of typical attributes such as a patera and a tympanon.
The Goddess is sitting on a throne surrounded by smaller figures. In some reliefs we can see corybants, the mythical companions of Cybele, some of which are holding a tympanon. In others we find characters such as Hermes, Attis, Hecate and the Dioscuri. In one relief there appears a male figure holding two torches probably in front of an altar.
The constant portrayal of the tympanon is a reference to the ardent orgiastic atmosphere stirred up by the sound of the musical instrument used for the metroac cult. This sets comparisons with the images of the Great Goddes that are widespread in the Mediterranean and of which the «Santoni» of Akrai are an original proof.

- by Angela Bellia
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- Archaeology, Musicology, Iconography, Ancient Greek Religion

Versão revisada e traduzida para o português da Apostila elaborada como material de apoio para o minicurso “Mito, música e imagen: los músicos mitológicos en la iconografía griega”, ministrado na UDELAR, Uruguai, em 2016. Esta é uma... more

- by John C Franklin
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- Philology, Ancient History, Musicology, Classics

Bibliografia e sommari di vari studi (articoli e monografie), pubblicati nel 2004, nell'ambito della poesia greca antica, che toccano questioni in vario modo legate alla sfera musicale. Fa parte di 'Poiesis. Bibliografia della poesia... more

- by Gianfranco Mosconi
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- Ancient History, Greek Literature, Bibliography, Greek Lyric Poetry