The Music Of The Pre-Christian Ages - The Romans
Of original musical genius the Romans had little or none, and they were content to take their music, like every other artistic adjunct of their national life, from the Greeks. The Greek was the child of nature, refined and educated through his own innate sense of beauty and fitness;. The Roman was a barbarian civilised with the civilisation of the barrack-yard and the camp. Thus it is that the music of the Romans is but the music of the Greeks transplanted in new and not very favourable surroundings.
To the Greek, Art of any kind was something great and almost holy. To the Roman, Art of any shape or kind was merely a relaxation, or at most a mere handmaid to display and vain glory. Roman music is thus simply Greek music in a decadent and corrupted condition, a thing of no artistic value, and an object of contempt to the very people among whom it was domiciled. The only personal influence exerted upon music by the Romans was in the development of wind instruments. A race of fighting-men, the Romans regarded military music more seriously than any other branch of the art; essentially practical men, they could readily appreciate its usefulness ; and, in this respect, they remind one of the elderly warrior who opined that music was all very well on parade, but should not be allowed to interfere with conversation. In the Roman armies trumpets of various kinds were used, some of them being of immense proportions. All the military musical instruments were of brass, and comprised the tuba, a straight trumpet something like a modern post-horn in shape; the cornu, or horn, bent nearly in the form of a circle; the lituus, or clarion, slightly bent at the end; and the buccina, shaped like the horn, but of much greater size, the tube being about twelve feet long. Of these the tuba was used by the infantry, the litmis by the cavalry.
The most interesting feature in connection with Roman musical life is the first appearance of that cosmopolitanism, which has ever since remained such a prominent characteristic of musical art. Into Rome drained all the wealth, knowledge, and luxury of the known world. Greek philosophers and artists, Egyptian priests, men of all races from across the Alps, Jewish converts to Christianity, fleeing from persecution in their own country, all gravitated towards the great city; and it was among these warring influences that the infant Christian Church, preserver and regenerator of music, was quietly growing in power and influence; and, with the coming of Christianity, music is no longer of this country or that, but of the whole world.
Author
Mike Shaw
Musical Instruments USA