Roman musicMini-lesson for schools

How do you think you played this instrument?What do you think its made of?

Which part of an instrument do you think these are?They are mouthpieces.You blow down them.

What is unusual about how this young man is playing his trumpet?He is blowing through the side instead of down the end.This little statue and the trumpet and mouthpieces are made of a metal called bronze.

Here are some other wind instruments.

What modern instrument do you think they are like?

Heres a carving of someone playing them.

You can see that you blew down them both at the same time.They probably had a reed in them.

The closest modern instrument is probably an oboe.

This figure of a Roman god is holding another type of instrument. It is named after the god: he is Pan.They are Pan pipes. Here are some from Papua New Guinea which is in the Pacific Ocean. They were made in the 1800s. They work the same way as the Roman ones.The Roman word for Pan pipes was syrinx. This is the name of somebody in a Greek myth. See if you can find out more about her.

How do you think you played these instruments?Heres a clue:

They always come in pairs and they are made of metal.

Heres a carving of someone playing them.

Were you right?They are small cymbals.

Here is a Roman statue of someone playing castanets.

What is this woman playing?

It is a drum a bit like a tambourine.

The traditional Irish drum called a bodhran is very similar.

This is an Egyptian instrument that was also used by the Romans.It was usually only used in religious ceremonies.

How do you think you played it?You played it by shaking it.It is called a sistrum.

Wind instruments Percussion instruments

What sort of instrument have we not seen so far?We have not seen any stringed instruments.

Did the Romans have stringed instruments? Look at the next slide and see what you think.

Yes, they did.The woman in this picture is playing a lyre.

Here are two more pictures of lyres.You can see that there were small lyres and large lyres.How do you think they sounded different?

Finally, here are two sides of a little figure showing someone sitting, playing an instrument. Unfortunately the persons head has broken off.What instrument do you think it is?

Clue: lots of Christian churches have them and theres a huge one in the Albert Hall in London.

It is an organ a bit like this one, but much smaller:Photo: Jim Linwood (flickr.com/brighton/3426313664)Heres another organ carved on a gemstone. The Romans used water to pump the air through the pipes.

Marble figure of a muse, possibly Erato, seated on a rock playing a lyre; Roman, from the Barberini Palace, Italy.

The torso is Roman; the head, arms and most of the lyre are restored. Museum number: 1805,0703.455

**Bronze circular military trumpet; 400BC-200BC; Etruscan Museum number: 1839,1109.46.c *Left to right:

Mouthpiece of a bronze trumpet; Roman or Etruscan?Museum number: 1856,1226.977

Mouthpiece of a trumpet; copper-alloy; Romano-British period; from Great Chesterford, Essex, EnglandMuseum number: 1871,1221.1 *Bronze statuette of youth blowing a trumpet, probably from a cinerary urn; 480BC-460BC; from Torre Annunziata, Campania, Italy Museum number: 1856,1226.779 *Two wooden auloi (pipes); 5th - 4th century BC; from Athens, Greece Museum number: 1816,0610.502 *Terracotta votive model of musicians with double-pipes and lyre with plectrum; 400BC-300BC; Etruscan from Caere, Italy Museum number: 1919,0620.6 Left to right:

Bronze figure of Pan with pan-pipes - a decorative fitting, probably from a wagon; 2nd - 3rd century AD; Roman Museum number: 1772,0302.189

Pan-pipes made of reed, pandanus palm leaf; acquired by the British Museum in 1875; from East Cape, New Guinea Museum number: Oc.9194 **Bronze cymbals; 3rd - 5th century BC; from Palestrina, Italy Museum number: 1814,0704.702

The slide shows two views of the same objects.*Detail of terracotta relief showing a satyr playing cymbals; 50 100 BC; Roman from Italy

Museum number: 1805,0703.306

*Bronze figure of a dwarf entertainer dancing and playing castanets; 1st century AD; Roman from Italy

Museum number: 1824,0431.3

Detail of a marble relief showing a maenad and two satyrs in a Bacchic procession; about AD 100; from Roma Vecchia, Italy Museum number: 1805,0703.128**Bronze sistrum (rattle); 1st - 2nd century AD; from Rome, Italy At the base of the frame of the rattle, below the rattling bars, are small images of a phallus and a pine-cone, symbols of fertility and good fortune. The seated cat on top of the rattle indicates its association with the worship of Egyptian goddess Isis.

Museum number: 1756,0101.541 *Left to right:

Bronze statuette of youth blowing a trumpet, probably from a cinerary urn; 480BC-460BC; from Torre Annunziata, Campania, Italy Museum number: 1856,1226.779

Detail of terracotta relief showing a satyr playing cymbals; 50 100 BC; Roman from ItalyMuseum number: 1805,0703.306

*Wall-painting of an amorous scene; 1st century AD; from Pompeii, Italy

Museum number: 1867,0508.1353 *Left to right:

Marble relief showing a Victory pouring a libation in front of Apollo; 1st century AD probably; made in Greece Museum number: 1776,1108.6

Marble figure of a muse, possibly Erato, seated on a rock playing a lyre; Roman, from the Barberini Palace, Italy. The torso is Roman; the head, arms and most of the lyre are restored. Museum number: 1805,0703.455 *Mould-made pottery lamp in the form of a man playing a water-organ; 175-250 AD (about); Roman, made in Tunisia Museum number: 1965,1011.1 *Left to right:

The Organ, St John The Baptist Church, Hinton, Wiltshire, England

Carnelian sealstone engraved with a man playing a water-organ, with attendants working the pumps; 1st -2nd century AD; Roman Museum number: 1859,0301.112