Music of Ancient Rome

-One of the most important attributes of the Romans was the ability to assimilate ideas and customs from the cultures and societies which they encountered. -Roman music and their musical instrument was therefore highly influenced by the Greeks. -Roman music was used at a variety of different occasions: -processions -weddings and funerals -public spectacles (such as the games at the Colosseum) -religious ceremonies -public performances.  -No one knows what Roman music sounded like. No Roman compositions have endured and scholars don't even know what their system of notation was. Efforts to recreate what their music was have been based on archaeological remains of instruments, references in historical texts and depictions in frescoes, mosaics and sculpture. -Old Roman chants, predecessors of Gregorian chants, survive in writing from the 11th century and later. Scholars believe some forms of modern folk music, particularly in the Lazio region around Rome and in Campani in the south, descended from Roman pipe and drum music.

Ancient Roman mosaic tile featuring musicians. Ancient Rome is also famous for their mosaic tiles. Gregorian Chant listening example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_pVFhhC-Vc

Instruments -Roman instruments include: -pan flutes -straight trumpets -wooden flutes -cane reed instruments -finger symbols -skin drums -bagpipe-like instrument -lyres -shepherds pipes -bucina (G-shaped brass instrument). -Musician instruments found at Pompeii include: -shell trumpets -bone flutes -bronze horns. -Organs with piston pumps and wooden soldiers that made sounds with pipes were described in Hellenistic times. These instruments were widely used across the Roman Empire

What instrument does this look like that we learned about from Ancient Greece? Lyre Archeologists would make drawings of the instruments that were found before photography was invented. People have been uncovering Ancient Roman artifacts for hundreds of years! Bucina